Count a Shoot Day Back From the Call Time, Not Forward From Today — Free
Shoot days are lost weeks before the call time: the permit that needs twenty-one days, the insurance certificate the location will not accept without, the kit hire that is committed by the seventh day out. Nobody tracks them together because they live in different inboxes. This chart takes one date and every lead time, plots each item as a bar, and prints the day each one has to be actioned — longest lead at the top.
The proof surface
Free path: the chart computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
A production checklist lists the jobs without durations, so the permit and the call sheet look equally urgent and get done in the wrong order. Plotting each job as a bar against one fixed date makes the difference visible: twenty-one days for the council, three for the call sheet — and shows which bars have already run past today.
How to use the call sheet chart in four passes
A council permit, an insurer's certificate and a location owner's signature all have their own clock, and none of them match. Ask, in writing, and use the number you were given rather than the one you hope for.
A signed location agreement can still move if the owner's solicitor replies late. Rows that can slip belong on the chart with their real lead time, so a slip is visible as a bar crossing today.
The chart sorts by lead time, so the top bar is the one that gates everything else — usually a licence, a permit or a child performance licence. Nothing downstream can start until it is in motion.
Dates move when a supplier confirms. Change the lead time or the shoot date and re-plot; a chart printed three weeks ago is a document about a production that no longer exists.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: 'Harbour Light' short · shoot 14 Nov 2026 · Whitby harbour · permit 21 days · casting closed 18 · insurance certificate 12 · call sheet 3. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Assuming permits are instant because they are online
An online application form is not an approval. Highway permits and parking suspensions routinely carry two to three weeks of processing, and a refused application restarts the clock.
Leaving out the licences nobody thinks about
Child performance licences, music clearances, drone authorisations and alcohol licences all have longer lead times than the crew bookings. They belong on the chart precisely because they are boring.
Plotting from today instead of from the shoot date
The chart counts back from the shoot, which is the only fixed date you have. Counting forward from today is how a 21-day permit becomes a 14-day emergency.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A line producer holding the dates | Exactly this chart, in somebody's head and their inbox | a day rate |
| A production-management subscription | Cloud boards, crew accounts, and your locations on their servers | per-user monthly fee |
| An expedited permit application | Rushed processing where the council offers it at all | an urgent-handling surcharge |
| This page + the free call sheet chart | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free call sheet chart
Eleven production tasks are already plotted back from 14 Nov 2026, with the 21-day council permit at the top of the chart. Move the shoot date to 1 Nov and four bars cross today.
Open the free call sheet chart →Keep the work if you will use it again
Every task, every action date, the bars and the past-date flags, plus copy and share-link, with no account.
The on-screen result is free and repeatable forever. The one-time tier adds a tangible file you keep and the saved history that comes with it; it never removes or degrades the free result.
Boundary: This does date arithmetic on the lead times you type in; it is not a permit application, it cannot confirm availability, and it does not know a council's, insurer's or location's actual processing times. Get each lead time in writing from the supplier and check local rules before you shoot.