Exercises: The Run Sheet and the Production Book

Build the artefacts. This chapter cannot be learned by reading and every exercise in Part B produces something you would actually carry.

Difficulty guide: ⭐ Foundational (5–10 min) · ⭐⭐ Intermediate (10–20 min) · ⭐⭐⭐ Challenging (20–40 min) · ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced (40+ min)

Part A: Conceptual Understanding ⭐

A.1. State the difference between a timeline and a run sheet in one sentence.

A.2. Name the five fields of a run sheet line. Which one does nobody include?

A.3. Why names rather than roles? What do you write when the name is not knowable in advance?

A.4. Which lines need an exception? Give the three categories.

A.5. List the ten sections of a production book, in order, and say why the run sheet is first and the emergency page last.

A.6. Name four things that do not go in the book.

A.7. How is a contact sheet sorted, and why? What is the second number for?

A.8. What makes an escalation tree finished?

A.9. List eight of the eleven document-design rules and say what each is for.

A.10. Name the three derived objects and say which gets used most.

A.11. Give the four run-sheet phases and their densities.

A.12. Explain "generated, not kept in step with," and state the fifteen-minute test.

A.13. Define: the owner column, the exception line, the wall copy, the single source, the read-through.

Part B: Applied Analysis ⭐⭐

B.1. Convert a timeline. Take Chapter 25's master timeline — or one you built — and produce the run sheet's build phase, every line with all five fields.

B.2. Write the ceremony block. Every line from guests-arrive to trays-at-the-gate, at 2–5 minute density, with cues rather than clock triggers wherever possible.

B.3. Add exception lines. Take any twenty-line run sheet and add exceptions to every line that needs one. Then say how many you added and why the others do not need them.

B.4. Build a contact sheet. For a wedding with fourteen vendors. By arrival time, with second numbers, and say which second numbers you would struggle to obtain.

B.5. Build an escalation tree. For six failure types. Check that every branch ends somewhere — and identify any that end in "then I don't know."

B.6. Write an emergency page. For a rural venue you know or invent. Include everything in §26.4 and note what you could not establish.

B.7. Write a vendor pack. One page, for a caterer or a DJ, including the three things around them. Then write the version that omits the three things and say what is lost.

B.8. Design a pocket card. A6, one side. Eight times and four numbers. Then defend every inclusion and exclusion.

Part C: Real-World Application ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

C.1. Get a real production book. ⭐⭐⭐ From a planner, an event producer, or a venue. Compare it to the ten sections. What is present, what is missing, what is there that this chapter says should not be?

C.2. Do the read-through. ⭐⭐ Take any run sheet — yours or somebody else's — and read it out loud, start to finish, alone. Record everything you find.

C.3. Test the design rules. ⭐⭐ Print a run sheet at A4 portrait 10pt and at A5 landscape 12pt. Take both outside at dusk and try to read them at arm's length. Report.

C.4. Look at a call sheet. ⭐⭐⭐ Obtain a film or television call sheet. Compare it line by line to §26.1's five fields and report what it has that a wedding run sheet does not.

C.5. Interview a vendor about packs. ⭐⭐ Ask three vendors: do you receive a one-page brief, do you read it, and what is on it that helps? Write 500 words.

C.6. Time the generation test. ⭐⭐⭐ Build a small single-source system — a tagged table and filtered views — and time how long it takes to change one time and produce five correct documents. Report against fifteen minutes.

Part D: Synthesis and Critical Thinking ⭐⭐⭐

D.1. Cross-chapter integration. Chapters 13, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, and 25 all contribute to one binder. Map every section of the production book to the chapters it draws from, and identify any that draw from none.

D.2. Critique the paper argument. §26.8 says paper for reading and showing, phone for calling and sending. Argue that this is nostalgia — that a tablet solves battery, search, and versioning at once, and that a planner with a binder is signalling rather than working. Then respond.

D.3. The exception line. §26.1 says every critical-path line needs one. Argue that exception lines are a false comfort — that on the day nobody reads them, that they double the document's length, and that a planner who needs one has already lost the situation. Then respond.

D.4. Ten sections. Argue for a ninth-and-a-half section this chapter has left out, and say what it replaces. Be specific about the trade.

D.5. Transfer. Compare a production book with a film call sheet, a theatre prompt book, a flight bag, a surgical preference card, or a shift handover. Which is closest and what does it have that this chapter's does not?

D.6. The single source. §26.7 says never edit a derived document. Construct the case where editing a derived document is correct, and say what has to be true for it to be safe.

Part M: Mixed Practice (Interleaved) ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

M.1. (Ch.25 + Ch.26) A vendor has not acknowledged FINAL. What does the run sheet do about it, and where?

M.2. (Ch.24) The rehearsal changes three things on the Friday. How do they get into the book, and what is checked on Saturday morning?

M.3. (Ch.18) Four lighting cues, two of them free. Write them as run-sheet lines with all five fields.

M.4. (Ch.23) Twelve family combinations and a wrangler. What goes in the run sheet, what goes in section 6, and what goes in the wrangler's hand?

M.5. (Ch.14) Sundown's dietary matrix has eleven entries. Which document does it live in, and who else needs a copy?

M.6. (Looks like one thing, is another) A planner's book is 140 pages. Name four things that have probably gone wrong.

Part E: Research and Extension ⭐⭐⭐⭐

E.1. Research document design under stress — checklists, cockpit displays, emergency procedure cards. Write 800 words on what determines whether a document is usable by somebody who is not calm, and apply it to §26.5's eleven rules.

E.2. Study one adjacent profession's day-of document in depth: a film call sheet, a theatre prompt book, or a broadcast rundown. Obtain a real one. Write 700 words on what it does better.

E.3. Interview two planners about what is physically in their hands on a wedding day, and what has changed about it over their careers. Report anything better than this chapter's.

Solutions

Selected solutions: appendices/answers-to-selected.md. The run sheet template, the ten sections, the contact sheet, the escalation tree, and the emergency page: appendices/appendix-a-templates-and-worksheets.md. The complete Reyes–Whitfield production book: appendices/appendix-f-the-production-book.md.