Day Out of Days Cheat Sheet – Work Status Codes

It’s no secret that film terminology can be a bit tricky to get the hang of; there are a lot of abbreviations used in this industry. One such instance is Day Out of Day work status codes. The Day Out of Days is a report that is basically a grid, with columns representing days and rows representing cast members. Letters are used to indicate paid days. In addition to appearing on the Day Out Of Days, these codes often also appear on the call sheet. This is really important because it lets production staff know whether it’s an actor’s first day, last day, rehearsal day, etc.

Day Code Cheat Sheet

Here is a list of the common work status codes and what they each mean:

Code	Meaning
SW	Stands for “Start Work,” and it means it’s your actor’s first day on the job (or first day of an episode in television).
W	Stands for “Work,” and it means your actor in in the midst of the acting job.
WF	Stands for “Work Finish,” and it means it is your actor’s last day on the job (or episode in television).
SWF	Stands for “Start-Work-Finish,” and it means your actor is a day-player: they will work for just that day.
H	Stands for “Hold,” and it means that (at least theoretically) your actor is not being used that day.  (But is still paid)
I	Stands for “Idle,” and it means that your actor is not being used that day and is not being paid for that day.
R	Stands for “Rehearsal,” and it means that the actor is called in to rehearse that day (i.e. they will be working, but not shooting)
T	Stands for “Travel,” and it means that the actor is traveling that day.
WD	Stands for “Work-Drop.”  It basically means that today the actor is working, then after this day the actor enters a period of more than seven days not working on the production.  The actor will return at some point in the future on the production, but that point will be more than seven days from now.
PW	Stands for “Pickup-Work”.  “P” stand for “Pickup” which means an actor is coming back to the production after a period of being dropped. “W” means the actor is starting work again today and will continue working later on the production.
PWF	Okay, you’re getting that hang of this by now I bet!  PWF stands for “Pickup-Work-Finish”.  It’s similar to “PW”, but additionally indicates that it’s the actor’s last day of work on the production.
SR	Stands for “Start-Rehearsal,” and it means that it’s the actor’s first day on the job and they are called in to rehearse that day (i.e. they will be working, but not shooting)

Typically, “W” is used to indicate a work day (the cast member will perform on that day), “T” indicates a travel day, and “R” a rehearsal day. All three count as paid days.

The letters “S” (Start) and “F” (Finish) are used to indicate the first and last paid days. For example, a cast member’s first paid day (usually a rehearsal day) appears as SR; the last paid day (usually a work day) appears as WF.

Special consideration must be given to idle periods in the Day Out of Days. A cast member can either be held (paid) or dropped (not paid) during an idle period. The Screen Actors Guild has very specific rules addressing when an actor can—or especially can’t—be dropped. (The rules don’t apply for actors with run-of-show agreements.)

Creating a Day out of Days report

All you need to get started with a day out of days report is a really great template and this article which explains how to create a Day out of Days report.  Luckily, we have one of those!  You can learn more about our template here and download it below:

Questions?

Let us know your thoughts or questions below, and we’ll share any helpful advice we can with you!