This was so helpful! I learned all of this in a class, but I found myself not doing everything on set and I would have trouble remembering the order we shot at the end of the night while I was filming things out. Great video as always!
Hi Monica， I'm Chinese, and I work as a script supervisor in China. Thank you very much for your sharing. I have an idea, have you ever considered inviting some script supervisors for interviews and chats? For example, inviting script supervisors from films that have already been released in theaters, such as Barbie or Auburnhammer's script supervisor, to talk about their work on your show. This is just my idea, if you have such plans, it would be great!
Thank you so much for your question. I do plan on doing some interviews. In fact, I have a few scripty supervisors lined up. I just haven’t had a chance to do them. But stay tuned.
I trained as a script supervisor many years ago by Robert Gary. I wanted to learn the skill so I can be a better director. I'm primarily working on the Tech side of the business and have script supervised on only 4 projects since I first trained. I got laid off from the production company I was working for after 14 years and I thought I would get back into script supervising again. I just finished a 3 day shoot and OMG was it a hard one. Let me run down a few of the challenges and maybe you can do some videos on some of these. 1. I got a new copy of the script with revisions but there was no mention of what revision was done nor was it annotated anywhere on the script. So I had to read the whole script the night before and compare it to the previous one only to find they added one line of dialogue. 2. They numbered the scenes in the following way Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 1A Scene 3 Scene 2A Scene 1B Scene 3 and so on. This repeated a few more times in other scenes This made very hard to know how to slate the scenes since if I shoot the second setup in scene 1A, what do I call it since 1A is already used? 3. There was no good access to monitor. There were no chairs provided. I brought a small table an a chair to setup but it became impossible in many scenarios to set it up because of tight space. This made it very difficult to have my binder open and write notes while at the same time reading the script and following the action while timing the scene. 4. There were times when we would shoot a specific scene, let's say scene 6 and the director would have the actors read from scene 5 through scene 6. So it became difficult to know how to slate it since it was unclear if any of the footage from scene 5 would be used. Not to mention scene 5 was one of those scenes with an Alpha scene (5A). 5. The day before the last day of shooting it was known that it was going to rain and the script called for a hot sunny day. Turns out they didn't push the shoot day and decided to film almost all day in the rain with 200K worth of camera equipment and lenses. There was no pop-ups provided and it was just a huge muddy mess. So here I am with my script and binder but it's raining outside. Clearly not a good idea of have paper and water mix as they don't go together very well. I decided to take the sides and take the best notes I could while wearing a see through poncho and then relay the notes later in the script in a dryer area. 5. The Director was not approachable. Didn't know what to do in this scenario. So i just put my head down and plowed through it the best I can. 6. Camera crew didn't keep a camera log nor would they communicate lens, and camera roll changes. It was a brutal shoot. Any advice for situations like these?
Hi Edward, sorry it took so long to reply, but I’m in the middle of moving. I feel your pain on this one. it brings me back to those days of low budget filming. All these issues are very typical.. and it’s hard to address every single one in this reply so I decided I’m going to be creating a video just for you to address each one. In fact, I’ve already put together a format for it and I’ll be dedicating it to you as well. So thank you for your great questions. As soon as it’s done, I’ll send an additional reply with the link.
Hi Monica! Absolutely loving your videos - I keep coming back to refresh what I have learned! I just had a quick question... it's about Set Ups in the daily log. For example, if it's the first day filming, and we have Set Up 1, Scene 1, and there are 5 takes. If we do the same scene from a new camera angle, the Set Up changes to number 2? And the take starts at 1 again as it's the first take from the new camera set up? Also, for the second day of filming, do you continue set ups number wise? So if there were 3 set ups on Day 1, you would start day 2 as Set Up 4 if you were on a new scene etc? I hope that makes sense! Just trying to get my head around it, and how you log takes for the same scene from a different camera angle. Thank you!
Hi gamb8316! So glad your liking the videos! That is my hope that you will return to refresh your memory on techniques and procedures. As far as set ups, just remember every time you change the scene number it's considered a new set up. That also includes if your using 2 cameras, you would count each camera as a new set up and the count is continuous to the end of the day. Then in your report you would put the total count for the day. The next day you would start with set up 1 and continue to the end of the day. So in your report you would put that count for the amount of set ups for that day 2 under the previous set ups then you would total it up on your report for total set ups to date. Then you would do the same for the next day. Just remember on your wrap report your letting the office know how many set ups they did that day and how many set ups they've done so far in the show. Let me know if that makes sense. I'll work on a video to explain it a little better.
@@scriptimonicaonset Thank you so much for your quick and detailed reply, as always! I think so... so for Day 2 the set up goes back to number 1? You don't continue from the previous day? Eg if you finished day 1 on Set up 16, the next day you go back to 1, not 17? Thanks - sorry if this question seems stupid!
@@gamb8316 no because what you’re doing is you’re just counting the set ups for that day. And it’s the total for that day. When you go to do your wrap report that’s where you’re going to do the cumulative set up count. So on your report, you’re gonna say shot today 12 set ups and then you’re going to add the set ups that you did yesterday with those say you shot 10 set ups so the total of your set ups up to that day will be 22 setups. Does that make sense?
This was so helpful! I learned all of this in a class, but I found myself not doing everything on set and I would have trouble remembering the order we shot at the end of the night while I was filming things out. Great video as always!
