Continuity Course

"At La Fémis, the objective of training this poorly appreciated and underestimated craft is to produce script supervisors who are capable of being efficient collaborators on the mise-en-scène as well as with the other technicians in a crew, both from a technical and artistic perspective.

Our aim is for script supervisors leaving the School to play a closer role in a production’s mise-en-scène and be capable of managing every shooting situation.

The three-year programme is devised around four key components:

—  Common activities: cross-departmental exercises and classes, seminars and workshops and film analysis sessions.

—  Specific training: classes adapted to preparing for a shoot, filming on all media, storyboarding, editing and post production.

—  Working in a team: continuity students play a critical role in the pre-production, shooting and editing phases of the films made by the directing students in two years, including the films produced in the Mise-en-scène Workshop, the Acting Workshop and the third-year and end-of-programme final films.

—  Masterclasses and internships: students will have a chance to meet working script supervisors from the film and television sectors and representatives of every member of a film crew, from the screenwriter to the special effects specialist. They will carry out internships: in the lab, on post production or as an assistant script supervisor on a full-length film or TV film, and learn the multicam method in a real working environment at France Télévision.

The continuity discipline is often described as the ’memory’ of the film because the script supervisor is responsible for continuity and recording a film’s daily progress when fragments of the film are shot out of order due to production and logistical imperatives. The position is very close to that of the director and works in conjunction with the other specialists in the pre-production, shooting and post-production crews, both from a technical and an artistic perspective."