Skip to main content

​
Day Out of Days (DOOD)

Who can do this: Every plan can open the report on every project. Overrides and budget edits need Supporter, or your first project on the Free plan, plus access to edit the schedule or manage the budget.
The Day Out of Days is the sheet your UPM and payroll live on: which days each actor works, holds, travels, or sits out a hiatus. Spell Slate builds it from your stripboard, so moving a strip updates it. In the project nav, click Production, then Schedule. Open a schedule, click Export, then Day Out of Days. The Harbor Lights Day Out of Days: five cast members across five shoot days, with work, hold, travel, rehearsal, and drop and pickup codes, and the scene settings below them

​
Open the Day Out of Days

  • From a schedule: click Export, then Day Out of Days.
  • From the reports page: click Breakdown, then Reports, then Day Out of Days (DOOD) under Cast & Talent. With more than one schedule, pick it under Schedule first.
  • From the budget: click View DOOD on the Cast / schedule card.
The schedule's Export menu with Day Out of Days and DOOD Overrides under Export CSV and Export PDF The report opens as a PDF in a new tab, for the schedule you opened it from.

​
Read the report

Each cast member gets a row, in cast ID order. Below the cast, Scene Settings and tagged elements like props and wardrobe get a check on each day they’re used. Each column is a shoot day: Day 3 over the date on that day’s day break. A day with no date yet shows only its number. Set dates on the stripboard; see Stripboard and shoot days. The last five columns sum up each row:
  • Work: days with a work code.
  • Hold: days marked H.
  • Start and Finish: the dates of the first and last work day.
  • Total: every day with a code, including travel, rehearsal, and idle days.

​
How work and hold days are counted

Nobody types in hold days. A work day is a shoot day with a scene the character is in. The first is SW, the last is WF, and every day between them without a scene is H. In the Harbor Lights example, Del has scenes on Day 1 and Day 4. He holds on Days 2 and 3: 2 work days, 2 hold days, 4 total. Holds matter because most union deals, SAG-AFTRA’s included, pay an actor from their first day to their last. A cast budget of work days × rate comes in low when an actor holds. A drop stops the holds. Days between a WD and the next PW or PWF are left blank and don’t count, the way the drop and pickup rule pays them. Tommy drops after Day 1 and is picked up on Day 5: 2 work days, no holds.

​
Mark travel, rehearsal, and drops

The schedule can’t know when an actor travels, rehearses, or drops. Mark those days as overrides.
  1. On the schedule, click Export, then DOOD Overrides.
  2. Under Character, pick the actor.
  3. Under Day, pick the shoot day.
  4. Under Code, pick T, R, WD, PW, PWF, or I.
  5. Click Add Override.
DOOD Overrides with Ruth traveling on Day 1, Tommy dropped on Day 1 and picked up on Day 5, and the Harbormaster rehearsing on Day 2 An override replaces that day’s code on the report. Click Remove to take it back off. Overrides belong to the schedule: another schedule doesn’t show them, but duplicating a schedule copies them. Overrides are tied to the day’s number. If you add or remove a day break earlier in the schedule, the days after it renumber, so check your overrides after.

​
Use the DOOD on the budget

The budget reads the official schedule, or your newest schedule when none is official. At the top of the budget, the Cast / schedule card adds up the whole cast: work days and hold days across every actor. The Cast / schedule card: Working Schedule, 5 shoot days, 5 cast members, 12 work-days and 3 hold-days across all cast, and View DOOD Each character gets a line under Cast. Its Qty follows the actor’s DOOD work days, so moving strips updates it. The line’s Rate and the rate on the character’s cast member are the same number: change either one and the other follows. A flat fee bills once. To pay an actor through their holds, type your own quantity:
  1. Click the pencil on the actor’s line.
  2. Type the days in Qty, like 4 for Del’s 2 work days and 2 hold days.
  3. Click Save.
The line keeps your number from then on. Open its details (the arrow next to the name) to see Qty typed by hand next to the DOOD’s count. The Cast lines with Del's details open: Qty 4 at $350.00, and Qty typed by hand. DOOD has 2 work days To go back to the DOOD’s count, click the pencil, then Use DOOD days. The line follows the schedule again. Del's line open for editing, with Qty 4, Rate $350.00, and Use DOOD days (2) beside them

​
Keep it accurate

The report is only as good as the stripboard behind it:
  • Tag every character in their scenes. A scene without them isn’t a work day for them. Click a strip’s cast IDs to fix it.
  • Put scenes on the right day. Moving a strip changes the start, finish, work, and hold days of everyone in it.
  • Split a scene that shoots over two days, so each part sits on its own day.
  • Date your days on the stripboard so the report and its Start and Finish dates match.