comes first — the schedule or the budget?
Which you tackle first — scheduling your film or
doing the budget — depends on your situation.
It would be nice if you could schedule your film
and then see how much money you need, but
filmmakers often have only so much money and
have to make their films fit the budgets, not their
budgets fit their films. It’s like trying to pack too
many clothes into a small suitcase — you push
them in as tight as you can and hope you can
still close it. Whatever you can’t fit in the case,
you have to manage without.
Scheduling your movie lets you know where to
direct the money and to which budget categories.
You usually have a set amount of money, and
it’s the distribution of that amount that is determined by the scheduling — what will be spent
where.
By breaking down your script and sorting out
cast, crew, props, locations, and shooting days
before doing your detailed budget, you leave
nothing to chance — this at least lets you know
if you have enough money to make your film.
You’re able to know that what you’ve scheduled
fits within the budget, and so present a more
accurate and detailed budget to satisfy your
investor, if you’re lucky enough to find one.
Breaking into breakdown sheets
After you highlight the various categories of items, transfer the highlighted
elements to individual breakdown sheets — one for each scene in your film.
A breakdown sheet contains separate drawn category boxes to add the elements you’ve highlighted in the script. You enter each element in the appropriate category box, such as a hammer in the props area, either by hand or
by using one of the available software programs (see the section “Scheduling
software to make your life easier” later in this chapter).
Number each breakdown sheet so that you can go back and reference it if
you need to. Every character in the script is also given a reference number,
usually starting with the number 1 for your lead actor. You transfer these
numbers to the breakdown sheets and eventually to the individual strips
on the production board (more on this in the section “Creating production
strips”). Numbering saves space so that you don’t have to keep writing the
characters’ names (plus there wouldn’t be enough space on a strip).
A breakdown sheet also has a header that includes the following details:
Scene number
Script page
Page count (length of scene divided into eighths — 11
⁄2 pages would
be 14
⁄8)
Location/setting
Scene description (one sentence)
Exterior or interior
Day or night
Script day (for example, third day in the story when Mary arrives at the
plantation)
Breakdown sheet number
Figure 4