Script Breakdown Sheet
The breakdown Film Logic produces from a script, handed to you empty. One card per scene with every element category a production actually uses. Click any field to type into it, add as many scenes as you need, then download it as a PDF. No signup, and nothing you type ever leaves your browser.
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Characters
Extras
Props
Set Dressing
Costume
Make Up
Vehicles
Animals
Weapons
Stunts
Special Effects
Optical FX
Mechanical FX
Visual FX
Music
Sound
Misc
What is a script breakdown sheet?
A script breakdown sheet records everything a single scene needs in order to be shot. You go through the script scene by scene and list every element that has to be arranged: which characters appear, what props are handled, what the actors wear, what vehicles and animals turn up, and any stunts or effects. It is the document that turns a screenplay into something a production can cost and schedule.
One sheet covers one scene. The breakdown as a whole is what the call sheet and the shooting schedule are both built from, which is why it is worth doing carefully and early.
What are the element categories on a breakdown sheet?
The standard categories are characters, extras, props, set dressing, costume, make up, vehicles, animals, weapons, stunts, special effects, optical effects, mechanical effects, visual effects, music, sound and a miscellaneous catch-all. Each department reads the category that belongs to it, which is why the list is kept consistent across every scene.
Traditionally each category had its own colour of pencil, which is where the coloured element lists in scheduling software come from.
Who does the script breakdown?
The 1st assistant director usually does the breakdown, often with the production manager, before the schedule is built. On a small production the producer or director frequently does it themselves. Whoever does it, every head of department relies on it afterwards.
What are page eighths?
Script pages are measured in eighths of a page, so a scene running a quarter of a page is 2/8. It is the standard unit for estimating how long a scene takes to shoot and how much work a shooting day holds. A rough working figure is that a crew manages somewhere between two and five pages a day depending on the production.
Is this breakdown sheet template free, and is my data private?
It is free with no signup and no email required. Everything typed into it stays in your own browser and is never transmitted anywhere, which matters because an unreleased script's contents are not something to hand to a website. You fill it in and download it as a PDF.
Related guides
Or let the script break itself down
Film Logic tags elements straight from the screenplay, so the breakdown builds itself as you read. Every tag flows into the stripboard, the schedule and the call sheet, and an element added in one scene is available in every other.