Production Documents / 2nd Unit & Production Schedules
2nd Unit &
Production Schedules
Twenty-one documents from inside the production office: the memos that told every department where the second unit would be on Thursday, the schedules that mapped whole seasons before the episodes had names, and the calendars that counted a month down to the minute.
Second unit is the part of a production almost nobody keeps paperwork from. It shoots what the main unit cannot: inserts, pickups, hands and feet, plates, reshoots of a scene that did not cut together. Somebody has to tell every department where it will be and what it needs, so an assistant director writes a memo, runs it off on whatever color the revision has reached, and distributes it. Then it is superseded, usually within days, and thrown away. These twenty-one survived. Each one is scanned in full color on its original stock, because the color is the revision.
Second unit, Season 5
14 documentsFourteen memos issued between September 1997 and March 1998 by the two second unit assistant directors, Kevin Parks and Brett Dowler. Second unit shoots the pieces the main unit cannot: inserts, pickups, hands, feet, plates, reshoots. Each memo goes to all departments, on whatever color the revision had reached that week.
3rd Salmon · Friday, October 17, 1997 · from Kevin Parks · 2NDU-5X02-08 · 1 page
Detour & Christmas Carol
Headed “3rd Salmon”, so the schedule had already been revised onto salmon stock twice before this one.
All 1 page
Salmon · Wednesday, November 5, 1997 · from Brett Dowler · 2NDU-5X06-2 · 1 page
Detour, Christmas Carol & Emily
Issued the next day, already revised. Christmas Carol pickups move to 3106 Alberta Street, the Scully family house.
All 1 page
Green · Tuesday, November 19, 1997 · from Kevin Parks · 2NDU-5X07-3 · 1 page
Christmas Carol, Kitsunegari & Schizogeny
A revised schedule covering three episodes.
All 1 page
Green · Tuesday, November 25, 1997 · from Kevin Parks · 5X07-INSERTS · 2 pages
Emily, remaining inserts
A memo plus the attached insert list, signed “Kevin”. Notes that 5X05 and 5X06 are complete. The inserts are Scully's hand lifting the cross from the sand, her feet in the sand, and Mulder's POV of the cross.
Goldenrod · Wednesday, January 14, 1998 · from Kevin Parks · 2NDU-5X10-3 · 1 page
Kill Switch
Back after the Christmas hiatus.
All 1 page
Season schedules
4 documentsFour documents that plan a whole season at once, two from Season 5 and two from Season 8.
Pink · Revised August 20, 1997 · 1 page
Fifth Season Directors Schedule
The whole season on one page: show number, writer, director, prep, start and wrap. Episodes 1 and 2 are typed. Episodes 3 and 4 have their titles written in by hand in blue pen, Redux II and Detour, because they had not been named when this was typed. From episode 5 on, the title column is simply empty: directors and dates assigned to episodes that did not exist yet.
All 1 page
Salmon · Revised November 14, 1997 · 1 page
Fifth Season Directors Schedule
The same document three months later. Worth reading against the Pink: the blanks have started to fill in.
All 1 page
Prep calendars and scouts
3 documentsWhat a production week actually looks like when it is written down.
Pink · November 2000 · 8ABX12 · 1 page
Prep Calendar, November 2000
A month laid out as a wall calendar, timed to the minute and marked “as of 7:20 PM”. Set decoration meetings, an underwater photography meeting, a location scout, wardrobe, the start of principal photography, and Thanksgiving.
All 1 page
White · January 2001 · 8ABX16 · 1 page
Prep Calendar, January 2001
Location scout, VFX/SFX/stunt scout of an oil platform, prop meeting, second unit mini scout, casting calls.
All 1 page
Tentative, Thursday October 19, 2000 · 8ABX09 · 4 pages
Surekill tech scout
Headed 8ABX09 “UNTITLED”, before the episode had its name. Under the date it notes that Stage 5 is in use by 8ABX08 and, plainly, that Scully and Doggett are not available. The location list runs down the day scene by scene, with the Herald Examiner building standing in for a Worcester bus station.
Have more of these?
Second unit memos, call sheets, prep calendars and production schedules were never meant to be kept. If you have any, they belong in the record.
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