The new title to this fourth edition of my book is one over which I have thought long and hard. Originally titled Script Continuity and the Production Secretary in Film and TV when it was published in 1977 – a bit of a mouthful to ask for in a bookshop – the second edition was more simply titled Continuity in Film and Video, and the third edition was even more concise: The Continuity Handbook. So why the change?
Although the job is well-established in feature films and television drama, there is a feeling among some directors to dismiss any need for continuity. Styles of shooting and editing change, and there is a trend towards roughness, fly-on-the-wall techniques and edits that hit the viewer in the face. One drama director stated recently that nobody bothered about continuity anymore, and that it was solely for ‘anoraks’ and nerds.
While every generation needs to explore and redefine for itself the boundaries of film-making and to express itself on film – or video for that matter – in different and often very exciting ways, to dismiss the role continuity plays in single-camera shooting is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is, and there will always be, a need for someone doing the specialised job of continuity when a story is told through the visual medium of film or videotape, shot on a single camera, out of sequence, and where the end result is to tell the story in a way that will not confuse the audience.
So why The Continuity Supervisor? The job of continuity is, at present, done by someone who is credited either as ‘script supervisor’ or ‘continuity’. The first title wrongly infers an involvement with the editorial side of scripting, akin to that of a script editor, and the second leaves the question hanging, continuity-what? The new title to this fourth edition is an attempt both to define the job accurately and to make people aware of the importance of this essential but often misunderstood and overlooked job.
Avril Rowlands
Inkberrow,
Worcestershire