script stand

There's a lot of variation among script supervisor working preferences. Sitting, standing, work in lap, work on a table, work on a stand. I'm a fan of alternating between standing and sitting, which rules out working out-of-hand (when I'm standing and writing on a clipboard my wrists start to complain). I work on a lot of fast-paced shoots where video village is wedged in wherever it can fit, which rules out a table. I know many people who use music stands or variations on them but they all seem a little flimsy to me. (I like not having to worry about stuff.) Enter the keyboard stand. Turns out if you take a normal keyboard stand, open it to the narrowest setting, and turn it sideways, it holds a binder perfectly. And it's just the right height to use standing or sitting in a director's chair.

You can see how, with a feature-sized binder, the binder cover makes a little table area on the left which is just right for storing pencils, whiteout tape, snacks, etc. I also like to hang my stopwatch from one of the stand arms when I get fed up with having it around my neck, and it rests on the "table" while I'm timing a take. This getup is also really easy to move: just grab the left stand arm with your left hand, placing your thumb on top of the binder to secure it, and grab the far vertical support with your right hand. Lift up, and walk to where you need to go. Every time a PA tries to move this rig the binder comes crashing down, but if you pick it up right it's really stable. I'm thinking of adding velcro straps to go around the binder covers and secure them to the stand arms. I'm also thinking about bolting a cupholder to one of the vertical supports.

This stand is the cheapest one they had at Sam Ash — it's an On Stage Stand. I wish I could take credit for inventing this use for a keyboard stand but I saw another script supervisor with one and was awestruck by the simplicity and perfection of the idea.

script stand (detail)

 

Here's a side view of my script stand setup so you can see the sideways nature of the deployment. Say that ten times fast.