DREHSTANDKeep things moving on set.
Answers about calendars, crew planning, call sheets, iCloud, chats, timesheets and private weekly wages. If you cannot find an answer here, write to Julian Aschenbrenner.
aeschju@drehstand.com
Getting started & availability
Where can I get the app?
DREHSTAND is free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. The Mac version is coming soon. Download links are on the home page and below the page navigation in the footer.
What do I need to collaborate?
DREHSTAND supports iPhone with iOS 17 or later, iPad with iPadOS 17 or later and Mac with macOS 14 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel). An iCloud account must be signed in on the device to sync with iCloud and accept invitations. Internet access is required for these functions.
Calendar & crew planning
Can production plan ahead without a call sheet?
Yes. Once you have accepted the production invitation, admins can create individual days or date ranges of up to a year, including weeks or months ahead. Role, unit, location and call time are independent of a call sheet. If it is missing, the day shows “Call sheet pending”. A later call sheet can be linked to the day; where there are several units, the link must be selected unambiguously.
How do requests and final booking work?
An admin decides per production whether crew must respond to requested days. You can accept or decline. Even if several people accept, production explicitly awards the assignment. Only its confirmation makes a firm assignment. A changed request or offered weekly wage needs to be reviewed again. For contractually booked regular teams, admins can turn off confirmation and assign directly.
Who sees an offered weekly wage and my response?
A production offer is separate from your own private weekly wages. The offered amount and your response are made available in separate iCloud shares only to the person concerned and currently authorised production admins. Joining a production does not confirm an assignment. Older productions require the secure cloud structure for this.
Where is production management?
Only the production owner and confirmed admins see management tools for crew, call sheet upload, request settings and timesheet receipt. As crew, you find assignments and requests in your personal calendar. Permissions are also checked when saving.
Why is a production day missing from my calendar?
Membership alone does not schedule work. A production admin must select you for the specific day and save. When confirmation is required, a request appears first; only after your acceptance and the admin's explicit decision does it become a firm assignment. Refresh afterwards. Check iCloud, the internet connection and the accepted production invitation. If a different day or unit is set, ask production to correct the link.
How do I see assignments across several productions?
Accept each iCloud invitation on the device using your intended account. Your personal calendar shows assigned days across all confirmed productions in different colours. A day without a firm assignment stays free; open requests have separate markings. Select an assignment to see production, role, location, call time and linked call sheet. Apple Calendar does not sync automatically.
How does production copy the previous day's crew?
Select the intended production day in crew planning. Copy the previous crew as a draft, check roles, times, locations, notes and call sheet/unit links, add or remove people, and save. Earlier submissions and receipt confirmations are not copied to the new day.
Who can read an assignment note?
Crew planning and assignment notes are visible to production members. Use a personal chat for a conversation intended to be shared only between the two people involved.
What do submission statuses mean, and when is a reminder sent?
“Expected” means production expects a timesheet for your assignment. “Submitted” requires a weekly submission containing this day that is actually accessible. “Accepted” means an authorised admin confirmed that version. Resubmission or withdrawal may invalidate an earlier confirmation.
Production can choose a deadline of 1–30 days; zero disables the reminder. The local reminder is intended for 10 a.m. on the assignment date plus the deadline, in the device's time zone. Enable notifications and timesheet reminders. The app updates the schedule after a successful cloud sync. iOS can delay background sync; after submitting on another device, an old reminder can remain until the next sync.
Crew planning was changed at the same time. What should I do?
Reload the current version and review your selection. The app does not blindly overwrite an intervening change. If a plan comes from an admin no longer confirmed, only the owner can fully rebuild it after confirmation; earlier receipt confirmations are removed in that process.
Importing call sheets
How do I import a PDF call sheet?
Select the call sheet through the app's import function and review recognised scenes, times and breaks before applying the daily plan. Different PDF layouts or scans may be recognised incompletely. Add or correct details where needed.
If there are problems, try a searchable text PDF rather than a photograph. The current import limit is 20 MB. Do not share confidential production documents with support without permission.
How reliable are delay and wrap estimates?
The display is based on the stored plan and recorded actual times. Check imported details and maintain shoot progress. Forecasts are estimates and change when the running order changes.
iCloud & invitations
A production or invitation is missing. What helps?
First check that you are signed in to the intended iCloud account and that the device is online. Open the invitation on that device, return to the app and refresh cloud access. Invitations can expire or be revoked; ask the owner for a new invitation if needed.
Who can edit the shared call sheet?
Management depends on the production role. The production owner and authorised administration roles manage the shared daily plan. Invited crew members with read access can view it.
Does the app work without internet?
Data already on the device may be available locally. Cloud changes, new invitations and sharing sync require a connection. Check the current state after reconnecting; an offline view does not confirm that access is still valid.
Timesheets
How do I submit a paper timesheet?
Select “On paper” as the submission method for the production. This private preference does not submit anything. After actually handing in the physical timesheet, select “Timesheet submitted on paper” on the firm assignment. Production confirms paper receipt separately. You can change the method back to digital for each production.
