Estimate how many days your production requires based on script scope and daily capacity, or test if your fixed schedule is realistic.
A shoot schedule depends on more than page count. Setup density, setup time, company moves, shooting hours, parallel units, and contingency all affect the number of days required.
The Shoot Day Calculator turns those assumptions into an estimated schedule. It can solve for Total Shoot Days at a defined working pace, or work backward from a fixed schedule to show the Pages per Day and Setups per Day required to hit a target.
Use the result as a planning model, not a guarantee. Production conditions and unexpected delays can change the real schedule.
The calculator models production capacity. A script creates a number of setups, each setup consumes time, and company moves consume additional time without advancing page count.
Total setups = Total script pages × Average setups per page
Total production minutes = Setup minutes + Company move minutes
Daily capacity starts with camera-ready shooting hours, excluding the meal break. Additional units increase capacity according to Second Unit Efficiency rather than assuming every unit performs at 100 percent of the main unit.
Unit multiplier = 1 + (Shooting units – 1) × (Second unit efficiency / 100)
Raw days equal total production minutes divided by effective daily capacity. Contingency is then applied before rounding up.
Shoot days = CEILING(Raw days × (1 + Schedule contingency / 100))
Two scripts with the same page count can require different schedules when setup workload or move time differs.
Use the best information available from the current script breakdown, then update averages as locations and coverage become clearer.
Enter Total Script Pages using the full shooting-script page count. Add Total Scenes from the breakdown. Scene count does not change the shoot-day formula itself, but it supports the Scenes per Day result.
For Average Setups per Page, estimate the average number of camera and lighting positions created by each page. The default is 2.5. If different sequences need very different coverage, use a representative average across the script.
Enter Shooting Hours per Day as camera-ready hours, excluding the meal break. The default is 10 hours. Avoid using the full call-to-wrap span if part of that time is not available for shooting.
Enter Average Setup Time in minutes. The default is 45 minutes. Use an average that reflects the production as a whole rather than the longest setup.
Add Total Company Moves and Average Move Time. The default move time is 90 minutes. Every move adds non-shooting time, which can materially change location-heavy schedules.
Set Shooting Units to the number of units working in parallel. The main unit contributes full capacity. Each additional unit contributes according to Second Unit Efficiency, which defaults to 85 percent. Two units at 85 percent efficiency create a 1.85 capacity multiplier, not 2.0.
Use Schedule Contingency to add padding to the raw principal-photography estimate. The default is 10 percent. Enter Pickup and Reshoot Pages separately. Pickup days are calculated from pickup pages, setup density, setup time, and effective daily capacity, then added to the principal schedule.
In fixed-schedule mode, enter Target Shoot Days. The calculator then shows the daily pace required to fit the script into that schedule.
Required pages per day = Total script pages ÷ Target shoot days
Required setups per day = Total setups ÷ Target shoot days
Read the day count together with the pace and capacity metrics to understand the workload behind the estimate.
Total Shoot Days is the rounded principal-photography estimate after contingency. Pages per Day, Scenes per Day, and Setups per Day divide script scope and setup load across those days.
The setup-density badge adds a pace signal. Under 15 setups per day is Comfortable Pace, 15 to 25 is Standard Pace, and over 25 is Aggressive Pace. These are planning indicators, not universal rules.
Total Setups shows the modeled setup count across the script. Total Production Minutes combines setup and company-move time before contingency. Effective Daily Capacity shows the available minutes per day after accounting for shooting units and their efficiency.
Raw Days Before Contingency is the unpadded requirement, while Contingency Days Added shows the extra allowance created by the contingency percentage.
Minutes Available per Setup compares effective daily capacity with the setups-per-day pace. It is a schedule allocation metric, not the same as the Average Setup Time input. Company Move Share of Production Time shows how much modeled production time is being consumed by moves.
Pickup Days estimates added days for pickup and reshoot pages. Total Schedule Days Including Pickups adds those days to the principal shoot-day result.
The Day Load Breakdown separates Setups, Company Moves, Contingency, and Total into minutes, share of total, and day equivalents. Use it to see what is driving the modeled workload.
In fixed-schedule mode:
Capacity Gap Days = Padded Days – Target Shoot Days
A positive gap means the target is shorter than the modeled requirement. A negative gap means the target contains more days than the padded estimate.
Consider a 100-page script with 120 scenes, 2.5 setups per page, 10 shooting hours per day, 45 minutes per setup, 12 company moves at 90 minutes each, one unit, 10 percent contingency, and no pickups.
100 pages × 2.5 setups per page = 250 setups
250 setups × 45 minutes = 11,250 setup minutes
12 moves × 90 minutes = 1,080 move minutes
Total production time is 12,330 minutes. With one 10-hour unit, effective daily capacity is 600 minutes.
12,330 ÷ 600 = 20.55 raw days
Adding 10 percent contingency produces 22.61 padded days, which rounds up to 23 Total Shoot Days.
At 23 days, the modeled pace is about 4.35 pages per day, 5.2 scenes per day, and 10.9 setups per day. Company moves account for about 8.8 percent of production time.
With two units and 85 percent efficiency for the additional unit, effective daily capacity becomes 1,110 minutes. Raw days fall to 11.11, padded days to 12.22, and the rounded estimate becomes 13 shoot days. This shows the modeled capacity effect of a second unit, not a guarantee that every scene can be divided between units.
Change one assumption at a time to compare schedule approaches, such as move count, setup density, shooting hours, units, or contingency.
A comfortable setups-per-day result may show room to tighten the schedule, but fewer days also increase daily density. An aggressive result may support adding days, reducing setups, reorganizing locations, or assigning suitable material to another unit.
Use the estimate alongside a detailed film production workflow and scene-by-scene schedule. It does not replace department input, production constraints, or scheduling judgment.
The calculator is most useful when inputs come from current production records, making the estimate easier to revisit as production changes.
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Not directly. The formula is driven by pages, setups, setup time, company moves, daily capacity, units, and contingency. Scene count supports the Scenes per Day output.
Use a realistic average across the planned production. Base it on the expected mix of simple and complex setups rather than one unusually fast or slow setup.
No. The calculator defines this field as camera-ready hours excluding the meal break. Use the same definition when comparing options.
Additional units increase effective daily capacity according to the Second Unit Efficiency percentage. At 85 percent, a second unit adds 85 percent of main-unit capacity.
No. Pickup days are calculated separately and then added in Total Schedule Days Including Pickups.
It means the fixed target schedule is shorter than the padded modeled requirement. The production would need a higher daily pace or different capacity assumptions to fit the target.
Update it when material assumptions change, especially after script revisions, breakdown changes, location decisions, setup estimates, unit plans, or company moves become clearer.
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