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Media AI agent · Production

Production-Schedule Copilot (Shooting Schedule)

Board the shoot against cast holds, location and permit windows, daylight and company moves — with child-performer hours, crew turnaround and rest checked as limits, and the first AD locking the day.

Typical delivery
4–6 weeks
Deployment
Your stack
Who commits
First AD
After launch
Agent Care

What this agent does

Builds the board, not the call sheet

In

  1. 01

    Take the script breakdown, the scene strips, page counts and the shoot days from your scheduling software.

  2. 02

    Read cast availability and holds, location and permit windows, the daylight table and the weather forecast.

Reason

  1. 03

    Order strips into days by location and unit, with daylight, travel and company moves priced into each day.

  2. 04

    Check each day against child-performer hours and schooling, crew turnaround, rest and the meal clock.

  3. 05

    Carry the day-out-of-days forward — who is held, who is dropped and what a move costs in cast days.

Decide

  1. 06

    Hold any day that touches a child's hours, a turnaround or a permit condition for a person to decide.

  2. 07

    Route stunt days, special equipment, night work and minors' calls to the first AD and the line producer.

Out

  1. 08

    Present the board with what it costs — cast days held, company moves, overtime exposure and what slipped.

  2. 09

    Retain the strips read, the limit that bound each day, the options rejected and every change the AD made.

Product statement

The agent boards and re-boards inside limits a person set. Locking the schedule, booking talent, committing spend and issuing the call sheet stay with the first AD and the line producer.

Example workflow

One re-board, end to end

  1. 1Re-board triggeredA location lost, an actor unavailable, weather turning, a scene added or a day that ran long
  2. 2Elements gatheredScene strips, page counts, cast day-out-of-days and holds, location and permit windows, and the daylight table
  3. 3Days orderedStrips grouped by location and unit, sunrise and sunset priced in, and company moves given the time they take
  4. 4Limits checkedChild-performer hours and schooling, crew turnaround and rest, the meal clock, permit conditions and stunt days

No human action required

Stages 1 to 4 run without a person in the loop — the elements are gathered, the days ordered and the limits checked before the first AD is asked to read anything. A day that touches a minor's hours or a turnaround ends that stretch on the spot.

5DecisionSplits on whether a limit is touched or a hold has to move
Inside every limit checked

Goes to the first AD as a proposed board.

A limit touched or a hold moved

Held with the limit named, not boarded.

First AD and line producer

Reads the board, the limit that bound each day and what the change costs in cast days and moves, then edits it and locks the schedule the unit shoots.

Lock the day · Re-board · Send back

Locked — handed back

  1. 6Board handed to the first ADWritten to the scheduling system only after the first AD locks it; the agent issues no call sheet
  2. 7Shoot day reconciledScenes and pages completed against the board, turnaround actually given, meal penalties and minors' hours by day

Edits

What the first AD changes on the board is counted in the evaluation.

What should not run autonomously

Human approval stays in control

Outside the boundary — human approval required

8 items

  • Committing the board the unit shoots.
    • Issuing, changing or releasing a call sheet.
    • Booking, holding, dropping or releasing a performer.
    • Approving overtime, a sixth day or extra units.

  • Automation boundary

    Agent acts unaided

    • ✓Order scene strips into days by location, unit and daylight.
    • ✓Price company moves, travel and page counts into the day.
    • ✓Check each day against the limits and name the one that binds.
    • ✓Carry the day-out-of-days and show what a move costs in cast days.

    Write actions run only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation. The call sheet is not one of them.

    • Any day that touches a child-performer limit.
    • Reducing a turnaround or calling a forced call.
    • Agreeing a permit condition, closure or exception.
  • Setting a stunt, effects or special-equipment day.

Example output

One re-board after a lost location, annotated

Everything the agent proposes is attached to the strips, holds and windows it was built from.

Board output · one re-board on one change

Illustrative example
Change
Location lost, day 14
Day 14 cast
3 held, 1 minor
Last wrap
22:10
Proposed
Swap days 14 and 17
Confidence
87%
Call sheet
Not issued by the agent

As received

The change as production sent it, the cast held that day and last night's wrap.

Evidence used

  • Cover set holds the cast
  • School day for the minor
  • Turnaround from 22:10

Why this swap

Day 17 holds the same cast indoors, and the minor's scenes land inside their hours.

What the score decides

Confidence rates the match, not the day. Limits are checked against the rule, not scored.

Action

Lock the dayRe-boardSend back

Value

Where AI adds value

The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.

Where the value lands

Value 01 – 04

Every shoot day

From the breakdown, the board and the changes

03Board & re-board

Board against your own constraints

Use the cast holds, location and permit windows, the daylight table, unit moves and the limits your agreements set.

01Approved path

Rebuild the week before the morning

A lost location or an actor who cannot travel comes back as a re-boarded week with the moves, the holds and the page counts already worked.

02Human review

Name the limit while it can still move

A minor's hours, a turnaround, a meal clock or a permit condition the board would run into is raised before the day is called, not after.

04

Build an evidence trail

Retain the strips read, the constraints applied, the limits checked, the options rejected, the confidence and the AD's edit — on both paths.

