FILM SHOOT PLANNER
Plan the shoot day
before it plans you.
Lay every shoot day out as cards on an infinite canvas: setups, locations, call times, cast, crew, and the gear each one needs. Drag a setup and watch what it does to the rest of the day. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $9.99 a month, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Plans from $9.99/mo
Free plan coming late 2026
Works in your browser
Used by creative professionals at:
Artlist
Pixar
Nike
Red Bull
The North Face
Porsche
Start from a ready-made template
Pick a board to see what you can build, then let AI fill it in. Every template is a real, editable starting point on the same infinite canvas.
Pre-Production
Pull the brief, script, shot list, and moodboard into one pre-production hub so the whole shoot is planned in one place.
What is a film shoot planner?
A film shoot planner is the tool you use to decide what actually happens on the day. Not the script, not the budget, and not the edit: the hour by hour reality of where the camera goes, who needs to be there, what has to be built or brought, and how much daylight is left when you get to the scene that needs daylight. A script tells you what the film is. A film shoot planner tells you whether you can physically shoot it in the days you have.
The reason shoot planning is hard is that every decision is coupled to every other decision. Move one setup to the afternoon and you have moved an actor's call time, possibly triggered overtime, changed which lens package needs to be on the truck, and quietly broken the continuity of a scene that was supposed to match the morning light. In a list or a spreadsheet those consequences are invisible until they bite. On a board where the whole day is laid out in front of you, they are visible while you are still making the choice.
Storyflow is an AI-native infinite canvas built for exactly this kind of coupled planning. Describe the shoot in a prompt and the AI lays out a structured plan with day cards, setup cards, and a framework to work in. Then you drag setups between days until the schedule holds, pin the location photos and lighting references beside the setups that use them, and keep the shot list, the crew list, and the gear list on the same surface instead of in four different files.
Planning a shoot means holding six layers at once: the schedule (which scenes shoot on which day, in what order, and against what daylight), the setups (each camera position and the shots you get from it), the locations (access, power, parking, permits, and how long the company move takes), the people (cast availability, crew calls, and the turnaround rules you cannot break), the gear (camera, grip, lighting, and sound per setup rather than per production), and the contingencies (the cover set for rain, the scene you cut first if you fall behind). A film shoot planner earns its place by keeping all six visible at the same time, because that is the only way to see what a change to one does to the other five.
HOW IT WORKS
From a script to a plan the crew can shoot from.
No project template to configure and no fields to fill in first. Describe the shoot and start moving cards.
01
Open a canvas
Sign up in seconds, from $9.99 a month. No download. Your infinite planning canvas opens straight in the browser.
02
Describe the shoot
Type what you are shooting, how many days you have, and where. The AI lays out a structured plan with day cards, setups, and a fitting framework, so you start from a skeleton instead of a blank page.
03
Build the day
Drag setups into the order you will shoot them, pin location photos and lighting references beside them, and add the cast, crew, and gear each setup needs. Mark your cover set and the first scene you would cut.
04
Send it to the crew
Share a view-only link so the crew can open the whole plan in a browser with no account, or export the board as an image or PDF to go out with the call sheet.
The whole shoot, laid out and movable.
Days, setups, locations, people, and gear on one infinite canvas instead of five files.
AI builds a structured shoot plan from your description
Start from a skeleton, not a blank page
Describe the shoot and the AI lays out day cards and setups against a production framework, with the gaps visible. Planning from something is far faster than planning from nothing, especially on a short prep.
See the shooting schedule tool →
Drag a setup and see the whole day rearrange
Reordering is most of the job
Shoot planning is almost entirely a sequencing problem. Cards move with a drag, so you can try the exterior first and immediately see what it does to the light, the company move, and the actor who is only available until four.
Explore film production planning →
Location photos and lighting references beside each setup
Keep the reference next to the decision
Pin the recce photos, the lighting reference, and the frame grab you are matching directly beside the setup that uses them. Nobody has to go and find the folder, which is where most on-the-day confusion actually starts.
Try the location scouting app →
Shot list, crew, and gear on the same canvas
One board instead of five files
The shot list, the crew list, the gear list, and the schedule are the same plan seen from four angles. Keeping them on one canvas is what stops the version where the truck arrives without the lens the shot list assumed.
See the shot list generator →Unlimited boards. No object cap.
Open a canvas, describe the shoot, and start planning the day. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $9.99 a month, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Unlimited shoot plans on an infinite canvas
Basic AI usage to generate boards from prompts
3 starter frameworks built in
Share view-only links with cast and crew
BUILT FOR SHOOT DAYS
More than a schedule in a spreadsheet.
A spreadsheet holds the schedule. It cannot show you the light, the reference, or what breaks when you move a setup.
Days, setups, locations, people, gear, and contingencies
Work across every layer of the shoot
The day, hour by hour: Lay each shoot day out as an ordered run of setups against the daylight you actually have. Seeing the day as a strip rather than a list is what makes an over-scheduled afternoon obvious in prep instead of at two o'clock on the day.
