![]() Up to this point, you’ve just listed all the elements written in the script but they’re a lot more details involved when you bring in the director. This is where you put questions you’ll pose to the director when you meet later on. ![]() There is one section we didn’t cover, production notes. This becomes a binder that when complete, every department head has a copy of.įor a simple short with a small crew, you might want to just use a spreadsheet, where each row is a scene and the columns your categories. Any special gear you’re going to need to get a shot for that scene.Īt this point, list out all these elements into the appropriate category on a breakdown sheet one sheet for each scene. You don’t want to get locked into a song you can’t afford.Īnd special equipment means just that: telescoping cranes, drone shots, car rigs. Think music rights for a song that your characters have to sing or dance to when you shoot. Sound Effects and Music applies to any audio that needs to recorded or acquired before editing and in some cases before shooting. Like when a piece of clothes has been torn or something happened to their hair. When we hear special effects we generally think green screen and CGI but it also covers literally any effect which has to be created on set: like a leaky sink, rain, fire or smoke.įor wardrobe, make-up, and hair, you want to list anything unique or different other than the established look for the character. This has to do with actor’s rates and titles which may not be such a big deal on a short. On paid gigs, there’s a big difference between your main cast, non-speaking roles, and extras. Most of these categories are self-explanatory but some need a little clarification. Line out each scene and number it based on the scene headings. They make a lot of sense on a 120-page feature film but for a 4 minute short with just a couple of locations, let's break it down the old fashioned way. ![]() This saves a lot of time and money on huge productions.īut they can be costly and may be overkill for a small project. These work great at highlighting and tagging these elements and putting them in breakdown sheets for you. Sure you can create a breakdown digitally if you use programs like Movie Magic Scheduling and Final Draft Tagger, or online services like StudioBinder. I’m going to show you the traditional on paper way of breaking down a script. It’s been around for over a hundred years and developed unique tools and systems that work and work well for our needs such as breaking down a script. That’s a lot of elements to manage and it all has to be collected and communicated in some way. It will also help you determine what those needs are going to cost you, your production budget.Īll of this is important because your lens sees outward in an ever-expanding cone and you want to control, to the best of your ability, everything in that cone, so that it helps in telling your story vs hindering it.Ī feature film, with 90 to 120 pages, could have 40 to 60 scenes or more. This breakdown will communicate to the various departments of your crew what they will need for each scene so they can make, manage and place them when the time comes. It's separating and numbering each scene in a script, and then highlighting and listing the elements in each scene as written. Today we’re going to show you how to break down a script: the traditional way they’ve done it in Hollywood forever, how it's changed in the digital age and how to pare it down and modify it a bit for your shorter indie projects. How to Discover All the Elements Your Film or Video Needs
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