From Script to Schedule

Transcription

1 Chapter 4 From Script to Schedue INTRODUCTION My definition of production is the process of taking a script and creating (or producing ) a movie (or TV show, cabe movie, commercia, webisode, mobisode or interactive program or game) from it. In simper terms, it s the manufacturing of a product. This chapter covers (among other reated issues) certain basic eements of production the script breakdown, board and schedue and how each step progressivey eads to the next. If you re not aready breaking down scripts and creating schedues, it s doubtfu that reading this chapter woud quaify you to do so. It wi, however, provide you with a fundamenta understanding of how it a works; why it s important to know and why these functions are the basis for the entire fimmaking process. For further information on breakdowns and schedues, check out Samue French Book Store ( or other bookstores that se fim-reated pubications and see the many books devoted to this topic. Casses and seminars on fim scheduing are aso avaiabe wherever fim courses are offered. IT ALL STARTS WITH A SCRIPT Making a movie begins when you re handed a competed screenpay (script) written by someone ese or have finished one that you ve written yoursef. Sometimes it s a spec script that you or someone ese is trying to se or raise money to produce, in which case, being abe to do a schedue and budget based on the script wi et everyone invoved know the approximate ength of time it shoud take to shoot and how much it s ikey to cost important factors to seing the project. Other times, you re hired by a studio, production company or producer to work on a fim after the script has been bought and the project has been greenit (given a firm go and start date). In this case, at east one preiminary schedue and budget (probaby severa) have aready been done, and everyone invoved has at east an indication of how ong it shoud take to shoot and how much it shoud cost to make (athough these factors continue to vary throughout the production process). Note that budgets shoud be based on shooting schedues, and the better and more detaied the schedue, the more accurate the budget wi be (as ong as whoever s preparing them has the appropriate expertise). Most professiona writers submit screenpays that are formatted propery (the formatting is automaticay buit into a screenpay writing software, the most common one being Fina Draft). If you choose to write a script and set your own tabs to the correct format using Word, you can (and shoud) use a font caed Courier Fina Draft. If for whatever reason, you receive a script that isn t formatted propery, it wi need to be revised before anything ese can be done. Standard industry writing formats create uniform-sized pages, so a fim expected to be 90 to 100 minutes in ength shoud have a screenpay that s 100 to 120 pages ong or approximatey one page for each minute of screen time. Often, you receive a script that doesn t have scene numbers or contains scenes that are impropery identified. (A scene represents a segment of action that takes pace in the same ocation over the same period of time.) The person who does the initia breakdown (usuay a production manager or ine producer) wi assign propery paced scene numbers to the script. They may change sighty when the script is turned over to the first assistant director during prep, but once finaized by the 1st AD, think of them as carved in stone, because the cast, crew and editoria staff wi organize and schedue their work according to the script s scene numbers. So once finaized, they can t change. New materia is introduced to a script by adding a etter to the previous scene number. For instance, a new scene that occurs between scenes 4 and 5 woud be numbered A5. An addition to that woud be scene B5, and so on. If a scene is omitted, the scene number woud remain in the script with the word Omitted typed next to it. The same hods true for page numbers; they shoudn t be changed either. If you were to engthen a scene that appeared on page 20 that now runs a page and a haf, the new haf page woud become page 20A, and page 21 woud be eft as it is. A new or omitted scene numbers and pages are issued on change pages with an asterisk (*) in the right-hand margin next to each ine where a change has occurred. Script Revisions The term fina draft amost never means fina. It woud be idea if a script changes coud be made in the eary stages of pre-production, but reaity is that changes (even sma ones) are often made not ony up to, but aso throughout, # 2010 Eve Light Honthaner. Pubished by Esevier Inc. A rights reserved. doi: /B

