Dialogue Editing

132 NOW, THE ACTUAL EDITING
are engaged in a bit of courtship (the dialogue is transcribed from Jane
Austin’s Mansfi eld Park, fi rst published in 1814). 1
Edmund
Now I must look at you Fanny, and tell you how I like you; and as well as I
can judge by this light, you look very nicely indeed. What have you got on?
Fanny
The new dress that my uncle was so good as to give me on my cousin’s
marriage. I hope it is not too fi ne; but I thought I ought to wear it as soon as
I could, and that I might not have such another opportunity all the winter. I
hope you do not think me too fi ne.
Edmund
A woman can never be too fi ne when she is all in white.
That’s the script. The director will visualize it into shots, and the assistant
director will organize a sensible shooting order based on locations, availability
of actors, and weird production demands. You’ll end up with a script
breakdown like this:
Scene 32, INT day drawing room, Edmund and Fanny
Shots:
32 MWS Establishment shot, Edmund + Fanny left of frame, large
clock on right
32A MCU Fanny
32B CU Edmund
32C WS through window
When the scene is shot, the script supervisor keeps track of which parts of
the scene were successfully fi lmed from each angle. This lined script will
enable the fi lm editor, and later you, to see which text was covered during
each shot and take. In the real world, the script report will include coverage
details for each take so you can easily know what you have to work with and
where your pitfalls lie. It’s rare that all shots, or angles, will cover the entire
scene. Usually, a scene is blocked so that certain sections are covered by specifi
c angles. Otherwise, you end up wasting fi lm and shooting time, both of
which are expensive.
The lined script in Figure 10-3 is hideously oversimplifi ed, but you see how
the picture editor can use the script notes to learn what sort of coverage
exists. 2 He’ll pick from this treasure trove of shots, selecting the best moments
1 From the edition published by Penguin Classics (London, 1994, p. 224).
2 Rather than identify shots as “scene/shot (letter)/take,” some productions use a
“scene/shot (slate)/take” naming system. Slate identifi es the shot in the sequence in which
the movie is being shot, whereas the scene-based name refl ects the script order. Our closeup
of Edmund could have been identifi ed as 32/193/4, meaning “scene 32, shot 193, take 4.”