The "script girl" takes care of the paper work concerning the continuity issues during the shooting. She will fill a separate form for each shot (the sheets are made of carbon paper, so the lab, and the production, get their own copy).

She circles the takes that have been chosen by the director, in the boxes on the left . Note that 15 takes are considered on this particular form, which is a comfortable estimate when you know that the average number of takes on a feature film is about 5 takes per shot. The N° of the shot is indicated in . She can jot commentaries relative to each take in , and global commentaries for the shot in (there's a lot more room, I cut the page a bit for the site's sake !). During each take, she times the shooting with a chronometer . If her chronometer "beeps", the production recordist will be glad to reprogram the thing so that it doesn't make this annoying sound. A good blow in the speaker with a screw driver will permanently "reprogram" it ! The lens used for the shot is noted in , in case the Director of Photography doesn't remember it (they generally have an elephant's memory) when, for instance, time has come to shoot another shot in relation with this one, several days later. A column is there to note the aperture (the position of the lens' iris, if you prefer) and the filtre used for each take. Indeed, the DP's nightmare is when the sun goes down, if the shot isn't supposed to take place at that time of day. He must fight against the light growing weaker (by opening the iris a bit more at each take) and orange (by filtering with deeper shades of blue at each take).

To simplify the lighting conditions encountered when shooting, the film industry summed it down to 4 lighting conditions : Interior Day / Interior Night / Exterior Day and Exterior Night. The scriptgirl ticks the appropriate boxes . And finally, concerning the info related to picture, the roll N° is indicated in .

Some infos related to sound can also be written down by the script girl on her report, even though I've never encountered this method in the short films in which I was involved ! Each production company has its own little habits. Therefore, a box is provided to note the sound roll N° on which the related sync sound has been recorded. This is very useful when the dailies are to be projected with sound. A box is also there to mention if the shot was with or without sound and the subjective distance between the actros and the camera . The usual terms are : close-up, semi-distant and distant.

The scriptgirl's best friend is the polaroïd camera, used to photograph the scenery at the end of each shot (or take, depending on her anxiety level, her worst enemy being the cocktail party scene, where people drink and smoke like crazy !!!). Indeed, she also takes care of continuity issues : the shots are filmed in the order which is cheapest for the production, they are seldom shot in the chronological order of the finished movie.

two examples :

In a scene, an actor goes down a staircase to reach a room, where he pours himself a drink. Preparation of the lighting for the staircase (1 hour), the shot is filmed (15 mn). The lighting is taken to the room and prepared there (1 or 2 other hours). The shots in the room are filmed (1 hour). Up to there, everything is quite normal.
And then, before a mesmerized crew, the "would-be director" freshly graduated from his film school (IDHEC, former national film school in France, replaced by the FEMIS) proudly announces that the actor will now go up the staircase !!! At least another hour was wasted when it was so obvious that the way to go was to film the actor going down and going up the stairs before shooting the scenes in the room (this story is true, amongst thousands of other ones).

A movie (an imaginary one, this time) begins in a lonely cottage in the countryside, then takes place in Paris, Rome, New-York, Tunisia... to end up in the same house. Don't you think it's cheaper to shoot everything related to those scenes in the same week ?

The rare cases where a film is shot in its continuity is when the director fears that these repeated skips in the film chronology might disturb an actor, whose character goes through a long and difficult psychological evolution.

The scriptgirl must therefore pay attention, before each shot of a specific scene, to every detail : that the glasses are filled to the appropriate levels, that the accessories are oriented the same way, that a door isn't open in this shot when it was closed in the previous shot (the classical mistake), etc...

When the production recordist isn't sure which takes he must circle on his sound report, the scriptgirl is the person most liable to give him that missing information. It's a good thing for these two people to double check their reports at the end of the day, to be sure that the same takes will be processed.