ABSTRACT
Before a shooting schedule can be devised, the producer in his role as production manager or line producer examines the script from all practical angles. Up to now, the emphasis has been on making the structure and the dialogue of the story work. Although it might be dramatically effective for the main characters to have an intimate conversation in a park during a rainstorm on a bridge at night, from a practical and safety point of view, accomplishing this shot might be difficult. The producer must think about the difficulty of obtaining permission to shoot in park, the problems of making rain, the safety issues of shooting on and lighting a bridge at night, and the need to record dialogue with the sounds of rain and traffic in the background. Breaking down the script requires that all the production elements that affect the schedule and the budget be lifted from script and placed in their respective categories on breakdown sheets.
