Got this awesome email yesterday… Thanks JB!
Hey
I’ve dropped note before, but I started out as a 1st AD and production manager a lot of years ago and LOVE your blog.
I TRIED to add myself as a follower, but it seems tumbler wants a web page, and wont take my blogger website as webpage? Go figure.
Anyway, so much of your blog rings true to me. I love it, and I can tell you, many film vets in NY I work with love it as well.
As for your page count page - some interesting notes you may already know.
First, an even OLDER AD than me (I’m 54) loves the “Atlanta burns” example. She has always used it.
Second, some history you may know.
In the studio days, there were production secretaries who took scripts and made them into “shooting scripts”. These women - it was the old days and they were mostly women (in the days when we had “script girls”) - would translate scripts so that each page was ACTUALLY about one minute of screen time. That meant that if someone wrote the following:
EXT - STREET
JB ducks in an alleyway. He sees the bad guys chasing him. He runs out into the street as the car races around the corner with the two bad guys shooting at him. He jumps into another car and takes off. They follow him down Broadway, then onto the bridge….
You get the point.
That production secretary would break that up into shots that would reflect anticipated screen time (many of these were also script supes) so that 1/8 REALLY WAS 1/8.
In an indie world where a lot of first-time directors who have never written a professional script write scripts, you get a lot of this.
I used to teach line producing and Gorilla software at NYFA, and I used to explain that I would break up the above and NOT call it 1/8 of a page, doing what the old production secretaries would do.
However, as you mentioned, if a LEGIT 1/8 of a page happens to have SFX or stunts, thats different.
I always have said it’s not about page count per day as an AD - its about set-ups. Script supes get this. A good indie should be able to average 16 set-ups a day or so - some more (when set-ups are easy) and some less (when they aren’t). I stopped worrying or, alternately, being concerned or impressed by low or high page counts.
You definitely know your stuff, and I love your sense of humor.
If you know an easy way to add you as a follower - will gladly do so!
If you want some idea what us ol’ folk thought of the process, check out the blog below - and feel free to follow!
If you ever come to NY - please look me up - I’d love to help get you work!
Best
May Your Life Go Well,
jb
John J Bruno
jb
John J Bruno
Best email ever!
Thank you so much, JB. I would suggest getting a tumblr so you can easily follow me ;)
JB runs a great blogspot site called Living in My Oblivion dedicated to being a low budget production department member - production manager, AD, etc. Lots of really insightful posts about an actual life time in this industry (doing the less glamorous work).
It’s true about the set-ups, and that’s definitely an old secret. It really isn’t about the page counts. 1/8th of a page could contain 6 different set-ups (I’ve encountered that many many many times) or it could be your most complicated set up of the day. This is why shotlists and tech scouts are so so so important to your production. The more I can see what you’re visualizing for shots, the better I can plan for the logistics of putting those shots together.
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