Determine the exact time required between productions to strike, clean, and pre-rig.
Note: To price the financial impact of these lost hours, use the Studio Downtime Cost Calculator.
The time between one production wrapping and the next becoming camera-ready is not simply cleaning time. A stage may need a standing set struck, equipment returned, floors cleaned, a cyclorama touched up, a new set built, lighting pre-rigged, and technical systems checked before the next production can begin.
The Stage Turnover Time Calculator combines those activities into an estimated Turnover Time and shows how many Dark Days the stage requires before it can return to production. It also expresses that downtime as Bookable Hours Lost, helping studio operators understand how much scheduled stage capacity is consumed by the changeover.
This calculator measures time only. It does not calculate the financial cost of idle or unbookable stage hours. Use the results to plan realistic gaps between productions and compare different strike, prep, staffing, and shift arrangements.
Stage turnover consists of three major workloads: striking the outgoing production, clearing and cleaning the space, and preparing the stage for the incoming production.
Strike time depends on the amount of set wall that must be removed, the strike rate of each crew member, and the size of the strike crew.
Strike hours = Set wall run length ÷ (Strike rate per crew member × Strike crew size)
Clear and clean time combines equipment return, floor cleaning, and any cyclorama touch-up.
Clear and clean hours = Equipment return time + Floor clean time + Cyclorama touch-up
Incoming prep combines the new set build, lighting pre-rig, and technical checks.
Incoming prep hours = Incoming set build time + Lighting pre-rig time + Technical check time
If every task ran sequentially, those three workloads would simply be added. The calculator also allows part of incoming preparation to overlap with strike and cleaning, reducing the elapsed turnover time.
Enter the outgoing strike requirements first, then describe the clearing and incoming preparation workload.
Enter Set Wall Run Length as the total linear feet of set wall that needs to be removed.
Use Strike Rate per Crew Member for the average number of linear feet one crew member can strike in an hour. The default is eight feet per hour per person.
Enter Strike Crew Size as the number of people working the strike call. The calculator assumes the entered crew works at the specified average rate, so use realistic values for the construction, access, materials, and dismantling requirements involved.
Enter Equipment Return Time for getting gear off the floor, staging carts, organizing returns, and preparing rental equipment for collection. The default is three hours.
Use Floor Clean Time for sweeping, mopping, debris removal, and restoring the floor for the incoming production. The default is two hours.
Add Cyclorama Touch-Up when the stage requires patching or repainting before the next tenant or production. The default is zero hours, so increase it only when cyc work is actually expected.
These activities form the calculator’s Clear and Clean Time result.
Enter Incoming Set Build Time for the expected build required by the next production.
Use Lighting Pre-Rig Time for grid work and other lighting preparation completed before the incoming shooting call. The default is six hours. Technical Check Time, default two hours, covers power, communications, and system verification.
Set Working Hours per Day to the usable crew hours available during a turnover day. The default is 10 hours.
Use Shifts per Day to model additional turnover capacity. One shift is the default. Setting two shifts creates a double-shift turnaround and doubles the modeled daily working capacity.
Finally, set Parallel Work Allowance to the share of incoming prep that can realistically overlap with strike and cleaning. The default is 30 percent.
The results show both the underlying workload and the elapsed time required before the stage becomes camera-ready again.
Turnover Time is the estimated number of hours between wrap and the next camera-ready state after allowable overlapping work is deducted.
First, the calculator determines the fully sequential workload:
Sequential total = Strike hours + Clear and clean hours + Incoming prep hours
It then estimates the overlap:
Parallel saving = Incoming prep hours × (Parallel work allowance / 100)
Turnover time = Sequential total – Parallel saving
Parallel Saving should represent work that can genuinely occur at the same time. Increasing it simply to obtain a shorter result can create an unrealistic turnover plan if crews, access, power, floor space, or safety requirements prevent simultaneous activity.
Daily turnover capacity depends on working hours and shift count.
Daily capacity = Working hours per day × Shifts per day
The calculator divides turnover hours by daily capacity to produce Turnover Days in Decimal.
