Breakdown is the identification of the essential production elements of a fiction or non-fiction film or video project. Scheduling is the sorting of these production elements into a reasonable order of production. They are two of the most essential skills for a producer to develop. But, unfortunately, they is very hard to teach and can only be mastered through trial and error. As with many aspects of a Producer’s craft, this process takes tremendous patience and the ability to work with lots of details. For those Producers who are not strong in these traits, it’s best to hire a production manager for this task.
Breakdown and Scheduling, however, can not be done in a vacuum. A Producer has to have first worked out a production plan or strategy for the project. Make sure you have read and understand the section on production strategy before proceeding with this section on breakdown and scheduling.
Breakdown and Scheduling are also the essential first steps before a budget can be prepared. A budget for a film that has not been property broken-down and scheduled is only a guess and sometimes a very wild and irresponsible guess. A schedule has to be done first.
There are 6 clearly identifiable steps in the breakdown and scheduling process and they must be followed in the proper sequence. These steps, in their proper sequence, are:
- preparation of the shooting script or treatment;
- marking the script or treatment;
- sorting the production elements on to breakdown lists;
- preparation of the breakdown sheets;
- preparation of the scheduling or production board; and
- devising the schedule.
1.A. Preparation of a shooting script for a fiction film.
For a fiction film, the breakdown and scheduling process normally does not begin until there is a script. This may very well not be the final script but it should be one that the Producer is happy with and represents his or her current vision of the film to be made.
There are two basic types of scripts in the fiction world – the master scene script and the shooting script. The master scene script is the Writer’s vision of the story and is often written without much consideration for the challenges of an actual production. It presents the story and the characters that the Writer and the Producer want to bring to life. It should read like good fiction, grabbing the attention of the reader and carrying him along on the characters’ journeys from the beginning to the end. The shooting script is a reformatting of the master scene script into a format that makes it possible for the project to be broken-down and scheduled.
There are two key elements to the proper formatting of the shooting script: scene structure and scene numbers.
Proper scene structure is achieved by first reading the script for the story. If you are the Producer you’ve already done this, probably many times. But, if you’re a Production Manager, hired to do a breakdown and schedule, this will be your first read. Sit back, relax and read it straight through without thinking of “how the heck can this be done?” This first read will give you the overall story and the characters. Whether Producer or Production Manager, the next read of the script is for production concerns. This is where production experience is critical. You have to be able to read a scene and determine whether or not it is formatted properly for production. For example, read the following scene from a master scene script.
INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
Joe pulls his gun from his coat pocket as he puts his briefcase on the sofa. He looks around the empty room. There are signs of a struggle. He walks into the kitchen. He sees an empty glass with lipstick marks on the rim. A woman’s purse is on the table. There is a muffled scream. He races out, back through the living room and out onto the balcony. Flinging open the balcony door, he looks down to see Shirley lying face down in a pool of blood on the ground below. He runs back into the apartment, out the door into the hallway. Then, seeing a crowd waiting for the elevator, he races down the emergency stairs and out the front door to Shirley.
While not great literature, it’s a fairly common style of writing for an action scene. It has some energy and flows quickly. The problems for production, however, should be very evident to anyone with production experience. We have to get a production crew (camera, lights and sound), a Director, an Assistant Director and actors to a location(s) where all of this can be filmed. In our imagination we can follow Joe from living room to kitchen to balcony to stairs to Shirley, but, in the reality of production, it’s not so easy. A Producer should quickly come up with at least two ways to approach this scene for a shooting script. If the production strategy for the film is that it will be a high-end (read “expensive”) production, the Producer might think the scene could be shot with a steadi-cam that would follow Joe from room to room, to the hall, the stairs and finally outside. Steadi-cams are wonderful but expensive. And, it still requires lighting and prepping all the sets (living room, kitchen, balcony, hallway and stairway). This takes added crew and lighting equipment. And, from a Director’s point-of-view it requires the precision and coordinated work of steadi-cam operator, boom operator and actors to do all of this in one long take.
The alternative is to break this one scene into several scenes that reflect the realities of filmmaking. There are really six sets in this one scene – living room, kitchen, balcony, hallway, stairs and outside with Shirley. To complicate matters, four of these sets are interiors and two are exteriors. Each set has to be lit for the action, a camera has to be placed in a position to capture the action and a microphone has to be there to record the sound. And, they have to look like the Director and the Production Designer want them to look. It may be that one apartment does not have all these rooms that are suitable for production. The different sets could be in different apartments and they could be miles apart. For all these reasons, each set should be its own scene in the shooting script. The reformatted scene for the shooting script would look like this.
INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
JOE pulls his gun from his coat pocket as he puts his briefcase on the sofa. He looks round the empty room. There are signs of a struggle. He walks out toward the kitchen.
INT – JOE’S KITCHEN – CONTINUOUS
Joe enters the kitchen and sees an empty glass with lipstick marks on the rim. A woman’s purse is on the table. There is a muffled scream. He races out.
INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS
Joe comes back through the living room and to the balcony door. Flinging it open, he goes out.
EXT – JOE’S BALCONY – CONTINUOUS
Joe looks down to see SHIRLEY lying face down in a pool of blood on the ground below. He runs back into the apartment.
INT – HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
Joe comes out the door into the hallway. Seeing a CROWD waiting for the elevator, he races to the emergency exit door.
INT – STAIRWAY – CONTINUOUS
Joe bolts down the emergency stairs.
EXT – JOE’S APARTMENT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS
Joe races out the front door to Shirley.
Notice that in addition to breaking the one scene into several scenes, the action/description line in each new scene has been revised slightly. This follows the basic rules of script writing which require that the action/description line in each scene identifies by name the character(s) that appear. In addition, if we assume that these are the first scenes of the film, then the character names must be typed in all capitals the first time they appear in an action/description line.
Now, it’s time for scene numbering. In a shooting script each scene is given a number starting with the first scene and going continuously to the end. Our reformatted scene will now look like this.
1 INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – NIGHT 1
JOE pulls his gun from his coat pocket as he puts his briefcase on the sofa. He looks round the empty room. There are signs of a struggle. He walks out toward the kitchen.
2 INT – JOE’S KITCHEN – CONTINUOUS 2
Joe enters the kitchen and sees an empty glass with lipstick marks on the rim. A woman’s purse is on the table. There is a muffled scream. He races out.
3 INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS 3
Joe comes back through the living room and to the balcony door. Flinging it open, he goes out.
4 EXT – JOE’S BALCONY – CONTINUOUS 4
Joe looks down to see SHIRLEY lying face down in a pool of blood on the ground below. He runs back into the apartment.
5 INT – HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS 5
Joe comes out the door into the hallway. Seeing a CROWD waiting for the elevator, he races to the emergency exit door.
6 INT – STAIRWAY – CONTINUOUS 6
Joe bolts down the emergency stairs.
7 EXT – JOE’S APARTMENT BUILDING 7
Joe races out the front door to Shirley.
These scene numbers are going to be very important to us as we continue through the breakdown and scheduling process. So important that at this time we “lock” them and make them unchangeable. Locking the script is a convention that says once we have begun the breakdown and scheduling process with a shooting script we will not change the scene numbers not matter how many scenes we add or delete. This is particularly important today with the computer programs for scriptwriting which allow for automatic scene numbering. Fortunately, the better programs all have a function that allows you to lock the script. Once a script is locked if we add a scene it takes a numerical/alpha designation according to the scene that it follows. Using our sample script, we have, for example, added a scene between scenes 4 and 5.
4 EXT – JOE’S BALCONY – CONTINUOUS 4
Joe looks down to see SHIRLEY lying face down in a pool of blood on the ground below. He runs back into the apartment.
4A INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS 4A
Joe pauses to grab his briefcase, then runs out the front door.
5 INT – HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS 5
Joe comes out the door into the hallway. Seeing a CROWD waiting for the elevator, he races to the emergency exit door.
We would not make this new scene number 5 and then renumber 5 as 6, 6 as 7 and so on. That would be a disaster for our scheduling and management efforts. Instead, we number the new scene 4A. If there were another scene after 4A and before 5, it would be 4B and so forth.
If we were to delete scene 6, we would not renumber the remaining scenes. We would simply delete the description and make the scene as shown below.
5 INT – HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS 5
Joe comes out the door into the hallway. Seeing a CROWD waiting for the elevator, he races to the emergency exit door.
6 DELETED 6
7 EXT – JOE’S APARTMENT BUILDING 7
Joe races out the front door to Shirley.
