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Most studio programmes involve
cutting from one camera source to another in real time. So the
information on this sort of script has to be much more precise
than you'd need for shooting on location.
All the information to make the
programme should be on the script. Old-timers used to say, "If
you've done your homework properly on a script, then if you were
knocked down by a bus on the way to the studio, you'd be able
to sit up in your hospital bed and watch the programme knowing
it would be just what you'd planned." Some programmes are fully scripted, like dramas;
others not so fully. I mean, you can't write the script for a
football match, can you? Nor can you for interviews, discussions,
and some magazine programmes.
But you do as much as you can. You can script the opening sequence of
the football match, for example. And by scripting, I don't just mean
writing down the words the commentator will say; television is primarily
pictures, and they need writing down as well. Let's take fully-scripted
programmes first. Have a look at a
page from a magazine programme script. It
should load into a separate page so you can look at it side by side with
this text.
| 1 |
Shots are numbered sequentially
so they can be referred to easily and quickly. |
| 2 |
Each shot has a horizontal line
that shows the vision mixer where to make the transition. |
| 3 |
Some lines have a little tick to
indicate the precise point for the cut. |
| 4 |
Some cutting points are left 'open
ended' for the director and vision mixer to 'feel' the best
place to cut or mix.
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| 5 |
If the transition isn't a cut, that
information will also be shown. Shot sixteen begins with a
mix (equivalent to a dissolve on film). |
| 6 |
Shot 15a is a superimposition of
the output of a Character Generator over the background shot
15 on video tape. Simply put, the person's name appears in
letters. Shot 15 remains though - that's why the super (usual
term) is shot 15a, not 16. |
| 7 |
The precise time the interviewee
or reporter appears on videotape and the viewer needs to know
who's speaking.
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| 8 |
A reminder to 'lose' the CG after
a few seconds. The rule is; hold it long enough to read slowly
three times. That's longer than you might think, but remember
the viewer is taking in information about how the person looks
and what he or she says as well. |
| 9 |
Shot 16 on 3 begins as a Mid Shot.
Camera three is in his 'B' position in the studio; the operator
looks at the master plan that shows scenery, artist, camera
and other information. There will be circles with arrows representing
camera positions. One of them will be labelled 3B. The operator
looks at the coordinates marked on the plan, finds the corresponding
numbers on the studio walls, puts his camera where the two
references cross and . . . the shot should be right there in
his viewfinder.
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| 10 |
The shot holds for the presenter's
remark on the VT story, then tightens to a Medium Close Up.
Any instruction for a zoom, track, pan or whatever is written
in the left hand column opposite the dialogue that motivates
it.
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| 11 |
Not a written newspaper caption,
but a photograph. There have, presumably, been two captions
in the programme before this one. |
| 12 |
A/B just means As Before. When shot
16 ended, camera three was showing a Medium Close Up. Shot
18 is simply the same shot. |
| 13 |
Who says what! Ben was obviously
speaking on the previous page. |
| 14 |
SOVT means Sound On Video Tape.
Lets the sound supervisor know you want to hear the sound track.
(You nearly always want this, of course). |
| 15 |
The sound continues
until a little after the sound track ends with the dialogue
shown; " .
. . Down Under." If there were some sound effect or music
after this that would be indicated. Sometimes the music continues
for quite a while after the last picture so the sound mixer
can fade it down under the dialogue. To indicate that, the
vertical line from 'SOVT' would continue on to run parallel
with the dialogue for a few lines (maybe becoming a dotted
line during the crossover). |
| 16 |
Stage instructions are usually
in capitals in parentheses. If there's a paragraph of instructions
without dialogue, most people omit the brackets. |
| 17 |
The 'comment' isn't written dialogue.
It's for Ben to react to the story. Just a few words like,
'Gives you a bit of a thirst, doesn't it?' would do. |
| 18 |
Shot 15 begins (hopefully) just
after Ben's introduction ends with the words, '. . . from Down
Under.' But most videotape machines don't give a stable picture
as soon as you press the 'play' button. So each story has a
leader in front '10 - 9 - 8 - 7' etc., and the main picture
begins at zero. In most studios the tape is parked by the tape
operator on the figure five. In English, at least, most people
speak at three words a second. The fifteenth word, counting
backwards from the end of the dialogue is 'bar'. So, during
rehearsal, as Ben gets to that word, the director calls, 'Run
VT' or 'Roll VT', the operator presses play and . . . just
as Ben comes to the end of the link and turns his head, the
first frame of VT appears and the vision mixer cuts to it.
It might not work absolutely on rehearsal, so the director
will adjust the cue for transmission. And that's why 'RUN VT
14' is opposite that particular line of the dialogue. Wow! |
It's not at all complicated. And nobody's going to
ask you to do anything like that until you've been working in television
for some time. (And even then you don't have to worry - your PA
should sort out all the formatting for you).
But you might want to write a simple
one-camera script. If so, read on.
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