What you’ll learn
- Know how a script becomes a schedule and then a call sheet, and which program does each step.
- Know what sides and watermarks are, and why documents are distributed through a controlled system.
- Be able to work in a shared spreadsheet without destroying somebody's data.
- Know how crew personal data and unreleased material must be handled, and what a runner must never do with either.
Where this leads
By the end you will have written your own Stage 1 plan, checked yourself against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements, and know exactly what to do next: a mentor clinic, an Academy workshop, and Stage 2, the HotList.
From script to call sheet
7 minEvery document the office produces comes from the script by a chain of programs. Learn the chain and you will understand why a question about one document is really a question about another.
- readFinal Draft, Movie Magic, and the chain3 min
- readSides, watermarks and controlled distribution2 min
- checkCheck: the document chain2 min
The everyday tools
7 minThis is where your actual keystrokes go, and where the difference between a good runner and a forgettable one is visible within a week.
- readSpreadsheets, properly3 min
- readComms, file sharing and money2 min
- checkCheck: the everyday2 min
Discretion, data and detail
6 minA production office holds two dangerous things: unreleased creative material and a great deal of personal information about people who did not choose to give it to you.
- readWhat you are holding, and the law around it2 min
- taskTask: an hour before your first morning2 min
- checkCheck: discretion and data2 min
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Sources and references
Where this course comes from. Open any of them yourself.
Check it yourself
This course is written from our own experience of the industry. These are the authorities that set the rules, so you can check anything here for yourself.
- Entertainment Partners: Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting the long-standing scheduling and budgeting standard, and the owner of Scenechronize
- Final Draft the screenwriting format the industry works in
- Croogloo call sheet, sides and document distribution built for production offices
- Yamdu all-in-one production management with bulk watermarking
- Sargent-Disc UK production payroll and accounting; part of Cast & Crew since 2019, still trading under its own name
- Information Commissioner's Office: data protection for organisations the UK rules that cover the crew personal data an office handles
Every link checked 21 September 2026. The rules or figures in this course change on 21 September 2027. We check it again then.
