Free call sheet template for small video crews
Most call sheet templates online are film-set documents: cast calls, department columns, production office numbers. If you're a crew of one to three shooting brand and commercial work, you need about a third of that - done properly. Below is the exact structure we used for years as a working crew, section by section, free to copy into whatever tool you like. At the end, we'll show you the lazy version, because we built it.
The template
Eight sections, in the order people actually look for them:
1. The header
Project name, client, shoot date, and - biggest text on the page - crew call time and location. Someone opening this at 6:40am in a car park needs those two facts in under a second. Include a postcode that actually works in a satnav and one line of parking instructions; "parking is round the back off Mill Lane" has saved more shoots than any lens ever has.
2. Key contacts
Names, roles and mobiles for everyone on the day: crew, the client contact who'll be on site, and the venue contact if there is one. The test: if the van breaks down at 6am, can everyone reach everyone without opening an email thread?
3. The run of day
The timed schedule - crew call, rig and setup, shooting blocks, lunch (put it at a real time, not "when we get a minute"), pickups, de-rig, wrap. Two rules from hard experience: build in fifteen minutes more rigging time than you think you need, and never schedule the last shot at wrap time.
4. The shot list
What you're capturing, in priority order - not shooting order. When the day slips (it will), you cut from the bottom, and the film still works. A shot list ordered by priority is a decision you make calmly the night before instead of in a panic at 4pm.
5. The kit list
Everything that goes in the van, grouped: camera, lenses, lighting, audio, grip, power, media. Tick it loading out AND loading back in - the second tick is the one that finds the charger still plugged into the venue wall.
6. Safety and insurance
One honest paragraph: any real hazards for the day, plus where your public liability certificate lives. Bigger clients' producers will ask; having it on the sheet makes you look like you've done this before.
7. Weather and backup
For exteriors: the forecast, the call you'll make if it turns, and the indoor fallback. Decided in advance, it's a plan; decided at 7am in the rain, it's a mess.
8. The client version
Now the catch: everything above is the crew document. Your client should never see crew mobile numbers, kit chatter or your internal notes. So you maintain a second, cleaner copy - schedule, address, who they'll meet - and every time a call time changes, you update it in two places and hope you caught both. This is the part of the template that can't be fixed by a better template.
The lazy version
We ran this exact structure as a duplicated doc for years, and the duplication is what finally broke us: an hour per shoot, always at 11pm, always one stale call time from an awkward 7am conversation. So we built Cinella - you give it the brief, call and wrap times, and it generates all eight sections: the run of day builds itself, the kit list comes from your templates, and the client version isn't a second document - it's a branded portal link where your client sees their clean schedule, uploads their brief, and confirms the day in one tap. Change a call time once and both versions are already right.
The template above is genuinely yours - copy it, use it forever, no email address required. If the 11pm rebuild ever gets old, the 14-day trial is free and it's £12/month during launch (you keep that rate for as long as you stay subscribed).