Previously on The Storyteller Series we discussed how breaking down the script is the first step in scheduling your production. Once that process has been completed the next step is to analyze those elements and build your schedule. How is this done?

Well, first you get an Assistant Director. The Assistant Director (or 1st AD) acts as a liaison between the director, producers, cast and crew. They are charged with keeping the production on schedule so the film is efficient. During pre-production, their duties include breaking down the script, assessing and securing locations, assessing actor availability, and working with the director to create a shooting schedule.

Sienna Beckman is the Assistant Director for The Storyteller.

We knew the 3 weeks that we were shooting, so obviously the location dates had to be within that time frame. But we had to work with each location’s schedule and availability, as well as actor availability and consecutive shooting days, etc. A lot of the locations have been very flexible and gracious about us using their space, which makes scheduling so much easier. - Sienna Beckman, 1st AD of The Storyteller

A thing to keep in mind as we’re breaking down the elements of scheduling your shoot is that while most aspects of your indie production might differ from those of a big budget movie, having a cast of A-list stars doesn’t necessarily equal long shoots; Phone Booth, a movie starring Colin Farrell, was shot in just 10 days.

Making Your Schedule: The Key Factors

Shoot Dates = The days of your production.

The idea of shoot dates includes both your general production timeframe, as in ‘we are shooting from May 1st to June 15th’, and what the schedule will be for each specific day.

Location Availability = When you can have access to a certain location.

As we’ve discussed, finding and securing locations is a key part of the the production process. Making sure that you can film in all of those lovely locations is where the need for a schedule becomes key. As very few films are shot in sequence* it’s important to note when each location is available and for how long. A certain location might be available during the whole production whereas another is only available one day.

Example: There are two locations in your script: A bank and an apartment. The bank may only permit you to shoot on the weekend, outside of normal business hours. However, the apartment is available at any point during the production. In this case you would prioritize securing and scheduling the bank location first because it has less availability.

*To shoot a film in sequence means that the first scene you shoot is the first scene in your script, the next scene shot is the second scene in the script and so on until the end. This is rarely done, because if you have a script where, say, two thirds of the film takes place in a grocery store, it isn’t time or cost efficient to shoot one scene, leave the store and then reassemble the cast and crew when it’s time for the next scene in the store. Better to shoot all the grocery store scenes at once.

Know that a locked shooting scheduled may have to be unlocked, if a location suddenly falls through – like in the case of the iconic quote “How do I do a film called The Old Mill when I don’t have an old mill?” from State & Main:

Actor Availability = Making sure the actors are there when you need them.

The AD needs to know if the casted actors have any commitments before or after the production that will affect their schedule. This is because they need to assess which actors are needed on which shoot dates. If an actor is on another movie, and can’t arrive until the second week of production, it would make no sense to schedule scenes that include that member of the cast in the first week of production.

Example: When making Marvel’s Civil War the main actor Chris Evans was needed for the majority of the shoot. However, Paul Rudd (Ant Man) was not. As Paul Rudd is constantly working, the Assistant Director needed to know when he (Paul Rudd) would be available during the Civil War production so that the scenes involving Ant Man could be scheduled around that.

When casting breakdowns are created, companies like Breakdown Services will ask for the Shoot Days so that the actor will know whether or not they are available. A range of dates is acceptable, since the detailed shooting schedule won’t be locked in until much later in the pre-production process.

Shooting Schedule = What scenes are going to be filmed on what day.

The most important things are shoot dates, location availability, and actor availability/travel/time constraints. Then once those factors are locked, I can go in and shuffle around the actual scenes within the days to create the most streamlined and efficient shooting schedule. - Sienna Beckman, 1st AD of The Storyteller

To build a schedule, the 1st AD will compare the key factors along with each element from the script breakdown. There is a variety of scheduling software and online templates that will aide in this process. The most well know is a program called Movie Magic.

