It’s bad enough I fulminate about the importance of reading scripts and watching movies. Now I’m going to add another suggestion to your Screenwriting To Do list: Scene-by-scene breakdowns.
What is a scene-by-scene breakdown? Just what it sounds like: You breakdown a script you read or movie you watch per each scene and scene sequence. For example, here is a scene-by-scene breakdown I did for one of my screenwriting classes of the movie Shakespeare in Love:
Shakespeare in Love
Scene-by-scene breakdown
1-4: Establishing shot (London). To avoid being tortured, Henslowe takes on Fennyman as partner on Shakespeare’s new play.
4-5: Will’s house. Henslowe visits Will who has not finished play. Will states his goal: Needs to find his “muse.”
5-7: Street. Henslowe begs Will to finish the play – to deaf ears.
7-10: Dr. Moth’s office. Will admits he has “lost his gift” of writing. Moth gives Will a bangle to offer a woman to bring back Will’s muse.
10-13: Whitehall Palace. Will agrees to sell his new play to Burbage, potentially double-crossing Henslowe.
13-14: (cont’d): The Queen arrives. Will gives bangle to Rosaline.
14-15: (cont’d): A comedy act to the Queen’s delight. Violet introduced. Lord Wessex enters and “notices” Violet.
15-16: (cont’d): Viola recites Will’s words along with the actors revealing she is a fan of the theater. Will has left to write.
16-18: Viola’s room. Viola complains about custom of men playing ladies’ roles. Goal: “I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love.”
18-19: Street. Fennyman presses Henslowe about the play.
19-21: Street. Will barges into Burbage’s place, only to find Rosaline having sex with Tilney. She’s not his muse. Will burns the new pages he’s written.
21-22: Tavern. Will lies and tells Henslowe the play is done. Henslowe puts out the call for actors.
22-25: (cont’d): Will admits to Christopher Marlowe he hasn’t written a word of the play. Marlowe gives him some helpful tips for the story.
25-27: Rose Theater. Auditions, but scant talent. “Thomas Kent” (Viola dressed as man) auditions. Will is astonished at her talent. Pressed by Will to remove her hat, Viola runs away.
27-29: Chase. To Viola’s house where she just beats Will inside.
29-30: (cont’d): While Viola changes, her mother talks with Nurse about party that night: Wessex to speak with Viola’s father re matrimony.
30-31: (cont’d): Will slips a note for “Thomas Kent” to Nurse. Viola reads and accepts his offer for “Kent” to play a role in his newest play.
32-34: (cont’d): Will sneaks into the party. Wessex talks to Viola’s father re matrimony. Will spots Viola – immediately smitten. A changing partner dance. Will meets Viola. Offends Wessex who puts a knife to his throat. Will identifies himself as Christopher Marlowe.
34-36: (cont’d): Outside Viola’s balcony, Will and Viola flirt with each other. Will climbs the wall. Nurse screams. Will narrowly escapes.
36-40: Rose Theater. First rehearsal. Ned and compatriots enter, fill out the play’s parts.
40-41: (cont’d): Will goes outside to look for Thomas Kent. No show.
41-44: (cont’d): “Thomas” does show, playing Romeo. Inspired, Will goes off to write a sonnet. Viola is “love-struck.”
44-46: Viola’s house. She returns with Will’s sonnet. Wessex waits impatiently. Viola emerges. Wessex announces arranged marriage. Viola has to pass the Queen’s scrutiny in Greenwich visit. Viola writes Will a note about impending marriage.
46-47: Rose Theater. Will arrives mid-rehearsal. Tells Ned about his role as Mercutio.
47-51: River. Thomas gives Will the letter from Viola. Will grills Thomas about Viola and she grills Will about Viola. Caught up with emotion, Thomas kisses Viola, then runs to her house. Will now knows Thomas is Viola.
52-53: Viola’s house. Will climbs wall to Viola’s room. They make love.
53-55: (cont’d): Next morning, Viola urges Will to write more of the play.
55-59: Rose Theater. Rehearsing the middle of the play. Will kisses Viola as Thomas playing Romeo, then goes off to write.
59-63: Series of shots: Play rehearsal / Will and Viola making love / Will and Viola reading his pages fresh after he’s written them
63-66: Rose Theater. Rehearsal. Will delivers more pages. Fennyman now caught up in the play’s plot.
66-68: Viola’s bedroom. Will indicates the play will not turn out well for Romeo and Juliet. Wessex arrives. Viola remembers the visit to Greenwich with the Queen. Viola must still marry Wessex.
68-69: (cont’d): Viola appears to Wessex. Will accompanies, dressed as Viola’s chaperon.
68-73: Greenwich Palace. Wessex asks Will (in drag) about Marlowe and Will continues to set up Marlowe. The Queen meets with Viola and a 50 pound wager is set: “Can a play show the very truth and nature of love.” Queen tells Wessex Viola has been “plucked.” Wessex figures her secret lover is Marlowe.
73-75: Burbage house. Marlowe interrupts Burbage having sex with Rosaline. Informs him Shakespeare is doing Romeo at the Rose.
75-78: The Rose. Burbage tries to assault Will, setting off a massive fight on stage with Fennyman emerging as the hero.
78-82: Brothel. A party with all the members of the Romeo crew including Viola as “Thomas Kent.” Learning that Will is married, she leaves in tears. Other bad news: Marlowe has been murdered.
82: Church. Will is there, convinced he is culpable for Marlowe’s death.
82-83: Road. Wessex meets Viola, riding her horse to church. Informs her of Marlowe’s murder, but Viola believes he means Will.
83-84: Church. A grieving Viola enters. So does Wessex. He spots Will, thinking he is Marlowe’s ghost. Wessex runs away screaming.
