This Free Tool Turns Your Floor Plan Into a Shot List and Call Sheet
Open Shot Designer is a free, open-source tool that turns floor plan blocking into shot lists, storyboards, schedules, and call sheets.
A filmmaker and developer has made Open Shot Designer, a browser-based production planning tool, completely free and open source. Its core idea is simple: place a camera on a floor plan once, and that decision flows into your shot list, storyboard, schedule, and call sheet without being retyped.
One Idea Behind the Whole Tool
The creator, who goes by koosoli on GitHub, originally built it as a simple way to block scenes and draw camera positions. Then the features started connecting.
The camera on the floor plan became the actual shot in the shot list. That shot became the storyboard frame. Then it connected to the lined script. From there, the creator admits, "things got slightly out of hand."
The guiding principle stayed the same throughout. In the creator's words, "information should only have to be entered once."
In practice, that means:
- Moving a scene to another shooting day updates the call sheet
- Placing a light on the floor plan adds it to the equipment list
- Logging a take on set ties it to the shot planned in pre-production
- Changing a location updates everything that uses it
What It Covers Now
Beyond blocking and shot lists, Open Shot Designer now includes a wide range of production tools:
- Storyboards and lined scripts
- Stripboard scheduling and call sheets
- Cast, crew, and locations
- Equipment manifests and budgeting
- Continuity and take logging
- Lighting and DMX planning
- Power, rigging, cables, and logistics
- DaVinci Resolve metadata export
A screenplay is optional. The creator wants it to work just as well for documentaries, commercials, interviews, concerts, and broadcast work that don't start from a traditional script.
Free, Local, and Open Source
The tool is now completely free, with no account, subscription, or feature paywall. It runs locally in your browser, so projects stay on your own machine rather than someone else's server.
The full source code is available under the GPLv3 license, which means anyone can use, modify, and share it, and improvements to shared versions have to stay open too.
The creator explained the decision directly: they'd rather share it and see what people build than turn every useful feature into another subscription. Optional support is available through Buy Me a Coffee and GitHub Sponsors, with the app itself staying free.
Worth noting: Open Shot Designer isn't related to OpenShot, the long-running open-source video editor. They're separate projects with similar names.
What the Creator Wants Next
The project is actively asking for feedback from working filmmakers, especially on what it would take to trust it on a real production.
The creator is specifically interested in the details software often gets wrong: paperwork, AD workflows, unusual equipment situations, call sheets, continuity, lighting and rigging workflows, and export formats. Filmmakers who also code are invited to contribute issues and pull requests.
Competitive Context
Production planning is usually split across several tools, often paid ones, for storyboarding, shot listing, scheduling, and call sheets. Keeping them in sync means re-entering the same information repeatedly, which is exactly where mistakes creep in.
Open Shot Designer's pitch is connection rather than any single feature. Whether it can replace established paid tools on large productions remains to be seen, but for indie shoots, student films, and small crews, a free, connected alternative is a genuinely useful option.
The Signal in the Noise
The most practical idea here isn't any one tool. It's that production information should flow downstream automatically, so a change made in one place doesn't have to be manually chased through every document.
As a solo-built, community-driven project, it's worth testing on a smaller production before relying on it for something critical. But for filmmakers tired of paying for several disconnected tools, it's worth a look.
What would a tool like this need before you'd trust it on a real shoot?
The Details
- Tool: Open Shot Designer
- Creator: koosoli (GitHub)
- Price: free; optional support via Buy Me a Coffee and GitHub Sponsors
- License: open source, GPLv3
- Platform: runs locally in the browser; no account required
- Core features: floor plan blocking, shot lists, storyboards, lined scripts
- Production features: stripboard scheduling, call sheets, cast and crew, locations, equipment, budgeting, continuity and take logging
- Technical planning: lighting and DMX, power, rigging, cables, logistics
- Export: DaVinci Resolve metadata
- Script requirement: optional; built for scripted and unscripted work
Resources & Reads
