6 Ways To Quickly Create A Script Breakdown

If you’re a Producer or 1st AD, then you’re no stranger to script breakdowns. The process of marking a script occurs to highlight elements of a screenplay that relate to specific production departments. This is done before production begins as it can affect the order of your shooting schedule. We’ll teach you how to do a script breakdown. Follow these steps to effectively mark up your script.

1. Read the Script Like it’s Your First Time

Before you mark anything on the script, read it from an audience members perspective. You only have one first impression of the story, so give yourself a chance to connect to it. Beyond the emotional connection, the more familiar you are with the story, the more likely you will be to identify all the elements once you begin marking the script.

2. Look Out for Potential Formatting Issues

After reading your script thoroughly, read it once more, but this time keep an eye out for any formatting errors that may cause issues when scheduling or importing the script file into software such as Movie Magic Scheduling.

• Scene locations should be phrased consistently throughout the script.
• Make sure scene numbers have been generated.
• Character names should be consistent as well.
• Scene headers should be formatted only as INT or EXT (interior or exterior).
• Scene headers should be formatted only as D or N (day or night).
• Learn more about How to Properly Format a Script Before the Script Breakdown.

3. Begin Breaking Down Your Script into 8ths (Don’t forget Scene Breakdowns)

Divide every page into eight, 1 inch parts. This measurement is used to estimate the screen time and shooting time for a scene. Just make sure that you and your script supervisor are on the same page. Sounds funny, but, it’s important that both of you measure scenes in exactly the same way. On a typical dialogue-heavy indie production, you can expect to shoot roughly 5 pages per day where one page equals one minute of screen time.

4. Use Colored Highlighters and Pens to Mark Your Script

The purpose of marking is to identify select elements in every scene so they can be included in the script breakdown sheet and shooting schedule. The best method to achieve this is to use highlighters and pens. It could be a time consuming process, but it’s extremely important. Script breakdowns have a specific set of colors which you can follow, however, it’s not essential. If you’re using custom colors, be sure to create a legend on the script and breakdown.

Depending on the project type and genre, there’s a chance you’d want to create more tailored element categories and colors. For example, if you are shooting a horror film, you may want to define all the elements related to prosthetics. If you are shooting a western, you may need to add categories for horses and weapons. Just make sure to define the custom category and color in a legend.

5. Use a Script Breakdown Template

Once you’ve finished marking your script, you’ll need to input the elements into a Script Breakdown Sheet. This is the summary list of all the elements in a specific scene. Scheduling software like Showbiz Scheduling can be expensive, so we’ve created a free script breakdown sheet template. Dont’t forget to review and approve the script together with your team.

6. Generate Strip Boards Using StudioBinder

After the script marking is finished, it’s time to lay them out in a stripboard. Stripboards are color-coded strips that represent the scenes of a script. The strips are reordered to ultimately become the shooting schedule. You can use production software like StudioBinder to make you more efficient.

Scene/script breakdowns are a tool of pre-production when you go over the script and identify everything that is in the script which will need to end up on screen. This is the first practical step of pre-production and is critical in the development of both a budget and a schedule.

You are looking for items that fall into one of a handful of categories. My breakdown sheets look similar to this:

I was taught to do this with colored pencils, each item you come across in the script gets marked by a corresponding colored pencil and then written down on the breakdown sheet. Lets look at this example of a screenplay from the Godfather 1972:

On the page I would make the following marks:

• ‘Hagen’ gets underlined with red as he is a cast member
• ‘He is drinking’ gets underlined with violet as a prop glass and drink is needed
• ‘Sounds of Cars’ gets underlined with blue since it is a sound effect.
• ‘Footsteps’ gets underline with blue since it is a sound effect.
• Don Corleone gets underline with red because he is a cast member.
• ‘Slippers’ gets circled as it is a part of wardrobe.
• ‘Stuffed Armchair’ is underlined in yellow since it is part of the set dressing
• ‘Pours a glass for the old man’ gets underlined with violet again because it is a prop. (Might also be a set-dressing, but that is minor)
• ‘the desk’ gets underlined with yellow because it is a set dressing.

Then you move on to the next page, repeating this throughout the entire script. Each scene in the script has a corresponding breakdown page. The idea is to have a list of everything that is in the movie and where it is in the movie. The scene breakdown is the master document from which you do almost everything in pre-production.

With a breakdown finished I can begin to budget and schedule the film. It is a master list from which you can make more lists from. With a breakdown finished I can build a list of props/costumes/sets to hand off to the art director who is then tasked with executing everything on the list. With a breakdown finished I know which actors I will need in which scene, and where that scene is being shot. With a breakdown in-hand I can begin to handle unique challenges in the film. I might need a special effect which needs to be created or I might need to light a stunt-man on fire.

In conclusion Script Breakdowns are the single most important document (aside from the script) in pre-production, as it is the document all other documents are drafted from.