Call Sheet

The Call Sheet is the day’s plan of a production: a document for exactly one shoot day that records where shooting happens, when who has to be present, which scenes are planned and whom you reach with questions. It goes to everyone involved before the shoot day and is the binding basis for the process on site.

These facts belong on it

• Location and travel: full address with floor or studio number, parking, nearest stop.
• Times: arrival time, start of hair and makeup, planned start of shooting, breaks, expected end.
• People involved: who works that day — direction, camera, sound, lights, hair and makeup, production management and the other performers.
• Planned scenes: which setups are shot and in which order.
• Contacts: name and phone number for delay, questions and emergencies.
• Organisation: wardrobe, catering, what is supplied and what you bring yourself.

Three days’ lead is the lower bound

A Call Sheet that only comes the evening before takes away every chance to plan. You need the address to organise travel and return. You need the times to know whether you still catch a train in the evening. And you need the scene list to match it against your Yes-No-Maybe list while a cancellation is still fair.

The name list is just as important. Anyone who knows which people will be on the Set notices at once if someone extra appears on the shoot day. That is the practical use behind the dry sheet of paper.

Short-notice changes are normal and not a bad sign: a motif drops, a time shifts. They are announced, though, and sent as a new version. Watch the date at the top of the sheet and always work with the latest version. Anyone who travels with an outdated version stands, in doubt, an hour too early or at the wrong address.

If no disposition comes

A production that sends no Call Sheet is either disorganised or deliberately unclear. Both cost you time and nerves; in the second case also safety. Typical patterns: the address is only passed by message two hours beforehand. It is said that it will emerge on site. Or a meeting point is named instead of a shoot site.

Demand the disposition in writing. If it stays away, that is a solid reason to cancel — even at short notice. Further signs of this kind are collected in the article spotting unreliable offers.

What you do with the sheet

Read it once in full and match three things: do the scenes match what was agreed by contract? Does the time frame fit the promised fee for the shoot day? Is a contact named who is not at the same time directing?

Save the Call Sheet and pass address and end time to a person you trust who is not involved in the shoot. How a complete shoot day runs in time is described hour by hour in this article.