In addition to the scene numbers, locking the script also refers to the page numbers of the script. As with most word processing based programs, the scriptwriting programs automatically repaginate as you insert or delete material. With a shooting script that is being broken-down and scheduled, this is not good. By locking the pages we make sure that each scene begins on the same page number, no matter how many scenes there are or how much is added or deleted from a scene. If an addition to a scene that originally started on 2 creates a new page, it is not page 3 but page 2A and the material that originally began on page 3 remains the same as before. Even more material would create page 2B and so on. Again, the importance of this will become more evident as we continue through the process of breakdown and scheduling.
1.B. Preparation of a treatment for a nonfiction project.
Many nonfiction projects are based on scripts that have been written in either the master scene format or the two-column television format. In these cases the elements of reformatting the scripts are similar to the fiction film as discussed above.
For most documentary projects, however, there is no script to follow or to reformat. Instead we have mountains of research on the topic that has been distilled into a treatment. To be useful for scheduling, the treatment should be as detailed as possible including description of the people to be interviewed, where the interviews will take place and what b-roll we will see during the interviews to avoid interminable talking-head syndrome. If there are other elements planned for the documentary other than interviews, these should be described. For example, re-enactments or stylized treatments of historical action, historical or other stock footage and/or photographs, complicated graphic elements, all of these should be detailed in the treatment. Obviously all of these can change as we proceed on the voyage of discovery that is a documentary project, but we have to start with a vision, a detailed vision, so we can prepare a breakdown and a schedule.
2.A. Marking the Fiction Script
Once the shooting script is reformatted and locked, it’s time to begin marking the script. There are two main elements to this process: dividing the pages into 1/8s and identifying the production elements.
Dividing the pages into 1/8s is another of those mechanical yet meaningful exercises that seem to take up lots of time for the Producer or Production Manager. The goal is to have a means to measure the length of each scene in the script. When we get to scheduling how many scenes we can shoot in a production day, you’ll see why we do this.
According to convention, if we take a normal feature film script of 90 to 110 pages in length, each page will translate into one minute of filmic time. Therefore, the 90 page script will give us a 90 minute film, the 100 page script equates to a film of 100 minutes, and so forth. In practice as well as theory, this generally works. The standard practice developed in the early days of film to divide each page into 1/8s. My guess is that it came from taking a standard 11 inch piece of paper, assuming top and bottom margins of 1 inch to 1 ½ inches each, and then dividing the rest (8 inches) into 1 inch sections. The idea is to then count how many of these 1/8s are in each scene. That’s all there is to it. After a while you get pretty good at eyeballing a page and adding the 1/8s. It’s better to be generous with your 1/8s even if it means that when you add up the different scene counts you might have a total of nine or even ten 1/8s to a page. The other odd thing about this system of 1/8s is one that would make your grade-school math teacher scream. We never reduce the 1/8s. If your scene is 4/8, we do not reduce this to 1/2 as you were once taught to do. If it is 2/8, it stays 2/8 and is not 1/4. The only exception is for full pages, so if we have 8/8, then that becomes 1 page.
The next step in marking the script is to identify the production elements. There is really nothing that is more important than this. Production elements include: characters/cast, extras, stunts, props, set dressing, costumes, vehicles, animals, hair and makeup, sound effects and special effects. The production elements are the critical building blocks of the production and to miss one in a scene is to invite disaster in the form of delays, wasting lots of money and getting fired.
The process is to read each scene, now for the third or more time, and underline or otherwise mark each production element with a colored pencil. There are several color schemes in use and it doesn’t matter which one you use as long as you’re consistent. The color scheme I use is as follows:
Character/Cast red
Background extra yellow
Props blue
Vehicles orange
Stunts purple
Animals brown
Sound effects pink
Wardrobe/costume green
Other markings, using a black pencil, are:
Hair/makeup Circle
Set dressing box
Special effects asterisk
Let’s be clear about what each of these means and how to identify them.
Character/Cast means a part with lines, the character speaks at some point during the film. It can be only one word in a 90 minute film, but if it speaks it is a “character” and needs to be underlined in red. I need to mention the silent character which is one that doesn’t speak but has some function in the action of the scene or film. A baby is an obvious example if it is part of the family. Another example would be a homeless person who doesn’t speak but who aggressively approaches a character causing her to change her path and bump into the man of her dreams. While these characters may not have any lines in the script, they are involved in the action of the scene and may likely be given a line of dialogue, even one word, by the director. At that point, under SAG rules, they become a full “day player” and have to be paid accordingly. It is, therefore, prudent for us to consider them as full cast at this point and anticipate it in the budget that follows a breakdown and schedule.
