Stripboard

The stripboard is the primary scheduling tool in film production. Each scene is a colored strip, and strips are arranged into shoot days separated by End of Day markers.

Shooting Blocks & Scenarios

Every new project starts with a default shooting block. You can create additional blocks (e.g., "Second Unit", "Reshoots") to organize different phases of production. Each block has its own script and schedule.

Within each block, you can create multiple scenarios: alternative arrangements of the same script. Scenarios appear as tabs at the top of the stripboard. One scenario is marked as the master (shown with a star), which is the active schedule used by call sheets and reports. To manage scenarios:

• Click the + button at the top-right of the tab bar and select Create New Scenario
• Right-click any scenario tab to rename, duplicate, set as master, or delete it
• Each scenario tab has its own toolbar with all stripboard actions

Setting Up Shoot Days

Before you can schedule scenes, you need to define how many shoot days you have:

1. In the bar across the top of the page — the block selector that every Schedule page shares — look for the calendar icon next to the shooting block name.
2. Next to it you'll see a number input labeled "shoot days". Type in the total number of shoot days for this block (e.g., 18).
3. End of Day markers are automatically created and inserted between your scene strips, dividing them into that many days.

Manually Arranging Strips

You can drag and drop strips to reorder them manually:

• Click a strip to select it, or hold Ctrl/Cmd and click to multi-select
• Drag selected strips to a new position: they'll be assigned to the shoot day based on their position relative to the End of Day markers
• All reordering is fully undoable with Ctrl/Cmd+Z
• Right-click any strip for quick actions: insert day breaks, split scenes, or send to boneyard

Stripboard Optimization

To have FilmBase automatically arrange your scenes into an optimized schedule:

1. Make sure you've set your shoot days count (see above).
2. Click the Optimize button in the scenario toolbar.
3. The Inspector panel opens on the Optimize tab.

Optimization Mode

• Quick: Fast optimization for large schedules (shorter solve time)
• Smart: Balanced approach with good results in reasonable time
• Thorough: Maximum optimization quality (may take longer)

Priority — two sliders, each shown as a live percentage so you can set the same result again:

• Group locations ↔ Even days: slide left to shoot out each location before moving on (fewer company moves, days may be uneven); slide right to even the page count across days (a location may split across days)
• Actor focus: how hard to compress each performer's hold days — the gap between their first and last day on set

The Locations, Balanced and Actors presets are shortcuts that move the sliders for you; drag a slider and the choice becomes Custom.

Hard limits — caps the optimizer can't break. Set them too tight for your day count and no schedule is possible:

• Max pages per day: Prevents overloading a single day
• Max locations per day: Limits how many different physical locations appear in one day
• Min turnaround: Minimum rest between a day's wrap and the next day's call

Scheduling rules — shape the result without ever making it impossible:

• Keep day/night separate: Prevents mixing day and night scenes in the same shoot day
• Use All Shoot Days: Spreads scenes across every configured day (on by default). Turn it off to see whether the shoot could fit in fewer days

If your hard limits can't all be satisfied — say, more night pages than your page cap and day count allow with day and night kept separate — the panel warns you up front, with the arithmetic, before it runs.

Every optimization is undoable: press Ctrl/Cmd+Z or the Undo button on the result card and your previous board comes back exactly as it was.

GPS Optimization (if your locations have GPS coordinates):

• Minimize Travel Distance: Groups nearby locations together
• Optimize Travel Route: Minimizes backtracking between locations
• Furthest Location Last Day: Schedules the most distant location at the end of the shoot

Click Optimize to run. A progress overlay appears over the stripboard with a status message. When complete, a results summary appears in the Optimize tab and the stripboard is updated with the new arrangement.

Display Options

Customize how the stripboard looks using the toolbar controls:

• Toggle between compact and expanded strip heights
• Show/hide columns: INT/EXT, Time of Day, Location, Set, Cast Numbers, Story Day, Page Count, Estimated Time, Synopsis
• Color strips by location or apply custom colors

Inspector Panel (Right)

Open the collapsible right panel to inspect and edit the selected strip. What you see depends on what's selected:

• Scene strip: Shows scene header (number, INT/EXT, time of day, location), synopsis, story day, page count, real world set, shooting mode, and the cast list for that scene
• End of Day marker: Shows the day number and date, editable call time and wrap time, day statistics (scene count, pages), and a turnaround warning if the gap to the next day is too short
• Banner strip: Shows the banner text

Right-Click Menu

Right-click any strip on the board for a full context menu:

• Cut / Paste Below / Cancel Cut: Move strips around
• Inspect: Open the inspector panel for this strip
• Add Banner Strip / Add Meal Break / Add Company Move — Insert special markers
• Change Color: Apply a strip color (INT. Day, EXT. Day, EXT. Night, INT. Night, Dawn/Dusk, plus Teal, Purple, Red, Lime, Indigo, Amber, Cyan, Pink, or Reset to Default)
• Split Scene: Divide a scene into two strips
• Add Cast Member: Assign a cast member to this scene
• Scene Status: Mark as Shot, Mark as Not Shot (Create Pickup), or Mark as Not Shot (No Pickup)
• Move to Boneyard: Remove the strip from the schedule (can be restored later)
• Delete End of Day / Delete Banner: Remove markers

Scene Allocator

The Scene Allocator is a visual, card-based alternative to the traditional stripboard view. Instead of a linear strip list, scenes appear as cards organized into shoot day groups.

