BACKGROUND

How did you originally become involved in script supervising?

Jean: I used to work in television as a PA, which is great training for this job. The thing about being a PA was that I used to do variety shows here in London for a television company, and you get to know about makeup and hair and wardrobe. You work with the director, you time programs, and you type scripts. Then I got married and moved to Ireland, and when I went out for lunch one day a woman came running over to me - it was the woman who trained me as a PA in London. She asked if I was interested in becoming a continuity girl. I said I wasn't because I didn't know anything about film. She was the only continuity girl in Ireland at the time, and she said she was going to train PAs in television as there was nobody to do this job.

She was doing a Guinness commercial and suggested I come down and have a look. I went down and she paid me out of her salary - 5 pounds for each day and I went down for two days - and that was it. I had two days training, that's all I've had in my life in this industry. Then the phone rang and this guy said "I hear you're taking over from this woman", I said, "Well, I think so". And that was it.

The first thing I did was this commercial for a lager, so it's all drinks, and we did this first shot, which was a tracking shot along a bar of all these guys sitting, drinking. I was quite confident... ignorance is bliss! It featured a very famous Irish man called Tiernan McBride, a big bumbling loud man who frightened me to death. We did this long, long track along these guys and our hero was in the middle, and that was it. So we cut and Tiernan asked whereabouts in the track did he wink? And I asked, wink? I never saw anybody wink I was so busy watching all these glasses and how much they were drinking. This man went absolutely mad and screamed at me and I thought, "Oh, I don't think I want to do this anymore," I didn't enjoy it. But I went on and I've done some fantastic films... I've done seven Oscar® winning films, and some BAFTA winners. I've always done great movies, and loved every second of it.

What are some of the films you've worked on?

Jean: The first film I worked on that won something was shot in Ireland and was called Educating Rita, with Michael Caine and Julie Walters. It won at the BAFTAS, it was nominated for an Oscar� but didn't win. I think it is the best thing Michael Caine has ever done. And from there I just took off. I worked for Jim Sheridan and did My Left Foot and The Field, and I did In the Name of the Father, and Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow. I did The Madness of King George, I did The Fifth Element, and I've done King Arthur and Sahara recently, as well as Veronica Guerin with Joel Schumacher.

Since Educating Rita visual effects have changed the look of films; does that affect your job in any way?

Jean: Not too much. In the beginning I think script supervisors got a bit worked up about having to take down all the details for them, as well as everything else that we did. But I think now visual effects have their own printed forms and they actually do all their own notes, which has actually made life easier for us. Matching backgrounds to numbers and things like that, it's all become much easier, because it was all a bit confusing at first. There's so much of it going on now that it's quite run of the mill, really.

Fifth Element was a huge visual effects film. It was American, and we shot for 6 months, then they had 18 months of visual effects to do before it was released. I think that was maybe the start of the real big visual effect jobs. I took a lot more notes on that than on this, comparatively I don't have to do very much on this at all.

V FOR VENDETTA

How did you become involved in V For Vendetta?

Jean: Word of mouth. I had just finished The Legend of Zorro in Mexico with Martin Campbell directing, and I was not anticipating working for a while because I didn't get back until Christmas. I think it was the end of January when the phone rang and it was Roberto [Malerba], one of the unit production managers, to say that this film was going to be done and that my name had come up and was I available? He said that James was coming to London to see script supervisors, not just me. I hummed and hawed and thought I probably won't get it anyways, so I said alright. So I went and met James, 9 o'clock in the morning, freezing cold and we chatted and we laughed and he asked what I had just been doing so I told him. He knew Martin Campbell because he was an assistant director on a film with him in Australia called No Escape.

So anyways, we chatted away and the interview ended and just as I was leaving I said that before I did Legend of Zorro I did Sahara and there was an Australian second assistant on it called Sam, would you know her? He sort of smiled and said he did know her. I was walking up the road in Soho and thought it must have been Sam who put my name forward for this film, because it's so remote a chance with this Australian director. I rang Sam and she said James had phoned her and asked if she knew of a nice English script supervisor and she recommended me. He'd seen lots of people and after about 4 or 5 days I thought I didn't get the job so I could go on holiday like I'd planned. Then the phone rang, and it was Roberto saying, you've got the job!

