Units & Objectives
Stanislavski’s method starts by dividing a scene into units — beats where something specific is being fought for — and naming each character’s objective inside every one. Off Book puts that directly onto the parsed script: click between any two lines to split a unit, and write objectives per character, per unit.
May I offer you some tea, Miss Fairfax?
Thank you. Detestable girl. But I require tea!
A scene isn’t one long thing — it’s a chain of small battles, each with its own want. Stanislavski called these units (or "bits"; the anglicised "beats" stuck), and the actor’s question inside each one is the objective: what does my character want, right now, from the person in front of them? Playing a scene without units is like singing a song with no phrasing — technically the notes, none of the music.
The discipline matters because wants change mid-scene. The moment your character stops trying to charm and starts trying to threaten IS the unit boundary, and knowing where it falls tells you where the scene turns. Directors hear it immediately in an audition: the actor who has unit-mapped a scene has shape; the one who hasn’t has pace but no gears.
Off Book’s breakdown lives on the script itself. Units reference lines by stable identity, so re-uploading a cleaner PDF later can’t scramble your saved work. The AI can propose a starting breakdown of unit boundaries, and suggest a playable objective for any character in any unit — always transitive, always aimed at someone. Saved objectives then feed the Rehearsal Studio, where the AI partner plays each unit’s intention, not just its words.
The scene renders as a real screenplay page — Courier, cues, headings, everything where it should be.
Click the gap between any two lines to start a new unit. Drag a boundary to move it. Colour bands show each unit at a glance.
Every character speaking in a unit gets an objective field. The AI suggests one from the unit’s actual dialogue if you want a starting point.
Saved sessions reopen as a clean read view — objectives beside the script or in a side column — and feed straight into the Rehearsal Studio’s objectives mode.
It works with the rest of Off Book