Setups, not just scenes: Plan by camera position rather than by scene number, because that is what actually costs time. Group every shot you get from one setup together and the real length of the day stops being a guess.
Locations and company moves: Pin access notes, power, parking, and permit status to each location card, and put the company move on the board as a card with a duration. Moves are the most commonly under-planned hour on any schedule.
Cover sets and cut order: Mark the interior you can move to if it rains and write down, in advance, the order in which you would drop shots. Deciding that calmly in prep is a completely different decision from deciding it while you are losing the light.
AI that can see the plan you have already built
Plan with an AI that knows your shoot
Prompt your way through the hard parts: Ask it to break a scene into setups, to draft a running order for a day, or to list what a given setup needs. It reads the active board as context, so what it suggests fits the shoot you are actually planning.
It plans, it does not predict: The AI will not tell you how long a setup takes on your crew with your gear. That number comes from your experience, and the board is where you record it so the next shoot starts from something real.
Re-prompt without losing work: Keep prompting as the shoot changes. Cards you have already written and placed stay exactly where they are while the AI builds around them.
References, recce photos, clips, and documents on the canvas
Everything the day depends on, in one place
Drag in what you scouted: Drop recce photos, floor plans, PDFs, and links straight onto the canvas beside the setups they belong to. There is no object cap, so a 40 setup shoot does not run out of room.
Grab frames from reference films: Pull a frame straight off a YouTube or Vimeo reference onto the board. Matching a look is far easier when the frame you are matching is pinned next to the setup.
Notes where the crew will read them: Write the note about the awkward doorway on the setup card itself rather than in an email. Notes attached to the thing they describe survive; notes in a thread do not.
Share with the crew, the client, or the first AD
Hand the plan to the people shooting it
View-only links: Send a link and the crew opens the whole plan in a browser with no account. A gaffer who can see the lighting reference beside the setup asks better questions in prep than one reading a schedule.
Plan together: Invite your producer, first AD, or DP onto the board so the shoot has one plan rather than three people's versions of it. Live multi-editor presence with cursors is on the Max plan.
Export for the call sheet: Export the board as a high-quality image or PDF to attach to the call sheet or to print for the truck. Storyflow does not replace your call sheet software; it produces the plan the call sheet is built from.
Explore templates for your project
Every template opens as a real, editable board on the infinite canvas. Pick the closest fit and make it your own.
Pre-Production
Pull the brief, script, shot list, and moodboard into one pre-production hub so the whole shoot is planned in one place.
HOW WE COMPARE
Storyflow vs StudioBinder, Movie Magic, and a spreadsheet.
Every option here is genuinely good at something, and one of them is free. Here is where they differ so you can pick honestly.
Storyflow
Recommended
Infinite visual canvas
AI builds the plan from a prompt
References pinned beside each setup
Generates call sheets and sides
Strip board and industry scheduling
Runs in the browser, nothing to install
StudioBinder
Infinite visual canvas
AI builds the plan from a prompt
References pinned beside each setup
Generates call sheets and sides
Strip board and industry scheduling
Runs in the browser, nothing to install
Movie Magic
Infinite visual canvas
AI builds the plan from a prompt
References pinned beside each setup
Generates call sheets and sides
Strip board and industry scheduling
Runs in the browser, nothing to install
Spreadsheet
Infinite visual canvas
AI builds the plan from a prompt
References pinned beside each setup
Generates call sheets and sides
Strip board and industry scheduling
Runs in the browser, nothing to install
What creators are saying
Join early creators getting structured workspaces and AI that remembers their projects
“Storyflow has sped up my workflow by at least 3x, which means more flow state and more projects I can actually ship. It truly changed the way me and my team create.”
Reilin Joey
Director & YouTuber
“One prompt gets me a structured board. But the tactics are my favorite. I run my YouTube scripts through them and my intros and retention got better. It's amazing.”
Justkay
YouTuber & Freelance Filmmaker
“I used to juggle five apps to plan a project. Now I describe what I am making and get boards, lists, and a schedule. All in one place.”
George
@fernwehchronicles
Shoot planning questions, answered.
How to plan a shoot day, what the AI actually does, and where Storyflow is not the right tool.
Start from setups rather than scenes, because a camera position is what costs you time and a scene number is not. Break every scene into the camera positions you will actually light and shoot from, then group all the shots you get from each position together. Lay those setups out day by day in the order you will shoot them, against the daylight you have, and put the company moves on the board as cards with real durations rather than as gaps. Then attach the people, the gear, and the reference each setup needs directly to it. Finally, before you finish, mark a cover set for weather and write down the order in which you would drop shots if you fall behind. Deciding that in prep is a completely different decision from deciding it while the light is going.
Lay the whole shoot out and find the problem in prep.
Open a canvas, describe the shoot, and let AI build the first plan. Plans from $9.99/month, no download, and a Free plan is coming before the end of 2026.