Integrations

Typical integrations

Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.

  • Scheduling & boards

    • Movie Magic Scheduling
    • Yamdu
    • StudioBinder
    • Gorilla Scheduling

  • Script & breakdown

    • Final Draft
    • script revisions
    • Breakdown sheets
    • page counts

  • Cast & crew

    • Deal memos
    • availability holds
    • Crew calendars
    • minors' permits

Agent

Production schedule & stripboard

  • Boards the days
  • Checks the limits
  • Holds the exceptions

  • Locations & conditions

    • Location records
    • film permits
    • Sunrise and sunset tables
    • weather feeds

  • Observability & evaluation

    • OpenTelemetry
    • Langfuse
    • Supported monitoring/evaluation sources

Integration availability depends on the client's existing systems and API access.

Agent controls

Six layers between the model and the board

Each control wraps the one inside it. A board clears every layer before the first AD reads it, and the call sheet sits outside all six.

L6 · Outermost — last line of defence

Inward → L1 · closest to the model

L6Rollback / safe modeReturn boarding to your existing method if evaluations or production signals degrade.Roll back
L5TraceabilityRecord the strips read, the limit that bound each day, the options rejected and the edit.Record
L4First AD gateLocking the board, the call sheet and any performer booking stay with a named person.Gate
L3Permit and locationFilming hours, notification lead time and site conditions are read before a day is placed.Verify
L2Rest and turnaroundWrap-to-call rest and weekend rest are checked against the agreements in force.Check
L1Child-performer limitsHours, schooling and the required rest are checked against the day before it is boarded.Block
Model coreBoard proposed — strip order, day boundaries, the constraint that bound each day and fit confidence
L1 – L2
Decide whether a day may be worked at all
L3
Decides what the location will allow
L4 – L5
Keep the call sheet with a person, trail intact
L6
Pulls automation back when signals degrade

How Nestack evaluates it

Evaluate the board and the limits it was checked against.

Coverage runs the whole depth of the workflow, and every layer is cut by slice.

Surface — the board the first AD opens

  1. E1Final-output evaluationDid the boarded day hold when the unit came to shoot it?
  2. E2Step-level evaluationDid it read the right hold, window, daylight and page count?
  3. E3Tool evaluationDid it read and write the correct strip, day and unit?
  4. E4Limit recallWas a child-hour, turnaround or permit breach caught before the day?
  5. E5Slice evaluationHow does the board hold across units, locations and day types?
  6. E6Business outcomeHow much of the board was re-boarded, and what did it cost?

Floor — the day the unit actually shoots

Failure modes

Where each failure originates in the agent

Seven failure modes plotted against the five stages of the agent lifecycle. None locks a board or issues a call sheet. If one reaches a called day, the record behind it is what the re-board and the notices to cast and crew are built from.

Agent lifecycle

Direction of processing →

  1. 01 · Elements

    2 modes

    • SH-01

      Cast hold gone stale

      An actor released elsewhere still reads as held.

    • SH-02

      Permit condition missed

      The day runs past the hours the permit allows.

    Stage gathers

    Strips, cast holds, locations, permits and daylight

  2. 02 · Boarding

    1 mode

    • SH-03

      Move eats the day's light

      The move runs long and the exterior loses the sun.

    Stage orders

    Strips into days against location, unit and light

  3. 03 · Limit check

    2 modes

    • SH-04

      Minor's hours read wrong

      A school day is boarded as a school holiday.

    • SH-05

      Forced call on the flip

      Night to day leaves less rest than the agreement sets.

    Stage checks

    Child hours, turnaround, permits and the meal clock

  4. 04 · Handover / write

    1 mode

    • SH-06

      Draft board taken as final

      Departments work to a board nobody locked.

    Stage presents

    The board the first AD reads before locking it

  5. 05 · Change / Version

    1 mode

    • SH-07

      Rule set behind the agreement

      A renegotiated rest term is not in the checks.

    Stage tracks

    Model, prompt, rule and agreement-version changes

  • Sev-1 · a statutory or agreement limit is breached
  • Sev-2 · the day cannot be shot as boarded
  • Sev-3 · the day overruns and costs the unit
See the complete Media failure-mode catalogue

Affected slices

The days with limits on them carry the re-boards

A schedule that holds overall still falls over on the days carrying a minor, a night-to-day flip or a company move. Those days are where the first AD re-boards. Nestack reports performance by slice, not only in total.

Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregate

Illustrative example
SliceFailure rateLiftLift vs. thresholdStatus
Days with minors4.0%2.7×Review
Night exteriors and flips3.3%2.2×Review
Company-move days2.7%1.8×Watch
Settled interior stage days1.0%0.7×Normal

Bar: re-board rate lift vs. settled stage days · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× threshold

2 of 4 slices over threshold

Evidence-linked improvement

A day the unit lost is a constraint the board did not hold

A day that ran long is rarely one bad strip. It is a page count, a move time, a hold or a limit the board never knew about.

Improvement cycle · five stages

Switchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn

  1. 01

    Detect

    Re-boards, slipped pages or overtime climb on a unit, a location or a type of day.