I have used Movie Magic several times before for more complicated shoots (multiple units, foreign travel), but for smaller projects like these, Scenechronize is very comparable and is very easy to make quick changes in. I like both, but Scenechronize is a bit easier to learn and it’s a bit easier to manipulate the data entry. - Sienna Beckman, 1st AD of The Storyteller

Scenechronize is a web-based program, which has HUGE advantages for an indie production. The most obvious being that it’s accessible in any location where you can get online. This allows the AD to update the schedule while on set. It also allows all the different departments to have access to the schedule and know exactly what wardrobe, prop or other item pertaining to their department is needed on any given day.

Other Important Factors

The biggest factors have been the locations and the actor availability. Some things might shift around within certain days to accommodate for wardrobe changes or specific lighting/camera requirements. We will know more about that after doing our tech scouts in the week leading up to the actual shoot. – Sienna Beckman, 1st AD of The Storyteller

Example: Towards the end of Seth Brundle’s transformation in Cronenberg’s The Fly, Jeff Goldblum had to sit in the makeup chair for 5 hours. It wouldn’t have made sense to schedule a scene where he’s without makeup before doing one with the makeup.

Similarly, scenes that require big light changes, even if they take place in the same location need to be scheduled accordingly.

Example: On my short film Lucky Charm, there were several scenes that took place in a jewelry store. For two of those scenes, I wanted the same camera set up. Now, if those scenes both took place during the day, we simply would have shot them at the same time. However, one scene took place at night, the other during the day. Because of this we shot all the day scenes first, then broke the actors and the crew changed the lighting so that the set looked like it was now night time* and we shot the night scenes. Bonus info – shooting a night scene during the day is called shooting day for night and is something you want to make note of in your schedule.

The Storyteller is a unique movie in that they have had a very long pre-production process. This has an effect not only on the writer’s ability to sharpen the shooting script, but also for the Assistant Director to prep the production.

My job has just been a bit more spread out. It’s better for the production team to have a longer pre-production process, so they have time to sort out all the details. Most of what I’ve been doing is creating the first draft of the schedule, then making changes as more details are locked by production. It hasn’t affected me too much, but it has been nice to have the time to digest and absorb all the details of the shoot, so I feel prepared and ready when we actually go into production. – Sienna Beckman, 1st AD of The Storyteller

And production is officially underway! The Storyteller’s first shoot day was June 27th and will continue through July 16th. Join us next time when we discuss Tech Scouting. Until then, remember that even with the most meticulous planning, things can and will go wrong. Just ask Terry Gilliam:

To create the best schedule, you must account for every element in your story.

How does one find all those elements? Simple: They are in your script.

A Script Breakdown is when the producer and/or the first assistant director take the locked script and go through and mark the occurrence of every element. This should not be confused with a casting breakdown, which is used when finding your actors.

The first step in the script breakdown process is to have a script that you feel is ready to be broken down. It won’t do you any good to start planning your production if the script is still in the collaborative stage.

We waited until we were pretty certain there would be no more major changes – because we didn’t want to lock in the shoot dates until we were sure no locations would be changing dramatically. – Rachel Noll, Producer of The Storyteller.

Now let’s be honest, a script is never truly finished. Even while filming there can be changes. Still, a schedule has to be made. So how does a filmmaker know when their script is ready for breakdown?

Once we had a general idea of what our locations were and where they were located, and had secured our cast and confirmed they had no conflicts with the shoot dates, we sat down with our 1st AD to break down and schedule the script. This happened in January – 5 months out from the shoot. We wanted to get this stuff locked down early so we could start booking travel for our actors. – Rachel Noll, Producer of The Storyteller.

The script is ready? Time to start breaking it down!

Step 1: Number Your Scenes

Below is an example of a Scene Heading from a writer’s draft:

Int. Heather’s Apartment – Afternoon

Now this is fine for the writer, but production needs to know how many scenes are in the script and which of those scenes are self-contained. A self-contained scene is one that can be shot in its entirety. Thus whether you schedule that scene in the morning, afternoon, end of the shoot or the beginning of the shoot, you’re going to film the entire scene.

