← How To · Scheduling · 10 min read

How to schedule a feature with a stripboard

The stripboard is the visual scheduling tool every 1st AD lives in. One strip per scene, colour-coded by INT/EXT and time of day, dragged into shoot days that maximise location clustering and minimise company moves.

1

Make sure /breakdown is locked

The stripboard pulls every scene's cast count, location, INT/EXT, time of day, and page count from the breakdown. Without a locked breakdown the strips are missing the data that makes scheduling work.

2

Open /calendar in stripboard view

Switch /calendar to the Stripboard view (it's one of 8 view modes). Every scene appears as one strip — white for INT/DAY, yellow for EXT/DAY, blue for INT/NIGHT, green for EXT/NIGHT. Unscheduled strips sit in the left rail; scheduled days sit to the right as banner rows.

3

Cluster by location first

Drag every scene at the same location into the same shoot day or consecutive days. Company moves cost a half-day each; co-locating scenes is the single biggest schedule efficiency. Multi-location days are sometimes unavoidable (a chase across town) — flag them with a company-move banner.

4

Order by time of day inside each cluster

Within a location cluster, run day exteriors first, day interiors next, night exteriors after sunset, night interiors last. The sun runs the schedule on day exteriors. Lighting kit handles the rest.

5

Optimise with the AI day-order suggester

Click 'Suggest order with AI'. Dolly reads cast availability + location windows + DOOD constraints and emits a proposed strip order with rationale per day (cast holds, equipment carry-over, meal-break pressure). Apply if you agree; dismiss if your gut says otherwise.

6

Lock the schedule

When the order is right, click Lock. The stripboard becomes read-only for everyone except the producer; downstream call sheets + DOOD + budget variance + diary all reference the locked schedule.

The stripboard is the spine that holds the production. Get it right early and every department feeds off the same source of truth. Get it wrong and you spend the shoot apologising.

Try it

Open /calendar and follow the steps

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