Safety Tips for Script Editors
Rule one for script editors… Always make sure that the writer arrives before you do on the first day of recording.
Why?
Because the actors are always ready with a tricky question the moment they see you. Carrie Dobro wants to know why Jenna is being interrogated about her past. Still in the midst of some serious coffee deprivation I cobble together a plausible sounding answer.
Carrie, a seasoned and intelligent woman who, as a native New Yorker, is blessed with a sophisticated bullshit detector is having none of it. I turn to my producer for help but Andrew’s attitude is that as Script Editor I should know the answer to these things.
I stumble about blindly throwing out explanations at random in the hope that one will satisfy Carrie until finally it’s time to rehearse and I can slink off into the corner and recover. Ten minutes later Simon Guerrier, the writer, arrives.
I put the question to him. ‘It’s all explained in the second script,’ he says. I want to tell Carrie this but she’s already focused on her performance. Hence the lesson – make sure the writer arrives at the studio before you do. They usually know the answer to those difficult questions and even if they don’t you can still use them as a human shield.
Ben Aaronovitch
Tags: Ben Aaronovitch, Blake's 7, Production