2 80 The Compete Fim Production Handbook principa photography. Script revisions need to be indicated in a precise manner in order for everyone to know if and how each change wi affect them and/or their department. It s not necessary to run off entire new scripts every time there are changes. The accepted standard is to distribute coored change pages just those pages on which changes occur. For exampe, the first set of change pages are copied onto bue paper, the second set onto pink, and so forth. The standard coor progression runs: white bue pink yeow green godenrod buff samon cherry tan gray ivory Taes from The Trenches My friend Jerram Swartz (who s a terrific 1st AD/UPM, by the way) was kind enough to review this chapter for me, and after reading this ast section, he shared an amusing story with me. It s about his friend, a UPM/producer named Raph Burris. Some time ago, Raph was setting up production offices for a ow-budget action thrier. The renta offices housed more than one production and came with a copy machine that the tenants shared. The office manager expained to Raph that the price of copying on coored paper was 4 per copy except for the godenrod, which was 5 per copy. Upon hearing that, he burted out, then we skip the godenrod, which prompted a augh from the penny-pinching producers. But it gave Raph the idea that Skip Godenrod woud be a good name for a owbudget production company. And after that, he started using the name as part of his e-mai address and on trade show name badges. Once you ve gone through each coor and eeven sets of script revisions, you can begin again by using white change pages, then bue, then pink, etc. Some studios have made it a practice to come out with an entire bue-paged script once the origina script has gone through a eeven sets of muticoored revision pages. Changes to a bue script woud start with pink pages and continue to progress through the same cyce of coors. It s very rare not to have a muticoored script by the end of principa photography. And the way it works is that each time you receive a new set of changes, you carefuy insert each page into your script as numbered, removing the corresponding page that s aready there as you go aong. So if you were to receive a bue page 3 and page 3A, you woud remove the white page 3 and repace it with both bue change pages. And then when the next set of revisions come out, you might receive a pink page 3 and page 6, so you woud exchange the bue page 3 (though not 3A) with the pink and exchange the white page 6 with the pink. The act of removing and repacing pages continues with each set of changes. Just as the various coors are important to differentiate between sets of changes, it s aso important to indicate the name of the fim, the coor and the date of the revision at the top of each revised page. For exampe, at the top of a white page that remains in the script unchanged, you woud see: (Name of fim) Shooting Draft (date) A revised yeow page woud read: (Name of fim) Yeow Revisions (date) The tite page of your script shoud be in the coor of your atest set of changes, and woud ook something ike this: (TITLE OF SCRIPT) by (writer or writers) Previous Revisions by (writer or writers) Current Revisions by (writer or writers) Fina Shooting Draft (date) Bue Revisions (date) Pink Revisions (date) Yeow Revisions (date)... Your script supervisor wi keep track of a revised page counts and the revised number of scenes on a daiy og, which wi in turn be transferred to the Daiy Production Report. When change pages are generated, it s imperative that they re distributed to the peope who need them immediatey. In addition to the producer(s), director and production manager, the first assistant director wi need to know if and how these changes wi affect the schedue; the casting director and/or specific cast members wi need to know if there are changes in their diaogue; and the ocation manager wi need to know if any ocation has been deeted or new ones added. The same wi hod true for each department head. Wi new equipment or props have to be ordered? Wi more or fewer extras be needed? Again, changes need to be distributed to those who need them as soon as possibe. Often, script changes are e-maied, or if the production is operating with the hep of a virtua production office, they may be upoaded onto a website, so that those who

