Beyond Continuity: Script Supervision for the Modern Filmmaker

by Mary Cybulski

Overview

A guide to the craft of script supervising, the updated second edition features practical instruction through real-world examples that demonstrate and explain the skills needed by a professional script supervisor.

Author Mary Cybulski, one of Hollywood’s premier script supervisors, imparts her sage wisdom as she walks you through the process of training and working as a professional script supervisor, covering the basic skills of breaking down a script, taking notes on set, matching, cheating, determining screen direction, and knowing what the director, actors, and editor expect from a script supervisor. She also details many of the subtler, but just as important skills—how to get a job, how to think like an editor, how to tell what is important in a script and on set, how to get along with the cast and crew, and how not to get overwhelmed when there is too much information to process. This second edition has been fully updated throughout to address significant changes to workflow as script supervisors utilize new technologies, software, and apps. The book also provides brand new coverage on how the role varies when working on episodic TV, commercials, and lower budget film projects.

Ideal for aspiring, early career, and established continuity and script supervisors, as well as filmmaking students wanting to gain a better understanding of script supervision and film continuity.

An accompanying e-resource features downloadable versions of the various forms, templates, logs, and checklists used by professional script supervisors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367423377
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/30/2023
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mary Cybulski is a script supervisor with more than thirty years’ experience. She has learned and invented techniques that have made her one of the most skilled and valued script supervisors in the US. She is the first call for many of our most inventive directors: John Sayles, David Mamet, Jane Campion, M. Night Shyamalan, Ang Lee, Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry, and Tony Gilroy. She has worked on numerous A-list films such as Life of Pi, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michael Clayton, and Syriana. During these years she has developed her craft by both learning and creating professional techniques.

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION 2. GETTING STARTED 3. A NOTE ABOUT DIGITAL WORKFLOW 4. PREPRODUCTION: BREAKING DOWN THE SCRIPT 5. PREPRODUCTION: NON-BREAKDOWN PREPRODUCTION 6. PRODUCTION OVERVIEW: KEEPING THE NOTES 7. PRODUCTION OVERVIEW: MAINTAINING CONTINUITY 8. THE LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR OF FILMMAKING 9. A DAY ON SET 10. THE BIG PICTURE

Editorial Reviews

"This book is not only an informative and easy read, but is packed full of absolutely essential information for anyone wanting to venture into this complex world...The level and quality of practical examples - breakdowns, storyboards, logs, shot lists, hints and the language of film making - is astonishing. In my opinion, the author has far outdone anything which has gone before – the book should be on every educator's list of suggested reading for film students."— Wendy Laybourn, Network Nine

"This volume is much more than a text geared for aspiring script supervisors. It provides aspiring filmmakers with valuable lessons about the collaborative and complex world of narrative storytelling, a world in which people in many different roles must work together for a common purpose. Invaluable as a primary or supplemental text for narrative film classes and for professionals looking to broaden their knowledge about the narrative production process... Summing Up: Highly recommended." - M. A. Bay, Southern Connecticut State University, CHOICE

From the Publisher