Director/production manager Abby Singer dies at 96

Filmmaker Abby Singer has died at the age of 96. Singer lost his battle with cancer and passed away on Thursday (13Mar14) at the Motion Picture & Television Country House in Woodland Hills, California.
He began his career as an assistant to film producer Jack Fier in 1949 and moved into TV as a production manager on several shows such as Gunsmoke, The Bob Newhart Show and Rhoda.
He worked as an assistant director on films such as Death of a Salesman, The Guns of Fort Petticoat and A Lawless Street, and he was immortalised into the movie industry vernacular thanks to his penchant for calling the penultimate shot of the day, known as the ‘Abby Singer’.
Now, many productions wrap up filming a shot after the ‘Abby Singer’.
He told the DGA Quarterly in 2011, “Working in TV we made many moves per day – from the backlot to the stage, or from one stage to another. I’d say to the guys, ‘One more shot and then we’re moving’, so when we moved, they were all prepared. The time saved could add up to a full hour of shooting for the director.
“It caught on like lightning. I was hearing it all the time.”