On Campus News

Script Supervisors� Successes at Cinema Arts Tech

By Staff
posted Jul 30, 2009, 12:46

Click here to get a copy of the August 2008 Edition, so you can read and enjoy all of the excellent articles inside. Check out this article in the August 2008 print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, page 48.

James Kelly Durgin is the school director for Cinema Arts Tech and an Instructor for both the Script Supervisor Course and the Line Producer/Production Manager/Production Accountant Courses. He has worked on over two hundred films in his long lasting and still current career.

Throughout the past couple of years, StudentFilmmakers staff manning its exhibit booths at industry tradeshow events have met Durgin at west coast shows. This summer, StudentFilmmakers interviews Durgin about his school, and the outlook for new script supervisors in the current industry climate and job market.

After finishing a program such as your Script Supervisor course, could you give us the inside scoop on how one would go about getting a job in the industry and getting their foot through the door? What does the process involve, and is it more about who you know (or who your teacher knows)?

Well, no � it�s more about who knows you. The reason is because every company needs a script supervisor, and they want to acquire the best. And there�s so much incompetence in this category.

There�s one lady training script supervising in seven-and-half hours with a film school here in Los Angeles. For years, most film schools are training the whole course in 12 hours. We�re over 100 hours, and we train people how to go to work and make money. We�re a vocational school, we�re not an ordinary school.

One lady I trained less than three years ago, within 30 days she�s making over $2,500 a week on Astronaut Farmer with Billy Bob Thornton. Right now she�s making over $3,500 a week on a five-day week. But these are exceptions. I don�t want to mislead your readers into thinking, �come study with me, you�ll get rich.�

What other industry can you find a job that pays over $2,000 a week even within a year or two? And with us, it can happen quite quickly � to the fortunate ones, almost immediately � and to the less fortunate, maybe a little farther down the line, but at least within a year. In January, almost everybody I�m training should be making good money.

Does your school offer job assistance or career assistance?

Usually the calls we get are on lower level. It�s very seldom we get calls for $200 or $300 a day shows. But they do come in from time to time, and we fill them based on what kind of script supervisor they�re seeking. If they�re looking for a certain kind or type, maybe how many pictures on their resume, or what their work history is, and that kind of thing.

Have you updated or changed up your curriculum due to the changing trends in the industry?

Of course. We have to. In fact, other people I�ve trained 15 or 20 years � and some of them are teaching, but they�re not even as modern as I am because I�ve devised a lot of new strategies and techniques that our current students supply, which our earlier students have not yet learned.

Myself, I�ve been Script Supervisor on two Red Camera shows this year to stay current.

What is your teaching style or philosophy? What is important?

The important part is the ability to perform by the students. We�re training people to go to work to make money. We�re not an ordinary school. We�re not showing people how things are done, we�re showing people how they can actually do it. And that includes our Producers, Production Managers, and Accountants.

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