So that's how I came to get on this. But normally it's coordinators who know you; if there's not somebody booked already that the director usually works with, they say why don't you go along, along with other people, sometimes immediately. They say I'd like you to do my film, or you have to wait and you don't hear anything and you realize you haven't got it. They never tell you if you haven't got it, they only tell you if you have got it.

Not having a portfolio to show, how does one do an interview as a script supervisor?

Jean: You take your CV... and I think a lot of our job is PR work. It's all about relationships because you're going to spend an awful long time with them, you're with them every second of the day, talking to them. I've been so lucky that all the people I've worked with, I've got on with. I have friends who've had horrendous times and sometimes left pictures because it just hasn't happened and the director can't stand them, so that's the end of it. We don't get the chance to say, do I really like you? It's really the director looking at you saying, do I like her? Could I get along with her for 12 weeks? As well as your experience, which, most times, first time directors are looking for.

I have to say I did enjoy working with James I loved meeting Andy and Larry Wachowski, two of the producers, I thought they were the coolest people on the planet. I got on so well with them; they made me laugh. James was just the nicest, most gentlemanly and caring director that I've worked with. Normally they're so engrossed you're just there to do the job, which is fine, but with James he always found time to ask how you were and talk naturally, which doesn't happen very often on pictures.

SCRIPT SUPERVISING

What is the role of a script supervisor?

Jean: I think we are really the culmination of everything that is filmed because it's down to script supervisors - we used to be called continuity girls in England - that everything is perfect before it's filmed. We check that the actor is wearing the right costume, they've got the right hair, they've got the right nail polish color, that they've got two buttons undone, that they are saying the right words, that they look at the correct eye lines... all those things are really down to the script supervisor. In England particularly, I think, I don't know about other countries. We certainly look for eye lines and whether it's going to cut together for the editor, we take on the whole of that.

Scenes are often shot days apart, so how do you ensure the nail polish color is the same when it should be?

Jean: You make notes. Every script supervisor works differently, but I find it works for me if I write it on the script page. Some girls just work with a note book, but I have the actual script and on the script I would put green jacket, blue denim trousers, white stripe top, even though I would also have Polaroids of all their outfits. I would put pink nail polish or pink lipstick. Although it does happen that sometimes it's a bit red and you think, I'm sure it was pinker. So you might go up quietly to the make up girl and they say "Oh my God, you know, you're right!" All those things really do matter.

Do you take the photographs yourself?

Jean: Yes, I've got a digital camera. Depending on who the video assist is, he usually has a little printer, so I hand him the card and print them out as we go along. Or he has a video printer, which is great, great reference. That's not as clear as taking a photograph, but what is terrific about that is say you're doing an action sequence, and half way through the scene which you can't be there to photograph because film is running, you can ask for just a frame of that and he will press a button and out will come that frame that I can match to or have for reference.

In an action sequence like Victoria Station, what kind of things would you be matching to?

Jean: The extras in the background, for instance, and how many were there, things like that. More than the actual main actor, but who is either side of him and who has got the guns up or the guns down, or flashlights that are on and off. If James asks if a flashlight was on, you have to have the answer ready. You can say, "I don't know, but I'll go back and check it on the video," but that obviously takes time while people are waiting while they play it back. So if you make good notes and with experience, because I've been doing it for a long time, you actually know what to look for. You know which actor is murder with continuity so you watch him like a hawk, and the ones who are terrific. Hugo [Weaving, V] was amazing, and Stephen Rea [Finch] was fantastic, and Natalie [Portman, Evey] was brilliant.

They make our job so much easier if they know what they're doing, and they pick the right thing up in the right hand and they put it down on the right word, or drink on the right line. If you cut from a mid shot and she's drinking to a tight shot and there's no cup or glass, you have to go and do another take.