A background extra refers to those nameless, almost faceless patrons in a restaurant, riders on a bus, and people on a crowded sidewalk. Our crowd in scene #5 is probably a background crowd, but they do cause Joe to avoid the elevator and go down the stairs. Sometimes it’s a judgment call.
Props are those things that you can move around and often are part of the action. The gun is obviously a prop as is the glass in the kitchen. What we don’t need to worry about is those things that are normally found in a setting and don’t have any part in the action in any scene. For further discussion of this, see set dressing below.
Set dressing includes all the furniture, rugs, things on the walls, drapes etc. that would be found in a typical setting of the type described. This is often another of those judgment calls. Joe’s apartment living room is not described in any detail. We are left to picture the type of apartment that we see this character living in. The Production Designer and the Director will have an idea for the look they want. If this is a production that will be done primarily on location, then the Location Scout will have to find an apartment that looks right or that can be modified to look right. If this is a sound stage production, then the set has to be built and furnished. This obviously makes a big difference for the breakdown and scheduling. For the moment let’s concentrate on the set dressing that is specifically mentioned in the script. In this case the only thing is the sofa that Joe puts the briefcase on. We should put a box around “sofa” but we don’t have to worry about whether there is a coffee table, a reading chair, a lamp or paintings on the wall. We’ll save that worry for the advanced course in Production Design.
Stunts are anything that causes an actor to have to fall down, trip, get hit, slapped or punched, jump off something of any substantial height. You get the idea. This marking has to trigger a concern for the actor’s safety and whether or not there will be need for a stunt coordinator on set. As most productions use SAG actors, this area is governed by SAG rules.
Animals are obvious items but can be a real problem on productions. The presence of an animal should set off alarm bells in the Production Manager’s head. There are issues of safety, care and feeding, control, training and noise. An Animal Wrangler is probably needed as is a quick check with local ASPCA chapter.
Hair, Makeup and Wardrobe are often sources of confusion. If the film is a period piece then these items take on enormous importance. If it is a contemporary film and the characters are described in terms like “young college student” or “middle aged accountant” then we can make some assumptions that the hair, makeup and wardrobe are not an immediate concern. Any special mention of these items in the script, however, needs to be marked. And, using common sense, we should assume that Shirley, having possibly taken a header from the balcony, is going to need some special makeup treatment in addition to the pool of blood.
Special Effects is an item that doesn’t refer only to alien spaceships flying overhead. In our little script the gun doesn’t go off, but if it had, then that’s a special effect that requires time, effort and extra personnel with special training. Special Effects also refers to having things on a set that work, especially if the production strategy is to shoot on a sound stage. If we build a set of a kitchen and the character wants to get a drink of water, then the faucet has to work and we need plumbing. If we’re shooting on location, we can assume that the sink in the kitchen will work but the Location Scout had better check it.
Let’s look at how our sample scenes would be marked for production elements.
1 INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – NIGHT 1
JOE pulls his gun from his coat pocket as he puts his briefcase on the sofa. He looks round the empty room. There are signs of a struggle. He walks out toward the kitchen.
JOE
Shirley?
2 INT – JOE’S KITCHEN – CONTINUOUS 2
Joe enters the kitchen and sees an empty glass with lipstick marks on the rim. A woman’s purse is on the table. There is a muffled scream. He races out.
3 INT – JOE’S LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS 3
Joe comes back through the living room and to the balcony door. Flinging it open, he goes out.
4 EXT – JOE’S BALCONY – CONTINUOUS 4
Joe looks down to see SHIRLEY lying face down in a pool of blood on the ground below. He runs back into the apartment.
Notice that the character element(s) is identified as it appears in the action/description line and not in the dialogue heading which I have added to scene #1.
