I am the Script's Worst Nemesis

From learning about production in this class, I was incredibly interested to learn about the Script’s role in production. Not the piece of paper with the cast members’ lines on them, but the person responsible for making sure all of the details of a scene look sequential (even though there is a high chance they are not).

Before Dr. A’s lecture, it had truly never occurred to me that scenes would be shot out of order - DUH. Although, in my defense, I did not think about production much at all before Dr. A’s lecture. There is a much more cost and time efficient way that producers follow in shooting their telenovelas out of order. 

However, before this class I did notice lots of times where scenes were not shot continuously because there would be small details that did not match up. For example, in the show New Girl, there are times where the main character, Jess, will have her hair in front of her shoulders then behind her shoulders and then in front again without Jess having touched her hair in the scene. 

No one notices things like this, right? Wrong. I am one of the people who notice it. Scripts probably hate the people like me in their audience. I am a Script’s nemesis. 

Although, I am also the reason their job exists and the motivation to keep them paying attention to all the little details (within their control). I say within their control because, like shown in class, sometimes children in a production lose teeth or the weather changes - components the Script cannot control.

Scripts have an important (and difficult) task of making sure everything in the scene is the same. If details do not match up, audience members can be distracted from the emotional impact of the scene. Personally, I have noticed details that do not match up the most in highly emotional scenes like intense conversations since these are usually close up scenes where details are more noticeable.

In my telenovela, Pasión de Gavilanes, I have not noticed any of the details not matching up that I can remember. I think a large part of this is that I am not fluent in Spanish so I’m so busy keeping up with the subtitles that I don’t have time to analyze all the details of the scene. I imagine someone who is fluent in the language of the show seems many more out or order details.

To prove this, I will use an example from a show produced in English. In our weird time of being quarantined from the Coronavirus, I binge watched a show called On My Block on Netflix. There is an emotional scene between one of the protagonists and his father where the father is helping him tie his tie and apologizing for abandoning him when the protagonist was young. Pretty emotional content very relevant to the show. 

Well, the whole time all I could focus on was that the protagonist’s collar and tie kept changing position without the father having fixed the collar in the scene.

This is a super small detail, but all I could think about was “Dang, the Script messed up” rather than connect with the touching moment between father and son. This is why production is a lot more complex than any of us knew. 

I think in some ways the script has an advantage now. Most of us multitask while watching Netflix; we are either eating or scrolling through social media and so we are less likely to notice small details not matching up. But when a show reels you in (like telenovelas seem to do), you’re so engaged you notice the little details of each scene. The Script better be prepared or the fandom of a show will not hesitate to call them out (on Twitter, on Instagram, on fan boards, etc.).

So maybe I am not the nemesis of a telenovela script (with my lack of Spanish speaking ability), but the fandom is out there so the Script better bring their A game. Every time.