The mission
Make the moving
pieces visible.
Help teams connect creative priorities, people and timing, and see what a change asks of everyone involved.
About Liquid Schedule
Good work takes
a shared
understanding.
Production is a collective effort. The plan should help everyone see what matters, what’s changing and what comes next.
The background
Built from
the work.
The Directors Guild of America has trained assistant directors since 1965. In 2007 it opened a program for commercials, a specialized craft that needed its own training. I had the honor of being the first trainee accepted, and worked up from there: 2nd AD, then 1st AD.
Hundreds of shoots later, the job is the same: help the team carry out the director’s vision by coordinating people, resources and time.
Every production changes. A change rarely touches just one thing, and the hard part is helping everyone see what it means while there’s still time to decide well. Liquid Schedule is built from that work.
Where Liquid Schedule started
On a shoot day, the plan changes in real time and leans on the AD’s head. The person who built the schedule is the last one who can stop to recalculate it. What moves, who goes into overtime, what gets cut: worked out on the radio, while running the set.
Liquid Schedule started there. It grew into a plan the whole team can see change, from the first email to wrap.
Why I’m building Liquid Schedule
“I want less energy spent reconstructing the plan, and more spent bringing the creative to life.”
As production and technology change faster, I want that experience to help more teams. Liquid Schedule brings the material, the reasoning and the plan closer together, so teams can discuss the tradeoffs before they commit.
Make the moving
The vision
A shared plan.
Room for every perspective.
Liquid Schedule should carry the team’s understanding, beyond any one person’s way of working. People bring the judgment. The plan keeps their context and decisions connected.
Help shape what comes next