Price the lost time of changing locations. Calculate hours lost, setups forgone, and the direct wage cost of moving the company.
A company move can look simple on a call sheet: wrap one location, travel to the next, and resume shooting. In practice, it includes packing equipment, loading vehicles, travel, parking, unloading, and rebuilding the working setup until the crew is camera-ready again.
The Company Move Time Calculator estimates how much production time those location changes consume. It converts each move into total hours lost, crew hours lost, the cost of paid non-shooting time, shoot-day equivalents, and setups forgone.
This tool prices lost time only. It does not calculate total crew wages. Its purpose is to show the operational impact of company moves so producers and production managers can compare location choices and schedule options.
Company move time is more than travel time. Driving may be only one part of the delay between the final shot at one location and the first camera-ready moment at the next.
The calculator combines six components: wrap and pack, load, travel, parking and staging, unload, and reset and re-establish.
Travel time per move = (Travel distance ÷ Average travel speed) × 60
Time per move = Wrap and pack + Load + Travel + Parking and staging + Unload + Reset and re-establish
The resulting time represents production minutes not used for shooting. The calculator also converts those minutes into paid crew hours and lost-time cost.
Enter realistic assumptions for the planned moves. If moves vary widely, calculate them separately or use a defensible average.
Enter Number of Company Moves as the number of location changes across the shoot.
For Travel Distance per Move, enter the one-way distance between locations in miles. Use the expected route rather than straight-line distance when possible.
Set Average Travel Speed to a realistic convoy speed. The default is 20 mph. Do not simply use the posted speed limit if traffic, large vehicles, or parking access will reduce the real average.
Enter Wrap and Pack Time for striking and stowing equipment at the outgoing location. The default is 30 minutes.
Use Load Time for getting trucks, carts, and cases loaded and secured. The default is 25 minutes. Parking and Staging covers finding, positioning, and staging vehicles at the new location, with a default of 15 minutes.
Enter Unload Time for removing equipment from vehicles. The default is 25 minutes. Use Reset and Re-establish for the time required to become camera-ready again. The default is 20 minutes.
Together, these inputs describe the full operational move rather than only the drive.
Enter Crew Size as the number of people being paid during the move. Use Blended Hourly Rate as the loaded cost per crew hour. If you already calculate a blended labor rate elsewhere, use the same basis here.
The calculator multiplies move hours by crew size to estimate Crew Hours Lost, then applies the blended rate to estimate Cost of Lost Time.
Enter Shooting Hours per Day as camera-ready hours excluding the meal break. The default is 10 hours. Use Average Setup Time, default 45 minutes, to express move time as Setups Forgone.
The outputs show the move from several angles: clock time, labor exposure, schedule capacity, and lost setup opportunity.
Total Move Time is the combined duration of every company move.
Total move minutes = Time per move × Number of company moves
Crew hours lost = Total move hours × Crew size
Cost of lost time = Crew hours lost × Blended hourly rate
This cost is not the production’s total wage bill. It is the modeled cost of crew time spent moving rather than shooting.
Cost per Move divides that total by the number of moves, making it easier to compare the effect of keeping or eliminating a location change.
Shoot Days Lost converts total move minutes into day equivalents.
Shoot days lost = Total move minutes ÷ Shooting-day minutes
A result of 0.70 does not mean the production must add exactly 0.70 of a calendar day. It means the moves consume the equivalent of 70 percent of the defined camera-ready day capacity.
Setups Forgone converts the same move time into camera positions:
Setups forgone = Total move minutes ÷ Average setup time
This is an opportunity-cost estimate. It shows how many average setups could theoretically fit into the same amount of time, not how many would certainly have been completed.
Travel Share of Move Time shows how much of each move is actually spent driving. A low share may indicate that packing, loading, parking, unloading, or resetting matters more than distance alone.
Move Share of a Shooting Day compares one move with total camera-ready minutes in a day.
The calculator labels a move under 15 percent as Contained, 15 to 30 percent as Costly, and over 30 percent as Move Dominated. These are planning signals, not universal production rules.
The Move Time Breakdown separates each component into minutes per move, total minutes, and share of move time.
Consider three company moves. Each covers eight miles at an average speed of 20 mph. Wrap and pack takes 30 minutes, loading 25 minutes, parking and staging 15 minutes, unloading 25 minutes, and reset and re-establish 20 minutes.
Travel time is:
(8 ÷ 20) × 60 = 24 minutes
Each move therefore takes:
30 + 25 + 24 + 15 + 25 + 20 = 139 minutes
Across three moves:
139 × 3 = 417 minutes
That equals 6.95 hours of Total Move Time.
With 18 crew members:
6.95 × 18 = 125.1 crew hours lost
At a blended hourly rate of $52:
125.1 × $52 = $6,505.20
Rounded to whole dollars, the modeled Cost of Lost Time is about $6,505, or roughly $2,168 per move.
With a 10-hour camera-ready day, each 139-minute move consumes about 23.2 percent of one shooting day. All three moves equal about 0.70 shoot-day equivalent.
At an average setup time of 45 minutes, 417 lost minutes represent about 9.3 Setups Forgone. Travel accounts for approximately 17.3 percent of each move.
The example falls in the Costly range because each move takes a meaningful portion of the shooting day.
The useful question is not simply whether a move is expensive, but whether the location value justifies the time it consumes.
If move share is high, compare grouping more scenes at one location, choosing locations closer together, reducing the number of moves, or separating distant locations into different shoot days. A shorter drive is not always a faster move if parking, loading, staging, or re-establishment is difficult.
Use the calculator alongside a detailed film production workflow and location plan. The estimate quantifies the tradeoff, while creative, access, safety, and department requirements still influence the final decision.
Company move estimates improve when they use current locations, crew assumptions, setup timing, and schedule information.
Studio Hero connects scheduling, projects, crew coordination, budgeting, invoicing, equipment tracking, inventory, client workflows, and media assets in one connected studio management system.
Studio Hero’s production management capabilities connect projects, schedules, tasks, budgets, and operational data, helping teams evaluate company moves within the wider production plan.
A company move is a location change in which the production wraps at one location, transports the crew and working equipment, and re-establishes operations at another.
No. It calculates the estimated cost of paid crew time spent during company moves. It is not a total crew wage or payroll calculator.
Use the one-way distance between the outgoing and incoming locations for each move. The calculator applies that distance once per company move.
Production vehicles may move more slowly because of traffic, trucks, parking access, route constraints, or convoy coordination. A realistic average produces a more useful estimate.
Setups Forgone divides total move minutes by Average Setup Time. It expresses move time as an opportunity-cost estimate, not a guarantee that those setups would otherwise have been completed.
No. It expresses total move time as an equivalent share of the defined shooting day. Whether another day is needed depends on the full production plan.
Recalculate when locations, routes, parking plans, crew size, blended hourly rate, shooting-day length, or average setup time changes materially.
Schedule a free demo to manage your entire studio in one place with zero hidden fees.
Get it streamlined with Studio Hero. Enter your details for a free, personalized walkthrough and see exactly how it fits your workflow.
