Interpreting Continuity Notes

[Charley King]

I know of no standard, different people use their own little cript note codes, that only they understand. Find the person that took the notes and have them explain them. I can’t believe anyone would just hand you someone’s notes and ask you to decipher them.

Charlie

[Chuck Reti]

While there’s no “standard,” there are some basic conventions that this person may have followed.
For example, One underline/color probably signifies a select Master or cover take. Others for alternate camera angles, alternate versions of performance, timecode notes for selects, cutaways, b-roll etc that correspond to the underlined parts of the script.
I very vaguely remember from school (a long-long time ago), probably in Millerson book, how to set up script and continuity notes.

—
Chuck Reti
VIdeo Editor
Detroit MI

[Andrei-cristian Murgescu]

Avid has a pretty handy script integration tool. It uses standard, long established scripting / continuity notations. Here’s a quote from Avid’s help file:

Explanation of Symbols
Each vertical line drawn through the scene represents a single take from the moment the director says “Action” to the moment the director says “Cut.” Each scene might require several camera angles and positions, with one or more takes, all of which are lined and identified alphanumerically.
The following is a brief summary of the lining techniques and numbering system shown in the example in Lined Script Basics:
Master shot: The line labeled 33/1 is the master shot that usually covers all the action in a wide shot. The first number in the label indicates the scene number as written on the script (scene 33). The number following the slash indicates that this is the first take captured on film for the master shot. A second take of the master shot, for example, would be labeled 33/2.

Additional setups: The lines for each subsequent camera setup within the scene are labeled with the scene number (33 in our example) followed by a letter for each setup (A, B, C, and so forth), followed by a slash and the number of the take within that setup. These lines can be any length, depending upon what portion of the script is covered by the particular shot.

Off-screen dialog: The jagged lines in the script represent the parts of dialog where the actor is off screen. For example, the character Mary Sue is off camera during the action described in the second paragraph (when the waitress character enters), so a jagged line is drawn through the shots that cover Mary Sue (33A/1 and 2).

When the scene is recorded on videotape