1st AD

What this is about

The AD is the only person on set who is paid to think three setups ahead. Everything that makes the day work — order, grouping, when the exterior happens — is decided before the call sheet goes out.

Every department needs the same plan in a different view. That is exactly where document collections fail: they only ever serve one perspective well.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• The first setup of the day takes about twice as long as the average one
• A meal break costs 75 to 90 minutes of shooting once the crew resets
• Camera wrap sits 30 to 45 minutes before crew wrap

What the plan has to deliver

A production plan is useful to this role when it provides the following:

• Setups grouped by camera position, not by scene order
• Daylight and blue hour on the day itself, not in a separate app
• Meal break and company moves already deducted from the shooting time
• A call sheet that regenerates when the schedule changes

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Scheduling the most complex setup right after lunch
• Putting the exterior at the end of a November day

With TillyGen

TillyGen builds the day against real constraints — daylight, moves, turnaround — and flags the setup that no longer fits before you print the call sheet.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.