A breakdown sheet is a single-page form recording everything one scene needs. One sheet per scene, filled in during the breakdown, and together they are the complete production requirement for the film.
You can grab a printable version here: free script breakdown sheet template. It is a real usable form rather than a sample, and the rest of this post walks through every field on it.
The header block
The top of the sheet identifies the scene and carries the information that drives scheduling. Every field here matters and most of them come straight from the script.
Production title and date. Obvious, and the date is not: a breakdown sheet made against a superseded draft is actively dangerous. Put the script revision it was made from in the header, not just today's date.
Breakdown page number. Sequential across the film, separate from scene numbers. Sheet 41 is the forty-first sheet, which may be scene 63.
Scene number. From the locked script. Never invent one.
INT or EXT. Interior or exterior, taken from the slugline. This is one of the four letters that will color the strip on the stripboard.
Day or night. Story time, not shooting time. A night scene shot at 11am on a covered set is still NIGHT here. This distinction confuses people constantly and it matters because the field is describing what the audience sees, which is what determines how the scene must be lit and grouped.
Set / location name. The name as it appears in the script, consistently. "HOSPITAL - CORRIDOR" and not "the hospital corridor".
Location. Where you will actually film it, once known. Often blank at first breakdown and filled in after scouting. Keep it separate from the set name, because one real location frequently serves several scripted sets.
Page count. In eighths, as covered in counting pages in eighths. Written as 2 4/8 or 3/8.
Description. One line saying what happens. "Maria refuses to sell the garage." Not a synopsis, not dialogue, just enough that anyone reading the sheet a month later knows which scene this is.
The cast box
Speaking roles, listed by number and name, using the permanent cast numbers assigned during the breakdown.
1 MARIA 4 DAVID 9 SOLICITOR
Numbers rather than just names because this is what feeds the day out of days, where an actor's whole schedule is read off a grid of numbers.
List only cast who appear in the scene. A character mentioned in dialogue is not in the scene. A character heard on the phone from another location is in their scene, not this one, which is one of the more common errors.
The element boxes
The main body of the sheet: a grid of boxes, one per category, matching the standard element categories. Typically background, stunts, props, wardrobe, hair and makeup, special effects, visual effects, vehicles, animals, set dressing, sound, special equipment, security, and additional labor.
Fill each box with the specific items that scene needs, named consistently, with quantities where quantities matter.
PROPS WARDROBE Garage keys Maria: work overalls, oil-stained Sale contract David: funeral suit Cash tin (empty) (2x overalls needed, tearing)
Empty boxes are useful information. A sheet with only three boxes filled is a simple scene, and that is worth being able to see at a glance.
Notes. Every sheet has a notes or "additional" field and most people treat it as optional. It is where the scheduling constraints live, and those constraints are worth more than half the element boxes combined. Things that belong there: "continuous with scene 44, must shoot same day", "must be shot before Maria's haircut in scene 12", "tide must be out", "the practical light in the window has to work", "this is the only scene needing the crane". Nobody else knows these things. If you do not write them down while the script is in your head, they will be discovered by a first AD three weeks later, at which point the schedule already exists.
A worked example
Take a short scene:
47 INT. GARAGE - OFFICE - NIGHT 47 Maria counts the cash tin by the light of a desk lamp. Not enough. She hears the roller door. Shoves the tin in a drawer as DAVID appears, still in his funeral suit, carrying two coffees. DAVID I let myself in.
Filled in:
- Scene: 47. INT. NIGHT. Set: GARAGE - OFFICE. Pages: 6/8.
- Description: Maria hides the cash tin as David arrives.
- Cast: 1 MARIA, 4 DAVID.
- Props: cash tin, banknotes (practical, countable), desk lamp (practical), two takeaway coffee cups, desk drawer contents.
- Wardrobe: Maria: overalls. David: funeral suit (continuity from sc. 45).
- Set dressing: office desk, chair, filing cabinet, garage paperwork, wall calendar.
- Sound: roller door (practical or SFX, ask sound).
- Special equipment: none.
- Notes: practical desk lamp must be dimmable and on a dimmer board. Roller door needs to be operable. David's suit continuity ties this to 45 and 46. Money is counted on camera, so needs to be handleable and consistent across takes.
Note how much is not in the script. The desk, the chair, the filing cabinet, the calendar, the fact that the lamp needs to be a working practical and therefore needs an electrician. None of that is written. All of it is required.
Filling them efficiently
Work in one pass, scene by scene, in script order. Resist the urge to jump around. Consistency comes from rhythm.
Keep a master element list open beside you. Every time you tag something, check whether you have used that exact name before. This is the single habit that determines whether your lists are usable.
Do not stop to solve problems. When you hit something uncertain, write the question in the notes box and keep moving. A breakdown session broken up by phone calls takes three times as long and loses consistency.
Mark your uncertainty. A question mark against an item is honest and useful. "Stunt? (ask coordinator)" is better information than either tagging it or not.
Do a second pass by category. Covered in the previous posts and worth repeating: reading your data by category rather than by scene is where the real findings are.
Paper, spreadsheet, or software
All three genuinely work and the choice matters less than the discipline.
Paper is good for learning, because the form makes you consider every category on every scene rather than skipping the ones you do not think apply. It is bad at the review pass, since you cannot sort paper.
A spreadsheet is the common self-taught solution. One row per scene, one column per category. It sorts and filters, which is most of the value. The weakness is that a cell containing "garage keys, sale contract, cash tin" is text, not data, so pulling a clean props list still means reading everything by hand.
Dedicated software stores each element as its own record linked to scenes, which is what makes rename, merge, and "show me every scene with this prop" work properly.
The mistake to avoid, whichever you choose, is a breakdown that lives only in a set of PDF scans. The value is in being able to query it.
When to redo it
Any significant script change means revisiting affected sheets. Small dialogue changes usually do not. A new scene, a cut scene, a location change, or a character being merged all do.
Keep the breakdown under the same version discipline as the script itself, and date every sheet with the script revision it reflects. A breakdown that quietly refers to an old draft is the source of a specific and miserable category of production error.
Next
You have every scene inventoried. Next: the measurement that turns those scenes into shooting days, and why film pages are divided into eighths.
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The same sheet, filled in as you read
Film Logic keeps a breakdown sheet behind every scene and fills the mechanical parts for you: scene number, INT/EXT, day or night, location and page count come from the script itself, so you only enter the judgment calls.
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