How much interaction do you have with the editor?

Jean: Before I start on any film, I go and see the editor and ask what system he uses, because there's the English slating system and there's the American slating system. The English slating system is slate numbers from one, consecutive numbers. So the first shot is slate one, then slate two, slate three, whereas the American system, which I much prefer, is scene numbers: scene 22, take 4, scene 1, take 5. I think that's a great system because everybody knows what scene you're on for a start. Where if it's just slate one, it could be scene 100 or scene 500 for all anybody knows. So it makes life easier, otherwise people come to me and ask what scene are we on. If it's slate 24 it could be scene 75, the numbers are consecutive up until you finish shooting. However many set ups there are, each set up is a different number.

I haven't done it for years, I have to say, because I think the American system has come in on most of these movies because they are American or backed by America, or whatever. The old school editors didn't like change and they found that quite hard, I think.

What do you do after you know the slating system?

Jean: Then I would do a shot list, which are the shots that you do each day, and that is usually fine as long as it's clear and they can read it and it is simple. Then that really is all one has to do with the editor although, say we can't find the photo (it's very rare), you could get onto the editor and ask to check something with them, because they're always there to check. That's the marvelous thing, once it's shot you can always ring them up and say, "I can't remember, can you tell me... would you just flick it through. Did she pick it up with this hand or that hand". That's if you're in a real panic and you're somewhere where maybe you can't have the video assist, that's just as a back up really.

As the film goes on I mark all the script up, the written word with the shots' starts and finishes, then I type up everything for the editor. I make my rough notes all day of all the slate numbers, the scene numbers, the good takes, or why they're not any good, so that when James or the editor looks at them he'd know that's no good because she fluffed the line.

So I do all that, as well as timing every shot. Before we start the movie I get a script and they ask me to time it. Usually I've never met the director - James is new to me - I don't know how the actors are going play it or how fast they talk, there is nothing. Script girls always get the script first, and I sit down all day with a stopwatch and I act the whole picture in my head, speaking out loud. People would think I'm nuts if they saw me doing it! Then I ring through to the production office and tell them that my estimated guess is the film runs whatever length, and from that basis they do a schedule. Or they might say it's going to be too long, they might need to take some scenes out, or they might need to edit it a bit. It's never too short, I've never timed anything that's too short, it's always too long! That's even before you even start the movie, that's about 6 weeks before, if they've got a script.

Then as the script is edited and re-edited, I do extra timings on it, just to make sure we know where we're at. As we go along filming every day I put down the length of time we shot, the screen time, and every day it's added on so that, hopefully, by the time we finish, it adds up to whatever I originally worked out, and lots of times it actually does. But then it's going to be edited, so that can change.

How do you work with a second unit, calculating their screen time while you are on the main unit?

Jean: I time every scene with my stop watch, and after I've timed how long each scene runs, then added all the scenes up so I know how long the actual film time is, I then type out every scene with however long it runs: 40 seconds, scene 2, 10 seconds, scene 3, and there were 250 scenes in V For Vendetta. I give a copy of that to the second unit script supervisor so she knows how long each scene second unit shoots is supposed to run. On second unit it's normally all quite quick stuff, so it balances itself out.

In instances where there's a lot of action but not really any talking heads, such as Victoria Station, how do you estimate that screen time?

Jean: How do you estimate a fight sequence? It's a famine or a feast! Fight sequences are usually quite quick, so I always time them quite fast in my head, rather than too long. If fight sequences are too long they're quite boring anyways. They're really all quite sharp, so I don't know, it works out. Don't ask me how, but it does.

When I ring through those fight sequences, I say I have no idea how long, but I've timed them quite tight, and then they're quite cool about that. Then they might look through and say, "I wonder what she gave for that fight sequence... oh she gave a minute, well, that's about right." The director also usually has an idea of how long it's going to run.

You've moved from polaroids to digital photos; how else has technology changed your job?