3 Chapter 4 From Script to Schedue 81 need them can access the site and downoad them from there. And because they re not handed out in hard copy form as often as they used to be, the coor needs to be indicated at the top of each revised page. Once a show has finished fiming and post production is competed, a truy fina script is generated. It s caed a Continuity Script and contains the exact (word-for-word) diaogue and action as it appears in the fina cut version of the picture. Continuity scripts are for purposes of distribution and are required as part of your deivery requirements. THE BREAKDOWN To accuratey schedue a fim and determine how many days each actor and stunt performer wi be required to work, how many days the fim wi be shot at each ocation and exacty what s required to accompish each scene, a breakdown is done. Before you begin this process, read the script at east once without anayzing scenes or making notes. Then, if you choose to break down the script manuay, you need a few good pencis, a transparent ruer and at east one highighter. Once you re ready to get to work, your first step is to create the scene numbers (or to make sure they re accuratey identified) if they don t aready exist. Then in penci, draw a horizonta ine across the page at the end of each scene. Each scene is then measured by its page count, and that figure is indicated in the margin. The page count is determined by dividing each page into eighths. Because the text of a script page frequenty doesn t start at the very top of the page or end at the very bottom, it can be a bit confusing, but if you go with the rue of thumb that each eighth of a page equates to approximatey one inch of text, your page counts shoud be fairy accurate. Another way to cacuate page count is by using the center hoe in the eft margin of your page as the hafway point with four-eighths above the hoe and four-eighths beow. You can aso fod a piece of paper verticay into eighths, and using it as a ruer hod it up (in sections) against each scene. After foding the paper, you d write 1/8, 2/8, etc. aong one side to deineate each eighth, and it woud ook ike this: FIGURE 4.1 1/8 2/8 3/8 4/8 5/8 6/8 7/8 1 pg. If a scene is ess than one inch, it s sti counted as 1/8 page. And don t worry if you shoud end up with a page that contains more or ess than 8 eighths. Fu pages are indicated as 1 page, not 8/8ths, and 1⅛ pages woud be isted as 1⅛ page not 9/8. Aong the same ines, don t reduce 2/8 to 1/4, 4/8 to 1/2 or 6/8 to 3/4. Keep everything under one page in eighths. And shoud you have a situation in which (for exampe) you have a scene that s more than 2/8 but not quite 3/8 page, use your judgment. If it s a busy scene, assign the higher page count to it. The next step is to highight or underine the specific components in each scene. Some peope use a coorcoding system, assigning a coor to each eement (cast, ocation, wardrobe, props, etc.) and then highighting or underining that eement by its appropriate coor. Coorcoded or not, these are some of the components that shoud be identified: Scene headings Interior or exterior Day or night Locations Cast members Key props Key wardrobe Extras Stunts Visua effects (Physica) specia effects Picture vehices Animas Specia equipment Minors, babies, etc. Aso singe out scenes that can be done by a second unit. Those woud be scenes shot without principa actors, such as estabishing shots, certain stunts, car drive-bys, etc. As you gain more experience, you be abe to read more than what s on the page and anticipate needs that aren t specificay speed out as you re going through the script. For instance, if you have a character or two swimming under water, you might make a note for yoursef in the margin: underwater camera operator and equipment & safety divers. If you have a scene that takes pace in a bar or poo ha, you'd make notes in the margin that might incude: smoke machine, fan, BG (for background) patrons, etc. As you go through the script and divide it into scenes, you aso identify the script day associated with each scene the day (in the story) each scene takes pace. And if a scene is a fashback, that has to be highighted/ noted as we. Here s a sampe of what a script page woud ook once you ve broken it down:

4 82 The Compete Fim Production Handbook FIGURE 4.2 Historicay, the method (before everyone was using computer software) was to transfer the information from your script breakdown onto individua breakdown sheets. From there, pertinent detais from the breakdown sheets were transferred onto individua cardboard strips that were then arranged and rearranged on what s caed a strip board utimatey creating a shooting schedue. Strip boards are mutipaneed, easy to fod up, viny-coated or wooden, 15 to 18 inches high and are made to verticay hod individua cardboard strips. They re rarey used any more, but when they are, it s usuay in addition to an eectronic version. For years, even after most professionas used ony scheduing software, I taught my students how to schedue a fim using a strip board and coored strips, because I beieved that more thought went into the process if you got to touch and hande the strips as you were figuring it a out. But I don t even know anyone who teaches scheduing that way anymore, so I ve ong tucked my board and eftover strips into the back of a coset. Utimatey, though, no matter whether it s done manuay or eectronicay, the process of creating a schedue is the same. The most prevaent software being used at this time is Entertainment Partner s Movie Magic Scheduing (www. entertainmentpartners.com/content/products/scheduing. aspx), but aso worth checking out is a web-based production management software system caed Scenechronize ( that combines the script, breakdown and scheduing into a singe appication. For the

