CHAPTER 34
CONTINUITY
For this chapter I am indebted to Pat P. Miller's Script Supervising and Film Continuity, 3rd edition (Boston: Focal Press, 1999), which is a mine of detailed information on procedures and methods. I strongly recommend studying it in detail. If you have nobody covering continuity on your film, using the editor is a very good fallback. Editors have good reason to want to get things right.
COORDINATING AND REPORTING
The script (or continuity) supervisor works closely with the director and editor and plays a key role in guarding against omissions or mismatches in the production. Continuity work begins as soon as a finished script exists, but it comes into its own during shooting when the script supervisor takes over monitoring continuity of costumes, properties, and characters' words and behavior— something that would otherwise fall haphazardly to the director. The continuity supervisor's note-taking culminates in reports that are used extensively by the editor and may at any time provide guidance during the shoot.
SCRIPT BREAKDOWN
A close reading of the script yields a list of locations and of people in the first breakdown. Very important are their names, characteristics, physical attributes, overt action (as opposed to action that is implied offscreen or in the past), and their entries and exits.
CHRONOLOGY
Next comes a chronology for the story that, at the very least, will have time lapses. If the story is told out of order, or has flashbacks or flashforwards, this may have profound consequences for the age or condition of the characters and for their make-up and costuming. Continuity must at all times know where the story is, spatially and temporally, as well as what has befallen the characters before we see them and where they go after we see them. Key to keeping track of this is to make a chronology measured off in minutes, hours, days, or years— whatever the story calls for. If the story is set in 4 days, the main unit will be Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4, and each scene will be specified by time. Other key temporal and spatial aspects are day or night and interior or exterior.
PLANNING THE SHOOT
The script supervisor, being the clearing house of so many important details, supplies the production manager with details for each scene. The unit call sheets include vital detail such as costuming, properties, transport to locations, and other special provisions.
TYPES OF CONTINUITY
You think of continuity as matching details from one scene to the next, but if a chronologically late scene precedes an earlier one, continuity must be back matched to preserve the logic of compatibility. There is also direct and indirect continuity:
Direct continuity is when one scene follows another. The character cannot appear in a different jacket stepping from one room to another, for instance.
Indirect continuity is continuity between scenes separated by time or by other scenes. If a man goes out on the town and we see him many hours later much the worse for wear, this is indirect continuity because although he is in the same clothes, they are rumpled and stained, and his face is shadowed with stubble. During parallel storytelling, we might intercut two stories, and there must be indirect continuity in all the A segments and in all the B segments.
Somebody must be alert to everything that an audience will ever notice, and this is the script supervisor's job. Sometimes this takes research, for someone is bound to write in to point out that Slender Willow cigarettes were not produced in China until 5 years after the period of the film.
WARDROBE AND PROPERTIES
Wardrobe from scene to scene, once decided, is something the script supervisor must also know intimately. The script supervisor keeps a hawk-eyed on wardrobe and props or properties to make sure the right ones are used from scene to scene and that a cake with two slices taken in one scene does not appear in the next with only one piece gone. There are three classes of property:
- Hand props, such as a comb or diary, which the characters handle
- Breakaway props, such as a pottery figure, which get broken or used up in some way (and for which replacements must be on hand for subsequent takes)
- Stage props, such as a lava lamp or princess bed, which are part of an environment and may be related to one of the characters.
BREAKDOWN OR CROSSPLOT
The script supervisor must read, analyze, break down, read, and reread the script until its every need is committed to memory in its every aspect. The script supervisor makes a crossplot as in Chapter 17, Figure 17-4 to lay out the scenes in order, each with their:
- Location
- Time of day
- Chronological data
- Characters
- Pages in script
- Length
TIMING
Scene length is calculated to the nearest eighth of a page, with a normal page expected to last one minute of screen time. Naturally, a scene description saying only “A montage of shots shows the transition from fall through winter and spring” will have to be separately assessed for its content.
The careful page count is part of tracking how long each scene should last. While shooting, the script supervisor is responsible for timing with a stopwatch every scene and every take of every shot in a scene. Master scenes, usually shot first for lighting purposes, are the large unit into which others scenes fit, and these yield the first overall timing. Keeping track of screen time and edited screen time shot per day is how the unit knows whether the film is going to come in at its intended length and be shot in the time allotted.
MONITORING DIALOGUE
The script supervisor's job is to watch what dialogue actors actually use from take to take and to record any variations in what they say or do because variations can create huge problems in editing. When the plot depends on particular information emerging through dialogue, for instance, it will be disastrous if the director settles for a take that happens to omit a vital reference.
PHYSICAL CONTINUITY
If a character picks up a glass of wine with her right hand in the master shot and her left in closer shots, the editor has a big problem. Similarly, if a character rises during a line in one shot, and after the line in another, the editor is in trouble. Continuity's job is to alert the director to any of these variations, as well as inconsistencies in camera movements or timing, and to know immediately what options exist as alternatives. This means being very prepared and very observant, all the time.
Taking Polaroid or digital snaps of characters or sets just before a scene begins or after it ends is a way to log what people wore, how they wore it, and how their hair looked. Shooting on video makes this degree of caution less necessary, but it's vital if you are shooting on film. It's amazing how certain an actor can be that he had his jacket buttoned, when video proves otherwise.
COVERAGE
The script supervisor knows from discussions with the director not only how a scene should be covered, but how it actually did get covered and how, subsequently, it can be edited together. A good knowledge of editing is therefore essential, as is a good sense of dramaturgical structure because the script supervisor must keep all these aspects under constant review.
BRACKETING THE SCRIPT
The basic principle of bracketing a script lightly in pencil (see Chapter 24, Figure 24-1) is the means of knowing how the scene is to be covered, and penciling it heavily in the end makes a record of how it was actually covered. Color codings for particular characters, or for their entries and exits, may be helpful, but like any system, they must be used consistently if the system is to work.
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR'S POSITIONING
The script supervisor normally sits close to the camera to know what it is seeing, but he or she can watch a monitor if one exists. However, often the acuity of a monitor simply isn't good enough, so script supervisors usually watch from beside the camera.