What the heck is a Script Supervisor?

What the heck is a Script Supervisor? 

 Can you describe the job of the script supervisor on a film set? In this first episode of the series, we do our best to define this expansive role - sometimes referred to as Continuity Supervisor, or even just “Continuity” - that is so widely misunderstood. Today’s topic section includes clips from interviews with Randi Feldman, Sharon Watt, Hannah Driscoll, Shadia Sepehrnia, Beatrice Bellino, Mary Cybulski, Barry Caldwell and Toni Crey. 

 But first - an interview with Randi Feldman, one of the most well-known and highly revered teachers of the craft, and long-time champion of the script supervising community.

Randi Feldman has been a member of local 871  for over 25 years, and taught the craft of script supervising at UCLA, AFI, NYFA, and privately for 20 years. Some of the films she worked on as a Script Supervisor include the Oscar Nominated Mighty Joe Young, Rat Race, Bedazzzled, and star-packed Sundance winner, Guinevere. Learn all about Randi’s classes at http://scriptsupervising.com

Hosted, Created & Produced by Caryn Ruby
Produced and Edited by Eden Woolworth
Sound Mixer Adam Carl
Original Music by Edith Mudge

Logo design by Sharon Watt
Episode artwork by Ana Ziegler Loes

Transcript

Sharon Watt (00:01)

They're the unsung heroes of film and TV,

Various (00:05)

Script Script Script Supervisor, script, script, script supervisors... the unsung hero...I kinda like that.

Caryn Ruby (00:18)

Script supervisors, unsung heroes of film and TV was created from interviews of over a dozen script supervisors from across the US. Episodes were written and produced by Caryn Ruby and Eden Woolworth edited by Eden Woolworth and contains original music by Edith Mudge.

Randi Feldman (00:36)

You can become whoever you wanna be in this business.

Barry Caldwell (00:39)

You can't force them to make a good movie.

Toni Crei (00:42)

You have the easiest job on set. You're just sitting here taking notes. They have no idea how complicated it is.

Sharon Watt (00:49)

You didn't catch this one mistake. And it's like, well, you didn't say anything about the hundreds of things that I did catch.

Randi Feldman (00:56)

There's really very few other things I could even think to do if I couldn't do what I'm doing.

Caryn Ruby (01:05)

Welcome to Script Supervisors: Unsung Heroes of Film & TV. In this podcast, we talk about the craft of script supervising, what we actually do on set, how it feels to be so misunderstood, and why we love it so much. Each episode contains a short interview followed by a brief, but in depth discussion on a single topic, curated from my conversations with all 13 script supervisors. Today's interview is Randi Feldman, my mentor, my hero, and highly revered member of the script supervising community. Randi Feldman has been a member of local 871 for over 25 years and taught the craft of script supervising at UCLA, AFI, and NYFA and privately for 20 years. Some of the films she's worked on as a script supervisor include the Oscar nominated Mighty Joe Young, Rat Race, Bedazzled and star packed Sundance winner, Guinevere. Then we do our best to define what really is a script supervisor. I am so excited to be doing this with you right now, Randi, you are my fricking hero. <laugh> I love you so much. You taught me how to be a script supervisor when I didn't know that I didn't know how to do the job.

Randi Feldman (02:30)

Mmm-hmm.That's true.

Caryn Ruby (02:32)

<laugh>

Caryn Ruby (02:34)

So let's talk about how you became a script supervisor. What was your path?

Randi Feldman   (02:39)

I never heard of the job, so

Caryn Ruby (02:41)

<laugh> right.

Randi Feldman (02:47)

So what happened was I had already worked as a teacher in elementary school for about seven years and I decided to change course and go to film school. I went to NYU grad school in film and I was making my own movies, but also I was helping other people make their movies. And most of the time they gave me the position of the location scout or the script supervisor, but nobody really knew what the job was. So I basically asked some teacher about it and they told me to do a certain number of things. And then I just went out and tried it, but there was no way I was doing any notes that were worth anything. <laugh> I have a copy of those notes and they're just ridiculous. You should always keep the first notes you ever do. When I got done with that, I was making my own films with a few people from NYU after we got out and I started doing the same sort of thing.

Randi Feldman (03:46)

I was location managing for the films and I was script supervising and eventually we needed more money to make our films. So I just decided to really get into it and see if I could get paid for the job. So I found a bunch of teachers back east and I paid them to get training and then I'd keep going. I kept making our movies and then one day we moved to Los Angeles. And when I got to Los Angeles, it was the same thing. I just started working on anything I could get my hands on.

