We just finished a readers-draft of our screenplay, and are moving into preproduction.
The script was written in Final Draft, and is being scheduled in EP Scheduling (a.k.a. Movie Magic).
I wanted to pass on my approach to the breakdown. Disclaimer: This isn't rocket science folks, and as they say your results may vary.
THE OPTIONS:
1) Old-school: Highlighters & paper breakdown sheets.
2) Breakdown entirely in EP Scheduling.
3) Import to Tagger, and export basic data to Scheduling.
4) Import to Tagger, breakdown in Tagger, export to Scheduling.
Option 1: Old school. Rok grew up before home computers, and now that he has one, he's not giving it up
. The script is 109 pages, and I don't have the mental bandwidth to highlight every page and then go back to transpose all that to a breakdown sheet. Even after all that, I still couldn't email it to anyone until I type it out. Since most of my team a located in various parts of the SF Bay Area, I'm using email and Skype as my boardroom.
This leaves Options 2-4. I went with Option 4, and here are some of the pros and cons of Tagger & EP Scheduling.
TAGGER2 (free with Final Draft)
CON: More 'clicks' needed than Scheduling to input a breakdown element. Not great, but not a show-stopper, either.
PRO: You can view the script from within the application and highlight elements instead of typing.
PRO: Calculates your scene pages (including eights) auto-magically.
CON (disguised as a PRO): Scans the script, and generates the cast breakdown for you - This feature is okay, but you NEED to double check it, because the mere mention of another character's name will add them to the cast list for that scene! For example: "Dick looks at a photo of Jane". Although the photo is a prop that requires a photo to be taken, Jane is not needed on Dick's shoot day. About 15 of my scenes had this issue.
PRO: Handy SAVE button at the top of your scene list (convenient, and good reminder).
EP Scheduling:
PRO: The interface to view, edit, add scene elements is clean and easy to follow. I prefer it over Tagger2.
CON: You cannot view the script from within the application. This means if you are doing a breakdown you need to have the script open in another application, and switch back and forth.
CON: There is no scene list in the Breakdown Window. I found this a nice navigation feature of Tagger2 and I really missed it in Scheduler's Breakdown interface.
NOTE: Scheduler has numerous additional fields you need to fill-out after you import the Tagger data.
Conclusion:
Before exporting to EP Scheduling, do as much as of the breakdown as you can in Tagger2. Although there's further work to be done in EP Scheduling, Tagger's simplicity, highlighting, and ease of navigation was a perfect way to start. The auto-magical page count is a God-send.
Well, there it is kids.
Now, get the Hell of my lawn before I call the cops.
_Rok_
TIP #1: If you use Tagger, I cannont recommend you use the auto-tag feature, at all. Turn it off off (in prefs) before importing your script (and leave it off). Like a fool, I saved my work, and the next time I opened my file it re-auto-tagged a breakdown that I had already finished. So, I had to go back through the script and cull the extra character elements it created.
TIP #2: Before you start tagging the elements, edit the categories in Tagger & Scheduler so are spelled exactly the same. This will save you some work when you import the Tagger file into Scheduler, because all the elements fall right into place, and there won't be duplicate categories (like makeup & hair v.s. Makeup/hair).
The script was written in Final Draft, and is being scheduled in EP Scheduling (a.k.a. Movie Magic).
I wanted to pass on my approach to the breakdown. Disclaimer: This isn't rocket science folks, and as they say your results may vary.
THE OPTIONS:
1) Old-school: Highlighters & paper breakdown sheets.
2) Breakdown entirely in EP Scheduling.
3) Import to Tagger, and export basic data to Scheduling.
4) Import to Tagger, breakdown in Tagger, export to Scheduling.
Option 1: Old school. Rok grew up before home computers, and now that he has one, he's not giving it up
. The script is 109 pages, and I don't have the mental bandwidth to highlight every page and then go back to transpose all that to a breakdown sheet. Even after all that, I still couldn't email it to anyone until I type it out. Since most of my team a located in various parts of the SF Bay Area, I'm using email and Skype as my boardroom. This leaves Options 2-4. I went with Option 4, and here are some of the pros and cons of Tagger & EP Scheduling.
TAGGER2 (free with Final Draft)
CON: More 'clicks' needed than Scheduling to input a breakdown element. Not great, but not a show-stopper, either.
PRO: You can view the script from within the application and highlight elements instead of typing.
PRO: Calculates your scene pages (including eights) auto-magically.
CON (disguised as a PRO): Scans the script, and generates the cast breakdown for you - This feature is okay, but you NEED to double check it, because the mere mention of another character's name will add them to the cast list for that scene! For example: "Dick looks at a photo of Jane". Although the photo is a prop that requires a photo to be taken, Jane is not needed on Dick's shoot day. About 15 of my scenes had this issue.
PRO: Handy SAVE button at the top of your scene list (convenient, and good reminder).
EP Scheduling:
PRO: The interface to view, edit, add scene elements is clean and easy to follow. I prefer it over Tagger2.
CON: You cannot view the script from within the application. This means if you are doing a breakdown you need to have the script open in another application, and switch back and forth.
CON: There is no scene list in the Breakdown Window. I found this a nice navigation feature of Tagger2 and I really missed it in Scheduler's Breakdown interface.
NOTE: Scheduler has numerous additional fields you need to fill-out after you import the Tagger data.
Conclusion:
Before exporting to EP Scheduling, do as much as of the breakdown as you can in Tagger2. Although there's further work to be done in EP Scheduling, Tagger's simplicity, highlighting, and ease of navigation was a perfect way to start. The auto-magical page count is a God-send.
Well, there it is kids.
Now, get the Hell of my lawn before I call the cops.
_Rok_
TIP #1: If you use Tagger, I cannont recommend you use the auto-tag feature, at all. Turn it off off (in prefs) before importing your script (and leave it off). Like a fool, I saved my work, and the next time I opened my file it re-auto-tagged a breakdown that I had already finished. So, I had to go back through the script and cull the extra character elements it created.
TIP #2: Before you start tagging the elements, edit the categories in Tagger & Scheduler so are spelled exactly the same. This will save you some work when you import the Tagger file into Scheduler, because all the elements fall right into place, and there won't be duplicate categories (like makeup & hair v.s. Makeup/hair).
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