← How To · Producer · 5 min read

How to break down a screenplay

A script breakdown turns a screenplay into a production database. Every shootable element — cast, props, wardrobe, vehicles, stunts, SFX, animals, atmosphere, music, sound, extras, set dressing — gets tagged into its industry-standard category so the schedule, the budget, and the call sheet all read off the same source of truth. Manual breakdowns take days. Dolly's parallel AI pass does the first cut in under 60 seconds; the 1st AD's job becomes review-and-refine.

1

Import your screenplay into /script

Drag your .fdx, .fountain, .celtx, .pdf, .docx, or .rtf into the import zone in /script. Final Draft revision colours, scene numbers, dual dialogue, and locked pages are preserved. If you paste from Word the smart paste classifier auto-detects scene headings, character cues, action, and dialogue. Stable UUID scene-IDs mint automatically as you save.

2

Open /breakdown for the same project

Switch to /breakdown from the top nav. The whole screenplay loads scene-by-scene with the 12-category colour key down the side: red (cast), yellow (stunts), blue (props), violet (wardrobe), orange (SFX), light blue (vehicles), magenta (animals), brown (set dressing), olive (music), tan (sound), pink (atmosphere), green (extras).

3

Click 'Full-script AI breakdown'

Dolly batches the scenes in parallel against the AI text engine and writes tagged elements into the project database. The progress card shows scene-by-scene success/failure so you only pay credits for scenes that actually completed. A 110-page feature finishes in under 60 seconds.

4

Review the tags scene-by-scene

Every Dolly tag is editable. The 80% you get for free is the heavy lifting; the 20% that needs human polish is what makes the breakdown shippable. Click any tag to rename, recategorise, or split into multiple elements. Implied props ('Maya pours herself a drink' implies glass + bottle + counter) are where the human read matters.

5

Verify the autoseed propagated downstream

Open /cast — every named character is pre-populated. /props — every blue tag landed as a prop. /vehicles — every light-blue tag landed as a vehicle row. /locations — every distinct scene heading became a location. This is the cross-app sync that means you never type the same element twice. The breakdown is now the source of truth for every department.

Once the breakdown is locked, your schedule reads the location and cast tags to optimise day order, your budget pulls the prop and vehicle counts for line items, your call sheets ship the day's element list, and your shot list inherits the scene-by-scene cast presence. One pass, every downstream tool fed.

Try it

Open /breakdown and follow the steps

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