Randi Feldman (04:16)

So I started working on these really low budget films, and I worked on anything that anyone would give me. I, I really didn't become picky about it. It was like I wanted experience. So I would say yes to anything that seemed okay. I mean, I ended up on some really kooky things, but <laugh>, I basically started studying with everybody in LA who was teaching. I was working with, Shirley Ulmer. I was reading Pat Miller's book. I met Pat Miller and she helped me out quite a bit. You know, anyone I could get information from and after I'd go out on a couple of films, I'd go back and ask somebody, look at my work. I kept doing that over and over. So I must have trained with at least eight different people out of New York and LA combined, but I never really thought that I was gonna get into the script supervising. I never thought about any of that. It, it was just that one thing after another kept leading me forward and I was excelling at it, which in many ways I felt like I hadn't found my place in the world. And for some reason, this particular set of skills was really suited to my disposition. And in my real life, I'm not someone that is super organized or everything has to be controlled. There's no systems going on. You know, it's just, I'm just living my life. But when I did that work, it would always settle me down. Like make me feel very grounded.

Caryn Ruby (05:42)

Awesome. So how did you transition from being a script supervisor to teaching script supervising?

Randi Feldman (05:51)

I got a call from UCLA and they had a course for script supervising and there had been some really fantastic teachers already, but one of them couldn't make it any longer for the next semester over some reason. And I had like to go in and start teaching in 24 hours.

Caryn Ruby (06:08)

Oh my God.

Randi Feldman (06:10)

I really started in and I didn't know how to teach what I was doing. It's not an easy thing to break down the process of. And I really didn't know all the answers, but it was successful enough that I did that for a long time. Then I got a call from NYFA, New York Film Academy. And they wanted me to come in and create a program for young directors to teach them continuity, all our note taking and how to break down a script, how to do pre timings about how to basically do most of our tasks so that they would have a respect for the job. But then it got into a lot of blocking strategies that I started to learn myself. I was always looking at everything from my point of view, my job and I wasn't ever really thinking about it in terms of, well, what if you're the director and you've gotta come up with all these ideas and then how do you cover it and started studying all these directing books. And I just would learn something and go in and teach it and then I'd go, my goodness. That's like really cool. And I would apply it to my work. And that course it was the basis I guess, of my part B that I teach.

Caryn Ruby (07:31)

Yeah. Part B by the way is so invaluable. And when I was taking it, I didn't even realize how much more prepared I was to do the job because of learning what you were teaching about the camera angles and planning the shots. It was just so in depth. And I'm super grateful for having that information because coming onto the set as a script supervisor with that background and that information just makes it so much easier to understand what's going on.

Randi Feldman (07:58)

Right, right. It's like a gateway to becoming more involved in the whole process because once they know that you know how to do blocking strategies and you can diagram something out for them and show them where the camera should go, because they're having a confusion about eyelines and know how crossing the line works and doesn't work. Once you know all that stuff it's like, you suddenly just get to elevate yourself into a different place when you participate. I just value filmmaking and how it's structured. You know, all the elements that are brought to bear. I just am fascinated by that. So I wish I had way more time than I even do to teach all the things that I wish I could say to people about filmmaking process.

Caryn Ruby (08:40)

Yeah. You're talking about all these really complicated filmmaking issues. And I just wanted to point out that you teach people who have zero experience of anything at all in filmmaking and you teach them, it's like a film school class, script supervising class, and you get everybody up to speed, which is really amazing. And it speaks to the way that you can break down and feed us all this complicated information.

Randi Feldman (09:10)

I feel like it's amazing to watch people come in here who have no film knowledge and get good quality information. And if you take that and you work it and you grow and change and fix it, you can become whoever you wanna be in this business. I've seen it so much because I have taught a lot of people and I've seen them on the crawls of all these films. And I go, oh my goodness, I can't believe it. I'm so excited for them, but I had nothing to do with that whole traveling that they went through. Other than I was one maybe of the people that gave them some good information, but I got that good information myself through hard work and teachers and people who would look at my work. So it's like a big process, you know, big flow of information.

Caryn Ruby (09:56)

Yeah. Back to when you were a script supervisor, what did you love the most? What was it about the job or being on set in that capacity that you liked?

