Blue Book

What Is Turnaround And Why It Matters

Turnaround is your right to rest between working days, and it’s one of the key protections that keeps crews safe, healthy, and able to do their best work.

Published on:

November 12, 2025

The Screen Guild

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Why Turnaround Exists

Film and TV work can be demanding. Long days, travel, and late finishes all add up. The turnaround rule exists to protect your wellbeing and ensure productions stay safe and productive. Ignoring it leads to fatigue, slower reactions, and higher risk of accidents, both on set and on the road. But how much rest are you actually entitled to?

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Understanding Turnaround

According to the Blue Book, turnaround is the minimum rest period between the end of one working day and the start of the next. This ensures crew get enough time to rest and recover before returning to set.

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How It’s Calculated

Your turnaround depends on how many days off you have between working days:

For Example

If you wrap at 9:00 p.m. and have another working day the next day (no day off in between), the earliest you can legally be called is 7:00 a.m.

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When Turnaround Is Broken

If you’re called to start work before your full rest period has ended, you trigger a Broken Turnaround. This measures how many hours of rest you lost by starting work too early.

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What to Remember

If you think your call time might break turnaround, always check with production first.

It’s your responsibility to manage turnaround between different jobs.

Paid travel time counts as part of the working day. It can’t be excluded from turnaround calculations.

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Penalties for Broken Turnaround

Under the Blue Book (Section 23), if your turnaround is broken, you’re entitled to additional pay:

• An extra T1 for each of the first 2 hours lost

• An extra T2 for every hour lost beyond that

Broken Turnaround penalties are added on top of all other surcharges and rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes.

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Why It Matters

Turnaround isn’t just about getting some sleep, it’s about safety. When crew are overworked, fatigue increases the risk of accidents both on set and on the road. Protecting turnaround means protecting yourself and your team.

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The Blue Book is the code of practice for crew in the New Zealand screen industry.

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