Why Your Schedule Sucks (and How a Stripboard Fixes It)
Call time is 6 AM. By 9, your crew’s already plotting an uprising and you’re still arguing why Scene 5 is being shot before Scene 3. Script pages are changing. Talent's in the wrong city. The day is now chaos spelled in all caps on a whiteboard. You know you need a plan, but every Google Sheet you make somehow multiplies confusion instead of reducing it. The only thing holding it together is sheer will… and pain meds.
This is where the stripboard comes in. Building a stripboard (yes, the colored strips on the board your line producer once threatened to move to the wall) is the one scheduling move that keeps your shoot from spiraling into legend for all the wrong reasons.
What Is a Stripboard?
Think of the stripboard as your shoot’s blueprint. Every scene becomes a strip, a colored bar, laid out in shooting order instead of script order. Each strip tells you who, what, where and when. Instead of flipping between fifteen tabs and email chains, you get every department reading from the same simple schedule. Stare at it. Cherish it. Pray over it.
Step 1: Break Down the Script (The Hard Part You Can’t Skip)
No, you can’t schedule blindly. Break down the script first. Every scene gets split into its core elements, like:
- Scene number and brief description
- Location (INT/EXT, set, address, etc.)
- Day or night
- Cast (which actors are needed, by name/number)
- Key props and wardrobe
- Vehicles and SFX
- Script pages (eighths count, don’t guess, measure the lines)
You’ll usually do this on a script breakdown sheet or, if you hate yourself, by hand. Skip this, and you’ll have second-unit shooting in the wrong country.
Step 2: Create Your Strips
Each strip is a scene. Make one for every scene and record the breakdown details. If you’re channeling your inner 1990s line producer, you’re cutting and taping colored strips to a real board. Most of us are digital these days, but the method is the same:
- Strip number
- Scene number
- Description
- Cast
- Page count
- Day/Night, INT/EXT
- Location
Code them by color: yellow for day, blue for night, green for EXT. You get the idea, even colorblind folks can tell when the schedule is a disaster at a glance.
Step 3: Add Key Constraints
Don’t start dragging strips around yet. Note every immovable thing, actor availability, location windows, special gear rentals, days when the city tacks on permit fees for fun. Physically block those out (red banners, thick outlines, or just a fat marker if you don’t care about aesthetics). These are your shoot’s cage bars.
Mark company moves (scene changes that require getting the circus to another location). You do NOT want to schedule two scenes at two different locations in the same morning because you “think it’ll work out.”
Step 4: Sequence Strips for Maximum Sanity
Now, put the strips in shoot order. The rule-of-thumb is:
- Group scenes by location, shoot all scenes at one place before moving.
- Then, sort by daylight/night needs.
- Factor in cast (avoid dragging talent in for one shot at dawn if you can help it).
- Stack small scenes into a day when possible, but beware of overloading.
- Back-to-back heavy emotional scenes rarely end well for the cast (or your outtakes reel).
Stack strips by the best compromise of efficiency, cost and morale. Add your day breaks (the magical white strips). One line per shoot day.
Step 5: Calculate Day-Out-of-Days
Don’t wait until wrap to realize your lead has only three days scheduled but needs to be on set for five. Day-out-of-days tracking tells you, by cast and element, which shoot days they’re needed. Calculate it now while you’re shuffling strips, this is where you catch conflicts, overages and the “does this person really need to fly in for one insert shot?” conversations.
Step 6: Estimate Shoot Limits (and Don’t Lie to Yourself)
Add up the script pages per day for each shoot day. Too many, you’ll die. Too few, you’ll regret your next budget review. Real world: 5-8 pages a day is normal for commercials; big stunts or SFX, less. Reshape as needed. Flag heavy days for everyone, crew will plan extra coffee and you might actually make schedule.
Step 7: Account for Turnaround and Penalties
Staggered shoot days, late wrap, meal penalties and cast turnaround all suck the life (and money) from a schedule. Use your stripboard to check:
- No cast or crew is scheduled to violate guaranteed rest (turnaround) periods.
- Meal breaks fit in with the actual call times your strips say.
- No back-to-back crazy hours unless you want a mutiny.
Your stripboard is basically your lawsuit avoidance plan, plus your insurance rep’s favorite reading material.
Step 8: Lock the Schedule and Share with the Crew
When you’ve finished “one more quick tweak” for the tenth time, lock your schedule. Add episode and scene labels to each strip, day-out-of-days and every printout. You want your AD and script supervisor reading the same plan as locations and costume. Print, email, save, or do a live walkthrough. If anybody’s confused, fix it now, not at 4 AM on day two.
Bonus: Update When (Not If) Things Change
You will move strips around. Talent gets sick, rain kills your rooftop shoot or the client wants "just one more shot." Always let the board drive the changes: move one strip, the day-out-of-days, call sheet and breakdown should update too. You have better things to do than rewrite paperwork from scratch every time someone panics over the schedule.
Common Mistakes When Building a Stripboard Schedule
- Guessing cast or location availability (“They’ll be free, it’s fine.” Spoiler: Not fine.)
- Stacking too many pages or stunts on one day.
- Ignoring company moves, every move costs time and money.
- Relying on memory instead of writing out meal breaks and turnaround.
- Forgetting to update everyone when things change. Crew mutinies start this way.
You are not smarter than time, permits or physics. Use your stripboard to avoid learning this the hard way.
Do it in Pericles
If you want to skip the color-coded tape and Excel déjà vu, Pericles gives you a real film budgeting and scheduling suite that bakes the stripboard into your workflow. Build your breakdown, drag strips to reorder your schedule, and every call sheet, sides and day-out-of-days read directly from the stripboard. Move a scene, all your paperwork updates, no retyping. Episode and scene labels print on everything, so Scene 3 of Episode 2 is never confused with Scene 3 of Episode 5. The browser, the app, even offline on your desktop, all in sync, all without teaching your AD to use a spreadsheet. Start with Pericles.