Call time is normally the largest Number on the top front of the Call sheet.
Location where we’re shooting is normally on the mid right hand side. Know that sometimes there’s more than one locations. We do whats called Company moves during shoot days, sometimes as many as 6. For your job and information, its best to arrive early with breakfast because thats one place it will be confirmed that we’ll be there.
The AD staff are generally the right people to contact about coming to set, but in the case of this weeks shooting, we’ve been starting at 2:30P, and shooting is usually 12 hours long, which means we finished shooting at 2:30am, with about an hour and a half of wrapping up stuff, which means when you called me at 8am, I had just fallen asleep at 4:35a. No worries though, I’m in a good humor and like I said, I have friends at agencies too so I understand the urgency of having to get an answer for your boss. Just as you know, never ever contact the 1st AD for any of the stuff we’re talking about. He likes to sleep. More on this later.
The first step you want to take (If you have a callsheet or not.) is to call the office. On a Callsheet, their number is listed on the top left hand side. The person you can always bug is the Production Coordinator. They work normalish office hours and their name is listed on the back side of the callsheet, under the section: Production Staff. On night shoots like ours, the PC and the APOC (Assistant Production Office Coordinator.) split the days, so the PC will take the day shifts and APOC takes the night ones. When you call the office, you’re generally looking for one of these two people because they will have the time and the information you’re looking for. They then contact us to see either where we are in the day on set, to see what a good time to come by is, or to let us know someone is coming an get permission. Generally the AD staff has to okay visits to set, but your boss is your boss, so of course the answer is yes. But the office will give us a heads which is nice. But you start with the office, because they’ll arrange picking your boss up at the airport, his hotel most times (Or all times possibly.) getting him a car if neccesary, and getting him to and from if he requests that too. Thus saving you a whole lot of valuable steps. (Just makes sure you get a travel memo from them with all the details.)
Call times for all crew are on the back. People who fly into a location have what are called PU times (Pick up.). So if you flip to the back, you’ll see on the top left side (Directors are normally always first, top left on the back.) there’s a spot for the directors. They have today, a 2:12P Pick Up today. It takes 18 minutes to get to set from their hotel, and unless the directors request otherwise, we try to bring them in for breakfast (That time i listed on the front page, top right, under the crew call.) Breakfast is always served ½ hour to an hour before crew call.
And the basic information. The Front, middle part of the callsheet is actor Pick ups and times. Again, PU means Pick up, RPT means Report to set (Mainly for local actors, because they self drive.) and the HMW call, is when we start getting them dressed for the days work. Normally a Do not disturb time. There’s usually a notes section and the right hand middle side, to tell if there’s anything special with the actors (Pick up times, Interview times, things like that.)
The bottom half of the front of the callsheet is the Advanced schedule, which tells us whats coming up for the next few days work. So you can see where we’ll be.
And thats about it for basic reading. AD and PA staff are normally the first ones there for the day. So like today, even though call is 3pm, if you flip to the back side, top left and go down, the AD and PA staff are in at 2pm, and even more info, if we’re in at 2pm, that means the transportation dept is starting at 1pm to have trucks landed and base camp set up for us. If there’s ever a real emergency (IE: Boss got dropped off at the wrong location, lost, cant find the person he wants to talk to.) the AD staff are the people you want to contact. And you want to start with the 2nd AD, because he’s normally the one by the computer and can talk the easiest, and has his number listed on the callsheet, or the 2nd 2nd, whos running around set and has eyes on people. On days with large extras (Which you can tell by looking at the middle of the callsheet, left hand side under stand ins/ atmosphere) the AD staff will be really tied up and not able to get back to you quickly. Sounds silly, but sometimes texts are faster than voicemails and easier to answer, especially if we’re rolling on a take.
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