Rest Period

What this is about

On a German set this is not a courtesy but the Arbeitszeitgesetz, which sets eleven uninterrupted hours between working days, with sector rules and collective agreements adding their own details for film work. Practically, it is why a wrap at midnight makes an eight o'clock call impossible. The first AD builds the next call sheet from the previous wrap, production checks it before publishing, and a planned exception has to be agreed and compensated rather than discovered. Fatigue is also the largest safety factor on a set that drives, rigs and works at height.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• Rest period is the entitlement, turnaround is how a production measures and plans it — the two words are not interchangeable.
• Collective agreements in film modify the detail, so check which agreement a production follows before assuming a number.
• Freelance contracts do not switch the safety logic off: an exhausted driver at three in the morning is everyone's problem.

With TillyGen

TillyGen warns while planning when a call time would fall inside the rest period of the previous shooting day.

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.