When Continuity is Disputed on Set

Jennifer Carriere Author

Mar 24, 2023 |

The script supervisor is the director’s professional partner on all matters related to the story.

The script supervisor brings the script to life in the spirit of the director’s vision and supervises continuity across all departments.

You will find, throughout your career, that some of your colleagues, some of the time, may not see eye to eye with you on matching details.

You can’t make other people see all the little details as you do. However, you CAN prevent costly mistakes (and expensive reshoots) with a system for tracking Every. Little. Thing. Then communicate positively about matching details to the other departments (even if/when others are cranky or uninterested).

Suppose you’re not getting anywhere in resolving a matching problem with the responsible department. In that case, you must gracefully let the 1st Assistant Director know that you need time to sort out a potential continuity issue. Their ears will perk up when you tell them you need to use company time to sort it out. They’ll likely get involved and help the cause. (It’s in the 1st Assistant Director’s interest to resolve problems quickly and keep the shoot moving along.)

If you really can’t fix a continuity issue before shooting, you must inform the director and/or producer of the situation. You owe it to the project and the director, producer, screenwriter, and actors to do your absolute best to prevent mistakes from being shot. The director and/or producer will decide if it’s a mismatch they want to live with or if they're going to call the department in question over and get involved in correcting a mismatch.

Examples of tiny mismatches that could be missed or disputed:

• an actor’s facial hair that’s grown out just a little too much and needs to be trimmed to match,
• an actress’s bun that was reset after the lunch break but now sits at the base of her neck instead of the middle of her head as established
• an actor’s tie (that he accidentally stained at lunch), which was replaced with a close (but not exact) substitute (while the costume department feverishly tries to remove the stain and a costume buyer is out trying to buy another of the original tie)

These would likely slip by the busy director’s brain onset, but they could be noticeable in the edit. Your eagle eye must catch these and do everything possible to resolve them, and if the department in question doesn’t agree with you, it’s the director’s and/or producer’s call.

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P.S…. A Note about bedside manner

The set can be a stressful environment. Project calm and stay focused on your goal, correct mistakes before they happen. Don’t take anything personally. Do not be deterred by unwilling or cranky colleagues. Kill them with kindness and work together to get it right. Perfect continuity is impossible. We give 100% of our effort to get all the little details right. The result is good matching that keeps the audience focused on the story (instead of our preventable mistakes)!

Categories: : Continuity, Disputes