If an element appears in a scene, then it is marked. If it appears in the next scene it is marked again. The tricky part is that writers don’t think of production management and scheduling when they write. So they don’t clearly identify all the production elements that might be or should be in each scene. If a character is not identified in the action/description lines, but we know that character is there in the scene, then we have to write that character’s name in the margin and underline it in the appropriate color. Another example is in scene #1 where Joe takes his gun out of his pocket. In the rest of the scenes the gun isn’t mentioned. Is it there? I think it’s safe to assume that he has continued to carry the gun and the writer hasn’t told us that he put it away, even when he went out into the hall or outside. A big part of this breakdown process is common sense. We can make a decision that he would have the gun in the other scenes. In fact, we would want to err on the side of caution and assume that he continues to have the gun. We would, therefore, write “gun” in the margin next to each scene in which we have determine that he would have the gun and underline it in blue.
The reason for all this fuss and extra work is that we need to make sure that all the production elements like the gun are there when each of these scenes is filmed. And, they could be filmed days apart and in different locations. If the Director decides that Joe would put the gun back in his pocket when he goes into the hallway, that’s his or her decision. The job of the Production Manager is to make sure that the gun is there on the set in case the Director wants Joe to continue to hold it. Many of the continuity errors that we see in films are due to the mistakes that were made in the process of identifying the production elements for each scene.
Another essential type of production element is a production note. These are questions, reminders and items of concern that the Producer or Production Manager has about the particular scene. There are far, far too many production elements and other details involved with every scene to try to rely on your memory. Get in the habit of writing it all down and in this case the best place to write it is next to the scene that it relates to. For example, in scene #1 there is mention of “signs of a struggle”. What does that mean? For a Production Manager it means a question about damage to set dressing and props. Or, can she save money by getting old, damaged stuff in the first place. Do we ever use this set with the place in good shape? Another example is in scene #4 where Joe looks down to see Shirley. Are we going to have a camera on the balcony and just point it down to the ground? We could, however, be in an apartment on the 33rd floor. Do we have the larger budget production strategy that would allow for us to have a crane for a shot of Joe on the balcony that will then pull down to Shirley? Or, should we plan on getting a shot from the apartment building across the street? The more we think about it, what we probably need is to set up an insert shot of Shirley on the ground and add it as scene 4A. This could also have been done by an alert Production Manager at the time she was reformatting the script for the shooting script. But, no one is perfect and no one catches everything the first time. That’s why we go over the script so many times. Still another example is the mention of a “crowd” in scene #5. We need to ask the question – how many is a crowd? We will need to plan for and eventually budget for the right number of extras. There is no sex in these scenes but if there were it would undoubtedly lead to several production notes relating to the need to alert actors during the casting process.
You really can’t spend too much time on identifying the production elements. For a feature length film a Production Manager can spend days, even weeks, on this task. If we get it right at this stage then all else begins to fall into place.
2.B. Marking the Non-fiction Treatment
The process for marking a non-fiction treatment is similar but obviously different. The concept remains the same – that we need to identify all the critical pieces of the production such as interviewees, b-roll, access to special locations, stock photos, stock footage, historical artifacts, graphic elements and so on. Every film will have its own unique elements, and production notes play a big part in the process. If we need to interview someone at their place of work, it should raise questions regarding permissions, ease of access and all sorts of possible production problems. Will we need special equipment for certain b-roll? For example, b-roll in the profile of a rock climber will require a special crew with special gear. A film with lots of historical photos will need time in the studio for expensive motion control shooting or, on a lower budget film, the use of Adobe After-Effects.
Once we’re certain that we’ve captured all the production elements, then it’s time to begin preparing the breakdown lists.
3. Sorting the production elements on to breakdown lists
After marking the script or treatment we now have the different production elements identified but still scattered throughout a document of many pages. The purpose of the breakdown list is to consolidate the production elements and sort them by categories. As a result, there will be a breakdown list for each category of production element and it will list all of the elements of that category that were found in the script or treatment.
The format for the breakdown list is as seen below.
Breakdown List
Production Element Category ________________________________ page ____
===============================================================
# Description Scene(s)
===============================================================
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The process is as follows. Each breakdown list is named for a category of production element. Then you go through the script, scene by scene, and, as you come to a production element of that category, it’s written on the list along with the scene number.
Let’s take props for an example. The first prop we find in our script is Joe’s gun and it’s in scene #1. We put that on the list as the first item for that category.