84 -85: (cont’d): Viola races out of the church to Will – “thought you were dead.” Will: “I killed a man.”
85-86: Field. Viola admits her love for Will, but she must marry Wessex.
86-88: The Rose. Will tells the rest of the cast the end of the play – with one scene missing.
88: Viola’s bedroom. Will presents a copy of the play to Viola and recites the missing scene – farewell words.
89: The Rose (cont’d): Farewell continues with Will making love to “Thomas.” Spied by John Webster (set up earlier) – tells Tinsley.
90-94: The Rose. Wessex arrives, knowing the truth about Will and Viola. Will learns Marlowe’s death was not by Wessex – Will not to blame. But Tinley closes the Rose due to woman actor – Viola revealed.
94-96: Tavern. Burbage offers his theater for Will’s play.
96-97: Outside. A playbill announces the premiere of Romeo and Juliet at the Carriage Theater – even though there’s no one to play Romeo. Will cares not, runs to Viola’s house. Sees Viola leaving with Wessex to be married.
98-99: Church. Newly married, Viola gets in Wessex’s carriage to go with him to Virginia. Playbill blows in. She escapes.
99-100: Carriage Theater. The cast preps for the play. Will dressed to perform as Romeo – devastated at losing Viola.
100-103: (cont’d): The play begins. Sam (as Juliet) – his voice has dropped. Viola and Nurse hustle toward theater, as does a furious Wessex.
103-104: (cont’d): Viola talks with Henslowe and takes on the part of Juliet.
104-106: (cont’d): Will shocked to see Viola.
106: (cont’d): Tilney marches toward the theater with guards – to shut it down [ticking clock].
106-107: (cont’d): Will throws himself into the role of Romeo.
107-110: (cont’d): The play continues through its sorrowful ending – and rapturous applause.
110-112: (cont’d): Tinley interrupts celebration to arrest everyone because of Viola – woman on stage. But he is interrupted by the Queen who has seen the play. She invites “Master Kent” forward. Covers for Viola. Recalls wager with Wessex. Invites Will to meet with her.
112-114: Outside. Queen can not undo wedding. Has Wessex give fifty pounds – lost wager – to Viola to dispense with. Tells Viola to tell Will to “write something more cheerful next time.”
114-116: Theater. Viola gives Will the money. Tells him the Queen’s desire for a new play. They talk through plot elements which emerge from their relationship, then kiss and say good-bye.
116-117: Will’s room. Will writes the beginning of Twelfth Night intercut with Viola’s ocean crossing to the New World.
What is the value of doing a scene-by-scene breakdown? It should be pretty obvious, but I’ll leave that question open for comment.
Have you ever done a scene-by-scene breakdown?
What did you get out of it?
I do this a lot, it helps me see how the pieces fit together …
Scott, I've used scene by scene breakdowns in the past to help wade through the editing processing of page shaving to get under, or close to 120 pages.
I like your method. It is shorter and more concise than the unoffical, stumbling as I go along, methodology of the guy making it up as he goes along.
ALWAYS good to know how the pros do things. Thanks for sharing.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
I did this once but haven't for a long time.
My writing partner and I were tackling a thriller about the kidnapping of the President's daughter and how the secret service pieces together the crime. We figured, at the time, that it was, quite simply, Ransom meets In the Line of Fire meets Absolute Power.
So, in the interest of "getting it right," I did scene by scene breakdowns for those three films that looked a lot like your Shakespeare in Love sheet.
In the long run, I'm sure it had a huge impact on the script, though I also fear it may have cramped our style a bit because we became slaves to the breakdown sheets and lost our creativity along the way.
In short, the script became too paint by numbers and read rather stilted.
Either way, it was a huge eye opener. I remember RANSOM in particular having a fascinating stucture – - playfully tinkering with our expectations.
Perhaps it's time for me to get back on this type of excercise…
Jeff, you raise a good point as using this scene-by-scene breakdown exercise — because that's really what it is — as some sort of specific guideline to writing a script similar to a pre-existing one is, as you suggest, more stultifying than helpful.
I'm think it's value is more along the lines of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who transcribed by hand Charles Dickens' novels, word for word, in order to really 'get' the flow of the narrative and the tone of the piece.
Way back when, we were going to write a big action script. So I did scene-by-scene breakdowns of several action movies including Die Hard, 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, and so on. And I think that was helpful at the beginning of the brainstorming process to get a general sense of how those type of stories flow.
But your point is a good cautionary tale: Scene-by-scene breakdowns have their benefits, but can also be problematic.
Thanks this is really helpful, I just started breaking down "The Dark Knight" and never realized this is what I was doing. That really helped me a-lot.
Thanks Jeff, for showing the other-side of it too, this will help me, not too get stiff in my approach to my own work.
I'm an admirer of F. Scott and I had no idea that he did that.
Good lord, I hope he transcribed Edwin Drood and not Bleak House or Nicholas Nicklebly… can you imagine the time expenditure???
I think breakdown are one of the most helpful exercises you can do. I've done a couple– done more sequence breakdowns.
I suspect new writers read a script & get distracted by the dialogue. It helps to strip away all the dialogue & get down to the nuts & bolts of what makes up a screen story.
Laura said, "I suspect new writers read a script & get distracted by the dialogue. It helps to strip away all the dialogue & get down to the nuts & bolts of what makes up a screen story."
I concur. A scene-by-scene breakdown can show you key structural elements of the narrative.
Re sequences: You can also break down the script by sequence; the sequence approach is becoming more and more popular.
One suggestion: when doing a scene by scene breakdown, flag where you think the major structural beats are — the inciting incident, the first turn, etc — depending on what screenwriting form you subscribe to — even better, know multiple forms and try and see which apply and work and which don't. A lot of interesting lessons to be learned.