  2. 02

    Diagnose

    Traced to a stale hold, a permit condition, a move time, a page count or the limit rule itself.

  3. 03

    Improve

    The hold, the move time or the limit rule is corrected with the first AD and the line producer, and version-linked.

  4. 04

    Verify

    Re-run against the weeks that slipped, including the days that were re-boarded overnight.

  5. 05

    Learn

    The corrected move time goes back to the department it came from, and that week is kept as a board to re-run.

  6. Learn → Detect

    The return edge. A limit rule is a legal or agreement change — it is re-read against the agreement in force before a board runs on it.

Typical build scope

Twelve workstreams across six weeks

The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, strips and access, the limit rules and boarding, evaluation, integration, then parallel boarding and handover.

Workstream

Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6

  1. 01Scheduling-workflow discovery and boundaries.Week 1
  2. 02Script breakdown and strip data assessment.Week 1, Week 2
  3. 03Scheduling-system and calendar access review.Week 1, Week 2
  4. 04Cast holds, day-out-of-days and deal terms.Week 2
  5. 05Location, permit and daylight window data.Week 2, Week 3
  6. 06Child-performer hour and schooling rules.Week 2, Week 3
  7. 07Turnaround, rest and meal-clock rules.Week 3
  8. 08Strip ordering, units and company moves.Week 3, Week 4
  9. 09Evaluation suite and replayed lost days.Week 4, Week 5
  10. 10First AD review and board-lock workflow.Week 4, Week 5
  11. 11Scheduling write-back and board delivery.Week 5, Week 6
  12. 12Observability, deployment and Agent Care handover.Week 6

12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallel

Final scope and sequence confirmed in discovery

Engagement tiers

What each tier includes

Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.

Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tierPilotOne unit, one scheduleProductionProduction scheduling integrationAdvancedMulti-unit / multi-title
Introduced at Pilot
Proposed board for one unit✓✓✓
Child-performer hour and schooling limits✓✓✓
Crew turnaround, rest and meal-clock checks✓✓✓
Permit and location-window conditions✓✓✓
Board locked by the first AD✓✓✓
Baseline evaluation✓✓✓
Day-out-of-days and cast-hold tracking✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Scheduling-system write-back—✓✓
Observability and slice evaluation—✓✓
Second unit, split days and multi-unit boards—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Multi-title and enterprise controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build price
Confirmed after discovery based on units and titles in scope, the scheduling systems and calendars integrated, cast and location complexity, the agreements and jurisdictions you shoot under, approval controls and deployment requirements.
Separate from build
Build pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.

What we need from you

What you bring, and what we build with it

Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.

  1. 01Your stripboard, the strips and how your shoot days are built

    Script breakdown and strip data assessment

    Week 1

  2. 02Access to your scheduling system and unit calendars

    Scheduling-system and calendar access review

    Week 1

  3. 03Cast deal terms, holds and the day-out-of-days as it stands

    Cast holds, day-out-of-days and deal terms

    Week 2

  4. 04Location list, permit conditions and access windows

    Location, permit and daylight window data

    Week 2

  5. 05The agreements in force and the jurisdictions you shoot under

    Child-performer hour rules, then turnaround, rest and meal clock

    Week 3

  6. 06The days you lost, and the ones re-boarded overnight

    Evaluation suite, slices and replayed lost days

    Week 4

  7. 07Named first ADs and the line producer who locks the board

    First AD review and board-lock workflow, then parallel boarding

    Weeks 5–6

Nothing else is required

Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.

Delivery timeline

Four phases across six weeks

Phases are drawn over the weeks they actually occupy. Week 5 carries both the replayed lost days and the first boards your first AD locks from.

Phase

W1

W2

W3

W4

W5

W6

  1. DiscoveryW1
  2. BuildW2 – W3
  3. EvaluateW4 – W5
  4. Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6

Week focus

W1Scheduling workflow, the strips and who locks the board

W2Scheduling access, cast holds and the day-out-of-days

W3Location, permit and daylight data, then the limit rules

W4Strip ordering, company moves and the evaluation suite

W5Replayed lost days and the first boards a first AD reads

W6Boards locked by your first AD, then Agent Care starts

Reading the band
The child-hour, turnaround and permit rules are in place by the end of week 3, before the first strip is ordered into a day in week 4.
At the end of W6
Boards have been built beside your existing schedule and read by the first AD who locks them, then Agent Care takes over monitoring.
Duration
Six-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.

Next step · Media AI agent

Build a scheduling agent around your board and your first AD.

Show us a stretch of your board, the holds, permits and daylight behind it, and a week that fell apart. We'll re-board those days on your own holds and windows, and name the limits the week as shot ran into.

Typical delivery
4–6 weeks
Deployment
Your scheduling stack
Who commits
The first AD and line producer
After launch
Agent Care available

Nestack Agents · Production scheduling & boards

AGT-ME-03 · Agent Care available after launch

Build a production-schedule agent

Four questions so the call starts from your actual setup — then pick a time that suits you.

About you
Your setup

No obligation. We’ll map the workflow, name the automation boundary and tell you if an agent is the wrong answer.