Who sees my personal working hours?
Personal timesheets initially belong to your own area. Private weekly wages are not sent with ordinary submission. A weekly overview is shared with authorised production administration only after your explicit submission. Select the correct production for every day: only days assigned to that production are shared. You must assign older entries without an unambiguous production before submitting. The production owner manages this sharing environment.
Can I record two productions on the same day separately?
Currently there is one personal timesheet entry per date with one production assignment. Several assignments on the same day are visible in the calendar, but cannot yet be recorded as separate work records in the timesheet.
How do I choose the contents of my personal timesheet PDF?
For the personal timesheet PDF, select all days of the week or just one production. With an additional choice, you can include a weekly wage for a production on a separate page. Without that selection the file contains no wage; CloudKit weekly submissions always exclude private wages.
Can I delete a timesheet?
You can delete your own personal entries. A submitted weekly overview is a separate share and is not automatically removed by deleting a local day. Also withdraw the weekly share. This does not delete previously exported PDFs or copies on other devices.
Activities & private weekly wages
How do I create an annual overview?
Open “Activities”, select the whole year or a start and end date, and refresh. The overview groups planned assignments and personally recorded hours by production. Planning alone does not count as work performed. Older timesheets without an unambiguous production remain marked as unassigned.
Who sees my wages?
An optional weekly wage is stored only in your private iCloud area. Ordinary CloudKit weekly submission does not contain it. In the Activities PDF, you additionally select whether wages and totals are included. The personal timesheet PDF can also include a weekly amount for one selected production on a separate page. Without this selection both PDF exports exclude wages. Check the file and recipient before sharing.
How are weeks and totals counted?
An amount applies per production to a calendar week, Monday to Sunday. The total counts it once if its Monday falls in the selected date range. A partially included boundary week counts with its full amount; an overlapping preceding week is displayed but not added to the total. The app does not divide a weekly wage among individual days. Blank means unknown; 0.00 euros is an explicitly entered amount.
Can I remove a wage again?
Yes. Delete the private weekly amount in Activities after confirmation. This removes neither working hours nor submitted timesheets. Delete exported PDFs separately from their storage locations.
The PDF is a personal organisational overview. It creates no tax return or invoice and does not prove actual receipt of payment.
Data & sharing
What happens when I leave a production?
Your own shares are marked for withdrawal or revoked as far as the app can manage them. Another person's data shares must be revoked by their owner. That owner's app must be reachable and connected to iCloud. Immediate central removal of all data from every device therefore cannot be promised.
Can I remove my profile and data?
The app offers actions for profile/contact details, personal entries and your own shares. These are separate areas: removing a profile does not automatically delete chats, submitted weekly overviews, data owned by others or exported files. The privacy notice has details; write to support about pending deletion requests.
Chat & reports
Who can read personal chats?
Personal chats are intended for the two people involved. A production chat is shared within the production. This describes the sharing structure; it is not a promise of end-to-end encryption.
How do I block or report problematic content?
The app offers local blocking and a report template. Blocking affects the display on your device. A local text filter can hold back or hide certain explicit threats; it is not a complete content review. Check the report's recipient and contents and send it yourself to a responsible recipient, such as support. There is currently no automatically monitored moderation inbox.
Report a problem
Useful details include app version, iPhone/iPad/Mac model, operating system version and a short description of the steps leading to the problem. Add an anonymised screenshot if possible.
Do not send passwords, Apple ID credentials or unnecessary personal or confidential production data. Support does not need access to your iCloud account.
Support is provided by Julian Aschenbrenner. No fixed response time is promised.
Call sheet versions, weekly PDFs & production contacts
How do I upload a new daily call sheet?
As an authorised admin, open the existing shoot day and choose “Upload new version”. Check recognition and links to existing scenes. Apply the new version only after review. The current PDF is marked; previous PDFs remain under “Previous version(s)”. During a running shoot, only the remaining plan is adjusted while recorded actual end times remain.
Is the weekly call sheet my daily plan?
No. The separate PDF for Monday to Sunday is a guideline. It creates no individual shoot days, crew assignments or daily times. The daily call sheet is still uploaded separately.
Which production contacts appear with a request?
Website, phone, contact person and contact email appear where production has provided them in its profile. Owners and confirmed admins edit the profile; crew can read it.
These additions are being prepared for the next app version. The guide explains workflows for crew and production.
Profiles, contacts and call-sheet email in the next update
Settings → Profile settings opens your crew profile and, with production rights, production profiles. Phone and email visibility can separately be production-admin-only or available to all members of your productions. Profile deletion removes profile details; Your Apple ID and production memberships remain; other work records have their own management actions.
Email call sheets to crew prepares selected Bcc recipients, a cover message, sign-off and the current daily PDFs of all units. On Mac or without a mail composer, a complete EML can be exported for a configured compatible mail client. Exporting is not delivery; you review and send it yourself.