Turnover days = Turnover time ÷ Daily capacity
Because a stage may not be practically available for a new production until the turnover is complete, the calculator rounds the requirement upward to produce Dark Days.
Dark days = CEILING(Turnover days)
Bookable Hours Lost expresses those rounded dark days using the entered working hours per day.
This is a time-capacity metric, not a revenue-loss calculation.
Strike Share of Turnover shows how much of the adjusted turnover time is associated with set removal.
Prep Share of Sequential Total shows the portion of the original, pre-overlap workload created by the incoming build, pre-rig, and technical checks.
The calculator also reports Hours Wasted Rounding to a Whole Day:
Rounding hours = (Dark days × Daily capacity) – Turnover time
This result helps identify cases where a relatively small reduction in turnover hours could remove an entire dark day.
The Turnover Sequence table shows each Phase, Hours, whether it can run in parallel, and its cumulative effect on the turnaround.
Consider a stage with 180 feet of set wall to strike. Each strike crew member averages eight feet per hour, and six people are assigned.
180 ÷ (8 × 6) = 3.75 strike hours
Equipment return requires three hours and floor cleaning requires two hours, with no cyclorama touch-up.
3 + 2 + 0 = 5 clear and clean hours
The incoming production requires 14 hours of set building, six hours of lighting pre-rig, and two hours of technical checks.
14 + 6 + 2 = 22 incoming prep hours
If all work ran sequentially:
3.75 + 5 + 22 = 30.75 hours
With a 30 percent Parallel Work Allowance:
22 × 30% = 6.6 hours saved
Estimated Turnover Time becomes:
30.75 – 6.6 = 24.15 hours
At 10 working hours per day and one shift, the turnover requires 2.42 decimal days. Rounding upward produces 3 Dark Days and 30 Bookable Hours Lost.
Strike represents about 15.5 percent of turnover time. Rounding to three complete turnover days leaves approximately 5.85 hours between the modeled workload and full three-day capacity.
If the stage uses two 10-hour shifts instead, daily turnover capacity becomes 20 hours. The same 24.15-hour workload takes about 1.21 days, which rounds to 2 Dark Days.
The second shift therefore reduces the modeled number of dark days without changing the underlying amount of turnover work.
Use the calculator to identify the activity controlling the handoff between productions.
If incoming prep dominates the sequence, consider whether part of the next set can be pre-built off stage or whether lighting preparation can begin while other areas are being cleared. If strike is the bottleneck, changing strike crew size or dismantling methods may have a larger effect.
A second shift can compress elapsed calendar time, but only when staffing, supervision, access, noise limits, safety requirements, and facility policies support it.
Pay particular attention to rounding hours. If a turnover requires only slightly more than one or two full working days, recovering a few hours through genuine parallel work may remove an entire dark day.
Turnover estimates are most useful when outgoing production requirements, incoming prep plans, crew availability, and stage schedules stay current.
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 studio scheduling capabilities help teams manage stage calendars and resource availability so turnover time can be considered when planning the handoff between productions.
It includes modeled set strike, equipment return, floor cleaning, cyclorama touch-up, incoming set construction, lighting pre-rig, and technical checks, adjusted for the selected Parallel Work Allowance.
No. Turnover Time is the calculated workload in hours. Dark Days rounds that workload up according to the available working hours and number of shifts per day.
No. It expresses dark days in hours of stage capacity. The calculator does not assign a rental rate or calculate the dollar cost of idle stage time.
It allows a percentage of incoming prep time to overlap with strike and cleaning. A higher percentage reduces elapsed Turnover Time, but only use overlap that can realistically occur.
Shifts increase the amount of turnover work that can be completed within one calendar day. They do not reduce the total workload itself.
Use an average based on the type of set, construction method, access, strike procedures, and crew capability. The calculator defaults to eight linear feet per person per hour.
The calculator assumes the stage remains in turnover until all required work is finished. A partial remaining day therefore rounds up to a whole dark day.
Update the estimate whenever the outgoing set, strike staffing, cleaning requirements, incoming build, pre-rig plan, shift structure, or realistic overlap between activities changes.
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