Split or clone a scene — parts for the schedule, copies for new scenes
Split one script scene into parts that revisions keep in step, or clone a scene into a new one of its own. When to use each, and what each copies.
One scene in the script is often several on the call sheet. A long dialogue scene is shot over two days, the first half in the kitchen and the second on the stairs; a fight scene has a stunt unit part; a crowd scene needs a background count for one half only. Costume, make-up and the script supervisor then need a scene per piece, each with the right characters and the right looks.
Two options on a scene's menu make new scenes from it, and choosing the right one decides what a script revision later does with them. Split turns one scene into those pieces without retyping anything. The scene becomes the first part, and every other part starts as a copy of it — then you take off each part the characters who are not in it. The parts stay tied to the scene in the script, so the next script revision updates all of them instead of deleting them and adding the scene again.
Split or clone?
Both make a new scene from an existing one, and they answer different needs:
| Use it for | Numbers | What a revision does with it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split | One script scene shot or prepared in pieces | 102pt1, 102pt2, … | Updates every part from scene 102 |
| Clone | A scene of its own that starts like another — an insert, a variant | 102A, 102B, … | Leaves it alone until the script has a 102A of its own |
If the script will never number it, and it is really part of scene 102, split. A clone is a scene the production made, so a revision keeps it rather than deleting it, but it does not update it either.
Clone: a new scene of its own
Clone Scene Data opens the scene form filled in from the scene: its heading, description, set and characters, ready to change before you save. It is offered the next letter no scene has yet — 105A, or 105B if 105A already exists, and 105AA after 105Z — and lands where that number sorts, not beside the scene you cloned it from. It shares that scene's script text until the script gives it its own.
Each character you keep on the clone keeps the looks they wear in the original, so a scene cloned for the same costume does not need its looks attached again. Their items and notes are not copied, nor are the scene's photos, notes or items: a clone is a new scene, and what was gathered for the original stays with it. That is the practical difference from Split, which copies items and notes because a part is the same scene.
Because a clone is the production's own scene, a script revision never deletes it: a draft without 105A keeps it. If the script later adds a 105A of its own, that scene updates your clone. And if a clone turns out to be a piece of 105 after all, the revision review offers Part of scene 105 on it, which makes it a part from then on.
What each part gets
The scene itself becomes the first part. It keeps everything that belongs to it and nothing moves off it: its photos and notes, its shooting takes, the shooting days it is planned on and the script annotations on its text.
Each new part is a fresh scene that starts with:
| Copied to the new part | Not copied |
|---|---|
| The heading — location, int/ext, time of day, time, script day — and its continuity | Photos and notes on the scene |
| The description, for you to trim to the part | Photos on a character in the scene |
| The set, and the scene's props, vehicles and animals | Shooting takes |
| For each character it keeps: their looks, items and notes | Shooting days — schedule the part yourself |
| The filming state, and the scene's script text |
The parts share one script scene, so each shows the scene's full text and the script viewer still has one scene 102. Trim each part's description to what it covers; that is what the scene cards and the breakdown show.
Who is in which part
Every character starts ticked on every part, so nothing is dropped unless you untick it. Untick a character on the parts they are not in and they are left off there — and recorded as ignored on that part, the same as removing a character from a scene by hand. That is what keeps them off: the next revision brings new characters to every part, but not one you took off.
A character with photos on the scene stays on the first part. Photos are continuity that belongs to that scene, and a character carrying them cannot be removed from a scene in SceneMatch at all; tick them on other parts as well if they are in those too.
SceneMatch refuses a split that would lose someone: every character has to stay on at least one part.
How parts are numbered
Each part is offered the next free part number: 102pt1 and 102pt2 for a first split, then 102pt3 and on. You can change any of them before you split, if your production writes parts another way — a revision recognises 102-1, 102:1 and 102 PT 1 as parts of 102 just the same. Up to ten parts at a time.
Splitting a part again keeps its number for the first part: split 102pt2 and you get 102pt2 and the next free one, 102pt3 if 102pt1 already exists. The parts that already exist are shown beside the new ones, read-only, with their characters ticked, so you can see why the next number is 102pt3 and who is already covered — the split does not change them.
The parts land next to each other in the scene list, sorted by number like every scene. Part numbers sort before letter scenes, so the list reads 102, 102pt1, 102pt2, 102A, 103. A part's card says Script scene 102 under its heading, so a part read on its own still says which scene of the script it is.
When the script changes
Every part stays tied to its scene in the script. When a revision arrives, the review shows the script scene once and joins all its parts to it, each with A part of script scene 102 under it. Publishing updates each part only with what the script changed:
- Characters the new draft adds go to every part. Characters the old draft already named stay where you put them — on the parts that have them, and off the ones you took them off.
- Heading details — location, int/ext, time of day — change only on parts that still have the old draft's reading. A part you moved to the stairs keeps the stairs; a part still in the kitchen follows the script to wherever it goes.
- Descriptions follow the choice you make at upload, judged part by part: with "only unchanged descriptions", the part whose description you trimmed keeps it.
- An omitted scene omits every part. A dropped scene offers every part for deletion, with what each one would take with it, and nothing goes until you confirm.
Uploading a new version of one part from its own menu updates all its parts.
See screenplay revisions for the review itself.
The thing that is not obvious
A part on its own is an ordinary scene again. Parts get the careful update above because they share their scene. Delete 102pt2 and leave only 102pt1, and the next revision updates 102pt1 like any other scene: its heading is rewritten from the script, so a part you moved to the stairs goes back to the kitchen if that is what the script says. The characters you took off it stay off — that part is the same either way.
A split cannot be undone. There is no merge back; to go back to one scene, delete the parts you do not want. Deleting a part takes its photos, notes and takes with it, as deleting any scene does — its looks only lose that scene.
Scenes split by hand count too. Parts made before Split existed — renamed and cloned to 102pt1 and 102pt2 — are recognised at the next revision by their names, and a letter copy like 102A can be made a part of 102 in the review.