How to Use It

1. Select a shooting block and scenario from the toolbar (same as the stripboard).
2. Set your shoot days using the shoot days input in the toolbar.
3. The left panel shows Unassigned scenes: scenes not yet placed into any shoot day.
4. The right panel shows your shoot day cards in a grid. Drag scenes from the unassigned panel onto a day card, or drag scenes between day cards to rearrange.
5. Each day card displays totals at a glance: page count, scene count, and estimated time.

Unassigned & Completed Panels (Left)

The collapsible left panel has two tabs:

• Unassigned: Scenes not yet placed into any shoot day. Drag them onto day cards to schedule them.
• Completed: Scenes marked as shot. These are moved out of the active schedule.

Conflict Warnings

Each day card shows a conflict badge if there are scheduling issues: such as turnaround violations, actor double-bookings, or location availability problems.

Call Sheets

Call sheets are the daily documents distributed to cast and crew. FilmBase generates professional, industry-standard call sheet PDFs that auto-populate from your stripboard and schedule data.

How to Create a Call Sheet

1. Navigate to Schedule > Call Sheets in the sidebar.
2. Select the shoot day from the Shoot Days panel on the left (shows day number, date, and block name: a checkmark appears next to days that already have a call sheet).
3. The running order, cast list, and locations are automatically populated from your master scenario stripboard.
4. Fill in additional details: crew call time, weather, emergency contacts, personnel, department call times, background/extras, and any notes.
5. Click Export PDF to generate the finished call sheet.

Changes auto-save as you type: you can come back and edit any call sheet at any time.

What's Included

• Production info: Name, company, project code
• Timings: Crew call, shooting call, first shot, lunch, estimated wrap, sunrise/sunset
• Weather: Condition, high/low temperature, wind speed, rain chance
• Emergency: Medic, hospital (name/number), police, fire, security
• Running order: Scene number, pages, D/N, set & description, cast numbers, notes
• Cast list: Character, artist, arrival, H/MU, costume, set call, SWF status (from Day Out of Days)
• Locations: Address, map link, base camp, parking, nearest hospital
• Personnel: Key crew, executives, department calls with times
• Background/Extras: Count, descriptions, scene numbers, call times
• Advance schedule: Preview of tomorrow's scenes

Smart Bundling with Sides

When exporting, you can include script sides for the day's scenes directly in the PDF, so cast and crew receive everything in one document.

Shoot Schedule

The Shoot Schedule maps your stripboard shoot days onto actual calendar dates. This is where you decide when each shoot day happens in the real world.

How to Assign Dates

1. Navigate to Schedule > Shoot Schedule.
2. Select the shooting block you want to schedule from the toolbar.
3. You'll see a column-based table view with end-of-day separators, daily totals, call and wrap times, and optional day notes. Unscheduled shoot days are listed as available for assignment.
4. Click on an empty calendar date to assign the next unscheduled shoot day to that date.
5. Click on an already-assigned shoot day to edit its call time, wrap time, location, and notes.

What Happens When You Assign Dates

Once dates are set here, they flow through the rest of the app:

• The End of Day markers on the stripboard will display the assigned calendar dates
• The Day Out of Days chart uses these dates to calculate hold days and availability
• Call sheets display the correct date in their header
• Conflict detection uses actor and location availability against these dates

If you change the order of dates, shoot days are automatically renumbered chronologically.

Production Schedule

A Gantt-style timeline of your entire production: from development and pre-production through post.

Creating Shooting Blocks

This is where shooting blocks are created and managed. Blocks are the foundation of all scheduling in FilmBase:

1. Create a new phase by clicking the Add Phase button.
2. Give it a name (e.g., "Main Unit"), set start and end dates, and choose a color.
3. Check the "Shooting Block" checkbox to make this phase a shooting block.
4. Once marked as a shooting block, it appears in the block selector across all Schedule pages (Stripboard, Call Sheets, etc.).

All new projects start with a default block, but you can create as many as you need — for example, separate blocks for "Main Unit", "Second Unit", "Pick-up Days", or "Reshoots".

A block's start and end dates define the window the Day Out of Days and Crew Schedule lay out. Extend a block here — by dragging its edge or editing its dates — and those grids stretch to match straight away. Set a block's dates to cover its prep and wrap if you want those days to appear on the Crew Schedule.

Events

Add production events to the timeline (location scouts, rehearsals, table reads, etc.). Each event has:

• Label, date, start/end time, location, and notes
• Priority: Low, Medium, or High
• Category: Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, Rehearsal, Travel, etc.
• Recurrence: None, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly
• Attendees

Views

Switch between three views:

• Timeline (Gantt): Horizontal bars showing phase durations with zoom controls
• Month view: Full month calendar grid
• Week view: Detailed 7-day view

Holidays can be added to block out dates on the timeline.

