Dailies, takes and continuity

Everything up to here was a plan. This is the record of what happened.

Takes

Log takes against a scene as you shoot. Each take has a number, and can be circled — the take you intend to use.

Circling matters more than it looks. It is the take the editor starts from, and it is the take continuity has to match on a pickup, which is why continuity notes attach to takes rather than to scenes.

Continuity

Attach continuity items to a specific take:

• Photos — reference stills
• Wardrobe — what was worn, and how
• Props — what was where
• Notes — anything else that has to match

Because items hang off the take and not the scene, you can answer the question that actually comes up three weeks later: *what did this look like on the take we circled?* A scene-level note cannot answer that when there were nine takes and the wardrobe changed on the sixth.

Scene progress

Scenes carry their own status as you work through them, so the project reflects what has genuinely been shot rather than what was scheduled to be.

Dailies

Dailies are what you send out for review. Rather than a folder of files, they sit against the scenes and takes they came from, so a note on a daily is attached to the thing it is about.

What to do next

Money moves while you shoot — see budgets and change orders.