What's included
Every department works to the shoot dates, and everything after the shoot works to the delivery date. The template puts both fixed points on the chart and lets the rest arrange itself around them:
- Development, Script drafts, rights and options, budget and schedule breakdown, financing and the greenlight decision. Milestone: greenlight.
- Pre-production, Casting, department heads, locations and permits, production design and build, wardrobe, camera and equipment tests, and the shooting schedule itself.
- Principal photography, The shoot, broken into location and stage blocks, with the wrap date as the immovable centre of the whole plan. Milestone: picture wrap.
- Post-production, picture, Dailies and assembly during the shoot, editor's cut, director's cut, notes and picture lock. Milestone: picture lock.
- Post-production, sound & picture finishing, ADR, foley, sound design, score, mix, VFX shot delivery, colour grade and the online conform.
- Delivery & distribution, DCP and masters, QC, captions and localisation, marketing materials, festival submissions and the delivery package. Milestone: delivery accepted.
Who uses this template
Line producers, first assistant directors, and production coordinators use this to steer a feature or series from development through delivery. It covers pre-production, principal photography, post, sound, colour, and final deliverables, giving directors, department heads, and financiers a shared view of when each phase locks and where the schedule is tight.
How to customize it
- Set your shoot start and wrap dates first and let pre-production count backwards from them.
- Add one row per shooting block or location so the move days are visible; unplanned company moves eat shoot days.
- Extend the VFX rows and start them earlier if you have a meaningful shot count, VFX often runs from the shoot to the final mix.
- Put festival submission deadlines on the chart as milestones; they are fixed dates that pull the whole post schedule forward.
- Keep contingency days inside principal photography rather than at the end, where they are indistinguishable from slipping.
Scheduling tips
- Start dailies and assembly during the shoot. An editor cutting alongside photography means the assembly exists on wrap day rather than starting there.
- Lock picture before you commit to sound and colour. Re-cutting after the mix has started is the most expensive avoidable mistake in post.
- Treat locations and permits as long-lead items. Permits, road closures and location agreements have third-party durations that cannot be compressed by working harder.
- Cast the leads before you finalise the shooting schedule. Actor availability rewrites the schedule, so it is a dependency of scheduling rather than a parallel task.
- Read the delivery requirements at the start, not the end. Deliverables lists are long, specific and non-negotiable, and discovering them in the final month adds weeks.
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Frequently asked questions
How long does a film production schedule run?
For an independent feature, commonly 12-18 months from greenlight to delivery, roughly two to three months of pre-production, four to eight weeks of photography, and six to nine months of post and delivery. The template uses a schedule in that range.
What are the phases of film production?
Development, pre-production, principal photography, post-production and delivery. This template splits post into picture and sound-and-finishing, because picture lock is the gate that separates them.
How much pre-production time do I need?
Enough to cast, scout, permit and build before day one. Eight to twelve weeks is common on a modest feature, and cutting it short shows up as lost days during the shoot rather than as savings.
Does this include VFX?
Yes, VFX shot delivery sits in the finishing phase and starts during post. If your shot count is significant, pull those rows earlier so vendor work overlaps the edit.
Is the film production template free?
Yes. Free Excel, PowerPoint and CSV downloads, and free online editing with no account and no watermark.