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Dialog Continuity

The dialog continuity script is a major-league pain in the tuchus to produce. Yet, you must make one. It is a deliverable which is absolutely critical toward making the distributor actually give you money for making a movie.
What is it? What is this dialog continuity script of which you speak?
I'm glad you asked.
It is a script which contains all of the dialog from the finished edit of the movie, with the characters who speak each line, and the timecode that the line happens at. It also contains all the TEXT that appears in the movie.
Fun, no?
Why do we have to do this? What is it used for?
The purpose of the dialog continuity script is so that when a distributor is making their own dubbed version of the movie, they have something to work off of. The accuracy of the timecode in your continuity script only has to be within a few seconds. But the continuity script must contain ALL the dialog which is not on the M&E tracks.

Here's the basic format:

Timecode | Character | Dialog
01:00:15 | "Bobby" | "Hey Susan, what are you doing with that gun?"
01:00:35 | TEXT | "15 Years Later"

Here's an example in picture form of the dialog continuity script:

Image
Dialog Continuity example

 
In order to make your life more exciting, here is a link(external link) to the same script.
How long does it take to produce a dialog continuity script?
I believe we calculate about two hours in order to do a half hour of script. So between six and seven hours in order to transcribe an entire feature.
Well that doesn't sound so bad.
No, it doesn't. But it absolutely must be done, and must be done accurately. And done on time. So get to it.


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