To create a professional film budget or tv budget requires the craft of designing the shooting schedule. This applies to both movies and television productions. Following the screenplay breakdown process, generating the shooting schedule, and the stripboard schedule, is critical to producing a successful budget.
The Shooting Schedule for Film and TV
The film and tv shooting schedule comprises multiple documents (see list below.) The main document for a movie or television production is the stripboard schedule. Once the stripboard is generated the other documents in the scheduling package can be made.
The key to a quality shooting schedule is the experience of the person making it. A highly experienced producer or assistant director use their knowledge of production to make it. Knowing how a production works, what are the best practices for filming, and in what sequences is extremely important. This impacts not only the schedule but the budget and the entire production.
The Stripboard Schedule
The stripboard schedule creation can begin once the script has been read and the screenplay breakdown has been executed (this entails breaking down and listing every element required to facilitate the production. With the breakdown in hand, each scene of the movie is given a dedicated “strip” to represent it. Each strip contains the slug line (INT., EXT.), the set (Country Farm House), the page length of the scene listed in 1/8 of a page (3 1/8), a brief synopsis of the scene (They enter the country farm house), and the characters I.D. # generated from the breakdown (1. Bob 2. Carol 3. Ted 4. Alice.)
Following the generation of all the strips, which are now in the order of the screenplay, the producer, line producer, production manager, or A.D. order the strips for utmost financial and creative efficiency and practicality. They then create day breaks representing the end of a days work. Day breaks contain the date, shooting day #, and the total pages to be filmed.
What Order Should I Shoot the Scenes of the Movie?
Deciding what order to shoot the scenes of the movie is where the expertise, knowledge, and experience is foremost critical. Knowing which scenes to shoot first, which last, which to hold back for unexpected scenarios, etc. is the important factor in the production of the film. A schedule that is not very well designed and perfected can cause complete chaos and failure of a production. On the other hand, a well designed schedule can make for a very smooth film or television production.
What Documents are Included in a Film or TV Shooting Schedule Package?
Once the stripboard schedule is created the following documents are generated to represent the shooting schedule:
The Stripboard Shooting Schedule
The Master Shooting Schedule
The Day Out of Days
The Locations List Schedule
The One Line Schedule
Additional documents may include: Picture Vehicles Schedule, Stunts Schedule, Props, SFX, Armory schedules, etc.
For a complete list of services offered by FilmBudget.com please visit our film budget and schedule production services page. Likewise head to our home page for full details on our complete services and for a free consultation on your film and tv series production requirements for launching film finance and to prepare your production.
Additional details on creating a shooting schedule can be found via this Linkedin post.