Randi Feldman (10:06)

I loved everything I ever did for what it taught me. I didn't always love doing everything, but I do think that everything that ever happened to me, the really good and the really bad, it teaches you to really be humble and willing to grow and change. But that in itself, just the idea that I was not like, you know, in complete charge of a project, I had a position in that project took me years to master just cuz I've often Dawne exactly what I wanna do when I wanna do it. <laugh> but when you're in the film industry or you're in that position, you become part of a team. I always thought that it really was a great way to discover my best and my worst qualities.

Caryn Ruby (10:49)

Yeah. So I wanted to ask, how often are you offering classes? How often do they start? If somebody's listening and thinks, wow, I really like what this Randi lady's talking about and I wanna take her class. How often are you offering it? Where can they find it? Plug, plug.

Randi Feldman (11:06)

Okay. <laugh> well, first of all, you really do have to dedicate a month and a half to this thing. It's, it's a long program and that, that is problem for people. But I try to teach four times a year. I mean, like I try to teach, uh, January, February sequence and April, May, July, August. It doesn't really always go like that because now with the COVID thing, I find that I need a bigger break now, before I'm gonna go back.

Caryn Ruby (11:32)

Mm. But they can always check your website cuz it's updated of when the classes are.

Randi Feldman (11:36)

Yeah. It's scriptsupervising.com and the school is Cinema Workshops. There is one thing I wanna say about classes though. If you've been taught to do the basics and you've been out there for a while and you wanna take the blocking strategies, you know, there's no reason you can't, it's just that everybody has an idea of what they think they know and what they don't know. And what the point is is that I don't know what you know, the only thing I can ever go by is, you know, how does your work look? And then how do you feel like you're responding to what I'm talking about? And if you feel like it's making you feel insecure or weird, or you don't know this stuff, then you're the one that has to make that decision that you wanna go back. I have people who think they know a lot, but they go do Part A because they want to fill in all the holes of what they don't know. It's very good to do that

Caryn Ruby (12:27)

In your classes, you learn everything about being a script supervisor and more, I got a gig referred to me from a script supervisor who did not know me, but all I said was I trained with Randi and she said done. You can do the job, I know it. I know you've been trained well. That is your reputation out in the world, Randi.

Randi Feldman (12:46)

That's pretty nice. <laugh>

Caryn Ruby (12:51)

Well, on that note, this has been an amazing interview, Randi. Thank you so very much for spending the afternoon with me and talking about your experience and shedding light on this craft of script supervising and yeah. Thank you.

Randi Feldman (13:10)

Well, thank you. I've had a lot of fun. I love to talk about script supervising.

Caryn Ruby (13:16)

The extraordinary script supervisors on this season include Dawn Gillam who scripted “Black Panther,” “Boyz N the Hood,” “Fences,” “Star Wars Episode IX.” and she also got IMDB to create a new category for script supervisors. Margery Kimbrough has scripted Academy Award nominees and Emmy and Golden Globe winners such as “Harriet,” “Fear the Walking Dead” and “The Good Lord Bird.” Known as the author of the quintessential book "Beyond Continuity: Script Supervision For The Modern Filmmaker," Mary Cybulski has scripted multiple Academy Award and Golden Globe winning films, including “Life of Pi” and “Michael Clayton.” Randi Feldman has taught the craft of script supervising for over 20 years. Her professional credits include the Oscar-Nominated”Mighty Joe Young” and Sundance winner, “Guinevere.” Barry Caldwell scripted on “Beautiful Boy,” “Ugly Betty,” “Key and Peele,” “Queen of the South” and the cult classic “Cabin Fever,” Sharon Watt scripted culture-shifting and award-winning shows “Pose,” “When They See Us,” “Mr. Robot,” “The Americans” and “Boardwalk Empire.” Hannah Driscoll script supervises the Emmy-Nominated series “Pen 15” as well as big budget commercials for well-known brands. Script supervisor on Emmy-Nominated “Dolly Parton's Heartstrings,” “The Originals,” “Ozark,” and “Zombieland 2 Double Tap” Toni Crey. Self-described internet prankster, Nick Robinson, script supervisors commercials starring A-list talent and films that premiere at top tier festivals. In addition to "Script Soup," her book on script supervising, Beatrice Bellino creates experimental films and has scripted Emmy-Award winners “Friday Night Lights,” “Revolution,” and “Fear the Walking Dead.” Shadia Sepehrnia scripted, Lena Waithe's Tribecca Award-Winning series "Girls Room" and also writes and directs. Administrator of Los Angeles Script Supervisors Network Robert Goodwin's credits include the Emmy Award-Winning “Dark/Web” and “Love is Not Love” which snagged over 100 festival wins. And finally multi-talented Roe Mooore scripts everything from films and commercials to live TV, teaches script supervising and is a member of the DGA, Local 871 and Producer's Guild.