Jean: We used to have typewriters! Now we've got computers. we mark up the script - we also do the daily diary, which is the date, the set, the call time. Script supervisors do the time of the first set up, which is really important because they know whether the schedule is behind or in front, We put down lunch, and over time if you've gone past your 6 hours or whatever it is, the afternoon set up again and how that takes from lunch, and the wrap time. How many pages you did during the day, how much screen time you've shot, which scenes are complete or not complete, and then any notes at the end of the day, like accidents or anything like that.

There's a shot list with what you shot on the day and the director's selected prints, plus typing up all the shots properly with your reasons why they were no good, how long they ran, the description of the shot and the camera set up. So they all have to be typed up every day. What is terrific now is that anything that's typed, other than the lines sheet, you can put on a memory stick and just send the memory stick through to the production office and you don't have to worry about printing them out any more. Which is super!

That's the other thing about script supervising: you don't finish on wrap. You go home and you may do another hour filling out all these forms, putting them in an envelope, and then in the morning they're all handed to the office and sent through to the editor and various producers. It's much quicker with the memory stick, because if you can get it done, you can hand it in that evening at wrap. Although that doesn't normally happen: you'd hand in the daily diary, but you don't actually have time to finish all the sheets. It would be too quick and you need to make sure you've done it correctly and things like that. Particularly the prints, because the editors want to know which takes James said to print. I also tell the prints to the clapper loader who marks it on his camera sheets. Sometimes there's a discrepancy between what I say the director wants to print and what the clapper loader says, but my word is law and that's what they go by. That's sort of sacrosanct for editing, that you have to get the prints right, otherwise you've got somebody on the phone saying, you've got prints 1 and 3 and the camera boys have got print 3, what is correct?

How can a discrepancy be caused on the print selects with the clapper loader?

Jean: James says to me, print that, and I would tell the clapper loader, print that, and he's got his little notebook with all his the take numbers and how much film has been shot beside it. But from that little book it then is put on to camera sheets and it's between that little book and the camera sheet, and sometimes it's not the clapper loader who I've given the print selects to who might be doing the camera sheets. It could be the central loader, if it's a big film, or if he hasn't got time. The other thing is if I've said to print takes 1 and 3 and they've only got tk 3 on the camera sheets the labs will only print take 3. And take 1 might be the one that James liked best, so then they have to re-order it. It takes time and it's a thing they don't want to do, which is fair enough.

Do you view the dailies every day?

Jean: Yes... well, not every day. If I've got piles of work to do, I might give it a miss. But on the whole we go to rushes.

That's a long day!

Jean:And we never stop because while they're lighting, you do your sheets so you don't have to do so much at home at night. You don't have much time, but I tell you what, it's great because the day does fly by. I'm very lucky, I just love it. I have met great people, have traveled the world, and been paid to go! Until recently I've always done a 6 day week, I've only done about 4, 5 day week films. It's very hard, you end up doing 72 hours a week, and that's just shooting. That's without your travel and without the evening work that you go home and do. So you could be talking about a 15 hour day. Normally, if it's a film out of England and it's going on location, you always do 6 days. If you're in the studio, you do a 5 day week.

On location it could be windy and raining, how do you deal with that with your papers and computer?

Jean: With difficulty! Years ago you used to have someone who would stand there and you'd have a little tiny video monitor and things like that. Now we have the easy ups [tent with a roof and removable sides] so I don't mind it raining anymore because you sit under these canopies and you don't get wet. You used to have to stand out in the rain. I did The Field with Richard Harris and we were in Connemara doing the scene where he kills Tom Berenger with the rock, it was a night shoot and it never stopped raining. 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, in Lenane this tiny village in Connemara. Eventually we found out it had the second highest rainfall in Europe. It could only happen on a movie set because, not only did we have torrential rain, we had the rain machine as well. We were all of us absolutely saturated, as well as the actor. I will never forget that, it was the worst night shoot in the rain, with Harris booming and shouting and hollering, and with all the rain pouring off his hat.

What has been one of the more memorable parts of V for Vendetta for you?