5 Chapter 4 From Script to Schedue 83 purposes of this chapter, however, I m going to be referring to Entertainment Partner s (EP s) Movie Magic, and I thank Entertainment Partners for etting me use their forms for the purpose of iustration. The beauty of the software is its versatiity easiy creating different variations of the schedue, being abe to make changes without having to retype in a the detais and having specific props, wardrobe, vehices, etc. inked to specific characters, so these detais are automaticay noted when the character appears in any number of the many reports the program generates. Additionay, the reports can be saved as PDF fies, so they can be easiy e-maied or upoaded. You can create a caendar (to go with each version of the schedue) that indicates trave days, shoot days, hoidays and days off; and another more recent feature is an estimated time fied that aows you to approximate production times. Some peope enter the pertinent detais from their manua script breakdown onto eectronic breakdown pages; others input the reevant information directy onto their computers as they re reading the script, skipping the whoe ruer/highighter/notes-in-the-margin thing. Once you ve input the information, a Movie Magic breakdown sheet woud ook ike this: FIGURE 4.3

6 84 The Compete Fim Production Handbook The breakdown sheets are numbered in sequence, with each one representing a scene. Note that you can group more than one scene on a page if the scenes take pace at the same ocation, with the same characters at the same time of day. A good rue of thumb is that if you can do two scenes without having to cut the camera, they can go on the same breakdown page. Noted on each breakdown sheet wi be information indicating the foowing: The scene number(s) Whether it s INT (interior) or EXT (exterior) The scripted ocation of where the scene takes pace Whether it s Day or Night (possiby Dusk or Dawn or Day for Night) The page count A brief description of the scene just enough to get the favor of what the scene(s) is(are) about. In one of my casses, we were breaking down a script where a man was making breakfast for his sons, whom he was panning to take hunting right after breakfast. When the boys arrived at the kitchen tabe, the father fipped the ast of the eggs onto their pates, then proceeded to surprise them with a gift of new rifes. It was quite a engthy scene, but the description on the breakdown page merey read guns and eggs. The story day The characters (isted in order of their assigned numbers) A ist of stunt performers (these can be incuded under CAST, uness it s a heavy stunt show) A ist of extras (i.e., Pirates [6], Wenches [12], Prisoners [100]) Breakdown sheets shoud aso be used to note specific requirements for the foowing departments: Wardrobe Props Set dressing Art department/construction Specia personne (i.e., Studio Teacher, Safety Diver, Additiona Camera Crew) Vehices Camera Specia (mechanica) effects Specia visua effects Specia equipment Animas Sound effects/music Other anything ese worth noting not covered in one of the previous categories It s aso common to create a category caed DQs Director Questions, where you can ist issues to be resoved before the schedue is pubished. It keeps the questions inked to the scenes they pertain to. Another step in this process is to assign a number to each speaking roe in the script. These numbers, once estabished, never change, and the actors aong with the characters they portray are forever identified by that number in schedues, day-out-of-days, daiy ca sheets, production reports, SAG time sheets (Exhibit Gs), etc. Generay, the character with the most scenes is isted as #1, the character with the second greatest number of scenes woud be #2, and so forth. However, there are those who use different numbering criteria such as: the characters importance to the story, the vaue of the actors appearance in the movie or the order in which they appear in the script. First Assistant Director Lou Race has a