A free Movie Magic Scheduling alternative
Movie Magic Scheduling is the industry standard and it is priced like one, per seat, per month, with no free tier listed. Green Room does stripboard scheduling, Day Out of Days, breakdowns, and call sheets for free.
Two tools for two different productions
Movie Magic is entrenched at the studio and union level for a reason. If you are staffing a show where the production office expects a Movie Magic file, that expectation is the requirement and no free tool changes it.
Most independent productions are not that. A five-day short, a music video, a documentary, or a student thesis needs a stripboard, a Day Out of Days, and a call sheet, and does not need a per-seat license to get them.
| Green Room | Movie Magic Scheduling | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $29.99 per month introductory, $39.99 regular |
| Priced by | Nothing | Seat |
| Free tier | The whole product | None listed |
| Stripboard scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| Day Out of Days | Yes | Yes |
| Script breakdown | Yes, parsed from a script PDF | Yes |
| Call sheets | Yes, built from the schedule and emailed | Sold separately or via other tools |
| Budgeting | Included free | Movie Magic Budgeting, a separate product |
| Industry file interchange | No | Yes, the industry expectation |
| Runs in a browser | Yes | Desktop application |
The film school case
Programs teaching scheduling face a real problem: the industry-standard tool costs per seat, per student, and a department budget rarely stretches to a lab full of licenses. The usual outcome is that students learn stripboards in theory and build their first real schedule in a spreadsheet.
Green Room is free for every student with no seat licensing and nothing to procure, and it teaches the same concepts with the same vocabulary: strips, shooting days, Day Out of Days, breakdown elements. A student who has scheduled three shorts in Green Room will recognize what Movie Magic is doing the first time they open it.
Where Movie Magic is still the right tool
Movie Magic carries something Green Room cannot: it is what professional production offices expect, and its files move between the people who need them. It also has decades of depth in scheduling edge cases that a newer tool has not met yet.
If you are working on a production where a Movie Magic file is a deliverable, use Movie Magic. Green Room is for the productions where nobody is asking for one.
Common questions
- Can Green Room open or export a Movie Magic file?
- No. There is no import from or export to Movie Magic's formats. If a production requires that interchange, Green Room is not a substitute.
- Does Green Room do Day Out of Days?
- Yes, generated from your scenes and the cast attached to them, and exportable.
- Is Green Room free for schools?
- Yes. Every feature is free for every student, with no seat licensing, no department agreement, and nothing to procure.
- How much does Movie Magic Scheduling cost?
- Entertainment Partners' own store listed Movie Magic Scheduling at $29.99 per month as an introductory price and $39.99 per month regular, as of August 20, 2026. Movie Magic Budgeting is a separate product.
Keep comparing
The other comparisons, and what each part of Green Room actually does.