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Script length and a realistic pages-per-day rate are enough for a first-pass schedule: how many shoot days, and how many calendar weeks they occupy.
Pages-per-day is the honest first conversation about scope: a 95-page drama at 4 pages/day is 24 shoot days — five 5-day weeks — before anyone has argued about locations. If the budget supports 18 days, the maths says cut pages, raise the daily rate (and accept the coverage cost), or find the money. Better to have that argument at this calculator than in week three.
The real schedule then comes from a stripboard: scenes grouped by location so company moves don't burn half-days, cast consolidated to shorten engagements, day/night batched, and day breaks placed where the eighths stay realistic. The estimate sets the budget envelope; the board makes it shootable.
A 100-page indie drama at 4 pages/day is ~25 shoot days; prestige productions shooting 2–3 pages/day run 35–50+; micro-budget features compress to 15–18 days by shooting 6+ pages/day. The pages-per-day number is the whole game.
Coverage ambition (more setups = fewer pages), night work, company moves, stunts/VFX, children and animals (legally limited hours), weather exposure, and crew size. A schedule that ignores these on paper rediscovers them on set.
Five-day weeks are standard for sustained shoots (crew rest and weekly turnaround); six-day weeks appear on short intensive schedules. Seven-day weeks burn crews out and usually violate agreements.
It's a planning baseline, not a promise. The real schedule comes from a stripboard: scenes grouped by location and cast, day breaks placed where the page totals stay realistic. Use the estimate to sanity-check budget and dates before boarding.
Production Slate builds the real version: import your script, drag scenes onto a colour-coded stripboard, and watch each day's page count and labor cost update live — free to start.
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