Short Film Schedule Tips — How to Plan Your Entire Production

Short Film Production Schedule Template

What is your time frame?

The first question you need to ask is yourself: what is my time frame?That answer will vary depending on what you plan to do with your short film. 

Want to shoot a short for a festival in two months? You can – but you’re going to need to rush all three stages of production:

• Pre-production
• Production 
• Post-production
  
  

Want to shoot a short for college applications next year? You absolutely can — and you’ll have plenty of time to prepare.

Think of a production this way: if a production is a Pringles can, the stages of production are the chips. Short productions are mini Pringles cans. Long productions are tall Pringles cans. The more time you give yourself, the more cushion you’re going to have to add pieces to your production. Catch my drift?

So, step one: draw a timeline. And make it BIG. Write your start date on the left side and your end date on the right side — and stick to it. Some short film productions are easier than others.

For example, I participated in weekly short film festivals in college — the organization gave us equipment for the purpose of producing a short film in one week. Once the week was over, we returned the equipment and watched all of the films.

Not every organization enforces its timeline so rigidly – which means YOU need to be responsible for sticking to your shooting schedule. Oftentimes, that timeline is going to be riddled with obstacles.

We’re going to show you how to confront those obstacles... proactively! Remember, preparation is the key to success. 

Short Film Production Schedule Tips

Schedule before cast and crew

Organization is the great equalizer in all film productions. And there’s no greater tool for organization than a schedule. That’s why you need to make a schedule as early in the production process as possible, aka before you start thinking about cast and crew.

Think about it: what’s the first thing somebody is going to say when you ask them to join your production? Chances are… it’s going to be “when?” 

That’s when you whip out your handy dandy schedule. But how do you make a short film schedule? Let’s jump in.

Short Film Schedule Template

Making your short film schedule

There are a lot of factors in determining what goes into a film schedule.

The first thing you should do is create a master sheet, similar to the timeline we outlined earlier. This will serve as a macro representation of your production. 

Okay, now let’s break down how to make a shooting schedule in StudioBinder. 

If you used another program, you can export the file via a share setting, then email or text it to team members. 

Short Film Production Schedule

Stick to your schedule

Sticking to schedule is arguably the hardest thing to do on a film set. Why? Because everything that can go wrong will go wrong. That’s why preparation is the great key to sticking to schedule. But how do you prepare for things to go wrong? Buffer time!

Naivete screws productions more than anything else. If the GPS says it will take 45 minutes to get from one shoot to the next, schedule AT LEAST an hour of travel time. If a three page shoot is supposed to take 2 ½ hours, schedule AT LEAST 3. Chances are... nobody will ask questions.

In fact, they’ll probably commend you for “keeping things on schedule.” The reality is that you just planned for the unexpected; because trust me: the unexpected will happen. Whether it be a traffic jam, a missing camera lens, or something else entirely.

Up Next

Pro Tips for Creating a Better Schedule

Now that we’ve touched on the basics of film scheduling, let’s move onto some pro tips. That’s exactly what we do in our next article by breaking down tactical tips for creating a better schedule. By the end, you’ll know how to make a schedule for feature-length films and short films.

Up Next: Shooting Schedule Tips →