Below is an example of a Scene Heading from a production’s draft:

1. Int. Heather’s Apartment – Afternoon 1.

Step 2: Measure Your Scenes

Numbering the scenes also allows production to have an idea of how long each scene will be. In a properly formatted script, 1 page equals 1 minute of screen time. So, if Scene 5 is three pages long, we can estimate that Scene 5 will equal 3 minutes of screen time.

An 8th of a Page:

When it comes to the length of your scenes, you want to be as specific as possible. If a scene is longer than a page but less that two pages, simply saying “the scene is a page and a half,” doesn’t work. The industry standard is to divide your pages into 8ths.

Thus a scene that’s longer than a page, but less than two, can be accurately described as “a page and 3/8ths,” or such.

While there are many programs that aid in the breaking down of a script (more on those in a moment), there is a more tactile way:

1. Print out your script
2. Take a ruler
3. Using the ruler, horizontally divide your script into 8ths.

Here’s a visual for that nifty little trick.

Step 3: Time To Color

Whether you are working in a budgeting software or are using a printout and colored highlighters/pencils, the process in the same. Each element in your script is assigned a color or symbol. You then read through the script and highlight (or if using color pencils, underline) the element with its corresponding color/symbol.

The Elements and their color/designated symbol:

1. Cast – The speaking actors. Remember, this is NOT for casting, this is so you know which members of your cast are needed in a given scene.
2. Featured Extras – An extra that has no lines but performs a specific action
3. Background Extras – Extras that create the atmosphere for a scene. Example: Diners in a restaurant.
4. Stunts – Any action where you will need a stunt coordinator and possibly a stunt double for the actor(s).
5. Props – The objects in a script that are used by the actor.
6. Special Effects
7. Vehicles/Animals
8. Sound Effects/Music – This is for anything that happens on set, NOT sounds added in post.
9.Wardrobe (circle all occurrences) – This is for specific costumes needed for the production AND to track any changes to those costumes. Example: The character is running in the woods, trips and rips their pants.
10. *Hair/Make-up* – All actors have hair/make-up done, but this is to call attention to a particular story point. Example: The character has been cut and is bleeding.
11. Special Equipment (box all occurrences) – Does the scene require any kind of unique camera equipment? Example: The scene takes place in a lake, and you would like an underwater camera to do a shark POV.
12. Production Notes – This calls attention to any concerns/questions for a given scene.

Still need help with the breakdown? Here’s a great video from a working Assistant Director that takes you through the process:

Step 4: The Breakdown Sheets

Once you know every element needed for every scene, you will use that information to create both your schedule and determine the budget not only for your department as a whole, but how that budget will be divided between the different departments.

Each scene of the script is given a Breakdown Sheet. It lists all the different elements and information for that scene.

Here’s an example of a Breakdown Sheet template. Breakdown sheets are then used to build your production schedule.

So Many Programs!

Our 1st AD – who is usually in charge of scheduling the shoot – did the breakdown with me (producer.) So I was able to offer insight into some of the production logistics, and she worked within the software to break it down digitally into the scheduling program. – Rachel Noll, Producer of The Storyteller.

As mentioned above, there are a number of computer programs that are designed to help breakdown, schedule and budget a film. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Final Draft Tagger – This function allows you to go through the script is Final Draft and “tag” all the elements. You can then export those tags and input into most scheduling software. This is basically the same as using a highlighter but done digitally. The caveat is that you must use a scheduling software that can use the export. Here’s a link that lists the types of scheduling/budgeting software that is compatible.

Movie Magic Scheduling – Allows you to input all of your elements, create the breakdown sheets and, based on those sheets, create a schedule.

Our AD utilized a program called Scenechronize online. She prefers this program for its ease of use compared to Movie Magic Scheduling. – Rachel Noll, Producer of The Storyteller.

Scenechronize – The big difference between this program and Movie Magic, is that Scenechronize is a web-based program. Here’s an in-depth article describing the differences between the two programs.

The prep work is now over: With your breakdown sheets in hand, you can commence with scheduling your production. Join us next time when we do just that; Scheduling and the Importance of Having a Great 1st AD. Until then, here’s a trailer for another movie about making movies that came out this year. May your production be easier than theirs:

h/t StudioBinder – Breaking Down A Script