Script breakdowns are no joke; they are a tedious, detailed, daunting task. You have to comb through each page looking for elements that are important for scheduling, budgeting, and pretty much anything else that you'll need to prepare for the project. So -- where do you start? What do you look for? RocketJump Film School's Andrew Spieler, Assistant Director on RocketJump: The Show, has some answers for you in this very helpful video, in which he shows you his process for breaking down scripts from start to finish.

Spieler shares a ton of great insight in the video, like what exactly to look for and how to break each page down into smaller sections ("1/8ths"), but a lot of what this job requires is kind of intangible. Not only do you have to be extremely detail oriented, but you have to anticipate what each element is going to require and from whom. Take one of the lines from Spieler's script for example. Try to pinpoint each element:

Sally sees her entire family has been shot and are dead, facedown in their soups.

Even though there are only 15 words in this line, there is actually a lot going on here. Let's break it down:

"Sally sees her entire family": Family? How many family members are there? They're all dead, so are they all going to require make-up and/or special effects set-ups?

"Has been shot and are dead": Okay, shot and dead -- can you see blood? Can you see wounds? If so, is there a blood gag that requires special effects or do they just require bloody make-up?

"Facedown in their soups": Putting your face in soup is dangerous and could kill you -- so this is definitely considered a stunt.

Breakdown

That's a ton to digest, but just understanding how important it is to be organized when compiling your elements is a great start. You are going to be looking for a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons: certain items of clothing and make-ups for your costume and make-up department, props and set dressing for your set designer, music and sound for your foley artists and composers. The list goes on and on. 

Spieler recommends color coding each element so you can spot and mark them easily in your script. Most screenwriting software will allow you to do this, like Final Draft and Celtx, but you can always go analog and assign your own colors and go to town with a bunch of highlighters on a hard copy.

What's your process for breaking down a script? Do you use any clever tricks to make the process easier for you? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: RocketJump Film School

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