Film Continuity on a Hot Set

A film set can sometimes be like a crime scene. You know, the ones with the yellow tape around it so that everyone knows not to disturb anything.

"This is a hot set." That's film-speak for don't touch anything!

When we call the set "hot", that means we're still filming the scene and we need everything to remain the same. For continuity purposes. (On our last feature film, 'Dear J', we had to deal with a magical moving apple.)

On Under Jakob's Ladder? One of our biggest challenges (continuity-wise) came with the chess sets in the movie. And we had quite a few chess sets.

The temptation seemed to come when we were between shots... A cast or crew member would want to make the next chess move! Then our continuity/props brigade had to go and put the pieces back in their correct positions. (But that's why they take continuity pictures, isn't it?)

Maybe we need to start using some of that police tape on set! At least when it comes to chess sets.

(Or would that just slow things down?)

P.S. By the way, the photo above was one of those taken for continuity purposes... to remember the position of all those dark chess pieces. And for those of you who are wondering, yes, that's Jeff Stewart's (Jakob's) hand in the photo.