Hey Film Crew Forumites,

I'm working on a project to revise callsheets and it would be really great to hear what crew, (and the ADs among them!), think about what seems to be a standard static format.

What I need to hear are your biggest complaints, how challenging is it to update and get them out to the entire crew when you get, for example a push or major shoot re-arrangement on 2nd unit, say, due to a sudden weather change.

What software is most commonly used to build the callsheet today? What is crappy or great about the software you use?

Any and all input is greatly appreciated!

hmm, well I work on jobs that can have 80 crew members, several dozen vendors, a dozen lead actors and dozens of extras. This all needs to fit on a one page call sheet. And, it really works fine. The PM or coordinator normally uses an excel sheet to organize things. We have names, numbers, cell numbers for all the crew. The production company, job name and number, advertising agency, and client are listed. Any hotel people are staying at is listed (sometimes with room numbers). All the vendors. Sun rise and sun set, a weather report, and the nearest hospital is listed. What time the courtesy breakfast starts. A brief production report (i.e. first shot, lunch time, last shot, feet of film rolled).

Sure the text is small, but it works really well. When things change, information seems to be dissipated really quickly. Essentially, all the heads of each department gets a call from production, and either they will inform everyone in their department (like a phone tree) or they'll have PAs call everyone on the call sheet. As far as I'm concerned, the current state of our call sheets is just fine (assuming the PM is competent).