Crew booking glossary

Holds, Confirms, and the rest of the booking vocabulary.

Crew booking has its own dialect. This page is the plain-English reference for every term Exposure Link uses in the product and on this site — written for new agency staff, clients, and anyone trying to make sense of why their booking flipped from Hold to Confirmed.

Hold

A tentative booking placed against a crew member or resource for a date range. Holds stack by priority (P1, P2, P3, …) so multiple agents or productions can be in the queue for the same slot. A Hold does not appear on the crew member's calendar; it lives inside the agency platform until the agent Confirms one.

Confirmed

A locked booking. When the agent flips the P1 Hold (or creates a fresh booking) to Confirmed, the platform writes a calendar event onto the calendar shared with that crew member, so the job appears in their phone calendar app. Lower-ranked Holds for the same slot stay in place after a Confirm — they only fall away on explicit release, an availability block, or an auto-release deadline.

Pencil

Industry shorthand for a Hold. "Pencil me in for the 14th" and "put me on Hold for the 14th" mean the same thing. "First pencil" is P1, "second pencil" is P2, and so on.

P1 / P2 / P3 (rank)

The priority of a Hold. P1 is the strongest Hold, P2 is second in line, P3 third, and so on. P1/P2/P3 is a rank within Hold — the booking's status is still "Hold". When the agent Confirms a Hold, the lower-ranked Holds for the same slot are released.

Challenge

A request from a client to take a slot the agent has already given to someone else as the P1 Hold. The agent challenges the P1 Hold on the new client's behalf, which flips the booking to a challenged state and starts a countdown. If the original client doesn't lock it in within the challenge window, the new request takes over. Confirmed bookings can't be challenged — once the slot is Confirmed, it's locked.

Release

Removing a Hold or Confirmed booking from a crew member's schedule. Releases can be voluntary (the agent decides the slot is dead) or automatic (Holds past their auto-release deadline; Holds overlapping a new availability block). When a Hold is released, lower-ranked Holds in the same stack are promoted up the queue — that cascade does not run on Confirm.

Auto-release

Holds that haven't been Confirmed within a configurable number of calendar days are released automatically, freeing the slot. Stops dead Holds from clogging the schedule.

Availability block

A range of dates a crew member or resource is unavailable (holiday, sick, on another job). Availability blocks cascade-release any overlapping Holds so the agent isn't pitching an already-unavailable crew member.

Call Sheet

The production's daily document listing call times, locations, contacts, and crew. Crew booking platforms don't issue the call sheet — production does — but the booking record is what the agent confirms before the call sheet goes out.

Agent

The talent agent or agency staffer who manages bookings on behalf of crew. The agent is the only person who signs in to the platform; crew see Confirmed bookings via their normal calendar app.

Crew

Film and production professionals represented by an agent — DOPs (directors of photography), focus pullers, sound recordists, gaffers, grips, hair and make-up, art department, and so on. Crew never need to log in.