Clapper / slate boarding tips?

[RedSpectrumPictures]

I just wrote a blog post on my blog about how to use a clapper board. I spoke about the way I use a clapper board, the British way of slating.
I want to include some quotes on the post with tips that other filmmakers have given for clapper loading.
I was wondering if anyone has any tips related to clapper loading? Anything that can be done to make it easier, any little tricks that people may not have thought of?
Looking forward to hearing your replies.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

I just wrote a blog post on my blog about how to use a clapper board. I spoke about the way I use a clapper board, the British way of slating.
I want to include some quotes on the post with tips that other filmmakers have given for clapper loading.
I was wondering if anyone has any tips related to clapper loading? Anything that can be done to make it easier, any little tricks that people may not have thought of?
Looking forward to hearing your replies.

Despite having worked in the UK, we always have brought the camera team over from the states, so I am unclear how the Brits clap.

Can you direct us to your blog? Would love to read.

The only tricks I can think of, off the bat, would be:

1) After you slate, if you pre-write the next take number (ahead of time for speed) on the slate, draw a small up arrow next to it. Right before you step in to slate the next take, swipe the arrow away with your finger. This way, if a distance of time or other distractions occur between the takes, you won't forget if you 'one-up'd' the slate already or not. Sometimes, when you pre-slate, you can forget if you've already changed the take number. If you see a little up arrow, you'll know you did. It's a great habbit to get into. Erase the arrow right before you slate and it works every time.

2) If you don't P-touch (printed labels) on the slate, or use gaff tape, write information that seldom changes with Permanent marker, so it won't wipe away by accident when you inevitably graze the slate with your shirt, jacket, etc. It's easy to remove permanent marker. Just write over the permanent marker with dry-erase and then erase the ink away. Very easy.

3) I know you guys use metric, but if a US 2nd AC, you'll know this already, but for S35mm sized sensors, simply slate X/10 feet away from the camera with X being the mm length lens you are using. Slate 10 feet away from a camera that has a 100mm lens on. Slate 5ft away from a camera that has a 50mm lens on. Slate 3.5ft away from a camera with a 35mm lens on. I know it's strange to mix feet and mm's, but hey, it's a rule of thumb that works. Of course situations often arise where compromises must be made.

4) Unless shooting on actual film, upside down tail slating is more of a show than it is helpful. It was helpful when editors and assistant editors had to snip actual takes from one long roll of film. The upside down slate would tell them this slate was at the tail of a take. Now-a-days because almost all digital cameras record every take as it's own media file, the tail slates only serve as clip info and syncing audio. This means there is no f$%king reason to turn it upside down. Any (recent film school graduate) assistant editor browsing the files will obviously notice it's not at the head of the clip and it's clearly at the end, being a tail slate. Plus it will be audio slated as a tail slate. Point is, it's crazy how often the argument/conversation comes up on set whether or not you insert the slate upside down, read it, clap it, and then turn it right side up or if you insert slate upside down, flip it, read it, and then clap it. I facepalm every time because there is no reason for it to be upside down with any camera that records each clip as their own file. But when I was a 2nd, I would do it anyway because if I don't some producer who learned tail-slates are supposed to be upside down would think I'm the green-2nd idiot AC. It is less work to simply flip the slate, than to explain to people why it's really not an issue anymore.

5) This is no secret, but often ignored. Slate in the mood of the scene. Don't be silly, loud or energetic clapping a serious scene. The clapper is the last real thing before an actor's performance. It's the starting gun, for lack of a better comparison. Be as invisible, unobtrusive and quick as possible.

6) Don't ever slate with an iPad. For many reasons.... Unless you shoot corporate talking head interviews with travel light kits and the such. For a larger set or real production use, it's pretty vulnerable to issues.

 

[MichaelP]

Art Adams (DP) did a nice blog on slating on the ProVideo Coalition site:
http://provideocoalition.com/aadams...e_slate_25_tips_to_help_you_slate_like_a_pro/

Proper slating information is so important for the post team. I was handed dailies for a short once where they slated it for "gaming apps" and it had nothing to do with anything on the script. I had to recreate all the slate info virtually as per Art's #15 tip. Also, if there are special cases, then work out a system before production starts. I produced and edited a low budget feature where it all took place in the same scene/location. I asked them to use Page Numbers instead of scenes with B, C, and D with take and it worked out pretty well from there as I could identify the page it went on, then used the phonetic indexing of ScriptSync to make it all useable. So know your tools and workflow and male the editor's life easier.

Michael