Caryn Ruby (15:30)

Just like everyone's path to script supervising is unique, so too are the definitions of our craft. We'll hear from Mary Cybulski, Randi Feldman, Sharon Watt, Toni Crey, Hannah Driscoll, Barry Caldwell, Shadia Sepehrnia and Beatrice Bellino. So what the heck is a script supervisor?

Sharon Watt (15:50)

It is a very, very difficult job, but it's a very high stress you're in the firing line kind of job.

Randi Feldman (15:56)

It's not like you can walk into this job and just be doing it. It's a very big craft. It has a lot of moving parts to it that you have to master. It's mentally very challenging and it's a place to really test your character psychologically and emotionally.

Toni Crey (16:16)

So many things go into it. And there's so much detail to each segment of it that it's such a technical position that is almost in a different category onto itself. You're there as a support to anyone who needs it as a reference. Your vision of what is going on set is for playback when they don't have playback, basically you are playback and that has so many levels to it because it's from where that actor is picking up the drink and saying the line, or did he put it down and say the line? And they will ask you that, what hand were we using? Which way were they looking? Who was standing over their shoulder? So the comprehensive look at script supervising is as if you were the best secretary that ever was made.

Mary Cybulski (17:09)

People tend to think of us as note takers or continuity police, something other than filmmakers. And at our core, we are filmmakers. And all that other stuff we generate the notes and the daily totals and all that stuff. It's part of our job and it comes from our job but it's not the heart of our job. The heart of our job is that we are story and cinematic language backup for the director. That's our most valuable thing we can do. We represent the editor on set. We work with the director and just like the AD brings all the elements of production on set. We bring all the elements of story into the scene.

Sharon Watt (17:50)

You realize that all these details are just the peripheral elements to a much bigger, deeper, richer thing, which is the whole fabric of this world. And the whole story that you're trying to tell. When you're talking about a fictional world, you know, as a script supervisor, you imagine this world before you even shoot it because you're prepping and timing and all that kind of stuff. So you really have to have that imagination to sort of build this world in your head. And then once you have the script in your head, then I see it as your job to sort of protect its integrity. So if something is amiss, whether it is something like the length of a cigarette or whether it's appropriate for this person to suddenly be so forgiving about their father, when we've established, or we will establish during the course of this story, that they have a lot of issues and it doesn't make sense for them to suddenly be completely over that in this one particular scene that we're doing in this one particular moment, that sticks out to me because that doesn't fit into what I imagined the story to be based on the script that I read.

So it's this big sort of interweaving of different elements that are physical, that are emotional, that are tonal when you're at the center of things and you have the trust of the director and the vision is really clear then you see that world very clearly.

Mary Cybulski (19:17)

It's really important that we understand the story, understand what's cool about the way the director wants to tell that story. You know, what is it that's not on the page that the director is really going for. And that we can understand how all these pieces that are being collected should fit together to deliver that specific movie that that director is thinking about. So our notes are not just, we did this take, we did this take, we did this take, our notes are take three - more affectionate, take four - best for outburst. It's very much what is the value of those pieces? Not just naming them, which of course we have to do. We have to take the notes. We have to name them. We have to give them to the editor. We tell the editor, everything that happened on set that they would wanna know, you know, in take three why did the action change? The editor should know that to be able to be fully informed about the material that they're getting.

Randi Feldman (20:10)

It's a huge challenge for everyone. But that job we do, it kind of is constantly about helping others and then supporting the director to get the vision he's looking for. You know, did he get what he intended to have? How can you help him make it better or her make it better?

Caryn Ruby (20:28)

A lot of people, even some experienced filmmakers don't really know what we do besides take notes. So there's a lot of misinformation out there. And since this is one of the main reasons we created this podcast, stay tuned to hear some misconceptions, and a few things we'd like you to know

Toni Crey (20:49)

The level of appreciation to what we do is usually most people don't get it. And they look at you on set, going, oh, you have the easiest job on set. You're just sitting here taking notes. They have no idea how complicated it is.