unique numbering system that he s deveoped over the years, and he s agreed to et me share some of his rues with you. They are: The first four or five numbers in the cast ist are obviousy driven by the ogic of the script and the prestige of the performers. (Maron Brando got to be #1 on Apocaypse Now, even though his roe was reativey sma, and he doesn t show up unti two hours into the fim.) #13 is aways reserved for a bad guy or for a comic reief character. If you have a script with both, then it s a judgment ca. Lou admits that athough he knows this is poiticay incorrect, he reserves round numbers (3, 6, 8, 9) for women and straight numbers (1, 4, 7) for men. Why? body shape, making it easier to identify women on the board. Oh, and by the way, 2 and 5 can swing either way. Coupes, especiay if they re secondary roes, get consecutive numbers, such as Mr. and Mrs. Jones being assigned 22 and 23 (note that Mrs. Jones has the round number). Simiary, roes that appear together are given adjacent numbers Joe, Susan and Cury who a work in the Coffee Shop are 15, 16 and 17 (again, it s Susan who has the round number). Characters who are numbered to begin with, ike Gangster #1, Gangster #2 and Gangster #3 are given numbers that correspond to their character numbers (such as 31, 32, 33). The ogic behind this is that it aows you to ook at a board, and if a number from the group is missing, you re prompted to go into the script to see why. Is that character truy not in the scene or has someone (ike you) made a mistake? THE BOARD The scheduing software program takes the most significant information (scene number, ocation, day/night, int/ ext, cast, etc.) from the breakdown pages and creates strips that can be arranged eectronicay onto a board. Users are given a choice of both horizonta and vertica tempates each a itte different. An option, which works best with the vertica formats, is to use a header board (which was standard on the od strip boards): a wide, vertica section that sits to the eft of the strips and at the top,

7 Chapter 4 From Script to Schedue 85 indicates director, producer, AD and script date. Beow that, it ists each roe and roe number as we as other pertinent categories such as vehices and BG (background) actors, which ine up with the corresponding assigned numbers noted on the strips. Most commony used nowadays are the horizonta tempates, and a tempates can be modified to add, deete or change the positioning of the information. To make the strips easier to arrange, they re assigned coors designating day or night, interior or exterior. Here are the traditiona coors used (and some coo ways to remember which coor represents what): Yeow strips ¼ day exterior (Ext.) (think of the sun) White strips ¼ day interior (Int.) (think of fuorescent ights) Green strips ¼ night exterior (Ext.) (take the yeow from Day/Ext and add bue [to represent night], and you end up with green) Bue strips ¼ night interior (Int.) (take the white from Day/Int and add Bue to represent night) Back strips ¼ day dividers Orange strips ¼ stock footage The software aows you to easiy change the coors, so if you want to use bue for night exterior instead of green, you can. You can aso add coors to designate dawn, morning, dusk and evening. Once the strips are competed, you re ready to start figuring out a schedue. THE SCHEDULE A schedue is created by way of grouping and arranging (and rearranging) the strips, and you woud begin by separating the strips by the foowing factors: Sets and ocations (it s expensive to be jumping back and forth between ocations, so one ocation is shot at a time whenever possibe) Cast members (keep actors days as consoidated as possibe; the more costy their services, the faster you want them to compete their roe. Aso be aware of reated SAG contract guideines. For exampe, if you re using an actor on Monday and Thursday, but not on Tuesday or Wednesday, he must be carried and paid for those ide days uness the drop/pick rue appies.) Day/night shooting Exteriors/interiors Use of chid actors (remember, they can work ony a imited number of hours per day) Changes in time periods A difference in a character s appearance (weight, hair ength, etc.) Time of year Weather conditions Possibe cover sets Specia effects and stunts Second camera days and/or second unit The use of specia equipment Another factor to take into consideration is the aowance of turnaround (the specified number of hours required between dismissa from the set at the end of one day s shooting and the next day s ca time) when scheduing day-to-night or night-to-day sequences. Once the strips are separated, take each ocation grouping and separate those by Interior and Exterior, Day and