final draft tagger elements switching to random scenes

#FINAL DRAFT TAGGER ELEMENTS SWITCHING TO RANDOM SCENES SOFTWARE#

*Hair/Make-up* – All actors have hair/make-up done, but this is to call attention to a particular story point. Example: The character is running in the woods, trips and rips their pants.ġ0. Sound Effects/Music – This is for anything that happens on set, NOT sounds added in post.ĩ.Wardrobe ( circle all occurrences) – This is for specific costumes needed for the production AND to track any changes to those costumes. Props – The objects in a script that are used by the actor.Ĩ. Stunts – Any action where you will need a stunt coordinator and possibly a stunt double for the actor(s).ĥ. Background Extras – Extras that create the atmosphere for a scene. Featured Extras – An extra that has no lines but performs a specific actionģ. Remember, this is NOT for casting, this is so you know which members of your cast are needed in a given scene.Ģ. The Elements and their color/designated symbol:ġ. You then read through the script and highlight (or if using color pencils, underline) the element with its corresponding color/symbol. Each element in your script is assigned a color or symbol.

#FINAL DRAFT TAGGER ELEMENTS SWITCHING TO RANDOM SCENES SOFTWARE#

Whether you are working in a budgeting software or are using a printout and colored highlighters/pencils, the process in the same. Here’s a visual for that nifty little trick. Using the ruler, horizontally divide your script into 8ths. 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:ģ. 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. The industry standard is to divide your pages into 8ths. 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. When it comes to the length of your scenes, you want to be as specific as possible. So, if Scene 5 is three pages long, we can estimate that Scene 5 will equal 3 minutes of screen time. In a properly formatted script, 1 page equals 1 minute of screen time. Numbering the scenes also allows production to have an idea of how long each scene will be. 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.īelow is an example of a Scene Heading from a production’s draft:ġ.

A self-contained scene is one that can be shot in its entirety. 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. The script is ready? Time to start breaking it down!īelow is an example of a Scene Heading from a writer’s draft: – Rachel Noll, Producer of The Storyteller. We wanted to get this stuff locked down early so we could start booking travel for our actors. This happened in January – 5 months out from the shoot. 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. So how does a filmmaker know when their script is ready for breakdown? Now let’s be honest, a script is never truly finished. 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. It won’t do you any good to start planning your production if the script is still in the collaborative stage.

The first step in the script breakdown process is to have a script that you feel is ready to be broken down. This should not be confused with a casting breakdown, which is used when finding your actors. How does one find all those elements? Simple: They are in your script.Ī 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. To create the best schedule, you must account for every element in your story. The schedule provides a timeline for your film and allows you to fully plan how your budget is going to be divided. It includes when locations need to be secured, crew hired, when and where wardrobe and props are needed. A schedule isn’t limited to when you’re going to shoot the film. A key part of the pre-production process is building a schedule.

Final draft tagger elements switching to random scenes