The question we are asked most often
Almost every new client asks us the same thing in the first conversation: how detailed does a run-sheet need to be? They have usually seen two extremes. One is a single page of timings that nobody trusts, the other a forty-page document that nobody reads once the programme is live.
Our answer is that a run-sheet is a tool for the person with the least time to read it. In a gallery during transmission, that is often the director or the vision mixer, who may have two seconds to glance down. So the sheet has to be readable at a distance, in dim light, by someone already thinking about the next shot.
This note is part of our look at Production Workflow Planning, and it deals with the run-sheet only. Checklists and rehearsal routines each deserve their own treatment, so here we stay with the document itself and how a crew comes to rely on it.
One line per event, one owner per line
The most useful habit is to give every event on the sheet a single line and a single owner. An event might be a cue to the presenter, a roll-in from a playout server, a switch to a remote guest or a change of lighting state. If two people believe they own a cue, it will be missed or fired twice, and both have happened to crews we have worked with.
We write each line in the order a person would act on it: the time or trigger first, then the action, then the source, then who is responsible. A vision mixer reads left to right and finds the cue they need without hunting. Where a line carries a risk, we mark it plainly rather than burying it in a note.
Wording matters more than people expect. Short, consistent verbs such as take, roll, fade and hold remove doubt. If the same action is called three different things in three places, someone will eventually hesitate, and hesitation on air is audible.
- Trigger or timing in the first column
- A plain verb for the action
- The source or input named exactly as it appears on the desk
- One named owner, never a team
Build in the minutes that never go to plan
A run-sheet that shows every segment running to the second looks tidy and fails the first time a guest is late. We prefer to mark which items are fixed and which can flex. A fixed item might be a news bulletin that must start on the hour; a flexible one is an interview that can stretch or shrink by a minute either way.
We also build in a named pad segment, something the presenter can extend or cut without disturbing anything downstream. Crews tell us this is the single change that lowers the temperature in the gallery most. Nobody has to improvise a fill; the sheet already says what to do.
Alongside the main timings we keep a short list of fallbacks for the points most likely to fail, such as a remote link, a graphic that does not load or a microphone that drops out. Each fallback is one line long and says what to switch to, not a paragraph of reasoning.
Keep the sheet in step with what rehearsal teaches
The first version of any run-sheet is a guess. Rehearsal is where it becomes accurate, and the habit that separates dependable crews from the rest is changing the document straight after each pass rather than relying on memory. If a cue moved, the sheet moves with it before anyone has a cup of tea.
We ask for one person to be responsible for the master copy, and for old versions to be withdrawn from the gallery as soon as a new one is issued. Two versions on two desks is a common cause of mistakes that nobody can explain afterwards.
Version marks help, but the real safeguard is a short read-through of the changes before the next pass, spoken aloud. It takes a couple of minutes, and it means everyone hears the same thing at the same time, including the people who were not in the room when the decision was made.
- One master copy, one named editor
- Old versions removed from the gallery
- Changes read aloud before the next pass
Layout choices that help in a dark gallery
Presentation sounds minor until you work in a room lit mainly by monitors. We use a clear typeface at a size that can be read from a short distance, generous spacing between lines and no more than two or three emphasis styles. Colour is useful, but only when it carries meaning that is explained once and kept consistent.
Print or screen is a question of the room, not of taste. Some galleries prefer paper because it never freezes or dims, and some want a shared screen so everyone sees the same line move at once. Either works if the whole crew uses the same one. Mixing them leads to people looking at different places at the moment it matters.
Finally, keep the sheet to the length the programme deserves. A short interview programme may need a single page. A longer live show may need several, but with a clear summary at the top that a director can use if they lose their place.
How we help crews settle on a format
When we plan a workflow with a team, we begin by looking at the sheets they already use and asking the operators which lines they actually read. The answers are often surprising, and they shape the new format far more than any template would.
From there we draft a layout, test it in a rehearsal and revise it, usually twice. The aim is a document the crew recognises as their own, because a sheet people have helped shape is a sheet they will keep up to date.
We can say honestly that no format suits every programme. A news bulletin, a talk show and a multi-camera event each lean on the sheet differently, and part of our job is to fit the document to the programme rather than the other way round.
A good run-sheet is short where it can be, precise where it must be, and honest about what might change. It names one owner per cue, marks what is fixed and what can flex, and is corrected straight after each rehearsal. If your crew has stopped looking at theirs, that is usually the sign it needs rebuilding around the people who use it.