Exporting

Use Export in the toolbar to share the schedule as PDF or Excel, with a live preview. Choose a layout: Lanes draws each phase as a colour bar across a date axis, while Table lists one row per phase with its dates, duration, region, and notes. Tick "Shooting lanes only" to leave out prep, post, and admin phases.

Day Out of Days

The Day Out of Days (DOOD) chart shows when each cast member is needed across the full production schedule. It's an industry-standard document used to track actor working days, hold days, and availability.

How It Works

The DOOD is automatically generated from your stripboard and shoot schedule. Rows are characters/actors, columns are shoot days. Each cell shows a status code indicating what that actor is doing on that day. Statuses are auto-calculated but can be manually overridden.

The chart spans the dates of the shooting block you've selected, from its start date to its end date. Switch blocks to move to another window, and extend a block on the Production Schedule to stretch the chart — the change shows up immediately, no restart needed. The Crew Schedule follows the same block window.

Status Codes

These are the industry-standard codes used in the chart:

Hold Rules

When an actor has a gap between their work days, FilmBase fills it in for you. A short gap is paid as Hold, so the actor is retained on the schedule, the way a weekly performer is paid for the days in between. A longer gap drops the actor and picks them back up on return, so you don't pay for the time off. The line between the two is the gap setting in the Hold rules dropdown on the toolbar; change it and the chart redraws on the spot.

Not everyone is held the same way. Leads are usually on a weekly deal and accrue hold days; day players and background are hired by the day and don't. The Hold rules dropdown lets you choose which cast tiers get auto-painted holds, and whether weekend days inside a gap are held. Turn a tier off and its actors' auto-filled holds drop away, on the chart and in the cast budget alike, while holds you set by hand are left untouched. Set this per project from the toolbar, or set the defaults every new project starts with under Settings.

Calendar Mode

Toggle to Calendar Mode to see every date in your production range, not just shoot days. In this view you can:

• Click any date cell to add events: Hold, Travel, Rehearsal, Fitting, Drop, or Pickup
• Drag across a row to paint a run of days, and drag back over them to erase
• Manual overrides are preserved when auto-recalculating status codes

Conflict Detection

FilmBase automatically flags issues on the DOOD:

• Turnaround violations: When rest between consecutive shoot days is less than the minimum (default 10 hours)
• Actor conflicts: When an actor is scheduled on a day they've marked as unavailable
• Calendar conflicts: When a shoot day overlaps with a rehearsal, fitting, or travel day

Locations

Manage all your filming locations: real-world addresses, base camp details, parking, hospitals, and availability.

Adding a Location

1. Navigate to Schedule > Locations and click Add Location.
2. Enter the real-world location name and address.
3. Paste GPS coordinates or a map URL: FilmBase parses coordinates from most map URL formats automatically.
4. Fill in additional details: base camp address, tech parking, crew parking, nearest hospital, and contact info.

Linking Script Locations

Your script contains location names from scene headings (e.g., "INT. WAREHOUSE"). These need to be linked to real-world locations — several script locations can share one real-world location. Unassigned script locations sit in a collapsible panel on the left: drag a chip onto a location card to assign it, or drag it back into the panel to unassign. This link is used by the stripboard optimizer to group scenes at the same physical location.

You can also assign without leaving the breakdown: the Scene Tags panel's Locations card shows where the selected scene shoots. Right-click it to assign the script location to an existing real-world location, or create a new one on the spot. One assignment covers every scene with that slugline.

Shoot Days & Budget

Every real-world location is also a production element in the Locations category. Each location card shows how many scenes shoot there and how many unique shoot days they're scheduled on, calculated live from the stripboard. Set a rate on the location's element in the Element Manager and import it into the budget like any prop or vehicle — the line item follows the schedule as shoot days move.

Map View

Toggle the map view to see all your locations plotted visually. Click any pin to select it. Locations without GPS coordinates appear in a list below the map. FilmBase automatically calculates distances between locations: completely offline, no internet required.

Availability Calendar

Set available and unavailable date ranges per location (e.g., a venue is only available certain weeks). This availability feeds into the conflict detection system: if you schedule a scene at a location on a date it's unavailable, you'll see a warning on the stripboard and DOOD.

Drivers & Transport

Manage transport logistics: driver assignments, pickup schedules, and transport manifests for each shoot day.

Setting Up Drivers

1. Navigate to Schedule > Drivers.
2. Select a shoot day from the toolbar.
3. The Morning Call run is auto-populated with actors scheduled for that day based on your master scenario stripboard.
4. Assign a driver to each passenger by selecting from your driver contacts, or mark them as Self-Drive.
5. Enter pickup time, pickup location, dropoff time, and dropoff location for each assignment. Travel time calculates automatically.

Transport Runs

Each shoot day has default runs: Morning Call and Wrap. You can add custom runs for other needs (Tech Scout, Location Recce, etc.). Each run has its own scheduled time and passenger list.

Where Transport Data Appears

Driver assignments aren't isolated: pickup and arrival times automatically appear on the cast rows in your Call Sheets. You can also export a dedicated Driver Report PDF with the full daily transport manifest.