John August

Rant

In defense of script supervisors

Film Industry, Rant

In the comments following [yesterday’s article](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2006/what-job-should-i-beg-for), someone suggested that a screenwriter looking for a no-experience-required job on a film set should look in to being a script supervisor.

This is absurd. Being a scripty isn’t a job for a screenwriter. It’s a job for a masochist. While not physically demanding in the way being a grip or a gaffer is, it’s still a lot of hard work, which if done correctly, is completely invisible to the audience.

In an Actual Movie, as opposed to a student film, you can’t just suddenly be a propmaster or an assistant director or script supervisor. That’s why in yesterday’s answer, I was careful to pick jobs that J.R. could theoretically land without experience to back it up.

Sure, given 20 minutes, you could probably figure out how to write down the information about various takes. But that’s a tiny fraction of a script supervisor’s job. They’re the field goal kickers of filmmaking, staying out of everyone’s way until needed in a crunch:

Quick, which hand did Margaret pick up the glass with, and after which line did she take a sip? And did she do that in take 4 or 5? Okay, that’s the master take. Let’s match that in the rest of the coverage we shoot today, Saturday, and three months from now in reshoots.

Wait, did he say, “my friend’s cousin, Bob” or “my cousin’s friend, Bob?”

Oh, and we need those camera reports now, because we’re breaking the film for the run tonight.

I’ve met great script supervisors, and ones I’ve wanted to throw off bridges. But screenwriters should never undervalue the scripty’s job, because she (or he, but usually she) is often the last defense against our scripts being mangled.

Two thoughts on the future of video

Film Industry, News, Rant

This morning’s paper had two interesting articles about home video.

Warners will be releasing Superman Returns on DVD in China [today](http://english.people.com.cn/200609/28/eng20060928_307068.html), two months ahead of the rest of the world, priced almost as low as the ubiquitous counterfeit versions.

How do you make money selling a DVD for 14 yuan ($1.75)? Well, the counterfeiters do. From Warner’s perspective, they’ve already sunk hundreds of millions into the film. As long as they can sell a DVD for a penny more than it cost to manufacture, it’s probably worth it. I’ve long thought that the only way to beat bootlegging in markets like China and Russia is to take away the price difference. I’ll be curious to see if the experiment pays off.

The [second article](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117950940?categoryid=18) looks at a possible deal between Wal-Mart and Apple. Not to sell iPods or Macintoshes, but movies. Which is weird, because neither Apple nor Wal-Mart makes movies.

Apparently, several studios were on board to sell downloadable movies through iTunes, but backed off because of pressure from Wal-Mart, which is by far the biggest distributor of DVDs in North America. Disney held its ground and went with iTunes, but there was the possibility that Wal-Mart would cut its orders of Disney’s movies as punishment.

Now Apple is in talks with Wal-Mart to give the giant retailer a cut of the action on downloads, in exchange for letting the other studios sell movies through iTunes.

Fuck Wal-Mart, seriously.

Their near-monopolist control of physical products is bad enough. I don’t think we should be giving them control over bits and bytes.

I think I’m going to download High School Musical just to spite them.

Does anyone actually use long division?

Rant

I was working on a scene today in which an adult admitted to a grade-schooler that in the real world, you’ll never need to use long division. It’s just something they force on kids to keep them from getting cocky after multiplication.

I nixed the joke because it felt kinda Full House. But it got me wondering if it was true. I doubt I use long division more than twice a year. Most of those times, it’s for want of a calculator, and halfway through the process, I realize I didn’t need an exact answer and should have just estimated.

Thus my question: Does anyone use long division on a regular basis?

Addition, subtraction, multiplication — they answer fundamental daily questions about how much, how often and how fast. Division is all about apportioning, figuring out how to split things up, which in the real world almost always involves some qualitative if not emotional decision-making. It’s all well and good to say that each child should get seven M&M’s, but since Ezekiel can’t eat chocolate, should he get an extra Jolly Rancher?

For the record, I’m not saying they should stop teaching long division. Not quite. Not without some study to show it won’t completely screw up later math education — which to my recollection, never involved long division.

Maybe I’m wrong, and there’s a non-teacher subset of the work force that actually uses long division. If so, write in. I’m curious to see who these Remainders are.

To the guy sitting in 7A

Rant

Here’s the thing: When you arrive at the gate two minutes before the plane is supposed take off, you give up your right to complain. I don’t care what it says on your ticket. You take any available open seat.

That’s the deal. Maybe it’s not printed in all of the legalese, but it’s part of the social contract between all flyers: sit down, shut up, and let us push back from the gate.

What’s worse, it wasn’t even your seat. You claimed to have switched with some woman at the back of the plane, yet here you were at row seven, complaining that people weren’t in their assigned seats. J’accuse, my friend, j’accuse.

I wasn’t directly involved in the Great Seating Controversy of Flight 215. I was one row back, biting my tongue and proffering Cheerios to my daughter. Anything I might have said, any way I might have intervened, would have no doubt greater delayed our departure.

So instead, I spent a few minutes memorizing every detail of your face, so that at some point in the future when it won’t inconvenience 200 air travelers I might have the opportunity to let you know: You, sir, are a dick.