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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Questions or Comments  /  How do you write a Technical Breakdown?
Posted by: eomuno, October 13th, 2011, 3:45pm
I've been requested to write a "Technical Breakdown" for a script.  Does anyone know how?  The format looks like this:

Scene                  Page         Length

Ext - Street           1               1/8
Joe (2)  Sam (3)

I don't know what 1/8 represents and how to calc it. I'm guessing Joe/Sam is the # of times they dialogue?  If you can help, thanks!
Posted by: mcornetto (Guest), October 13th, 2011, 3:59pm; Reply: 1
Are you using  Final Draft?  One of the reports does exactly that.  
Posted by: Heretic, October 13th, 2011, 4:39pm; Reply: 2
Yes, FD would be extremely convenient for such a report.  Just be careful with it and make sure to lock your pages once you start doing reports like this.

You're correct about the number of lines of dialogue.  Each character in the scene is mentioned, followed by the number of lines they have in brackets.

The eighths refer to the page length.  Pages are divided into eighths and each scene is measured by how many eighths long it is on the pages.  So, one and a half pages is written as "1 4/8," and so on.  1/8 is an inch of page.

Page number refers to both starting and ending pages, so a one and a half page scene that started the script would be "Pages: 1-2" (although sometimes people just list the page the scene starts on).

Wikipedia breaks this down and also offers a little more information on department lining.  
Posted by: eomuno, October 20th, 2011, 12:41pm; Reply: 3
Thanks so much, very helpful!  Sadly I haven't bought FD yet.  I'm a cheap newbie :D
Posted by: eomuno, October 21st, 2011, 4:06pm; Reply: 4
Follow up question if you'd be so kind:  if one scene carries to the next page or even 2 pages, do I enter the slugline again, or write it all as one scene with a page length of 16/8?  thanks again!
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