ABSTRACT
Once the breakdown sheets have been completed, we can start to build the schedule for the shoot. Producers and production managers use a printed layout of the schedule called a stripboard. The stripboard permits users to visualize the information on the breakdown sheets in a radically condensed format and to determine the order in which scenes should be shot. As with so many production protocols, there is a standard code and methodology that must be mastered. Although every production has its own set of concerns, there are certain principles that usually govern the structure of the shooting schedule. Examples include the notion that you shoot exterior scenes before interiors and that you always make every effort to group together all the scenes set in one location. Having reviewed the factors that guide the building of a schedule, we can undertake a first draft of the schedule for our case study production, Shoebox Redhead. This process reveals the puzzle-like challenge of developing a logical and practical schedule. Competing considerations must be weighed and sorted out, and it is only after considerable revision that we arrive at a workable schedule.
