Script Supervisors

 

WHAT ARE A SCRIPT SUPERVISOR'S RESPONSIBILITIES?

Whilst shooting:

  • Making sure that actions in conjunction with dialogue match
  • That the costume(s), make up, hair, props and relevant story plots match
  • Liaising with the relevant departments in regard to matching and correcting those elements
  • Giving notes to actors of any dialogue mistakes or any missed dialogue
  • Bring continuity mistakes to the attention of director and actor(s)
  • When shooting out of sequence that the continuity of the storyline is consistent. (ie running out of door in Scene 9 L-R and running into Scene 10, still travelling L-R)
  • That there is a workable shooting coverage of the dialogue and actions. eg. Eyelines, shots, etc
  • That the film editor has at the end of each shooting day a competent and complete set of notes to cover the shots taken that day. These notes would be:-

    Continuity Reports (sheet per shot)

    • description of shot and dialogue covered
    • notes regarding each take
    • timings of each take
    • information on lenses and filters used on each camera on each shot
    • relevant script pages marked up with the shots that cover the scenes shot that day
    • other information varies from supervisor to supervisor

    Editors Daily Log (sheet for daily coverage)

    • slate number/scene number
    • one-line description of shot
    • printed/selected takes
    • sync/m.o.s.
    • camera speeds
    • how many cameras used
    • other information varies from supervisor to supervisor

    Marked up script pages

    • include all pages of scene (s) covered and correct any dialogue changes, additions, deletions.
    • indicate which shots (slate numbers) cover which piece of dialogue by lines and indicate what part of shot is ON camera and which part of shot is OFF camera

  • To keep a record of the continuity of costume, props and sets in the Master Continuity Script. This usually involves taking photos of these elements and keeping those records either on the computer - or in a file as well as keeping notes on the script pages themselves with information of what actors did within a scene, with which hand, where they moved, on which line
  • To ensure the camera/sound departments have the relevant information of which takes are to be printed/selected for the lab reports
  • To keep a record of shots to be picked up at a later stage and providing the production office with this information
  • To provide information to a 2nd or 3rd unit of what shots are required and the 'matching' information which has already been established (or vice versa)
  • It is almost imperative these days to have a working knowledge of CGI in order to understand how to note information on composite shots which go to make up many blue screen sequences used in movies today
  • If working on an action picture the Continuity Reports have to have an extra dimension which will take in the Visual Effects department
  • To provide a Production Report at the end of each shooting day confirming scenes completed or partially covered, screentime for each scene and the totals for the day, page count for each scene and the totals for the day, overall totals completed and still to be completed. This report also includes a brief diary of the day's events and times in and out