Cue Sheets for the Darker Months: Getting Ready for Autumn Shows

The weeks ahead fill up quickly with conferences, staff gatherings, webinars and streamed discussions that need to land before the year closes. Many of these programmes are produced by small teams who borrow rooms for a single day, which leaves little time to learn a new document on the spot.

A cue sheet is the one page that everybody in the room can glance at without stopping what they are doing. Presenters check it for their entry, camera operators for the next shot, sound technicians for the next microphone. When the page is clear, the show runs on it. When it is crowded, people stop trusting it and start asking questions over the headset, which is exactly what a live programme cannot afford.

In these weeks I would rather see a short, plain sheet finished early than an ambitious one finished the night before.

Shorter days change the conditions your sheet is read in. Backstage areas are dark, control rooms run on screen light, and an early start means people read while still waking up. Design for that. Use a large, plain typeface, leave generous space between rows, and keep each cue to a single line wherever you can.

Print on white paper rather than coloured stock, and avoid grey text, which disappears under a small torch. If the sheet will be read on a tablet, dim the brightness test beforehand and check the layout at the size it will really be held.

Number the cues in the order they happen and never reuse a number. A technician who hears cue fourteen should find it in one second, with no scanning of columns and no guessing which block it belongs to.

• Large type, high contrast, white paper
• One line per cue where possible
• Unique cue numbers in running order
• Test readability in the actual lighting

A common mistake is to produce one sheet that tries to serve every role, so each reader wades through information that belongs to someone else. A better habit is to keep one master and cut role views from it. The presenter needs timing, the line that opens the segment and the cue for the next handover. The camera operator needs shot changes and who is speaking.

Sound needs microphone assignments, playback items and any moment when a remote guest joins. Lighting, if there is a lighting person, needs scene changes and moments of stillness.

Highlight each role's own rows in a consistent colour or marker, and agree that choice at the first briefing. Nobody should have to decode your system during a live moment, and a legend of three or four items printed at the foot of the page is usually enough.

The words you choose matter as much as the layout. Start each cue with the action, such as take camera two, fade music, or open guest microphone, and follow with the trigger that sets it off. A trigger tied to something audible or visible, like the end of a spoken sentence, is far safer than one tied to a clock time that may drift.

Avoid abbreviations that only you understand. If the team uses shorthand, list it on the sheet and use it consistently. Keep warnings separate from instructions, so a line saying standby and a line saying go never look alike.

Read the sheet aloud once as if you were calling the show. Anywhere you stumble, a technician under pressure will stumble too, and that is the place to rewrite before the sheet is shared.

• Action first, trigger second
• Prefer audible or visible triggers to clock times
• Keep standby and go clearly different

Year-end programmes change often. A speaker drops out, a guest joins late from another time zone, an item is cut because a previous one ran long. Your sheet should expect this. Mark optional segments clearly and note the cue that tells the team a cut is happening, so nobody is surprised by a jump.

Keep a version number and a short time stamp in the corner of every page, and collect old copies at the start of the day. Nothing causes more trouble backstage than two people working from different versions without knowing it.

If a change arrives during the show, let one person, usually the caller, announce it over the headset once and in full. Then update the master afterwards, not in the middle of the programme, so the record matches what actually happened.

Before the first rehearsal, I run a quick check that costs ten minutes and saves much longer later. Print one copy and hand it to someone who has not seen the plan. Ask them to tell you what happens at a given point. If they answer without hesitation, the sheet is working.

Then walk the sheet against the running order and confirm that every segment has an entry cue and an exit cue, and that no two cues claim the same moment. Check that names are spelled the way presenters want them said.

Finally, agree who holds the master and who may edit it. A calm, single point of control is the most useful habit you can bring into the busy weeks ahead.

• Hand a copy to a fresh reader
• Check each segment has entry and exit cues
• Confirm spellings and pronunciations
• Name one keeper of the master