Continuity Supervisor, 4th Edition

Timing the Script

Once the script has been finalised – for the time being at any rate – you should time it, noting down, scene by scene, the approximate durations.

You do this by reading it through to yourself, out loud, acting out the actions as they occur, i.e. ‘goes to door’. Some scenes, of course, might prove rather difficult to act out, even in the privacy of your office or home. You will have to make an intelligent guess as to the length of those scenes.

Another guideline you can use is that 50 pages of script typed in the manner stated earlier – style 1 – and containing a mixture of dialogue and action will be approximately 30 minutes of final running time.

Time Chart

Having timed the scenes, note them in chart form, adding up each scene ...