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.
Take the script breakdown, the scene strips, page counts and the shoot days from your scheduling software.
02
Read cast availability and holds, location and permit windows, the daylight table and the weather forecast.
Reason
03
Order strips into days by location and unit, with daylight, travel and company moves priced into each day.
04
Check each day against child-performer hours and schooling, crew turnaround, rest and the meal clock.
05
Carry the day-out-of-days forward — who is held, who is dropped and what a move costs in cast days.
Decide
06
Hold any day that touches a child's hours, a turnaround or a permit condition for a person to decide.
07
Route stunt days, special equipment, night work and minors' calls to the first AD and the line producer.
Out
08
Present the board with what it costs — cast days held, company moves, overtime exposure and what slipped.
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
AgentHuman
1Re-board triggeredA location lost, an actor unavailable, weather turning, a scene added or a day that ran long
2Elements gatheredScene strips, page counts, cast day-out-of-days and holds, location and permit windows, and the daylight table
3Days orderedStrips grouped by location and unit, sunrise and sunset priced in, and company moves given the time they take
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▼
6Board handed to the first ADWritten to the scheduling system only after the first AD locks it; the agent issues no call sheet
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 required8 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 boundaryAgent 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 changeIllustrative example
Change
Day 14 cast
Last wrap
Proposed
Confidence
Call sheet
Location lost, day 14
3 held, 1 minor
22:10
Swap days 14 and 17
87%
Not issued by the agent
As receivedThe change as production sent it, the cast held that day and last night's wrap.
Evidence usedCover set holds the castSchool day for the minorTurnaround from 22:10
Why this swapDay 17 holds the same cast indoors, and the minor's scenes land inside their hours.
ActionLock the dayRe-boardSend back
What the score decidesConfidence rates the match, not the day. Limits are checked against the rule, not scored.
Value
Where AI adds value
The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.
Where the value landsValue 01 – 04
Every shoot dayFrom 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.
04Build 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.
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 defenceInward → 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 – L2Decide whether a day may be worked at all
L3Decides what the location will allow
L4 – L5Keep the call sheet with a person, trail intact
L6Pulls 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
Depth of coverage ▼
E1Final-output evaluationDid the boarded day hold when the unit came to shoot it?
E2Step-level evaluationDid it read the right hold, window, daylight and page count?
E3Tool evaluationDid it read and write the correct strip, day and unit?
E4Limit recallWas a child-hour, turnaround or permit breach caught before the day?
E5Slice evaluationHow does the board hold across units, locations and day types?
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 lifecycleDirection of processing →
01 · Elements2 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 gathersStrips, cast holds, locations, permits and daylight
02 · Boarding1 mode
SH-03
Move eats the day's light
The move runs long and the exterior loses the sun.
Stage ordersStrips into days against location, unit and light
03 · Limit check2 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 checksChild hours, turnaround, permits and the meal clock
04 · Handover / write1 mode
SH-06
Draft board taken as final
Departments work to a board nobody locked.
Stage presentsThe board the first AD reads before locking it
05 · Change / Version1 mode
SH-07
Rule set behind the agreement
A renegotiated rest term is not in the checks.
Stage tracksModel, prompt, rule and agreement-version changes
Sev-1 · a statutory or agreement limit is breachedSev-2 · the day cannot be shot as boardedSev-3 · the day overruns and costs the unit
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 aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
Days with minors
4.0%
2.7×
Review
Night exteriors and flips
3.3%
2.2×
Review
Company-move days
2.7%
1.8×
Watch
Settled interior stage days
1.0%
0.7×
Normal
Bar: re-board rate lift vs. settled stage days · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× threshold2 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 stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Re-boards, slipped pages or overtime climb on a unit, a location or a type of day.
02Diagnose
Traced to a stale hold, a permit condition, a move time, a page count or the limit rule itself.
03Improve
The hold, the move time or the limit rule is corrected with the first AD and the line producer, and version-linked.
04Verify
Re-run against the weeks that slipped, including the days that were re-boarded overnight.
05Learn
The corrected move time goes back to the department it came from, and that week is kept as a board to re-run.
Learn → DetectThe 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.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Scheduling-workflow discovery and boundaries.
02Script breakdown and strip data assessment.
03Scheduling-system and calendar access review.
04Cast holds, day-out-of-days and deal terms.
05Location, permit and daylight window data.
06Child-performer hour and schooling rules.
07Turnaround, rest and meal-clock rules.
08Strip ordering, units and company moves.
09Evaluation suite and replayed lost days.
10First AD review and board-lock workflow.
11Scheduling write-back and board delivery.
12Observability, deployment and Agent Care handover.
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallelFinal 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 priceConfirmed 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 buildBuild 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.
You bringWe build with it
01Your stripboard, the strips and how your shoot days are built→Script breakdown and strip data assessmentWeek 1
02Access to your scheduling system and unit calendars→Scheduling-system and calendar access reviewWeek 1
03Cast deal terms, holds and the day-out-of-days as it stands→Cast holds, day-out-of-days and deal termsWeek 2
04Location list, permit conditions and access windows→Location, permit and daylight window dataWeek 2
05The agreements in force and the jurisdictions you shoot under→Child-performer hour rules, then turnaround, rest and meal clockWeek 3
06The days you lost, and the ones re-boarded overnight→Evaluation suite, slices and replayed lost daysWeek 4
07Named first ADs and the line producer who locks the board→First AD review and board-lock workflow, then parallel boardingWeeks 5–6
Nothing else is requiredDeployment, 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.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Scheduling workflow, the strips and who locks the boardW2Scheduling access, cast holds and the day-out-of-daysW3Location, permit and daylight data, then the limit rulesW4Strip ordering, company moves and the evaluation suiteW5Replayed lost days and the first boards a first AD readsW6Boards locked by your first AD, then Agent Care starts
Reading the bandThe 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 W6Boards have been built beside your existing schedule and read by the first AD who locks them, then Agent Care takes over monitoring.
DurationSix-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.