Jean: I know it sounds odd, but I loved doing that train sequence down in the underground because it was such an effort to get down there. There were, I know because I climbed them, 150 steps. The loo [toilet] was at the top as well as the tea and coffee, and one day I went up five times, and I counted that I'd done 1,500 steps. On day one, I was nearly dying the first time I walked up, but by day 3 and however many times we'd gone back up, up and down, you felt so good!

I'll tell you another scene that I loved - Hugo I thought was fantastic as V, I thought he made him so real and human - the scene in the Shadow Gallery where Evey comes in and says she's leaving and he's facing camera and he knows she's going to go. I got teary... and when you think about it, how is it possible with an actor with a mask on his face? It was because Hugo made V so real; I thought that was such a touching scene. For Hugo it was about making V a man... you even started to think, God, it must be so awful to have to wear a mask because you're burnt. I thought he was absolutely terrific. And Natalie I thought was great as well.

Do you speak with the actors before shooting begins?

Jean: I go to rehearsals and if there are rehearsals, we didn't have any on this, . If the director wants to do that, or sit and discuss their characters, I'd normally be in on anything like that. Once we get onto the floor and if they fluff a line or are not picking up or doing something the right way in continuity, then I'd say so to James, and James would go and tell him.

We have great rapport with actors, they're great. They actually appreciate us, as long as you not always on them, because then I think they think you're trying to be picky. Actors are very vulnerable, so you have to choose your moment as well. If they're all worked up and they're trying to get this particular line and they keep fluffing it, you don't want to keep going in. In the end you just say to the director, I don't think he's going to get it and he says alright, leave it, we'll sort it out in editing.

When a line is not said correctly, do you ever tell the actor yourself?

Jean: It just depends on the director. Some directors like you to go in and tell them, some directors like to go in. James sometimes did it, and sometimes he'd ask me to go in and tell them to make sure they say it correctly. Stephen Fry [Deitrich] was the one, he was quite all over the place. He was hilarious. I'd go up to him and he'd say, "Oh God, have I said...? I'm so sorry! I didn't realize we'd have to say this absolutely word for word." He's so used to making it up and getting the gist of the dialog, and the dialog on this film was so specific. I have to say it is a tremendous script, it's the best script I've worked on for years. We didn't do very much over time, but when we did, I didn't mind too much because it's not a pile of poo, it's such a great script that it's great to get it right.

Did you find the positioning of V's hair a challenge?

Jean: Yes, if he put his head down, it would fall, it was just that length. With V I have to say that, other than his hair, Hugo was so splendid. The scene in the kitchen where he's frying the egg, swapping from hand to hand, and then we came from the other side and did him putting it down, I was thinking I'll have to remember he swapped that over just before he... but of course when we come around to Hugo, he just did it. It's actors who don't have a lot of concentration - from our point of view - who make life more difficult. But that's what we're there for, that's our job. So, you just have to get on and hope that if you've got a 4 handed scene that at least 2 of them know what they're doing so you can throw your eye over the other two and know that the two will do the same thing.

Who else do you communicate with on a daily basis?

Jean: Video... he's our great ally. If I want to run back and check something, I'll run back and say quick, just play me back so I can see if they're using the correct hand, or whatever. You need to have a good rapport and be on good terms with the video. Costume, the on set dressers and the hairdresser as well. You'd say quick, quick, the hair should be back for this shot and they'd run in and fix it. I think a good way of doing it is to be quite discreet, rather than building up your part and just before they say turnover you say, "Just a minute! This hair!" We're all a team and we all work together.

What was lovely about Vendetta was that the production sound mixer [David Stephenson], the stills photographer [David Appleby], the camera operator [David Worley], hair dresser [Jeremy Woodhead], make up [Paul Engelen], and I had all worked together many years ago, and to have us all together on one picture was just fantastic, because we're all old friends. They're the cream of the industry and it made everyone's life easier because we all knew how we worked. When I got the crew list I thought how fantastic, because sometimes you go on a film and you don't know anybody, you don't even know the director.

Thank you very much for your time Jean.