Play production schedule template

This is something I've only thought of lately. Naturally when starting a document, especially one that evolves over the course of production, like a scene breakdown, entrance-exit table, etc. Sometimes it's helpful to know at a glance how many things are left to be decided. Sometimes I forget to update things once I have an answer. If you're using a spreadsheet, database, or a word processor with advanced spreadsheet-like table features, you can create conditional formatting to automatically highlight your question marks.

I like to set a condition that if a cell contains "? The moment I remove the question mark, it goes back to being a regular cell. It's a very low-maintenance way to really make my questions stand out.

I'm using a new template for this season's rehearsal and performance reports at The Reagle Players. It's based on the performance report I developed on the Acting Company tour earlier this year, except the fancy graphics are toned down a bit so that it will paste directly into an email without losing its formatting.

I do my reports using the app Pages, which is part of Apple's iWork suite. The reports look basically the same in Word, except that the best part of the performance report -- the automatic calculation of the running time -- doesn't work, but you can just put it in by hand. The other thing that I like about it is that if you do your daily schedule as a table in another document, you can paste it right in within the "Tomorrow's Schedule" table.

Here are some sample pictures of what the reports look like, and you can download a zip file containing both reports in either format. Have fun! It seems nobody makes a calendar that allows you to control what it looks like. I came into the business at the tail end of the era of the standalone calendar app. Time was, people sold programs that would allow you to design a calendar to look just how you like it, and to contain the information you want to share.

Now, I guess they expect you to use Outlook or iCal, or some similar all-in-one app, which is a terrible way to go about producing a calendar for other people to use that has nothing to do with your own personal schedule.

When I was production coordinator for the Florida premiere of the musical Bingo , I was lamenting this sad state of affairs over the phone to the company manager, and she said that she had a great Excel spreadsheet that I could use to make my very own calendar. She sent it to me, and I have used it with some of my own modifications on every show I have done since, and have in turn passed it on to many other stage managers and company managers.

My favorite thing about this format is that it's completely flexible. If you're doing a show that runs a month from the 15th to the 15th, you don't need two separate pages for both months. Just make a calendar that starts with the first week and ends with the last. If your show runs seven weeks, there's nothing to stop you from making a seven-week calendar aside from having to squish things a little. I use the squares on either upper corner for show logos.

You can just drag your logo or perhaps one show logo and one company logo into the box and it should size appropriately. Download in Excel. I have two basic formats I use for contact sheets. It can expand to as many categories as you need -- vendors, transportation, unions, alumni, etc. Appropriate uses would be Broadway, Off-Broadway, and tours.

Download in Word. The other type I use is for more informal shows, or shorter runs. This is my standard for summer stock, where I need to fit tons of names but not a lot of information -- just job title, phone and email. The office keeps their own records of addresses and other info for payroll purposes, but in the few weeks the show lasts, there's not much need to hand out a big long contact sheet.

Generally even with a person cast, I can fit it on the front and back of a single piece of paper, which is much easier for people to keep track of than one that's seven or eight pages long.

In a perfect world if you are doing a "fancy show" you probably want to also have a contact sheet of this style so that folks can carry around a quick list of the people they would need to call most often. An important consideration for me when designing a contact sheet or any paperwork, really is that it can use color to make it easier to read especially on a computer screen , but the color contrast has to be such that it will still make sense when it's printed in black and white.

A contact sheet in particular is something that's likely to be photocopied, so if you use color to separate different types of information, you have to make sure that it's still legible and that any differences in color that are used to identify something can still be told apart. I find that every show I do requires a little bit of creativity to shape my default contact sheet into something most appropriate for the situation. My templates have a bit of dummy information filled in to give you ideas of how I might use it, but feel free to make it your own.

I've used this template for a couple years, most notably for my weekly schedules on The Acting Company tour. I found people either loved it or hated it. When I came back for my second year, I intended to come up with something different. I gave up when I started receiving schedules before we started production, and found that in the intervening months it had become the default template in the office.

I very rarely used this template myself, mostly it was the domain of the company manager, whose weekly schedule outlines the travel and other things that take the cast from point A to point B, and then when we started touring our TD used the same format for the crew's schedule. Your master production schedule makes sure everyone in your business is working towards the same goal. The master scheduler — the MPS architect — can then forecast relationships between demand and your supply, so you know when you need to increase or decrease production.

This is producing sales orders and having them delivered on time, without any problems or defects. The purpose of a master production schedule is to save you time by making the hours you spend managing your production flow much more efficiently, giving you more space to scale your manufacturing business.

Once you understand the ultimate goal of the master schedule, you can realize that the other master production schedule objectives are all aligned towards achieving this goal. The other functions of a master production schedule are:. How will you manage operations to strike a balance between demand, labor requirements, and equipment capability? The master production schedule will help you determine how many items you need to produce within a specific period.

A master production schedule should consider multiple manufacturing routes, to see which is the most efficient and take into account any problems which might occur along a production line. Rough cut capacity planning with your master production schedule helps you figure out the realistic capacity you need to meet demand, increase profits, and minimize your costs.

The master schedule helps you set your reorder points to make deliveries that need to be placed. You can do this by coordinating different management information systems such as marketing, finance, etc.

Finally, a master production schedule will help you establish the loads and utilization requirements for machines and equipment. Those are the desired outcomes of your master schedule. To generate a demand plan, you need up-to-date and accurate historical sales data.

You can use this to work out your projected demand for the upcoming weeks. Just make sure that you adjust this on a week-to-week basis. If your demand grows, you need to increase your order policy, so it does not frequently eat into your safety stock.

So as each week passes, you update your demand plan to create a more accurate production calendar. This feeds into your master production schedule. The correct procedure for developing a master production schedule is to include the following elements:.

Well, no matter the size of your manufacturing business, the sooner you start, the better. This is because it fosters good business habits , so things like master schedule become second nature when you do scale up. Your business habits are a key predictor of long-term success. Master production scheduling focuses on the production of finished goods or components if you have an ATO workflow.

The goods that are the most profitable for your business are likely to make up most of the resources needed for production. Ultimately, manufacturers use their master production schedule to help them:. What are the benefits you can expect to reap once you implement a master production schedule into your business planning?

To keep this production schedule example simple, we will look at just two products, with two variations each, making four SKUs in total. Hard on the eyes, right? One downside to this approach, apart from it being hard on the eyes, is that the master production schedule is not dynamic.

You have to update it yourself as it is based on a spreadsheet program. Excel is inefficient and vulnerable to business-harming errors. There can be confusion between a master production schedule and a production schedule since the processes to develop the two can be similar.

The continuous optimization process that businesses need to carry out, determining the number of finished goods they need to produce based upon the inputs and constraints of their production. The purpose of production planning is to determine the production of items, in terms of families or groups. Fortunately, there is software on the market that can automate this process for you , so you can put together your master production schedule in no time, and get right back to growing your business.

Katana Manufacturing ERP Software is a tool for manufacturers looking to centralize their entire business, from production planning to manufacturing, and even sales. Attach all relevant files to the template so that team members can easily access everything needed for the post-production process.

Skip to main content. Post-film production schedule template. Create a visual post-production schedule using this planning template. Get this template now. What happens in post-production? Post-Production follows the time when a team wraps up filming. Then the editing of the visual and audio materials begins. Post-Production refers to all of the tasks associated with cutting raw footage, assembling it, adding music, dubbing, sound effects—the list goes on. Pick a template. Upgrade your cluttered Google Sheets and choose a production planning template to create a master production schedule of day-to-day activities.

Customize it.