A call sheet is the one-page schedule that tells everyone on a shoot where to be, when, and what to expect. Done right, nobody calls you at 6am. Done wrong, the whole day wobbles. Here is everything that belongs on one.
Date and general crew call. Location with a full address and parking notes, because "the warehouse on 5th" is how you lose a gaffer for an hour. Per-person call times, since not everyone starts together. Key contacts with phone numbers: producer, first AD or whoever runs the day, and the client contact if they will be on set. Weather and sunrise or sunset, which drive everything outdoors. The nearest hospital, which everyone hopes is decoration and professionals never omit.
A shoot day in rows: call, breakfast, first setup, company moves, lunch (union or not, feed people on time), wrap. Beside it, the shot or scene plan in the order you intend to shoot, not script order. Crews relax when they can see the plan; anxiety on set is usually just missing information.
Every person on the day: name, role, call time, and contact. Include department notes where they earn their space: walkie channels, wardrobe notes for talent, which truck the grip package lives in. If minors or animals are on set, their handlers and legal constraints go here too.
The call sheet goes out the evening before, ideally by dinner, from whoever is running the day. Sending it at midnight tells the crew how the day will feel. Ask for confirmations: a sheet nobody confirmed is a rumor, not a plan. Chasing "got it, see you at 7" texts is exactly the kind of work software should do for you, which is why Cutvey sends call sheets that crew confirm with one tap.
Address without a suite number or gate code. A forecast nobody checked since Tuesday. Yesterday's version circulating after the location changed, which is why versioned sheets and a single source of truth matter. And the classic: the sheet that lives in a thread with 14 replies, where the update is in reply nine. One link, always current, beats every attachment.
You do not need to design one from scratch. Grab our free call sheet template, or let Cutvey build the sheet from your project's crew, schedule, and location data and email it for you, with live weather and confirmations tracked automatically.
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