KARIÉRY SKRIPTEK. (Czech)

CAREERS OF SCRIPT SUPERVISORS. (English)

The article presents an ethnomethodologically inspired ethnographic research focused on careers of script supervisors in the Czech film and television industry. It explains how Czech script supervisors enter their first jobs and how their ongoing employment is secured. The present situation is compared with that before 1991, when the production in state-owned studios was replaced by a project-based system and former employees became freelancers. While informal contacts played and still play a significant role in providing first access to the industry (although in the studio era, a specialized secondary school existed for potential script supervisors and other technical crew members), ongoing employment is now secured mostly by continuous involvement with semipermanent work groups (identified by Helen Blair in the British film industry). It was and still is usually the production manager or director who invites script supervisors to individual projects, yet as opposed to the situation before 1991, script supervisors can now choose more freely which project to participate in. The profession of script supervisor is characterized by interviewees as difficult to describe, demanding, creative, interesting and, concerning the contents of the profession, heavily dependent on the type of audiovisual product made. The profession is a gendered one as there seem to be virtually no men working as script supervisors in the Czech Republic. This stereotypical division of labour was explained by interviewees through various other gender stereotypes, particularly by the idea that women are better at multitasking, are more empathetic, that men seek careers in more prestigious jobs and would not work in an underpaid job. The stereotypes combine creating a net of simulacra that legitimizes and explains a situation in which women are paid less money on for a less prestigious position that is nevertheless as equally demanding as some other professions performed by men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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