Part 4 in a series of posts I’m doing on on producing a micro budget short is about doing the groundwork for pre-production. A script breakdown is the first thing you do before you prepare your budget and schedule. In it’s simplest form it is breaking each scene down into it’s elements to end up with a list of the things you need to make your film, organized into categories.
There are industry standardized methods and practices to do this, as well as software such as the free CeltX and the classic Movie Magic, which I won’t go into now because you should start with the essence of it and then find tools to work with secondary. I mention these tools with hesitation, not because I don’t think they might help, but because I don’t want to send people off looking into some new gadgets you can buy. There’s tons of fancy iPhone apps and stuff many of the blogs are covering – but then we are back on square one: What to buy?
Basically you need to look carefully at each sentence of each scene and see what is there that needs sorting out. Here’s a random example I picked from The Crying Game script:
INT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT.
Jody pulled through and tied to a chair. Maguire, a small
lean man, talks to him through the hood.
MAGUIRE
The situation is simple. You're being
held hostage by the Irish Republican
Army. They've got one of our senior
members under interrogation in
Castleraigh. We've informed them that if
they don't release him within three days,
you'll be shot. You'll be treated as our
guest until further developments. Have
you anything to say?
Jody is motionless under the black hood.
FERGUS
Give him a cup of tea.
MAGUIRE
Do you want a cup of tea?
He still says nothing.
DISSOLVE.
All the men are drinking tea. The blond woman comes in with a
plate and some food on it.
FERGUS
See does he want some.
JUDE
Do you want some food?
Jody sits as still as a grave, saying nothing.
DISSOLVE.
Late at night -- it is dark. The men are sleeping. Fergus is
sitting by a chair, gun in his hand, watching the prisoner.
Jude comes in, with a flashlight.
Ok so how would you break down this little piece of script? First of all:
To our list of locations we can add:
Farmhouse
To your list of actors you add:
Jody
Maguire
Fergus
Jude
We should also make a list of props:
Rope to tie
Black Hood
Gun
Flashlight
Tea cups
Plates with food
Often you use colour codes, and markers to highlight the word that implies a certain category for the script. This Wikipedia article suggests standard colours. Obviously, each “department” (in your case most department will probably only have one member!) will look at each scene and make their own observations. DP will think how to light this so it looks like night. He’ll also observe that later in the scene it is “late at night” – how will they change the lighting to reflect that? It’s really important for the story that you understand how much time has passed. Also, a flashlight appears, how will they control the ratio between the ambient light and flashlight so that it registers on the media your are filming on? Sound design will think about what sounds to use to make sure we understand that i’s a farm house, etc. Studying the script is the way to prepare, and preparation is your way to do something on a reasonable budget and schedule.
However: To begin with, you focus on the things that need sorting out in pre-production, the things that affect how you arrange the schedule, and the things that will cost money and influence your budget.
Big film productions are often very strict on what constitutes as “props”, “set dressing” or “wardrobe” etc because it has to do with who is responsible for what, and there are set rules for how to determine this. Also, it goes without saying that all the actors need to have a costume that reflects their character and the situation of that character in this particular moment, same with make-up, hair, etc and each location needs to be dressed up and arranged according the the requirements of the script, so forth.
That's me on the right looking at the schedule with the DP. Hopefully I did a good breakdown and made sure everything was there on the day ...
But there are certain elements that the characters interact with, that would simply stop your shoot if you didn’t have. For instance, in this case, if nobody made sure to bring a rope – how are you going to show that he was tied up? Glancing over the script, it’s hard to miss “gun”, but easy to miss “rope” because it never says “rope” there and it would mean that on the day you wanted to shoot everyone has to wait 30 minutes while some runner goes and buys a rope because it wasn’t taken care of (because you had a 1000 other things to sort out).
It’s not hard to source a rope from somewhere. What is hard is to have an overview of all of these things, especially if people are wearing many hats. What will kill you producing a film will not be the big things you knew about, but the hundreds of tiny little things you didn’t have an overview of. Also, schedules change all the time, and you are moving around a lot, dealing with the dynamic environment that a film shoot is. If your are doing a micro-budget film, you need to be clear to organize the responsibilities and that everyone knows that is expected of them and you can trust them. Who is going to look at the scene the night before it is shot and double check you have all the props? If you don’t know who, it means it is you.
Similar lists as “props”, “locations” and “actors” will be made, and after you’ve done this with all of your scenes you’ll have a list of the different elements you need for your film. Some wil be crucial for your budget, for instance, if there are any prosthetics or VFX, and you need to find creative ways to do them on your budget, others are simple to organize like the robe.
What crew do you need to hire? Breakdown will tell you
It takes experience to look at a scene and instantly break it down into “problems”. Your doing a micro-budget project, so you’re trying to have a small crew. Did you plan on having a hair guy on set? If not, notice how the hostage has a hood on. Is his hair going to look the same after they take off his hood as it did before they put it on? Most films are not shot in story order, so you might need to shoot post-hood in the morning, and then pre-hood in the afternoon, and then again post-hood in the evening. Who is going to fix his hair back and forth? Are you confident enough to buy some hair products and do that? Did you remember to bring that spray for his hair? Didn’t think you needed a hair person did you?
I’m not saying you ALWAYS need a pro hair dude. Maybe you can just shave the actors hair and get rid of the problem 
Whatever your solution is, you need to study the script and make sure someone is on it, because you’ll have enough problems to deal with on the day.
Strip boards
You will also make a list of scenes, with the most basic information from each (location, actors required, time of day, how long it is) which will help you prepare for arranging the schedule. More on that when/if I do a little post on scheduling.
With a rough schedule, and a well broken down script with the list of elements you need sorting, you can do your budget.