After graduating from college, Deb Walters took the first steps on a path that would eventually lead her to working on popular titles such as Guardians of the Galaxy II and The Walking Dead. However, after receiving her degree from the University of Central Florida in radio and television communications, working on film and television was not initially on her radar.

“I was working as a field reporter doing traffic reports [after graduation]. And then, through someone I was working with, started working on commercials and film production. So that's how I got into film, from feature films and TV shows to industrials, music videos, and all different types of genres,” she says.

After her introduction into the industry, Deb went on to become a script supervisor. She has served as a script and continuity supervisor on hundreds of projects over the years, including Creed, The Originals, and The Vampire Diaries.

“[As a script supervisor], I am sort of an advisor to the director, making sure that we shoot everything that we need to shoot to tell the story and that everything we shoot is going to cut together properly,” Deb explains. “And for continuity, [making sure] that everything matches. When somebody picks up something, a glass of iced tea, how much liquid is in that and what hand did they pick it up with and on what word did they pick it up and when did they take a sip? So I'm making sure all of that matches so that when we cut to the different angles, it's consistent.”

After working on a few productions, Deb sought out a change of pace from the crazy hours on set and turned to teaching. In 2002, after a brief career as a substitute teacher between jobs where she learned how to teach and use her skills as a detail-oriented professional in the classroom, she began working as an instructor at Full Sail for the film department. While she enjoyed her time at the university, it was her own students that inspired her to get back into the industry in 2009. She explains, “I realized, ‘Wow, well, I'm already in and it's really hard to get in, and all these [students] wanted to leave here and get in. I want to go back and do it again.’”

Easily bored by monotony, Deb enjoyed her time traveling between film sets and working with a new crew and new material on every project. As a free spirit, she didn’t want to be tied down by the rigid schedule of a nine-to-five, so she appreciated the freedom that freelancing gave her. Occasionally, while working on shows, she would live in a camper for months a time, exploring the different locations her work took her.

All the while, Deb also wrote, directed, and produced a few projects of her own, most of which were educational documentaries.

“[My favorite project was] a video I produced for the National Park Service that was in traveling trunks in elementary schools in five counties in Florida called Eco-Update, the World of the Dolphin, and it was about dolphins and ecology. I paired up with an elementary school video class, and the kids signed up for what position they wanted to do. So the crew that I brought in all had a ten-year-old counterpart that they taught their position to when we shot that video.”

Then, after working on various film and television sets around the country for more than a decade, Deb decided to return to teaching. Thirteen years after her students inspired her to go back into the industry, Deb returned to Full Sail in 2022 to impart the knowledge she’d acquired during her time away onto her new students. Now she serves as an instructor in the film curriculum, as well as a lab specialist and production consultant. Additionally, she has opened classes so she can mentor aspiring script supervisors.

While teaching script supervision, Deb actually allows students to work on their own scripts in the classroom, which helps them achieve the high level of detail orientation required for the craft while also improving their own pieces in the process. She teaches beyond the craft as well, educating them on how to network, fill out time cards, do their taxes, and land jobs in the industry.

“[I tell my students], ‘You’re only as good as your last job.’ This is a freelance world. There are some staff positions in production, mostly in broadcasting, but most of it's freelance,” says Deb. “I'm not trying to train you to get your first job. I'm trying to train you how to get the next job and the next job. And that's by having a really great work ethic and always being on time because people don't have to fire you, they just have to not hire you back again.”