Night. Arrange the board by ocations, then arrange them by cast numbers within each ocation grouping. Keep doing this with each of the factors in order of importance to your production. When arranging strips, keep in mind that difficut stunts and effects are often panned eary in the schedue, so if probems do arise, there may sti be enough time to ater the schedue and faciitate changes. And just in genera aow enough time for the scenes that are going to take onger to set up, such as a shot of someone driving a car, which requires a camera car and tow rig. It s aso a good idea to pan exterior ocation shooting as eary as possibe and stage (or interior) shooting at the tai end of the schedue, so cover sets aren t used up eary on shoud there be a weather probem. Some directors ike to shoot scenes as cose to their proper script order as possibe. Some shows are schedued with the most intimate scenes saved for ast to give the actors enough time to fee comfortabe with each other. Some eave the most compicated scenes for ast to give the crew more time to prep. I worked on one fim that had a crazy schedue in order to accommodate our ead actor, who was appearing simutaneousy as a reguar on a popuar TV series. There are a mutitude of factors to take into consideration when scheduing a show as we as intangibe eements that can affect scheduing, and each comes with a different set of variabes. Now that the strips are in order, you want to know how many pages to schedue per day. This wi depend on different factors, such as the rate of speed in which your director and director of photography work. You may be on a show (such as an episodic teevision series) that has a finite number of days in which to shoot or your budget may ony accommodate so many shoot days. There are aso times when you may have to base your number of shoot days on an actor s avaiabiity. If you re ucky enough, you can pan for as many shoot days as you fee are necessary. Once you determine the ength of your schedue, take the number of pages in the script and divide that by the number of days in the schedue to get the number of pages you need to shoot each day. Movies for teevision generay shoot five to six pages per day; series, six to seven pages; and with features we, it just depends. Remember that there are certain factors you need to

8 86 The Compete Fim Production Handbook aow more time for: stunts, effects, animas, specia equipment, working with chidren, making moves, workingonorinwaterorcodweather,workinginoraround aircraft or boats, etc. Location work is aso more timeconsuming than stage work. If you have the uxury, schedue a ighter first day to give the cast and crew a chance to get used to working together. Day break strips (which are usuay back) are inserted underneath the strips that constitute a day s work. They indicate: End of Day #, (date) (page count) The software wi pu the date from the caendar you ve created and wi automaticay cacuate the page count. Once a day break is in pace, you see that the corresponding breakdown page wi now incude the shooting day number and the date that scene (or set of scenes) wi be shot. You can aso add banner strips to your board to bring specia attention to anything pertinent to your schedue, such as a trave day, company move or pre-rigging. There is no such thing as a fina board, because the schedue changes often (even if ony sighty) based on changing circumstances. But once it s pretty we arranged by shooting order, the sequence of the strips aong with the information on the breakdown sheets are used to automaticay generate a Shooting Schedue, which is a detaied bueprint for each day of shooting. Shooting schedues are distributed to everyone associated with the picture, as we as shorter versions of the schedue, caed One-Line Schedues (aso referred to as oneiners). Other reports generated by Movie Magic incude the Day-Out-of-Days, Cast List and Set List, which are a distributed throughout pre-production continuousy being updated as deas and ocations are finaized, roes are being cast and decisions are being made. This a eads up to the distribution of the first shooting schedue at the ast (fu) production meeting hed a few days to a week before shooting begins. The foowing is a sampe of what a One-Line Schedue woud ook ike: Schedued 20 Day Ext. Laura's House, Backyard 3/8 4, 6 Laura goes to pooside 22 Day Ext. Laura's House, Backyard 3/8 4, 6 Laura Sets up her spot, reads a bit 24 Day Ext. Laura's House, Backyard 3/8 4, 6 Steve comes out so see Laura 21 Day Ext. Aey/Fence 5/8 1, 2, 3 The boys peer through the fence 23 Day Ext. Aey/Fence 5/8 1, 2, 3 The boys peer through the fence, swapping paces 25 Day Ext. Aey/Fence Marc ooks through