Breakdown List
Production Element Category ____Props______________________ page ____
===============================================================
# Description Scene(s)
===============================================================
_1____Joe’s gun___________________________1____________________________
Next we see the briefcase, also in scene #1 and we add that as item number 2
Breakdown List
Production Element Category ___Props___________________________ page ____
===============================================================
# Description Scene(s)
===============================================================
_1____Joe’s gun___________________________1_____________________________
2 Joe’s briefcase 1_____________________________
Not seeing any other props in scene #1 we move on to scene #2 where we have the glass and a woman’s purse.
Breakdown List
Production Element Category __Props_________________________ page ____
===============================================================
# Description Scene(s)
===============================================================
_1____Joe’s gun___________________________1, 2____________________________
2 Joe’s briefcase 1_____________________________
3 glass 2_____________________________
4 woman’s purse 2____________________________
We have also, if we’ve been paying attention, written in the gun as a prop that is not in the action/description line but should definitely be there with Joe in the kitchen. So next to the line item for Joe’s gun we add scene number 2 as above.
This process progresses through the entire script until we have a list for props that would look like this.
Breakdown List
Production Element Category __Props_________________________ page ____
===============================================================
# Description Scene(s)
===============================================================
_1____Joe’s gun___________________________1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7_____________
2 Joe’s briefcase 1, 3__________________________
3 glass 2_____________________________
4 woman’s purse 2____________________________
Each category of production element is done in the same manner. Some Production Managers go through the script with only one breakdown list at a time. Others prepare a breakdown list for all the categories that they know they use in the script. Then they go scene by scene and mark all the elements from each scene on the appropriate breakdown lists. It’s a personal preference and the only essential is to capture all the production elements on the breakdown lists.
You should have noticed that the numbering system for the items on the breakdown list is that numbers are assigned consecutively as the items are first found in the script. This is true of all categories of production elements EXCEPT for the characters/cast. For the characters we write them on the breakdown list as we find them and make note of all the scenes in which they appear, but we don’t number them yet. After we have gone through the entire script and have all the scenes noted for each character, we then count how many scenes each character is in. The character that is in the most scenes is then listed as character number 1. The character who is in the next most scenes is character number 2 and so on. If there are characters that are in the same number of scenes, then just arbitrarily select one character for the next number and the other character for the following number.
4. Preparation of the breakdown sheets
The breakdown lists sorted all the production elements by type, so we now know what props are needed for the production and in what scenes. The breakdown sheets are created to re-sort the production elements into the different scenes. Productions are scheduled by scenes and for each scene the breakdown sheets tell us exactly what production elements are needed. There is one breakdown sheet created for each scene.
Insert sample Breakdown Sheet.
The heading of a breakdown sheet contains the following information.
PAGE COUNT – this is the total number of 1/8s of a page that you counted earlier when marking up the shooting script. We use whole numbers and 1/8s and we do not reduce the 1/8s to anything else – for example 2/8 does not become 1/4.
INT/EXT – comes from the slug line of the shooting script.
DAY/NIGHT – also from the slug line of the shooting script.
SCENE # – from the shooting script.
SCRIPT PG # – the page in the shooting script where the scene begins.
B’DOWN PG. # – the normally the same number as the SCENE # unless there are scenes that have been omitted after the script was locked but before the breakdown process began. So this numbering sequence is consecutive from scene one. If a scene is added after the Breakdown Sheets have been done, its breakdown sheet number is the next available number at the end.
SCRIPT DAY or STORY DAY – results from an analysis of the story in the script and how many different days are represented. It would include any flashbacks or other unusual time shifts like a dream. It is primarily used by the wardrobe and hair/make-up departments to plan different “looks” for the characters for the different days.
SCRIPT TIME – is an attempt to estimate the amount of screen time that the scene will take when it is edited. If it is a dialogue scene, then the timing is done by putting a stopwatch on a reading of the scene. If it is a car chase that is described in a couple of sentences, then the timing is a good guess.
ACTION – this is a short phrase that describes the action of the scene. For example, the action phrase for the first scene in our sample script could be “Joe pulls gun and looks around.” The phrase for the second scene could be “Joe sees lipstick, purse and hears scream.”
SETTING – this is the story setting from the slug line, for example “Joe’s Living Room”.
LOCATION – is the actual location for production. This information is often not known when the breakdown sheets are first created. It would be added later after the locations have been scouted, selected and secured.