Sharon Watt (21:02)

It's a lot of ignorance. Like I think a lot of productions think that, oh, you get a script supervisor and they take notes on set and they don't realize the work that you have to do even just to get to the first day on set. It's just like, how do I magically know all this information? You know, <laugh> where does that all come from? That comes from study. And that's a tricky thing too, because whenever I prep, I'm working alone at home in isolation and it's just me and the script. It's just me studying the script. Everyone is out doing tech scouts and meetings and phone calls and like looking at storyboards and all that kind of stuff. That's all very visible work. And our work is very isolated and the results are often invisible when we do do it well. It's kind of like an exam, you know, it's just, you see the results of whether someone passed the exam or not, but you don't see the hours that they spent studying.

Sharon Watt (21:57)

When we make a mistake, then it really stands out. It's just like, oh, well they're terrible because they didn't catch this one mistake. And it's like, well, you didn't say anything about the hundreds of things that I did catch. And that's a very like frustrating thing. People just remember the mistake, you know, they don't remember all the other times that you sort of saved their ass. <Laugh> They don't even think about the things that they did on set, the comments that they made or the things that they reminded the director about or helped the actor be in place for, to sort of just be that second eye when people are so focused on the minutiae of the moment that they don't see the big picture. And then conversely, sometimes they're sort of thinking about the broad strokes and not enough about the details, the results of that are not obvious. So that's kind of what people don't really see.

Randi Feldman (22:47)

It is truly, truly exhausting to make movies. I mean, all these hours we put in, it's crazy. This is like being part of a circus or going into the unknown territories of the Northwest. It's really a huge adventure that one decides to take. And actually it takes a lot of gumption, you know, a lot of character to keep going, no matter what, and, you know, keep looking for work and keep showing up when you don't like the director, or they don't like you, or you're just exhausted from doing too long of days, it takes a lot of gumption to do it.

Caryn Ruby (23:21)

I just love how Randi calls filmmaking a circus. It makes me laugh every time. Also, I agree. Being a script supervisor is super fun and extremely challenging. I asked everyone what they liked most about this difficult and complicated craft and got some surprising answers.

Barry Caldwell (23:42)

We are a community and it's global and we're here for each other. Yes, we compete for jobs and yes, we have different rules about where we can and can't work, but still, I've never seen anybody ask a question and told to go away. Cause we've all been there.

Randi Feldman (23:56)

I think that most supervisors would tell you that they enjoy that aspect of it, that it gives them a place to continually grow and share their knowledge and be part of a creative team that everybody's very reliant on. That's why I think the job is so interesting, cuz you're always learning and you're always getting better and contributing more and more to the project and it gets to be so rewarding. There's really very few other things that I could even think to do if I couldn't do what I'm doing and talk about what I'm talking about.

Roe Moore (24:32)

The thing I love most about script supervising is I have a lot of power and I have a lot of input. I can put in creative thoughts. I can express certain technical issues, but I have no responsibility or obligation. It doesn't fall on me 90% of the time. If I make that wrong decision, it's up to the director, it's up to the producers. It's just my role to come in and say, "Hey, let's double think this" "Let's double check this. Let's make sure this is absolute what you guys want." And then if they make whatever decisions they make, I can walk away and say, I did my job. I know what should have happened. If anybody asks. I may be the only one that knows, but at least I know I did my job and I can go home at night and say, well, if the movie's crap I did my job. <laugh> That's essentially, uh, my favorite part of the script, supervising,

Barry Caldwell (25:17)

Whenever I'd be on a show and they'd send a splinter unit off without one of us, I would scream and yell about it. And I used take it so personally when they would do that. And then finally somebody told me, “You can't force them to make a good movie. You can't force them to do it right." All you can do is do your job, do the best job you can do. If they don't want to be saved, you can't save them.

Caryn Ruby (25:38)

Mm that's the truth. But of course, we'd rather be a part of the team making the production better. And to any filmmakers who just heard about us for the first time we say:

Shadia Sephernia (25:52)

I think we should shed light. Now I think is the time, it's super important so that people know just to make their productions better. I think people need to know what a script supervisor does. That's the most important thing so that they can use them for the greater good and not for all the tiny minutia that no one really cares about or needs, but overall, like they're very important and it'll save you money and time. And it's another voice in the room that you definitely need to listen to.

Caryn Ruby (26:20)

That's it for this episode, special thanks to all the script supervisors who were featured, and to you, our listener. I hope you had fun. And maybe even learned something. Script Supervisors: Unsung Heroes of Film & TV was created and produced by Caryn Ruby in consultation with the Los Angeles Script Supervisors Network. Episodes were edited and produced by Eden Woolworth with original music composed by Edith Mudge. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating or leave a comment. And if you know anyone who makes movies without a script supervisor, let them know about us. We are the script supervisor podcast on Instagram.