ABSTRACT
This chapter offers preproduction tools which, taken together, are probably excessive. Planning a shooting schedule is a far more complex process that requires much more advanced and detailed script breakdowns and scheduling software. Storyline analysis is standard procedure during preproduction, but the scene-by-scene summary surpasses the screenplay step outline. Read the script several times then draw a graph to contain the changing pressures or temperatures of each scene. Time is the graph’s baseline and tension its vertical axis. Graph the overall scene in black, then try a different color for each main character. The treatment contains some realizations that cannot be explicitly filmed without context being established in prior scenes. Graphing them reveals its hidden contours and forces film directors to extract essentials from the scene, which their can augment in rehearsals. The flowchart process may reveal bunching of similar scenes and the script’s predominant mode as a whole.