the fence 5/8 1, 2, 3 End Day # 6 Monday, January 18, Tota Pages: :00 FIGURE 4.4 Day-Out-of-Days A Day-Out-of-Days is a chart that denotes workdays primariy referring to the cast. It s aso a handy way to chart schedues for stunt performers, picture vehices, specia equipment and anything that might pertain to your show. For exampe, if you re doing a water picture and using severa different boats throughout the shoot, it woud be a good idea to do a day-out-of-days tracking which days each boat works. (Note: to do this, you need to create a category in your breakdown caed Marine, so the information is appended to each strip it needs to be with.) There are code etters used on the Day-Out-of-Days that are aso used on Ca Sheets, Production Reports and SAG time sheets (Exhibit Gs) a reating to cast workdays. Here s the way it works: S ¼ Start this denotes the first day of work, whether it s a rehearsa, trave or shoot day. R ¼ Rehearse T ¼ Trave coud aso be used for Test days, and on shows with both test and trave days, trave might be designated with a TR W ¼ Work referencing a shoot day H ¼ Hod an ide day for weeky or daiy performers who remain on payro unti their roes are competed D ¼ Drop as in drop/pick-up, which is when an actor has intervening time of at east ten caendar days

9 Chapter 4 From Script to Schedue 87 between work days (for rues pertaining to consecutive empoyment and drop/pickup, see Chapter 12) P ¼ Pick-up the second haf of a drop/pick-up F ¼ Finish The first entry for any actor woud be an SR, ST or SW. The first day aways starts with an S and one other etter. The exception woud be if an actor works for one day ony, in which case the designation woud be SWF. Just as a first days start with an S, a ast days end with an F, as in WF or TF. In a drop/pick-up situation, an actor s schedue may be indicated with a SWD or WD on the ast day of the first part of his or her engagement, and a PW (foowing the intervening days) on the first day of the second part of his or her engagement. The foowing is what a Day-Out-of-Days ooks ike: "" Day Out of Days Report for Cast Members (Pg: 1 of 1) Month/Day 01/11 01/12 01/13 01/14 01/15 01/16 01/17 01/18 01/19 Co. Day of Week Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Trave Work Hod Hoiday Start Finish TOTAL Shooting Day Herby SW W W W W W WF 7 01/11 01/ Jed SW W W W W W WF 7 01/11 01/ Marc SW W W W W W WF 7 01/11 01/ Laura SW WF 2 01/18 01/ Rat Man SWF 1 01/14 01/ Steve SWF 1 01/18 01/ George SW WF 2 01/11 01/ Jake SWF 1 01/12 01/ Mom SW H H WF /14 01/ Cop #1 SWF 1 01/13 01/ Cop #2 SWF 1 01/13 01/13 1 FIGURE 4.5 Breakdowns Breakdowns are schedues of individua eements tracked by shoot day/date, scene number(s) and/or ocation. This coud incude extras, stand-ins, stunts, effects, secondunit requirements, picture vehices, make-up/hair, specia equipment, etc. Athough department heads wi create their own departmenta breakdowns, the 1st AD can create specific breakdowns appropriate to the show. Asdiscussedpreviousy,theycanbedetaiedintheform of a Day-Out-of-Days or as a Report. (Note that you can aso track individua eements by scene with the Strips feature of Movie Magic software.) You can track which scenes have music, animas, specific vehices or which extras work on each day. If you re working on a fim about a road trip, you want a breakdown of which scenes are shot in which scripted (and actua) ocations. If you have potentia weather issues, you might want to do a breakdown of cover sets. The more materia that s broken down ahead of time, the more prepared your crew is going to be. Continuity Breakdown There are different variations of the Continuity Breakdown, but basicay, they a track the sequence (or progression) of events and are extremey usefu toos. Here s a basic format for a Continuity Breakdown: Shoot Day, Date Story Year, Month, Day Scene No(s) Page Count Story Location Shooting Location Brief Description FIGURE 4.6 Individua continuities shoud aso be prepared for anything reevant to your show. If a person ages or has a weight change during the course of a script, if a car gets more damaged as the story progresses, if a buiding or town deteriorates or improves or a person graduay transforms into a creature, you want to know which stage the progression is in at a times. A continuity schedue of this type wi chronoogicay ist scenes numbers, and in the next coumn, a description of the evoution at that point in the story. Then, no matter what order the scenes are shot, a departments wi know exacty what s required of them. Specia thanks to my friends 1 st AD/UPM Jerram Swartz, Line Producer Stephen Marinaccio and Ron Cogan from Entertainment Partners for their hep with this chapter.