Does your shoot week keep the rest periods?

What the tool answers

A turnaround is the time between one day’s wrap and the next day’s call. A single overrun on a Wednesday can make Thursday’s call illegal — and the call sheet for Thursday usually goes out before anyone has done that arithmetic. The tool checks the whole week at once: every night against the rule, every day against the daily maximum, the week against the weekly limit, plus overtime with surcharge, night hours and the weekend rest before next Monday.

Pick the rule set that applies to your crew contracts. In Germany that is usually the TV FFS collective agreement; without it only the Working Time Act applies, which is much stricter on the length of a day. Austria uses the collective agreement for film crews, the UK the Working Time Regulations with Pact/Bectu terms on top, and in the US the IATSE agreements — shown here for information only, because local agreements differ.

The rules, with paragraph references

• Germany, TV FFS (12 October 2024). At least 11 hours of rest between two working days; after a day in which a 12th hour was started, at least 11.5 hours (Tz 5.9.1). Maximum 12 hours a day and 60 a week (Tz 5.2.5). The weekly fee covers up to 50 hours (Tz 5.3.1). Surcharges: the 11th hour of a day 25 %, every hour after the completed 11th 50 % (Tz 5.4.3.2); the 51st to 55th hour of the week 25 %, beyond that 50 %, and work on the 6th and 7th day counts like weekly overtime (Tz 5.4.3.3–5.4.3.4). Breaks up to 45 minutes are not working time (Tz 5.8.2). Night work is 22:00 to 06:00 (Tz 5.5.1). At least two weekends per month of employment must give 48 + 11 hours off (Tz 5.9.4).
• Germany, Working Time Act only. 11 hours of uninterrupted rest (§ 5 (1) ArbZG). A working day is 8 hours and may run to 10 if it averages out to 8 over six months (§ 3). The shortening by one hour in § 5 (2) applies to sectors such as broadcasting, hospitals and hospitality — film production is not on that list.
• Austria, KV Filmschaffende. Daily rest 11 hours (§ 5 (8)). On production contracts up to 12 hours a day if standby time regularly occurs, and no more than 60 a week (§ 7 (2)). Overtime beyond the normal day: the first two hours at 50 %, after that 100 % (§ 9 (4)); night work 22:00 to 06:00 at 50 % (§ 11).
• UK. 11 consecutive hours of rest in each 24-hour period (Working Time Regulations 1998, reg. 10) and 24 hours in every 7 days (reg. 11). Film and TV work is not a special case that removes the entitlement. Pact/Bectu crew agreements let scripted productions pay a penalty for a broken turnaround instead; both sides have pledged to eliminate it.
• USA, IATSE. Most crafts on the Basic Agreement get 10 hours between shifts and 54 hours over a five-day-week weekend (32 hours in a six-day week), terms agreed in 2021; invasions trigger a rest period penalty. Area standards and other locals differ — the tool treats these numbers as a guide, not a ruling.

How we calculate

Working time runs from call to wrap, minus the unpaid break you enter (for TV FFS at most 45 minutes count as unpaid). A wrap earlier than the call is read as after midnight. Rest is the gap between one wrap and the next call; the earliest legal call is the previous wrap plus the required rest. Nights within one hour of the minimum show amber — one overrun and they turn red.

Overtime follows the surcharge rules of the selected agreement and counts every started hour, as the TV FFS does. For the Working Time Act the tool shows hours above 8 instead, which have to be balanced out later.

working time = wrap − call − unpaid break rest = call (day n) − wrap (day n−1) earliest call = wrap (day n−1) + required rest TV FFS: required rest = 11 h, or 11.5 h after a day with more than 11 h

Where the tool is wrong

• Your contract may differ. Individual contracts, company agreements and reduced weekly fees (TV FFS Tz 5.3.3) change the overtime rules. The rest periods themselves are minimums nobody can contract out of.
• Travel and prep. Ordered travel counts as working time under the TV FFS (Tz 5.2.2). If your call is at the location but the crew leaves the base an hour earlier, enter the earlier time.
• Clock changes. The tool calculates in wall-clock time. In the night the clocks change, the real rest is one hour longer or shorter than shown.
• Departments. One week, one set of times. Grip, lighting and make-up often start and end at different times; check the department with the earliest call and the latest wrap separately.

From a shoot week

A TV FFS week starting Monday 2 November 2026, 45-minute lunch: Monday 07:00–19:00, Tuesday 07:00–19:30, Wednesday 07:00–20:00, Thursday 07:00–19:00, then a night exterior on Friday 14:00–02:00. On paper every night has at least 11 hours.

The tool flags two things. Wednesday comes to 12 h 15 min of working time — over the 12-hour maximum. And because Wednesday ran past its 11th hour, the following rest has to be 11.5 hours: Thursday’s 07:00 call leaves only 11 hours, the earliest legal call is 07:30. The week totals 57 h 45 min with 5 hours at 25 % and 6 hours at 50 %, 4 hours of night work, and 53 hours of weekend rest before a Monday 07:00 call — less than the 59 hours Tz 5.9.4 asks for on two weekends a month. Moving Wednesday’s last setup to Friday fixes all three.