Calendars hold the dates that affect your shooting schedule, such as holidays, blackout days and other events. Each board in your schedule uses a calendar to work out which dates are shoot days. This article explains how to create and organize your calendars and connect them to your boards.
How Calendars, Boards and Scenarios Fit Together
It helps to know where each kind of date is stored:
- Calendars hold blackout days and events, such as holidays, travel days or rehearsals. A schedule can have as many calendars as you need.
- Boards each use one calendar. Several boards can share the same calendar, so a holiday only needs to be added once.
- Start dates and weekly days off belong to each board, not to the calendar. You set them in the Scenario Manager, along with which calendar each board uses.
Because each board can have its own calendar, you can try out different plans side by side. For example, you could duplicate a calendar, add a different set of holidays, and use it on a board in a new scenario to see how it changes your shoot dates.
Opening the Calendar Manager
To open the Calendar Manager, use either of these options from inside a schedule:
- Click the “Manage” menu in the schedule menu bar and select “Calendars…”
- Press Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + A
Your calendars are listed on the left. Select a calendar to see its name and its calendar on the right.
Creating a Calendar
To create a new, empty calendar:
- Click the “+” (New Calendar) button in the Calendar Manager’s menu bar
- Type a name for the calendar in the Name field
New calendars are named “Calendar”, so give each one a clear name, such as “Main Unit” or “UK Holidays”, to tell them apart.
Duplicating a Calendar
To make a copy of a calendar, select it and click the Duplicate Calendar button in the menu bar. The copy includes all of the original calendar’s blackout days and events, and is named after the original. You can select several calendars and duplicate them all at once.
Duplicating is the quickest way to try out changes without affecting the boards that use the original calendar.
Renaming and Organizing Calendars
- Rename: Select a calendar and edit its Name field. Changes are saved automatically. If you select more than one calendar, the name is applied to all of them.
- Reorder: Drag calendars up or down in the list
- Sort: Click the “Name” column header to sort the list alphabetically
- Filter: Type in the filter box at the top right of the menu bar to search by name
Assigning a Calendar to a Board
Calendars are assigned to boards in the Scenario Manager:
- Open the Scenario Manager by clicking the “Manage” menu and selecting “Scenarios…”, or by pressing Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + S
- Select the scenario that contains the board
- In the Boards section, choose a calendar from the board’s Calendar dropdown
New boards use the first calendar in your list. See Managing Schedule Scenarios for more about board settings.
Viewing a Calendar With a Board’s Dates
The calendar in the Calendar Manager shows the dates for a board, so you can see how your calendar affects that board’s schedule. Use the board dropdown above the calendar to choose which board’s information to use. The calendar shows that board’s start date, shoot days and weekly days off, along with the calendar’s blackout days and events.
If you need to change the board’s start date or days off, choose “Manage Scenarios / Boards” from the same dropdown to jump to the Scenario Manager.
Setting the Start Date
Start dates aren’t stored in calendars. Each scenario can have several boards, and each board can have its own start date while sharing a calendar with other boards, so the start date belongs to the board.
To set a start date, click “Go to Scenario Manager” at the bottom of the Calendar Manager, then set the Start Date for the board.
Adding Blackout Days and Events
Select one or more days on the calendar, then click “Blackout” to mark days off or use the “Events” dropdown to add an event. See Creating and Managing Calendar Events for a full guide, including how to select ranges of days.
Deleting a Calendar
To delete a calendar:
- Before you start, open the Scenario Manager and move any boards that use the calendar onto a different calendar
- In the Calendar Manager, select one or more calendars
- Click the Delete Calendar button in the menu bar
- Confirm that you want to delete them
Deleting a calendar also deletes all of its blackout days and events. A schedule must always have at least one calendar, so you can’t delete all of them. If you want to start over, create a new calendar first.
Well-organized calendars keep your shoot dates accurate across every board and scenario, so holidays and days off are always accounted for wherever you plan your schedule.
