Slates/Clapboards

How many of you on these boards use slates on your shoots? Fan Film and other projects alike. Do you find them more convenient or hindering?

 

I find them a hindrance. For projects on the scale of mine, a slate or clapboard is a hassle to keep track of and a pain to keep updating. I either don't need an audio sync or am using audio recorded with the camera I'm using.

 

I find them totally unnecessary because I always edit my own projects. I have only had one project - Big Bad Wolves - which I had another editor working on and we had so many takes that it was useful to cycle through the footage to find the takes that we had noted as "prints" on our continuity sheets.

But if I'm editing my own work, I never use them and I don't shoot sync-sound in most of my projects either so there's no use for clapper either.

 

I haven't used them since 2004. But, then, I've edited all my own stuff (since then) and I've never shot sound separately from image.

Slating can also have some positive and negative effects outside their practical purpose. It can be good in that it bucks the cast and crew up and makes them think, by virtue of its iconic status, "Wow! We're making a real movie here!"--assuming your set is reasonably professional to begin with.

It can also have the negative effect of making actors nervous, of making them think, "Oh God now we're shooting and the take has begun and I have to be good right now" rather than letting them live naturally in the scene, which is why you'll find many filmmakers like to "tail-slate" an important scene when slating is required for practical reasons.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Most of the time timecode is what's most important. Write down the timecode in which you start and end your takes and you'll be all set. Nowadays you can also keep timecode on digital audio recorders. Soooooo slates aren't really needed. I capture my audio onto my computer through a boom. The audio quality from my camcorder sucks. So I use the slate to create that spike so I can synch up the video with audio. That's my home projects.

At work, sometimes we use the clapper/slate when we are capturing audio through our main mixing board but shooting with cameras recording onto their own tapes without microphones. Or when we DO capture audio into one camera but not the rest. That's when it's useful.


I would also agree that it makes a man feel good to have one. It's classy.

 

Well the thing about slates or clapboards is that they are generally not useful unless you're dealing with bigger productions.

A lot of small time indy filmmakers, or fan filmmakers will have synced sound. I've gotten into a practice of using them nonetheless for the off chance that my audio gets off sync. But I use it less and less.

However recently, shooting my web series geeks underground, we used a slate because we shot with two cameras and needed it for syncing sound. However our crew was inexperienced and often the slate would be incorrectly marked.

However next year when we use Arri 16 mm film cameras and a separate audio system to record sound, we'll definitely need it.

 

Hmmm ... all so interesting. I'm about to shoot something that I may or may not be slating. But whenever I have slated on other projects it just seemed to slow the process more than anything. But once we got into editing the people with slates got through it much quicker than the ones without.

 

Let me say this as an editor.

If I'm editing a narrative or other scripted project, and it comes to me unslated, <b>it irritates me.</b> It doesn't need to be with a slate or clapboard, either: you can just call out, "34B take 1, action."

Just this past week I cut a silly scripted TV pilot. I was able to log the takes bam-bam-bam because they were slated. (This was footage I'd never seen before, I wasn't on set, nothing, it was all new to me.)

It's not fun to have to slog through shots and have to give them names and numbers and letters yourself based on educated guesses and perhaps referring to the storyboards.



(Again, it's okay for me to not slate when I'm directing because I am also editing and so I will know how it's all supposed to go down.)



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Thank you. I think I know what I'll do now, depending whether I'm editing or not.

 

I know exactly what you're saying here. I had to edit a tv spot for an organization here in town and the director never slated or labelled any takes he got. He either yelled out, "Ok use that one, Jon" or didn't say anything at all and just made me choose the take. He gave me hints by saying, "Oh I like that one, but lets try again" or just simply saying "that's my favorite". So it was a pretty interesting mission to find the better take because the director may not have liked the take I used. I guess it turned out good. I'll post it on youtube shortly...

I'm uploading videos to use as sort of a resume channel for future employers.

 

Yeah, same here. My strengths are in the editing room, but even I forget which takes I like, so a clapboard is essential for me; especially since every single scene I've shot so far has been in high wind. If it weren't for my shot log and the marked slate, I would have been looking forever for the right takes.

 

I use them but only as a way to keep track of shot numbers and timecodes

A simple dry erase board is all I use

Its a great way to keep track of stuff, you may not think its usefull NOW and may consider it a hinderance but it has come in handy in at least 2 occasions.

1) I had to make a re-edit of a project that I had done several years ago, I still had the raw footage and the time code paperwork, so it made it a lot easier to re-edit the project

2) Needed to use footage from one movie I did as shots for a sequel, the time stamps on the slate marker and the shot logs helped me a great deal in getting some of the exact shots and also for a couple different angle shots we filmed so it made the sequel more interesting.

So I for one am a firm believer of using slateboards

Not to mention its great to sendfunny messages to the editors and no one is the wiser HE HE HE

 

I usually edit what I shoot so I've gotten into the habit of using a slate. The problem is that usually I have to train the person slating which is annoying. I trained my younger brother how to mark and use the slate so I usually drag him along with me with whatever I shoot, that way, I have someone with some experience with me. In the editing room, a slate is absolutely NECSESSARY. I capture footage from the beginning of the slate until "CUT!" I use up less hard drive space by doing it this way, and I get into the habit of doing 3:1 or 5:1 ratios so I always like to know what take it is. I'd get into the habit of using one unless you are the director and cameraman simultaneously. If you don't have someone to slate for you than obviously you can't use one. On some of my spec commercials I was everything though I had actors, so slating was impossible.

 

One of my filmmaking friends in town swears by his. He's got a really good system of using them to help keep track of clips when he's editing, which I'm not sure I understand completely yet.

Basically, I think he uses it as expected, but when the take is over he always makes sure to stop recording, and doesn't start again until the very next take. No extra footage allowed on his tapes, and every shot shows up as a separate clip when he captures the footage.

The reason I don't do this (aside from not being nearly as organized as he is) is because quite often I find little gems among these extra bits of footage. You never know what you might want/need later, and sometimes I just plain get it by accident. Extra close-ups, whatever.

However, when I had been shooting sync audio, we always had the person on-screen clap a couple of times before we did a take. The audio spike is all I really need, since I didn't have a prepared shot list other than the script and knowing what else was needed.