Method Schedule
Film and TV scheduling, from script to stripboard.
A free, open-source scheduling app for film and TV: script breakdown, the stripboard with
its day breaks and banners, the calendar, the day out of days and the reports a
production runs on. No subscription, and your schedule is a file you own.
- Every count explains itself. Ask why an actor works seven days and holds one, and
the day out of days answers date by date: which scenes, which rehearsal counted as
worked, which gap was held and why there was no drop (
method-schedule explain, or
Cmd+I in the app).
- Shoot days go to the budget. File > Export for Budget writes the shoot days and
each element's work, hold and travel days to one small file with a published spec
(docs/EXCHANGE.md), written for
Method Budget and open to any budgeting app.
- Bring your scripts with you. A Fountain or
.fdx script comes in as one breakdown
sheet per scene, and later drafts merge into the schedule you already have.
Status: early alpha. The latest version is out for Macs, Intel and Apple silicon alike; elsewhere it builds from source.
Website: methodschedule.com.
Yours to keep
- Free, for good, and open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0). No account and no
subscription.
- Your schedule is a plain file on your own disk: a
.mtsc file of documented JSON
(the spec) that you can open in 20 years, whatever happens to any
company or to this project.
- Works offline. Nothing is uploaded; the app goes online only to check for a newer
version of itself, and you can turn that off.
- Nothing invents your schedule. There is no generative AI in the app: every count
comes from rules you can read and ask about.
Status, honestly
| Computer | Built | Signed | Tested |
|---|
| Mac, Apple silicon | Yes, an app (.dmg) | Signed and notarized by Apple | By a person throughout development, and by the automated tests weekly |
| Mac, Intel | Yes, the same app (.dmg), built for both chips | Signed and notarized by Apple | The Intel half by the automated tests, run the way an Intel Mac runs them before each release; not yet on an Intel Mac by a person |
| Windows, 64-bit | Yes, an installer (.exe) | Not signed, and no certificate is planned: Windows warns that the publisher is unknown before it opens | Automated tests weekly; never installed by a person yet |
| Linux, 64-bit | Yes, .deb and AppImage | Not signed | Automated tests weekly; never installed by a person yet |
Not there yet: updates inside the app on Windows and Linux, and a hands-on check of
printing, keys and file types on Windows and Linux. The full list is under
On the roadmap. Windows and Linux: help us get there.
Help build it
If you make films: check the day out of days against your experience and tell us
where a count differs from what you would expect (the app's explanation of that count
helps us find out why); tell us about the board and report layouts your productions use;
and contribute invented sample schedules. Help > Report a Bug in the app opens a
prefilled issue, or open one here.
Never attach or quote a real schedule or script: an invented one that shows the problem
is always enough, and method-schedule sample makes one.
If you write code: start with an issue labelled
good first issue.
cargo test --workspace checks everything, and CONTRIBUTING.md covers
the rest.
Found a bug? Open an issue (Help > Report a Bug fills one in for you). Have a
question? Ask in Discussions. For anything private, write to
[email protected].
Method Schedule is part of the Method Production Suite:
free, open tools for making films, from the first draft to the last shoot day.
Platforms
| Computer | Download | Status |
|---|
| macOS, Intel and Apple silicon | Method-Schedule-macOS.dmg | One universal app, signed and notarized. Checked by hand on an Apple silicon Mac; on Intel by the automated tests only. |
| Windows, x64 | Method-Schedule-windows-x64-setup.exe | Built by CI, never installed by a person yet. Not signed, and no certificate is planned: Windows warns that the publisher is unknown before it opens. Reports welcome. |
| Linux, x64 | Method-Schedule-linux-amd64.deb, Method-Schedule-linux-x86_64.AppImage | Built by CI, never installed by a person yet. Reports welcome. |
A look around
Every picture here is the app showing Field Station, an invented production (the suite's
shared sample, fixtures/field-station.mtsc), retaken by node scripts/capture-screens.mjs.
Get the code
git clone https://github.com/method-production-suite/method-scheduling.git
Then, from the checkout, with Rust installed:
cargo test --workspace
cargo run -p method-schedule-cli -- help
cargo run -p method-schedule-app
Schedules are open, documented JSON files (.mtsc, docs/FORMAT.md) that diff and merge
cleanly (docs/MERGE.md). Day counts go to Method Budget and other budgeting tools through
the exchange file (docs/EXCHANGE.md), and coding agents can work on schedules through an
MCP server (docs/MCP.md). The command
line and the MCP server also find and replace text across a schedule and list elements
booked on one date in two sub-boards (method-schedule find, replace, conflicts).
Features
Everything below is built and in the code today; the list is generated from
docs/features.toml.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