SEQUENCE – if the scene is part of a sequence then that should be noted, generally by giving the sequence a name. The scenes in our sample script could be called a sequence with a name like “Joe finds Shirley dead.”
After the heading of the breakdown sheet is completed, then the production element boxes are filled in. In the Characters/Cast box you would put the name and number of the characters who appear in the scene. The same would be done for props and all the other production elements that were found in that scene. The numbers come from the breakdown lists and are very important to use on the breakdown sheets. All production departments will use this numbering scheme to make sure the correct items are on set on the correct day. Most production managers will pull the production elements from both the marked script and the breakdown lists to make sure that all the elements have been captured, numbered and put on the breakdown sheets.
The other critical aspect to the breakdown sheets is that they are color coded for the different combinations of interior, exterior, day and night scenes. This color coding starts here and continues into scheduling. There are different color schemes that are used, and most production managers have their own scheme. There is no standard or absolute color scheme. The only critical thing is to be consistent. The color scheme that I use is as follows:
Exterior Day Green
Exterior Night Blue
Interior Day White
Interior Night Yellow
So, if the scene is an exterior night scene, then I use a breakdown sheet that has been printed on blue paper stock. For interior night, I use yellow paper stock and so forth.
In recent years the preparation of the breakdown and schedule has been computerized and appears on the laptops of the production managers. The computer programs present their material in a format that mimics the look of the breakdown sheet (even to the use of colors), so it is still important to understand how it looks and works.
5. Preparation of the scheduling or production board
The scheduling or production board is a tool that is used to assist the scheduling of the various scenes. It has been the standard for fiction film work since the beginning of the studio system. The production board has also been computerized and the format that mimics the look of the production board, so it is still important to understand how the board looks and works.
The Production Board consists of several elements:
- the board
- the header strip
- scene strips, and
- divider and specialty strips.
- The standard board is 16 ¼ inches high and 42 to 84 inches wide, depending on the number of panels. There can be 4, 6 or 8 panels. The 8 panel board is used for feature length films and the other boards for shorter films.
Insert picture of production board.
- The header strip is white cardboard, 15 inches by 3 ½ to 4 inches, and fits into the first panel of the board. It is divided into horizontal lines and contains three areas of information. The first is information on the production including the title, director, producer, line producer or production manager, assistant director and visual effects producer. The second area is a list of all the main characters in the film and their numbers. The artist or actor names are also added when they are cast. There third area is for all the other major production elements such as extras, props, stunts, vehicles etc.
Insert sample of header strip.
- The scene strip holds all the information from the breakdown sheet that is required for effective scheduling. There is one strip per scene. These thin, 15 inch by 5/16 inch, cardboard strips are divided into horizontal lines to match the header strip. These scene strips are made on colored card stock using colors that match your color scheme for the breakdown sheets. A blue breakdown sheet begets a blue scene strip. Using the numbers for each production element, the strips contain the same information that is found on the breakdown sheets. There are also places on the strips to write the setting and the action phrase for the scene.
Insert sample of scene strip.
When preparing the scene strips, it is critical to be careful and double-check for accuracy. When so much information is transposed from one place to another, errors can happen, and important decisions can be made using incomplete or incorrect information.
- The divider strips are used to mark the end of a production day, a production week, or other period. The divider strip for the day give us the calendar day information and the total number of pages scheduled within that day.
Specialty strips are used to mark holidays, travel days or other events that interrupt production.
Insert sample of divider strip.
I suggest using black ink when preparing the strips AND neatness is very important. You want to be able to easily read the numbers and other information on these thin strips.
Again, if you’re using computer software, you will notice that the template for the screen is designed to mimic the production board.
6. Devising the schedule
There are two components to a film schedule:
the schedule of scenes; and
the production calendar schedule.
6 A Schedule of Scenes
It’s now time to take all the scene strips and make a schedule of which scenes should be, can be shot together. This is an essential step in the development of a project because you have to have a good schedule of scenes to be able to subsequently create a realistic budget. Whether you use a production board or computer software, the critical thing is to take your time and be flexible, try different scenarios. For a feature film with a hundred and more scenes, there may be a number of different schedules that would be “correct”.
