Two Passes
Auto-draft is a starting point for a day you have not timed yet. It is not a scheduler: it keeps your scene order and works out when each scene might shoot. This pass runs on the whole schedule, day by day. It adds a SETUP banner, writes an estimated time on each scene and places lunch. The call-time drafts on the CS Front then read that timeline for each actor. They are covered in Auto-Draft Cast Call Times.
When It Runs
It runs in two places, and both cover every day in the production.
- On import, when Auto-Draft Scene Durations & Actor Call Times is switched on in the import dialog. The dialog holds the Scheduling Factors and the lunch options for that run
- From the CS Front sidebar: turn on the Auto-Draft switch and the Auto-Draft Enabled dialog opens. Apply to All Days Now runs this pass. Use Passive Mode Only skips it and just shows call-time drafts in empty cells
The SETUP Banner
Each day gets a SETUP banner at the top of the scene schedule unless its first strip is already one. Its length is Avg. Daily Setup, 120 minutes by default. A SETUP banner from the import that has no duration gets the same value. The call sheet's shooting call is set to crew call plus setup. The clock starts at the general crew call on the call sheet. A day with no crew call gets 7:00 AM.
Scene Estimates
Time per page is worked out per day: Avg Day Shoot Duration, less setup, any other banner with a duration and any estimate you typed, divided by the pages left to estimate. Each of those scenes gets its pages times that rate, to the minute. A scene you typed an estimate on keeps it. A scene with no estimate, or one an earlier run drafted, is estimated again. The defaults are a 12-hour day and 2 hours of setup, leaving 10 hours for scenes. How the pages spread across it:
| Pages on the day | Time per page | 1-page scene | 4/8-page scene |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 5h | 5h | 2h 30m |
| 5 | 2h | 2h | 1h |
| 10 | 1h | 1h | 30m |
| Sc | Set | Pgs | Start | Est. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | INT POLICE STATION | 2 4/8 | - | |
| 22 | EXT ROOFTOP | 1 4/8 | - | |
| 31 | INT DINER | 1 6/8 | 45m | |
| 45 | EXT PARKING LOT | 2 | - | |
| 52 | INT HOSPITAL CORRIDOR | 2 2/8 | - |
| Character | CALL | BLK/REH | SET | LOSE @ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NORA | ||||
| SAM | 9:30A | |||
| JO |
Lunch at Six Hours
With Insert lunch banner after 6 hrs on (the default), the engine takes crew call plus six hours as the deadline. It puts a LUNCH banner after the last scene that ends by then, at the Lunch Duration you set (30 minutes by default). A day that already has a lunch, meal, dinner or break banner is left alone. If no scene ends by the six-hour mark, because the first scene alone runs past it, no lunch is placed at all. Turn on Split long scenes for lunch, or place the banner by hand. The banner can be dragged like any other if lunch should fall somewhere else.
Split Long Scenes for Lunch
This option is off by default and only exists in the import dialog. It matters on a day where the first scene after setup runs past the six-hour mark, so no scene ends in time.
- Within how many minutes of the 6hr mark (15, 30, 45 or 60, default 30) is a grace period
- If that scene ends inside the grace period, it is not split. Lunch goes after it
- If it runs longer, it is split at the deadline into Pt1 and Pt2 with LUNCH between them
- Pages are shared out in eighths by time. Pt2's description gets CONT'D added
- Pt1 is timed to end at the six-hour mark. Pt2 gets the rest of the scene's estimate. A 5-hour scene that starts 4 hours before the deadline runs 4 hours before lunch and 1 hour after
- The halves are linked the way a manual split is. See Splitting Scenes into Linked Pairs
Where the Numbers Come From
The import dialog's Scheduling Factors are Avg. Daily Setup, Avg Day Shoot Duration, Avg Makeup Duration and Avg Ready to Block. A run saves them to Globals, where they are the defaults for the next run. Avg Makeup Duration and Avg Ready to Block are also copied into Default Makeup and Avg Blocking Lead for the call-time drafts.