Most dramas are shot discontinuously. Rather than shoot chronologically, from the first scene to the last, most directors group shots by location or set required. For example, Javier intends to shoot all scenes in the Body Museum on the same day, although they fall at opposite ends of the narrative. This tactic maximizes productive shooting time, facilitates the work of set designers and set builders, but demands that actors produce appropriate emotion and intensity with less-than-complete narrative context.

The assistant director prepares shooting scripts, which group together all the scenes (or parts of scenes) scheduled for each shooting day. Shooting scripts take two main forms. Either the AD lists the scenes/parts of scenes scheduled for each day or s/he assembles each day's scenes into a packet (as Melvin did for the auditions).The latter is preferable, providing a compact document which actors and crew can annotate and work from while preparing to shoot.

Either the AD or the producer then issues the relevant shooting script to the actors and to each member of the crew. The AD/producer should issue shooting scripts at least a week in advance of the relevant shooting date. But the more time the crew and actors have to prepare, the more efficient the shoot.

Each crewmember should work carefully through the shooting script and note exactly what s/he needs to prepare, find, check, or practice (a particular lighting set-up, an adjustment to the set, etc.) prior to shooting. Actors should transfer to/keep on the shooting script all notes from rehearsals, and their own performance notes.

On location or set, as each scene/part of scene is shot, producers, directors, actors and crew should cross out (preferably in black or fluorescent marker) the completed segment on the day's shooting script. Everyone thus tracks the progress of the shoot, and can check that no scenes/parts of scenes scheduled for the day are forgotten.