Eager to get my feet wet in Hollywood I took a few courses in Script Supervision and volunteered to work as such on some short films when I was 21. My job was to track everything that happened on each take for the sake of continuity… a horrible task for someone who sucks at details.
The directors would turn to me to ask if the actor was wearing a hat in the previous scene or entered the the room facing to the left. I sure the hell didn’t remember… despite that being the exact and sole purpose of my job. I would quickly glance at my scribbled notes, see that there was nothing about the question… and then just make up an answer figuring the lack of continuity wouldn’t be discovered until much later when they were editing and I was long gone.
IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
One of those directors eventually discovered how lame I was at that particular task… but he liked me anyway and kept me around. I eventually crashed on his coach rent-free for a few months. I would dig through his record collection, which was all soundtracks and one band… Oingo Boingo. Curious, I started to listen and became obsessed with its songwriter and lead singer, Danny Elfman.
My experience on actual film sets was invaluable, but not for the reasons I initially thought. It was my relationship with that Danny Elfman fan that would change the course of my life forever…