Script Coordinator - what is it?

Often when I tell someone I'm a script coordinator, I get asked, what is that? Even people who work in the industry often confuse script coordinator with script supervisor and my easiest answer to that is: the script supervisor works on the set with the director, the script coordinator works in the writers' office with the writers.

The script supervisor was once called the continuity girl, and I suppose that the title changed when the world went pc. But that's partially what a script supervisor does: maintain the continuity of everything on the set and on the actors from take to take and scene to scene if necessary. Like if the star has his sleeves up in the master, and down in his coverage, when the post people go to cut the two together they won't match. There are famous glitches of scene mismatches -- the one that comes quickest to mind is in the Original Star Trek series: Kirk goes into the turbolift in one color uniform (gold, I think) and comes out onto the bridge in another (green, I think -- or the colors may be reversed, can't remember exactly). A newer one that comes to mind is in Stargate where when Daniel takes off his flak vest outside the temple, his jacket slips down with it and you see he has a short-sleeved black T-shirt on, yet when he walks into the temple and takes off the jacket inside, he's suddenly in a long-sleeved black T-shirt.

The script supervisor also times the scene as it's shot, and makes various notes for the post production department, like which takes the director wants to be printed. I'm sure there is a lot more to the job but I've never been a script supervisor and have only watched them at work.

The script coordinator, on the other hand, is the queen or king of those colored script pages. He or she takes the script once the writer is done with it and goes over it with a fine-toothed comb, looking for inconsistencies, typos, spelling errors, unintentional grammatical mistakes, and formatting snafus. A fine-toothed comb that works at break-neck speed because once the hungry monster called the production machine gets wind of a new script in the offing, it wants it... uh, right now, if not yesterday.

If it's just the writer's first draft, you do the above proofing, then print it up and distribute to the writing staff and executive producers. They read it, give the writer notes who rewrites the script if necessary, and you go through the whole process again. This version will go to the showrunner, who in general, will give it his polish. This way, the characters will maintain a consistent speech pattern, banter pattern, and personality, over the season, even though the individual scripts are written by many different writers, not all of whom are on staff. Otherwise, the characters would sound and act differently every week.

After the showrunner does his polish, it usually goes to studio execs and network execs for their input. In a heavy special effects series, the script may even go to department heads for their input (like, are you nuts, we don't have the budget for that? or my favorite: you know that army of centaurs that descends on the town square? You can have three centaurs.). Usually just for everyone's convenience, the script coordinator numbers the scenes at this point so when the execs call with their notes, they can refer to them by scenes (rather than half-way down the page). At this point, the showrunner makes whatever changes the execs want and then he clears it for shooting or production draft. At that point, the script coordinator locks down the script... the pages and scenes are locked... and sends the script wide, to all the crew and all the cast, the director, producers, studio execs, network execs, post production, casting, publicity, clearances, and anyone else who has a legitimate need for a script.

And this is where the fun begins. There are still changes to be made. Scenes and dialogue modified, deleted, or added depending on actor input, director input, location problems, money concerns, etc. However, once the scene numbers are locked, they can not be used for any other scenes than as already designated. You can modify or delete a scene and you can add others, but you can't use it for another scene.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? It isn't rocket science, so anyone with a good grasp of English and a dictionary and who can use a script program to write and who can press the button for 'lock scenes' should be able to do this, right? Or at least every Tom, Dick, and Harry, and Sally and Sarah thinks so. But there are a lot of unwritten or unspecified rules that have to be abided by in order to have a script stay in the shape it can be most effectively used by all concerned. In other words, to keep it in a form that has everyone on the same page and not transfering all their notes for scenes already shot just because a page might get long or short or talking about lines that aren't on the same page in everyone's hands.

So if you don't yet know the 50% rule or what to number an added scene that comes before A1 or 1A with scene 1 deleted or what to number an added scene between 2 and 5 when 3 & 4 have been deleted, or what to number a scene that comes between 15A and 15B or between A20 and 21, or how to move a scene from one part of the script to another, then you aren't quite ready to be script coordinator. And those helpful writers who number a scene to be nice to you when they make a change? -- chances are they are wrong, unless they are writers who have come up through the ranks of assistants and script coordinators themselves. Because, frankly AB scenes and pages are revisions made during production and the writer doesn't really care to learn what number they should be because the writer is off writing the next script to feed the machine.

Script coordinating is not hard, but it can be complicated, and in a way, you only learn by doing, as there are no classes to teach you the many ins and outs. And yet, because the script coordinator works closely with the writers, you can learn from those who are successfully doing the writing, and you might be able to talk them into letting you do a script. Hence, it's a coveted position that draws a lot of wannabe writers to it. Plus, it's the one assistant-like job where you don't have to get the boss coffee or lunch.

So coveted, in fact, that once at a networking group, a budding writer who had never worked in the industry yet, asked for people's help in getting on a show as writers assistant or script coordinator. Afterwards, I spoke to her, suggesting she try to become a writers assistant first and her answer to me was, 'but script coordinators make more money.' To which I responded, 'That's because they have to know more.' She looked at me unbelievingly, so I started asking her the questions I outlined above.

I don't know if she took me seriously or not, but that is my suggestion for anyone who wants to become a script coordinator -- become a writers assistant first, or even a writers PA if the show has one. There is no class for teaching the ins and outs of doing it, it's more like on the job training. But the catch 22 is that you can't do it wrong... ever, for the consequences can be costly on set, and you can really get beat on. You have to come in knowing what you are doing.

But as a writers assistant, you are in a position to volunteer to help the script coordinator out, if assisting the sc isn't already part of your job and to ask a lot of questions. Trust me, I've never known a script coordinator to not welcome the help to get a script out and willing to teach you anything you need to know in order to help more effectively. Because I've never known a production office worth its salt to not know exactly when a writer is done with a script and to start badgering the script coordinator the minute the disk is placed in her hands -- sometimes even before. They can't badger the writers because the writers will tell them what to do with themselves, but us little people can be badgered. And your choices are: whine that you haven't opened the script yet and seen what changes you have to work on, or lie and say fifteen minutes when you hand it to them an hour later -- try telling them the truth, ha-ha. Etc., etc. If you don't want to be stressed out watching the clock from the moment the script gets in your hands, you welcome the helper who can do the cast and set pages or revisions to them, or check to see if all the AB pages printed out, or a dozen other tiny things that can go wrong and can not be allowed to go wrong. Sometimes, that production office starts calling you even before the writer is done with his part of the script, and you're under the gun before you even get the script.

It's not always this hectic -- there are the down times when the writers are writing and you are waiting. Then you get to do fun stuff like writing the bible or writing the synopses for the broadcasted episodes (because things can change in post, etc) or the paperwork, like writers payments, character payments, producer payments, and work notices and credit notices to the WGA. And you get to breathe then, maybe visit the set, play, or do your own thing.

But when you are under the gun, it's nice to have that help. I learned by asking a ton of questions when I was a writers assistant, and I've answered questions for anyone who has asked. And when someone is helping you, then...