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How to slate


Michael Althaus

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I am going to do the slate the first time here in America (just moved). I just wanted to make sure you do it here the same way as we do it in Europe. Is there anything important I should know about.

 

The way I used to do it.

Writing on the slate: Scene Number and letter for camera setup, take, and roll. (what do you do when you run out of letters (more than 26 camera setups in one scene?)

 

Calling out loud Roll # Scene #, "letter" and take.

Clap the slate.

(doing a tail slate if not possible doing the slate in the beginning)

 

Anything else important especially when shooting on film? (Used to do it only on a couple video productions but never on a production who shoots on film (except for my own 16mm shoots).

 

Thanx,

Michael

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Also saying marker right before clapping the slate is rather standard practice. If you have to do it again for some reason like if camera wasn't rolling but sound was then say second sticks.

 

~Jess

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If the slate is in front of an actors face, make sure you mention beforehand "soft sticks" to the 1st ac, Actor, and Sound Dept. Ask the boom op to move the mic closer to you and the slate so they can hear both. Actors will thank you for not slapping the slate hard in front of them. Be confident with this, because if you are not, people will think you are doing it wrong.

 

Also, if you are shooting film, to conserve film you would call out the scene # and take after sound calls "speed". then when camera speeds, all you have to do is call "marker" and clap the sticks and get out of the scene as fast as possible.

 

Make sure you go over this with the ac, ad, and sound before you do this. Very efficient and saves film.

 

Jamie

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Of course in unique situations there are other methods of slating. My favorite was on The Abyss where they were shooting sync sound underwater since the actors were wearing hard hats which had coms built in. In order to slate they would hit the actor in the face with the slate so that the microphone would pick up the click and the camera would see it. While it can sometimes be tempting to do this on dry land I do not recommend it.

 

~Jess

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Of course in unique situations there are other methods of slating. My favorite was on The Abyss where they were shooting sync sound underwater since the actors were wearing hard hats which had coms built in. In order to slate they would hit the actor in the face with the slate so that the microphone would pick up the click and the camera would see it. While it can sometimes be tempting to do this on dry land I do not recommend it.

 

~Jess

 

why not?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Don't forget to note if there is more than one camera on set, call out your camera and marker. Example A-camera Marker, B-camera Marker. or if one slate is doing both cameras then it's "A - B Common Mark"

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