Script Breakdown and Scheduling Template
Two documents and four sheets that tag every scene from the script's own text, then price script order against a location-grouped schedule.
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Character Day Register
Harrow's End — Character Day Register
Every speaking character's cast days, priced twice: script order against a location-grouped schedule.
| Character | Days, script order | Days, grouped | Cost changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priya Reyes | 9 | 5 | −$5,132 |
| Clerk Danby | 5 | 2 | −$3,849 |
| Roy Larkin | 9 | 11 | +$2,566 |
Grouping by location does not save every character. Larkin's days go up by two, the finding a schedule built on assumption would never catch.
StudioBinder's own free breakdown sheet is one form, filled in by hand, once per scene: for a 120-scene script, that is 120 sheets printed, marked up, then scanned and collated back into a single document. The sheet is not the problem. Both documents this pack exists to support, a shooting schedule and a budget, are arithmetic run directly on the breakdown's own counts. A scene's prop or its page length still has to be checked against the script's actual text, rather than carried over from the scene before it, whichever form holds the count.
This pack tags every scene the same way, straight from the script's own text, and measures length in eighths, where any partial scene rounds up to the next eighth, never down. Once the Scene Breakdown exists, the Character Day Register and the Shooting Sequence run the check a filled-in sheet never runs on its own. Every speaking character's cast days get priced twice: once assuming scenes shoot in script order, and again once the same scenes are grouped by location, the stripboard step, at the production's actual day rate.
On a worked 98-scene, 71-page script called Harrow's End, that comparison finds a county water analyst whose nine scenes, scattered across three recurring locations, cost nine cast days in script order and five once grouped. Four fewer days at the $1,283 SAG-AFTRA Basic Theatrical day rate is $5,132. It also finds a neighboring rancher the regroup does not favor: his day and night scenes at one location cost two more days once grouped, $2,566. A beat sheet or a pitch and treatment pack fits earlier; a delivery register tracks the same locked pages' revisions instead.
What is in the pack
Scene Breakdown
Every scene tagged for cast, location, interior or exterior, and day or night, plus every prop and piece of equipment the scene's own text calls for, measured in eighths.
Character Day Register
Every speaking character's cast days, priced twice: script order against a location-grouped schedule, at the production's actual day rate, favoring nobody by default.
Location Register
Every location's scene and page count, with which ones share one held address and which one carries a booking a scene-by-scene sheet has nowhere to record.
Shooting Sequence
The tagged scenes reordered into shoot days grouped by location, the stripboard step, with every day's cast, INT/EXT and day/night mix.
Breakdown Summary
What the registers and the sequence add up to for whoever signs off on the schedule and the budget, naming which characters the reorder helps and which it costs.
Continuity Note
Every point where shooting out of story order puts two different moments in front of the same camera setup on the same day, so props and wardrobe get tracked on purpose.
How it works
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and let the agent build the breakdown from your script, or download the blank Word and CSV files instantly.
- 2
Send the locked script
In River, the agent reads your locked script directly and tags every scene's cast, location and elements into the breakdown itself, straight from its own text.
- 3
Register the cost of the schedule
Once every scene is tagged, the agent prices every character's cast days in script order and once grouped by location, at your production's actual day rate.
- 4
Write up what moved, and for whom
Fill in the Breakdown Summary and Continuity Note from what the registers found. In River, the agent drafts both and names which characters the reorder helps and which it costs.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes, the whole pack downloads free as Word documents and CSV sheets, no signup and no card required. "Edit with AI" is a separate, optional path for writers who want River to build the breakdown directly from a locked script they send in. Every other pack lives in the template library.
How is this different from a blank breakdown sheet template?
StudioBinder's own free sheet and similar downloads log one scene at a time and stop at the tag, and an AI auto-tagger stops at the same place with less typing. None of them reads the tagged set back against a day rate to say what a specific shooting order actually costs.
Does this work before a script is locked?
It needs locked pages. Every count on every sheet traces back to a specific scene number, and a script still being rewritten renumbers or cuts scenes out from under a breakdown that size, which forces a rebuild rather than an update.
Does grouping scenes by location always save cast days?
No, and the register says so plainly rather than only reporting the total that looks good. On the worked script, one character's day and night scenes at a single location split apart once that location's scenes pool together, costing him two more days, $2,566, not fewer.
Does this replace scheduling software like a stripboard app?
No. This pack does the first pass: tagging elements from the script and pricing what a reordered schedule costs by character. A day-to-day scheduling app that issues call sheets and tracks a live shoot is a different, complementary job once shooting starts.
The producer's notes changed three scenes after I built this. Now what?
Re-tag only the changed scenes rather than rebuilding the whole breakdown; the registers recompute from whichever rows changed. If the notes themselves are still being resolved, a producer notes response tool prices what the full note set does to the page count first.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. It opens with the agent ready to read whatever locked script and day rate you send, tag the breakdown, and price the schedule comparison from it. Nothing is written until you send something.
Find out what the schedule actually costs, and for whom
Send the locked script and your day rate. The breakdown comes back tagged from the text, with every character's cast days priced two ways.
Edit with AI