The scene
This is scene 31 from Low Water, a fictional 96-page indie about a woman who comes home to sell her late father's bait shop. It's a dialogue scene with a small physical event, which is the kind that hides the most elements. It starts near the bottom of a page and spills onto the next.
41.
[scene 30 ends five eighths of the way down page 41]
31 INT. KEENE'S BAIT & TACKLE - DAY 31
Morning light through salt-streaked windows. Coolers hum.
TESS (38) sorts a shoebox of unpaid invoices on the counter.
The bell over the door rings. HAL WINTERS (70s) shuffles in
with his old lab, BISCUIT, who flops by the minnow tank.
HAL
Your dad let me run a tab.
TESS
I found it. All four years of it.
She slides a yellow invoice across. Hal doesn't pick it up.
Behind him, a TEENAGE CLERK (16) restocks lures, earbuds in.
HAL
He'd want you to keep the place.
Tess tears the invoice in half. Then again.
42.
Hal takes a jar of pickled eggs off the shelf, sets exact
change beside the register, and goes. Biscuit doesn't
follow. Tess looks at the dog. The dog looks at Tess.
TESS
(to the clerk)
Did he just leave his dog?
Measuring the page count
Split each page into eight equal bands, roughly an inch each on a standard script page. Scene 30 ends five bands down page 41, so scene 31 gets the bottom three: 3/8. On page 42 it runs about ten lines before scene 32's heading, which is more than one band and less than two. Most ADs round a partial band up, so call it 2/8.
3/8 + 2/8 = 5/8 of a page.
Anything under one band still counts as 1/8. The page eighths entry explains the rounding habits most ADs use, and the page count calculator does the arithmetic across a whole script.
Marking the elements
On paper I'd mark this with the breakdown color codes. Written out as a list with the reasoning:
| Script text | Category | Why |
|---|---|---|
| TESS | Cast (red) | Lead, cast ID 1 |
| HAL WINTERS | Cast (red) | Speaking part, cast ID 6 |
| TEENAGE CLERK (16) | Silent bit (yellow) | Specific action and a named role, no line. Also a minor |
| BISCUIT, old lab | Animal (pink) | Animal performer, stays in the scene after Hal leaves |
| shoebox of invoices | Prop (purple) | Handled |
| yellow invoice, torn twice | Prop (purple) | Handled and destroyed, so multiples |
| jar of pickled eggs | Prop (purple) | Handled |
| exact change, register | Prop (purple) | Handled; register may be dressing with a practical drawer |
| lures being restocked | Prop (purple) | Handled by the clerk |
| earbuds | Prop or wardrobe (purple, circle) | Department call; note it |
| coolers hum, bell over the door | Sound (brown) | Practical bell needs to ring on cue; cooler hum is a sound note for post |
| minnow tank | Set dressing with live fish | Tank is dressing, fish need a handler or are replaced |
| salt-streaked windows | Set dressing / art | Window treatment |
The script never mentions Tess's wardrobe, Hal's cane (he uses one in scene 12), or what day of the story it is. Those come from reading around the scene. Scene 29 established that this is the morning after the funeral, so this is script day D3 and Tess is still in the clothes from the wake (a second day in them, per scene 29's action line). That's a wardrobe continuity note the costume designer needs.
