Chapter 34 · The Project
Production Breakdown and Reports
A production office turns a screenplay into paperwork: what each scene needs, who is in it, where it shoots, and which day. Storskarvia builds that paperwork from the script itself, so a rewrite on Thursday cannot leave Friday's schedule describing an older draft.
Where the tools are
Open a screenplay and go to the Script tab. Its production group holds Reports, a dialog inside the editor, and Breakdown, a page of its own. Lock Pages, New Revision and Omit Scene sit beside them, covered in Scene Numbers, Title Pages, and Revisions. Anyone the script is shared with can run Reports. The Breakdown belongs to the owner.
The six production reports
The Production reports dialog opens on Scenes. Download CSV saves whichever report is on screen.
| Report | What it lists |
|---|---|
| Scenes | Every scene in script order: number, page, heading, interior, location, time, length, cast, and whether it is omitted. |
| Characters | Scenes, speeches, first and last page, and scene numbers for each character, sorted by speeches. |
| Locations | Scenes grouped by location, interior or exterior, and time, with a total length per group. |
| Cast | Characters who speak at least once. |
| Notes | Every note and summary block, with its page and scene. |
| Cross-reference | A grid of characters against scenes. |
Length is in eighths of a page, the way assistant directors measure: 1 3/8. JANE
(V.O.) and JANE (CONT'D) count as one part, speakers in dual dialogue count, and struck-through
text is left out.
Before a report runs, the editor pushes your latest change to the server. If that fails, the dialog says "Your last change has not reached the server, so this report would be built from an older draft. Not run." Wait for the status chip and click the report again.
Multi-camera scripts: the reports currently paginate with single-camera measurements. If your script uses the Multi-camera layout, take page numbers and lengths from the Breakdown page, which uses the layout your PDF prints.
The Breakdown page
Three views sit at the top: Stripboard, Breakdown sheets, and Day out of days, with + Shoot day and Download beside them.
Each scene is a strip showing a drag grip, the scene number, INT or EXT, the set, the time of day, the length, the cast, and a count for each category you have tagged. Strips carry the standard colour code:
| Colour | Scene |
|---|---|
| White | Day interior |
| Yellow | Day exterior |
| Blue | Night interior |
| Green | Night exterior |
DUSK, EVENING and SUNSET count as night. A time Storskarvia cannot read counts as day, so the
scene still gets a strip. Scene numbers are the ones stored in the script, usually from a Final
Draft import; without them the fourteenth scene shows as #14.
Tagging a scene
Click any strip, or press Tag on a breakdown sheet. The dialog shows the scene's heading, length and page, and one field per category: Background / Atmosphere, Stunts, Vehicles, Props, Set dressing, Wardrobe, Makeup & hair, Animals, Special effects, Visual effects, Sound / music, and Special equipment.
Type items separated by commas, add anything else under Notes, and press Save. Repeats are dropped. Each category holds up to 60 items of up to 80 characters, and a note up to 600 characters.
Cast cannot be edited. It is read from the character cues and marked read from the script. To change the cast, change the script: renaming a character updates the breakdown too.
Building the stripboard
A new breakdown has an empty board, with every scene waiting below it under Not scheduled yet.
- Press + Shoot day. A day break named Day 1 appears at the end of the board. Rename it in place and pick a date if you have one.
- Drag scenes onto the board, or press the → on a strip to add it at the end.
- Drag strips to set the shooting order. Everything below a day break, down to the next one, shoots that day.
- Press × on a strip to take it off the board, or on a day break to remove it. Its scenes stay on the board and join the day above.
Each day break shows its totals, such as 4 sc · 5 3/8 pgs. A strip above the first day break belongs to no day and is left out of the totals and Day Out of Days.
Every change saves as you make it. If a save fails, the page says "That did not save. Try again." and redraws the board as last saved.
Day Out of Days
A grid with a row for every character with a cue in a scheduled scene, and a column per shoot day:
| Mark | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SW | Starts work |
| W | Works |
| H | Held between two working days: paid, not used |
| WF | Finishes work |
| SWF | Starts and finishes the same day |
The last columns total working days, hold days, and the span from first day to last. Moving one scene is often enough to take two hold days off an actor.
PDF and CSV
PDF and CSV download the view on screen. The stripboard PDF is landscape, one coloured row per strip, omitted scenes struck through in red, and a Day summary page at the end. The breakdown sheets PDF is portrait, one sheet per scheduled scene in shooting order. The Day Out of Days PDF is landscape; more than 22 shoot days continue on a further page. In every CSV, a cell beginning with =, +, - or @ gets a leading apostrophe so a spreadsheet cannot run it as a formula.
When the script changes
A breakdown stores only your tags and the board's order. Everything else is read from the current script each time the page loads. Tags attach to each scene by its page-lock id if the pages are locked, then its stored scene number, then its position. When a rewrite disturbs that, a line above the board says so:
- "2 strips came off the board: those scenes are no longer in the script."
- "1 scene had tags written against a different scene at the same number. They were not carried over." The new scene starts clean rather than inherit the wrong props.
- A warning that the scenes have "neither numbers nor a page lock", so tags will move if a scene is inserted above them.
New scenes appear in Not scheduled yet. The fix for the third warning is Lock Pages, which gives every block an id that survives any rewrite. A scene written after the lock gets its id at the next New Revision.
When something will not work
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| A breakdown is a screenplay tool. | The document is another format. Audio drama has its own Reports; see Audio Drama and Scripted Podcast Format. |
| Nothing to break down yet. | The script is empty on the server. Type something and let it save. |
| Document not found, opening the Breakdown | You are a collaborator. Only the owner can open it. |
| Could not build that report (400) | The document has no saved content yet. |
| A scene has no breakdown sheet | Sheets follow the board. Schedule the scene. |
The Breakdown page reads the script as last saved, so let the status chip read saved before you open it. For the writer's own view of the same script, see Insights. Part VI turns to the staff: the fact-checker, the Skeptic, the continuity editor and the researcher.
Updated 2026-09-10 · Full contents · Something wrong or missing?