I would be there when they were shooting every shot in the movie. I
would be working closely with the directors, the cinematographer,
editors and actors . . . It was a great learning experience."
As Campus Man prepared to shoot in Arizona, the producers got a
copy of the crew list for Raising Arizona and contacted Johnston about
handling the script supervision. About six months after the picture
wrapped, Johnson was again contacted to script supervise, this time for
the feature Prison, shot in Wyoming. Upon returning to Arizona, he was
hired to script supervise the television series The Highwayman.
"That was the job I truly learned to be a script supervisor on. Television
is a really, really demanding way to work. On a feature, you may shoot
two or three pages a day. On [The Highwayman] we averaged 12 pages a
day. It's a lot more work for everyone, including myself. The difficult part
for the script supervisor is that not only do you have to keep track of the
current episode, but you're
shooting inserts and pickups
from previous episodes that
you may have shot three or
four weeks ago as well. It was
a very demanding job, main-
taining continuity from scene
to scene . . . I really had to find
ways to refine what I did."
At the time, the Coen broth-
ers were directing a film every
two or three years. Whenever
they went into production,
they called Johnston. During
the next several years he
worked with them on Miller's
Crossing, Barton Fink, The
Hudsucker Proxy, and O Brother,
Where Art Thou?
"[The Coens] became more
popular and successful. Doing
their movies and having them on my résumé got me in the door to
people, and a lot of people sought me out because of them. You tend to
get judged by the people you work with rather than the work you do in
this business."
Until 1988, all of the productions Johnston worked on were shot in his
home state or nearby locations, so he remained based in Arizona. Script
supervising Barton Fink was his first experience working in Los Angeles.
What do you like
least about your job?
"Sometimes you end up
working in horrible con-
ditions that are very cold
or very hot, very dusty
and very cramped."
--Thomas Johnston
What do you love most
about your job?
"The thing I like most is taking something
that is totally artificial and giving it the
illusion [that] it is happening in real time."
Johnston also enjoys the fact that his job puts
him in close proximity to the director, and
sometimes affords him an opportunity to
have some creative input.--Thomas Johnston
VOICES OF
EXPERIENCE
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