The finished breakdown sheet
Here's the sheet, the way it would come out of a script breakdown sheet template:
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Production | LOW WATER |
| Sheet no. | 34 |
| Scene | 31 |
| INT / EXT | INT |
| Set | KEENE'S BAIT & TACKLE, SHOP FLOOR |
| Day / night | DAY |
| Script day | D3 |
| Pages | 5/8 (pp. 41 to 42) |
| Synopsis | Hal asks Tess to keep the shop; she tears up his tab. He leaves without his dog. |
| Location | Harbor Road bait shop (practical), TBD pending scout |
| Box | Entries |
|---|---|
| Cast | 1. Tess, 6. Hal |
| Silent bits | Teenage clerk (16), restocks lures, earbuds |
| Background | None |
| Stunts | None |
| Special effects | None |
| Props | Shoebox of invoices (aged, handwritten, 4 years of dates); yellow invoice x6 (tear-apart multiples); jar of pickled eggs x2; coins for exact change; Hal's cane (matches scene 12); fishing lures on pegboard; earbuds (clerk) |
| Vehicles / animals | Biscuit (older yellow Labrador, must lie still on a mark, must hold eyeline with Tess); animal handler |
| Wardrobe | Tess: Change 3, wake clothes, second day (rumpled); Hal: cardigan, cap; Clerk: shop apron |
| Makeup / hair | Tess: tired, little sleep |
| Sound | Practical door bell rings on cue; cooler hum (note for post, may need to kill practical coolers for dialogue) |
| Set dressing | Minnow tank with live bait fish; salt-streaked window treatment; register with working drawer; coolers |
| Special equipment | None |
| Notes | Minor on set (clerk): check work permit and hours, studio teacher if required. Dog stays after Hal exits: handler off camera, eyeline. Kill coolers during takes? Coordinate with location owner. Invoice multiples: at least one per take plus rehearsal. |
Look at what came out of a scene that reads like two people talking. There's an animal with a performance beat, a minor, a destroyed prop, a practical sound cue, and a live-fish tank someone has to keep alive at a practical location.
Questions that go with the sheet
A breakdown is half inventory and half questions. These go out with sheet 34:
- Director: does Biscuit need to react on a cue, or just lie there? The answer changes whether you hire a trained animal or a calm family dog.
- Prop master: how many invoice tears does the director expect? Six multiples covers a rehearsal, four takes, and one spare.
- Location manager: can the shop's coolers be switched off for takes, and for how long before the owner's stock spoils?
- 2nd AD: is the clerk role cast as a minor, or can an adult who reads as 16 play it? That decides the minor work permit and hours question.
- Costume: confirm Tess's wake clothes from scene 29 carry into 31 and 33.
From the sheet to department lists
Each box feeds a running list across the whole script. After sheet 34, the prop list picks up rows like these (scene 12 and 47 come from other sheets):
| Prop | Scenes | Qty | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hal's tab invoice (yellow) | 12, 31 | 6 + 1 hero | Torn in 31; intact in 12 |
| Shoebox of invoices | 29, 31 | 1 | Aged; same box both scenes |
| Pickled egg jar | 31 | 2 | Opened? Confirm |
| Biscuit's leash | 12, 31, 47 | 2 | Hal holds it in 12; left behind in 31 |
That's how a single sheet turns into a prop list, a wardrobe breakdown, and the cast and animal needs on each call sheet. The leash is a good example: nobody wrote "leash" in scene 31, but the dog was on one when Hal walked in.
A tiny scene for contrast
Not every sheet takes this much thought. Scene 32 is 2/8 of a page:
32 EXT. KEENE'S BAIT & TACKLE - DAY 32
Hal's truck pulls away. Through the window, Biscuit
watches it go.
| Box | Entries |
|---|---|
| Cast | None (Hal in truck at distance, could be a driver double) |
| Vehicles / animals | Hal's truck; Biscuit (in window, handler inside) |
| Notes | Could shoot same day as 31 with a quick move outside. Driver double for Hal? |
Short, but it still has a picture vehicle, an animal, and a question that affects the day out of days for Hal's actor.
Checking your own breakdown
Before moving to the stripboard, reread each sheet against the script with two questions: what does the camera see that someone has to supply, and what happens that someone has to make safe? Anything you can't answer becomes a note.
Software can speed up the first pass. Final Draft, for instance, can produce a Tags report by scene once a script is tagged, and tools with AI extraction will pull characters and named props in a few minutes. None of them knew the dog was on a leash in scene 12. For that half of the work, see our notes on AI script breakdown, or go back to basics with how to fill out a script breakdown sheet.