Introduction

I begin this writing as an exercise. But a fun exercise; what I hope will be an amusing and honest anecdote of fifteen years spent working as an on-set technician, a script supervisor (also called "continuity") in the film industry. I have always worked in Toronto, Canada, a city sometimes referred to as "Hollywood North" but just as often called "Hogtown". Throughout my years working in the film and television business, I have found both to be equally applicable.

This will not be any kind of "tell-all" work. I bear no grudge against any of the directors who have given me filthy looks every time an actor got their lines wrong, blamed me for a boom shadow or asked me to "stop taking so many notes and just do continuity". I have no axe to grind when it comes to the myriad producers who barge onto set with little, if any knowledge of filmmaking process. I am not going to complain about having to reset props, run lines with washed-up stars, re-time scenes that have already been shot, listen to editors scream at me to "get control of my actors", explain to producers that the academy frame lines on the monitor are NOT going to be in the movie or try to figure out exactly when the sound recordist changed tapes. Especially now that I have it all off my chest...