Ask Slashdot: Maintaining Continuity In Your Creative Works?

imac.usr writes: I recently rewatched the Stonecutters episode of The Simpsons and laughed as always at the scene where Homer pulls into his parking space — right next to his house. It's such a great little comic moment. This time, though, it occurred to me that someone probably wrote in to complain that the power plant was normally in a completely different part of town, no doubt adding "I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder." And that got me to wondering: how do creators of serial media — books, web comics, TV shows, even movie serials — record their various continuities? Is there a story bible with the information, or a database of people/places/things, or even something scribbled on a 3x5 card. I know Slashdot is full of artists who must deal with this issue on a regular basis, so I'd be interested in hearing any perspectives on how (or even if) you manage it.

Comments

Re:Script Supervisor

[PopeRatzo]

Normally I might feel the need to berate you for not answering the question of how

Well, my info on that is a little dated. I've been on three film sets where the budget was big enough for a script supervisor. The first was in the mid-80s, and it was all done by marking up one copy of the script by hand as shooting was going on and another while watching the dailies (the director and editor and script supervisor will watch quickly-developed film later that night).

The second was in the mid-90s, and there were video cameras running while the film was being shot. This way, script supervisors wouldn't have to wait for the dailies to get bicycled back from the lab (they call any transporting fresh film "bicycling").

The third was in 2003 and instead of video being shot on 3/4" tape, it was being shot with decent Sony cameras. There would be video of the set before the actors showed up (to note the shadows, placement of curtains and any other things that could possibly change). Laptops were used to review footage, but it was still being shot on tape (Hi-8 was what I saw, but hands were already talking about hard drive recording).

Now? Who knows. Maybe they have micro-drones flying around recording everything, and streaming the images to someone's Apple Watch or Oculus.

TV shows work the same way. Though I did see an episode of Arrow where in one scene Diggs' tie was loosened and in the over the shoulder, you could see it was nicely knotted in place. If you watch enough films, you'll notice lots of little continuity breaks that get left in. Maybe it was picked up in editing and the actor had already grown a beard for a new role and they didn't want (or couldn't afford) to re-shoot. Oh yeah, and my wife noticed that Oliver Queen's beard stubble sometimes changes length when he changes into his Arrow suit and back again. But my wife tends to notice Oliver Queen for some reason. I don't know what she sees in him when she has me.