The wrap report inside out
When we hear on Set “we have wrapped for today!” it is still not quite time to go home yet, or at least, not for everybody. There are certain people and whole departments that may have actually plenty to do after wrap.
After the camera wrap
These are the main jobs to be completed before leaving the location or the production office:
- Quick schedule meetings, next day planning, future locations recces, and similar activities take place on wrap
- Camera, Lighting and Grips may have to stay for quite some time at the location cleaning, collecting and putting their equipment in trucks.
- Costume and Hair and Makeup departments have to return the actors to their natural appearance, which may take some time, especially if prosthetics are involved.
- ADs are hecticly distributing the hard copies of the next day Call Sheet and Sides (usually at least some copies need to be printed). In the unfortunate event of overtime, the call times have to be readjusted and a revised Call Sheet issued.
- Next day Call Sheet, Risk Assessments, Transport Order and location maps are digitally distributed.
- The ADs report is issued and distributed, although most likely it will happen the next day.
- Script Supervisor Report, Camera and Sound Sheets and Exibit-Gs are collected, scanned and sent to the Production Office.
- DIT or Data Wrangler is offloading the footage from the last camera cards, putting the sound files together and backing it up on Master, Backup and Transit drives. This process will usually take about an hour, which means that the generator keeps working until this job is completed.
- Hard drives with daily rushes are safely sent to the laboratory (transit drive) and to the production office (master backup drive). It is vital for security reasons and the insurance requirements to have the 3 copies of original footage kept safely in 3 different locations overnight.
- The shooting location, and the base camp is cleaned and closed, and all Sets protected. Usually there will be security in place.
- Wrap Report is issued and properly distributed.
And if you are lucky and nothing unexpected happens you may then call it a day.
Wrap Report
Wrap Report is a one-page document containing key information about the shooting day.
It is a pretty important piece of paper and a number of people are likely to be impatiently looking forward to receiving it, to see how the shooting day has gone and if there’s nothing to worry about.
Usually the Wrap Report would be sent to all the Big Fish of the Production Company, Studio executives, to the insurers and the completion bond office, and this is the reason why it should be really accurate.
To complete the Wrap Report, some data is copied from the call sheet, some other information is received during the day from the ADs and, most importantly, after wrap the Continuity Report is received from the Script Supervisor with all the important details.
Actually, sometimes if you are lucky enough to work with a rock-star-type of Script Supervisor you can get all the necessary information from her report, so your job will be just to double check the details to make sure there’s nothing missing or mistaken. But, believe me, the Script Supervisors are hardly ever wrong.
Wrap report elements and where they come from:
Date ← Gregorian calendar 🤓
Shooting day number: current shooting day and the total number scheduled ← call sheet, shooting schedule
Sets: name of all sets shot today as per the schedule ← call sheet, shooting schedule
Location: street address of each location ← call sheet
Set-ups / Slate numbers: the total number set-ups shot for each of the scenes ← Script Supervisor Report cross-checked with Camera Sheets, if needed
Script pages: number of pages and page portions (⅛) shot during the day ← Script Supervisor Report
Scenes:
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Scenes scheduled: just as it sounds, the scenes scheduled for the day ← Call Sheet
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Scenes completed: scenes actually shot ← ADs will keep informing about the shot scenes during the day, then it should be crossed checked with the Script Supervisor Report
Scenes partly shot: scenes scheduled that have not been completed for any reason or delay ← same as above
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Scenes partly shot: scenes scheduled that have not been completed for any reason or delay ← same as above
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Additional scenes shot: scenes not scheduled on the Call Sheet but added and shot ← idem
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Scenes scheduled but not shot: scenes that have not been shot at all, not even started, these will have to be rescheduled ← you will see it comparing the above information and cross-check with the Script Supervisor Report. Make sure there’s no mistake here, this is never good news.
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Deleted scenes: scenes that were scheduled on the call sheet, but they were purposely dropped and not shot ← Script Report
Unit call: the time the crew should arrive to set ← Call Sheet
1st Turn over: the time they first called “Action!” ← you will be informed by the ADs
2nd Turn over: the time they called “Action!” after the main meal ← again, ADs should let everybody know when it happens
Lunch break (in-out): official start and end time of the main meal ← ADs will inform and you can cross-check with Script Report
Camera wrap: when they shout “that’s a wrap!” ← again needs to be cross-checked with Script Supervisor Report
Final wrap: when the crew has wrapped up gear and left location ← ask the Unit Manager about the last person leaving location, and the reason why if it’s late after wrap
Overtime: the number of minutes or hours worked past the officially budgeted day ← Unit Manager again
Notes: short mentions of any incidents, accidents, anything that had an impact on the efficiency of the shooting day ← you will most likely find out immediately when occurs, but just in case check with the Line Producer, Unit Manager and ADs.
You can download here our beautiful wrap report template in English and Spanish, but make sure that the template is approved by the producers prior to the start of production.