The first step is to make a decision regarding “making-a-day.” Making-a-day is the determination of how many pages of script you want to shoot on an average day. A normal feature film (single camera) generally has the goal to shoot 3 to 5 pages a day. Of course, this is an average and there are many factors to consider as we will see in the discussions that follow. TV Movies of the week often try to make-a-day with 10 to 12 pages. A large part of this decision is driven by available financing and budget, and a part of it is in response to the shooting style of the filmmaker/director.
How do we count the number of pages? Good, you were paying attention… by 1/8s. We know how long each scene is in the script and that number is on the breakdown sheets and the scene strips.
There are many factors involved with scheduling scenes and each has a different priority. The majority of the scheduling decisions for any film are made by considering two primary factors.
Primary Factors for Scheduling Scenes
- Setting
- Day or Night
The process here is to take all the scene strips and sort them twice, first by setting and then by whether the scene is day or night. It might feel a bit like you’re back in kindergarten, but its fun. Take the scene strips and find a large table. Separate the strips according to the different settings. Then, divide the strips within each setting by colors. We have now separated them by setting, day and night, and taken care of our two primary scheduling factors. If you’re using computer software, there will be a sort function that will allow you to do this process electronically.
You are now ready to take the first stab at making-a-day within these groupings (by setting, day or night) of strips. Take each grouping and count the number of pages that are covered by all the scenes in that grouping. If the number of pages totals 4 and your goal is 4 pages a day, congratulations, you’ve made your first day. Well, almost. Don’t get too excited yet, there are plenty of other scheduling factors than can mess up that neat little day.
You need to take a careful look at each scene in the pile for that day and determine whether there are any secondary scheduling factors which would affect our goal of making a day. For example, do any of the scenes involve extras, particularly large numbers of extras? If so, that scene will demand a lot more time than the “average”. Another factor is having a complicated series of stunts and/or special effects. A scene which involves child actors or animals is another case where extra time is normally needed. Is it a scene set in a particular historical period that involves unusual work on sets, costumes and makeup? Will there be special equipment, such as a dolly or a crane or a rain machine, used for the scene that will take time for setup and rehearsal? Musical and dance scenes almost always take additional time.
You would then reorganize the scenes based on your interpretation of the difficulty of production and you may wind up with a day that has scenes that only cover 2 pages of script. It is possible, depending on the scene, to only have one scene in a day and cover less than a page. The more production experience and the more scheduling experience you have will obviously help with these “judgment” calls.
The goal here is to determine how many days we will need to shoot this film. The schedule will also tell us how many days we will be in a particular setting, how many days the different cast members will be needed, how many days an expensive piece of equipment will be needed, how many days we will need extras, and so on. All this information is critical for our budget.
6 B. Production Calendar
After the scenes are sorted into reasonable production days the next task is to arrange the days on a production calendar. This is normally done during pre-production and is not something that we worry about during development.
One of the primary factors with the calendar is whether or not we are using any union or guilds in the production. If so, we have to abide by the rules and regulations of the general agreements with those unions or guilds. For example, most of them call for a 5-day work week. This means that you work for 5 days and then have to have two days off, but it does not mean that you have to work Monday to Friday. You can work Saturday through Wednesday and then take Thursday and Friday off. This may be very useful if you have scenes to shoot on some days that are in an office location and you only have access during the weekend. There is often an exception to the 5-day rule if you are shooting at a location that is a certain distance from your home base. With SAG, for example, you can have a 6-day week in that instance.
Most union/guild contracts also require a minimum of a 12-hour turnaround. This means that if you let people go from the set at 8 PM, then you can not call them back any earlier than 8 AM the next morning. This can affect your schedule if you are trying to go from day shoots to night shoots or vice verse.
Another critical factor in the production calendar involves the use of actors. There are several SAG rules concerning the scheduling of actors and the ability to have them work for a few days, then let them off a few days, and then call them back. If you do too much of this you can wind up paying them for the days they are not working. A good production manager will try to avoid this by intelligently scheduling actors so their scenes are on consecutive days. This is often not possible because of other more important scheduling factors but it’s good to keep in mind as it will directly affect our budget.
Locations are another factor in setting the production schedule. Some essential locations are only available on certain days. This will be determined during the location scouting part of pre-production and will often create headaches for the production manager and the production calendar. If alternative locations are not available or acceptable, you just have to work with the restrictions.
Other factors that impact the production calendar are holidays, travel days, special preparation or rehearsal days, and some other factors unique to each production. A big star might not be willing to work on his or her birthday, for example.
