These are my shooting scripts from the first season of The Doodlebops. They have all the dialogue, lyrics, scene numbers and stage direction for all 26 episodes of season one. The first binder has my directing notes for the clubhouse scenes. The second binder has my directing notes for the bus scenes.
At $187K per episode we didn't have enough money to rent a big enough studio to house all the sets we needed: the clubhouse, the tour bus, and the concert hall.
We decided to write all the scripts in advance, then rented a small studio and built the sets one at a time. We would block shoot all the scenes we needed in each set for all 26 episodes, then tear down that set and build the next one. This was really challenging from an organizational standpoint but that's low budget filmmaking for you.
One negative thing I should say about block shooting is that it doesn't leave any opportunity to make costume/makeup modifications after your first few days of production. We were ten episodes into the production by day three, so any alterations or enhancements we wanted to make would create major continuity issues when we moved to the next set. That's why the costumes and makeup don't really improve until season two.
These binders provide a window into the creative and technical process that went into the making of The Doodlebops. The physical scripts are the culmination of a lengthy screenwriting process that began with a short story idea that was then developed into an outline, a first draft, a second draft, a polish and a shooting draft.
My directing notes are scrawled all over the place, with notes showing how I planned to shoot each scene. You'll see how I used blocking stickers and football play diagrams to keep track of where the actors should be on the set and who's coming and going.
Truth be told, I barely knew what I was doing at this point, so these may be the director's notes of a madman.