Building the stripboard: from breakdown to daily groups

Why scenes are not shot in script order

The English Wikipedia article "Production board" notes that most films are not shot in script order; the order usually depends on the availability of cast, crew and locations, and exteriors also depend on season, weather and light. The main consideration is saving money: scenes with the same location and the same cast and crew are grouped together as far as possible, and finishing all of a location's scenes in one go is known in English as "shooting out" a location.

The article's example is an actor's day rate: if the same actor has three scenes at the same location spread over three days, you pay three days' fees; shoot them together in one day and you pay for one.

What goes on a strip

All the information on a strip comes from the breakdown sheet (see An introduction to script breakdown). StudioBinder lists the fields on each strip: scene number, interior or exterior, script location, scene description, day or night, characters appearing (numbers in place of names), actual shooting location, and length counted in eighths of a page.

Strip colours are generally split by interior or exterior and day or night. The English Wikipedia article "Production board" sets out several conventions, and StudioBinder's article lists the same common set of colours:

The blue and green for night scenes are swapped between the two conventions, so attach a legend before handing the stripboard to anyone else.

What to consider when ordering scenes

StudioBinder suggests arranging by actual shooting location first, because location availability is usually the most common factor in setting shoot days; if locations are not yet confirmed, group by the set in the script first. Then consider the points below one by one.

Grouping scenes by set

Take this site's demo script Morning Light Stationery as an example: its ten scenes use only five sets, five of them inside the stationery shop and two outside the shop door. Grouped by location, the five scenes inside the shop could easily go on one day or two consecutive days, and the two night scenes outside the door could be shot together on one night. This is only how the demo might be arranged; in practice it also depends on how many hours you can have the location.

Day and night scenes

Exterior day scenes must be finished in daylight. Before scheduling, check the sunrise and sunset times published by the Hong Kong Observatory to work out how much usable daylight the day has. Wikipedia also mentions that shooting day-for-night is a common scheduling technique, but small independent productions may not be able to afford the lighting it needs and can rely only on the light already there. On a limited budget, schedule on the assumption that night scenes are shot at night.

Watch the rest period on the day after a night shoot. Wikipedia gives the Screen Actors Guild rules as an example: there must be at least 12 hours' rest between two calls, so if a night shoot is expected to run past midnight, the same cast cannot be scheduled for early-morning day scenes the next day. Whether Hong Kong productions have similar terms depends on each contract; even where the contract says nothing, we suggest leaving rest time in the schedule.

Cast availability

Once the first draft is arranged, you can make a "Day Out of Days" chart for each cast member: shoot days across, cast down, marking in each cell which days each person works. As Wikipedia explains, this chart is used in the United States to count each actor's paid days, usually with W for a work day and S and F marking the first and last paid days. With the chart in front of you, it is easy to spot an actor with several idle days in between, and consider consolidating their scenes further.

Company moves

Moving the whole unit from one location to another is called a "company move" in English. Wikipedia notes that each move can take up a considerable amount of time. StudioBinder suggests putting company moves and meal breaks on the stripboard as special strips (banners) and counting them in the day's total time, so that the workload on the call sheet is not impossible to finish on the day.

Daily workload

One rough method StudioBinder mentions is to insert a day divider every 3 to 5 pages for a dialogue-driven independent film. This figure is based on English-language script pages and cannot be applied directly to Chinese scripts (for the reasons, see Estimating runtime and shoot days from a script). We suggest estimating the time each scene needs and flagging time-consuming scenes such as action, stunts, child actors, animals and rain scenes. Wikipedia also mentions that weather-dependent exteriors and difficult stunt or effects sequences are sometimes scheduled early in the shoot, so there is still time to recover if something goes wrong.

Six steps from breakdown to stripboard

1. One strip per scene. Copy the breakdown sheet headers onto the strips, and do not miss a single scene.
2. Add colours. Colour by interior or exterior and day or night, and attach a legend.
3. Group by location. Use the actual shooting location first; if there is none yet, use the set in the script.
4. Order within each group. Within one location, separate day and night scenes first, then order by cast availability and light.
5. Insert day dividers. Check each day's scene count, characters appearing and time-consuming scenes, and move scenes to the next day if a day is too full.
6. Add company moves and meals. Write company moves and meal breaks as separate strips, then check the day's total hours.

Once the stripboard is locked, each day becomes the skeleton of a call sheet. Scenes whose location has not been approved should be marked "permit not received" on the stripboard (see Filming permits in Hong Kong: which department to start with).

Try it in the demo

This site's interactive demo has a section after the breakdown results called 「排期及準備」 (scheduling and preparation): you can drag and drop to change the shooting order, press 「在此場後分日」 (start a new day after this scene) after any scene to split off a new day, and see a daily summary straight away, including the day's scene count, numbers of day and night scenes, characters appearing and item counts by category. The order you arrange can be exported separately as a schedule. The demo only goes as far as splitting days; cast availability, company moves and actual hours still need the judgement of the producer and the assistant director.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a stripboard and a call sheet?

The stripboard is the order of the whole shoot, one strip per scene; the call sheet is the detailed plan for a single day, including call time, location and each person's call time. Once the stripboard is locked, each day on it becomes the skeleton of that day's call sheet.

Is there a single standard for stripboard colours?

The common convention is white for day interiors, yellow for day exteriors, blue for night interiors and green for night exteriors, but the Movie Magic Scheduling defaults swap the two night colours. Attaching a legend before you hand it to anyone else is the safest approach.

How many scenes should be scheduled in a day?

There is no single answer. StudioBinder mentions breaking a dialogue-driven independent film into a day every 3 to 5 pages, a general practice based on English-language script pages. For Chinese scripts, estimate the time each scene needs and flag time-consuming scenes such as action, children and animals.

When should cast availability be confirmed?

Once a first draft has been arranged by location, you can make an attendance chart for each cast member, find days that could be consolidated further, and then confirm with the cast. If availability changes, the stripboard has to change with it.

References

1. Wikipedia, "Production board" (English): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_board
2. Wikipedia, "Day out of days (filmmaking)" (English): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_out_of_days_(filmmaking)
3. StudioBinder, "How to Make a Better Shooting Schedule with a Stripboard" (English): www.studiobinder.com/blog/shooting-schedule-stripboard/
4. DATA.GOV.HK, Hong Kong Observatory dataset of sunrise, sun transit and sunset times (Chinese page): data.gov.hk/tc-data/dataset/hk-hko-rss-times-of-sunrise-suntransit-sunset
5. GET SHOTS DONE, interactive script breakdown demo (scheduling and preparation; Traditional Chinese): getshotsdone.com/demo

The pages above were accessed on 31 October 2026.

Published 25 September 2026. Last updated: 31 October 2026.