Hi Monica，
I'm Chinese, and I work as a script supervisor in China. Thank you very much for your sharing. I have an idea, have you ever considered inviting some script supervisors for interviews and chats? For example, inviting script supervisors from films that have already been released in theaters, such as Barbie or Auburnhammer's script supervisor, to talk about their work on your show. This is just my idea, if you have such plans, it would be great!
Thank you so much for your question. I do plan on doing some interviews. In fact, I have a few scripty supervisors lined up. I just haven’t had a chance to do them. But stay tuned.
That's fantastic! Looking forward to it.@@scriptimonicaonset
I trained as a script supervisor many years ago by Robert Gary. I wanted to learn the skill so I can be a better director. I'm primarily working on the Tech side of the business and have script supervised on only 4 projects since I first trained. I got laid off from the production company I was working for after 14 years and I thought I would get back into script supervising again. I just finished a 3 day shoot and OMG was it a hard one. Let me run down a few of the challenges and maybe you can do some videos on some of these.
1. I got a new copy of the script with revisions but there was no mention of what revision was done nor was it annotated anywhere on the script. So I had to read the whole script the night before and compare it to the previous one only to find they added one line of dialogue.
2. They numbered the scenes in the following way
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 1A
Scene 3
Scene 2A
Scene 1B
Scene 3 and so on. This repeated a few more times in other scenes
This made very hard to know how to slate the scenes since if I shoot the second setup in scene 1A, what do I call it since 1A is already used?
3. There was no good access to monitor. There were no chairs provided. I brought a small table an a chair to setup but it became impossible in many scenarios to set it up because of tight space. This made it very difficult to have my binder open and write notes while at the same time reading the script and following the action while timing the scene.
4. There were times when we would shoot a specific scene, let's say scene 6 and the director would have the actors read from scene 5 through scene 6. So it became difficult to know how to slate it since it was unclear if any of the footage from scene 5 would be used. Not to mention scene 5 was one of those scenes with an Alpha scene (5A).
5. The day before the last day of shooting it was known that it was going to rain and the script called for a hot sunny day. Turns out they didn't push the shoot day and decided to film almost all day in the rain with 200K worth of camera equipment and lenses. There was no pop-ups provided and it was just a huge muddy mess. So here I am with my script and binder but it's raining outside. Clearly not a good idea of have paper and water mix as they don't go together very well. I decided to take the sides and take the best notes I could while wearing a see through poncho and then relay the notes later in the script in a dryer area.
5. The Director was not approachable. Didn't know what to do in this scenario. So i just put my head down and plowed through it the best I can.
6. Camera crew didn't keep a camera log nor would they communicate lens, and camera roll changes.
It was a brutal shoot.
Any advice for situations like these?
Hi Edward, sorry it took so long to reply, but I’m in the middle of moving. I feel your pain on this one. it brings me back to those days of low budget filming. All these issues are very typical.. and it’s hard to address every single one in this reply so I decided I’m going to be creating a video just for you to address each one. In fact, I’ve already put together a format for it and I’ll be dedicating it to you as well. So thank you for your great questions. As soon as it’s done, I’ll send an additional reply with the link.
@@scriptimonicaonset You are amazing I'll be looking forward to it. Thank you.
Hi Ed, I just posted posted your video. It will go live on May 7 at 9:00 AM. Let me know if you have any questions
That’s great! So so glad it helped!
Hi Monica! Absolutely loving your videos - I keep coming back to refresh what I have learned! I just had a quick question... it's about Set Ups in the daily log.
For example, if it's the first day filming, and we have Set Up 1, Scene 1, and there are 5 takes. If we do the same scene from a new camera angle, the Set Up changes to number 2? And the take starts at 1 again as it's the first take from the new camera set up?
Also, for the second day of filming, do you continue set ups number wise? So if there were 3 set ups on Day 1, you would start day 2 as Set Up 4 if you were on a new scene etc?
I hope that makes sense! Just trying to get my head around it, and how you log takes for the same scene from a different camera angle.
Thank you!
Hi gamb8316!
So glad your liking the videos! That is my hope that you will return to refresh your memory on techniques and procedures.
As far as set ups, just remember every time you change the scene number it's considered a new set up. That also includes if your using 2 cameras, you would count each camera as a new set up and the count is continuous to the end of the day. Then in your report you would put the total count for the day. The next day you would start with set up 1 and continue to the end of the day. So in your report you would put that count for the amount of set ups for that day 2 under the previous set ups then you would total it up on your report for total set ups to date. Then you would do the same for the next day. Just remember on your wrap report your letting the office know how many set ups they did that day and how many set ups they've done so far in the show. Let me know if that makes sense. I'll work on a video to explain it a little better.
@@scriptimonicaonset Thank you so much for your quick and detailed reply, as always! I think so... so for Day 2 the set up goes back to number 1? You don't continue from the previous day? Eg if you finished day 1 on Set up 16, the next day you go back to 1, not 17?
Thanks - sorry if this question seems stupid!
@@gamb8316 no because what you’re doing is you’re just counting the set ups for that day. And it’s the total for that day. When you go to do your wrap report that’s where you’re going to do the cumulative set up count. So on your report, you’re gonna say shot today 12 set ups and then you’re going to add the set ups that you did yesterday with those say you shot 10 set ups so the total of your set ups up to that day will be 22 setups. Does that make sense?
@@scriptimonicaonset Yes! Brilliant. Thank you so, so much!