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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Paperless Line Notes
As we approach tech for A Number, David and I have been looking for an efficient, paperless way of delivering line notes for the actors when they run the show in rehearsal. The best route, we found, was similar to David's blocking notation - while I'm on "book" (ha) during the run, it's quick and easy to post a comment on the line in question with what the actor said and the correction. At the end of the run, that day's script with the line notes is password protected and posted on the production website. This process is working because it's very efficient during the run (I don't have to leave the "on book" script to write notes) and easy to navigate (using the Comments toolbar in Word, actors can jump from comment to comment to find the notes intended for them and can see the context of the line they missed). See below for an example of what a page looks like:
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Why not email this to the actors? Do they actually check the website?
ReplyDeleteAnd why not have two screens open (the book and the line notes) and use the typical form, just type in it?
Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteThese were things that we considered and played with, but there are a few reasons we went with this procedure:
1) The standard procedure in the CMU School of Drama is to not include attachments, but instead include links to the files in question. This not only allows access from anywhere with internet, but also to cut down on the amount of e-mail data that would clog up the system if every file was e-mailed. However, sending out an e-mail with a link is a step that may help this potential issue.
2) The actors are making the changes indicated in previous line notes which either means they are reading them, or that they are just becoming more comfortable with the lines (which is fine as well).
3) Using a more standard line note form would definitely be possible without paper, but I think that this method is actually more efficient for all involved. First, the person taking notes has very little work once the run has ended besides putting the file on the web. Second, the person receiving the notes have the actual lines as well as the mistakes they made in the script and do not have to do that step once they receive the notes (plus it eliminates the confetti of line note slips that appear throughout this building).