They go unnoticed, or almost. However, they are essential players in the cultural environment. The Duty offers a series of portraits of behind-the-scenes professions through the confidences of professionals who practice them. Today: script girls.
“If someone had told me that I would spend the rest of my life bringing home lessons and homework,” exclaims Lorette Leblanc, a script supervisor since the 1980s, who started out alongside Monique Champagne, the great pioneer of the profession. “Sometimes, I think it’s like the myth of Sisyphus: it’s an eternal restart.” Because, when the shooting day is over for almost the entire crew, it’s not for the script supervisors in front of their notes and reports.
Let’s be reassured: on film sets, script supervisors are not as miserable as some characters from Greek mythology. But their tasks are essential to bring order to the organized chaos that is the production of a film or a television series. Other adjectives describe them very well: living memory, guardians of continuity, conscience of the director, etc.
It is true that, among their responsibilities, taking notes is essential. And they often take more than less, guided by their conscientious minds and their lynx eye. During a dialogue scene, if one of the two protagonists does not always have the same hairstyle, the same clothes, or if the clock behind him never shows the same time, these are all distractions for the viewer. Continuity errors remind him, brutally, that he is at the cinema.
To avoid them, the script supervisor is not only there during filming, he actively participates in the preparation, and that’s what pleases Patrick Aubert, who got the bug for the profession during his college studies while also working as a director and screenwriter. “I love it when a member of the team asks me the question, ‘What do you think?’ The script is my working basis, and I dissect it in the smallest details. My university studies in cinema and fine arts, my intellectual curiosity, all of that is at their service. By having an excellent knowledge of the script, it’s easier to manage changes while ensuring that the film remains coherent.”
And there are often many changes. Firstly because a feature film is almost never shot in the order in which the script unfolds and also because a thousand imponderables make it almost impossible: weather, actors’ schedules, availability of filming locations, etc. In the middle of all this hubbub, some details inevitably escape the director or the director of photography.
The level of the wine glass
Elizabeth Tremblay, a child of the ball (Monique Gervais, her mother, was one of the pioneers of the profession, with Monique Champagne), scriptwriter since the end of the 1990s, considers that it is necessary to listen to the expectations of the directors. “Some are strict with regard to the famous level of the glass of wine: not a drop more, not a drop less in the image, underlines the one who notably worked with Cédric Klapisch (Chinese puzzle) and Ari Aster (Beau Is Afraid). For others, a good take is mainly about the actor’s performance. Hence the importance for the script supervisor to adapt to each person.”
Some are more expressive, more voluble, recognizes Lorette Leblanc, who collaborated with Claude Fournier (The Weavers of Power), Roland Emmerich (Independence Day: Resurgence), Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette (The Goddess of Fireflies) and Darren Aronofsky (Mother!). “With filmmakers I don’t know, it can take two weeks before I feel comfortable. That’s why I love going to rehearsals, to technical visits, to understand what they are looking for.”
In addition to the expectations to be met, there is often a sometimes hectic pace of filming, not to say hellish when it comes to television series. The script supervisors sometimes have trouble catching their breath. “During my last TV project, we were shooting about 20 pages [de scénario] per day, and with two cameras, underlines Patrick Aubert, who prefers, by far, the pace of cinema. It makes the days stretch out, and this, to the detriment of my health. I am not drawing a definitive line on series, but they must be great projects, like For you Floraby Sonia Bonspille-Boileau. » And while he never takes anything for granted when it comes to the loyalty of filmmakers to him, Patrick Aubert feels privileged to have been able to forge artistic collaborations, for example with Pascal Plante (Nadia, Butterfly, The Red Rooms), “creators who have ambition and vision”, acknowledging in the same breath that it is also necessary to “deal with artistic grief”.
Each scriptwriter has a number of incredible stories up her sleeve that are worthy of American Night (1973), by François Truffaut, or by Living in Oblivion (1995), by Tom DiCillo, two great ironic tributes to the world of cinema. “I’ve known American filmmakers who work the old-fashioned way, yelling at just about everyone all the time,” confides Lorette Leblanc. “I’ve known others who stare at their phones until you say “Action!” It saddens me that they are paid handsomely while excellent Quebec filmmakers can’t afford to do multiple takes, waste time, or know their script by heart and could say the lines at the same time as the actors.”
The same goes for Elizabeth Tremblay, who has worked all over the world, including several years in London, but also in France and China. “On some projects, I feel like the budget doesn’t exist,” she says with a laugh! “Especially when I see stars in their trailers making a whole crew wait for hours. Like directors, script supervisors have to deal with the personalities and methods of the actors… including those who don’t memorize their lines.”
The image of the secretary
For decades, the profession of script supervisor was exclusively performed by women, with producers opting for conscientious secretaries to write down everything, calculate everything, to ensure that each scene respected the time allocated in the script. Patrick Aubert was for a long time the male exception in this universe, and no one hesitated to remind him of it.
“I’ve heard all sorts of things,” says the man who provides a lot of training to ensure the next generation in his profession. “Especially the first five years. From “It’s a girl’s job” to “A guy who’s a scriptwriter, are you kidding me?”, these comments highlighted that I wasn’t taken seriously. Fortunately, some people have been very supportive of me, and we’re seeing more and more men choosing this profession.”
Despite the irritants, neither he, nor Elizabeth Tremblay, nor Lorette Leblanc would abandon this work, which they most often find very rewarding. Even at the time of lessons and homework.