Slate question

[Curt McAloney]

In the picture below there is an effects/stock footage shot with just the top part of a clapper board. Any reason why one would use this instead of the entire slate?

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

Not sure if you intended on doing this but you've created the same message 5 times. Perhaps Tim could delete the other ones.

[Max Jacoby]

Maybe they get the sync pop by banging it against Spock's head.

[Dickson Sorensen]

Maybe they get the sync pop by banging it against Spock's head.

 

 

It's a Zen thing, "The sound of one hand clapping."

[Tim Tyler]

They may have been using it to set focus, as the slate provides a high contrast subject to focus on.

[David Mullen ASC]

That's Sulu's head...

 

Maybe due to budget cuts, they could only afford the upper half of the slate, causing much problems later in post.

[Bob Hayes]

The bottom half of the slate is in another dimension. Duh.

[Matt Irwin]

The bottom half of the slate is in another dimension. Duh.

 

No, it's cloaked. Now that's a smart slate. :lol:

[K Borowski]

I know for a fact that they used full slates in TOS, because they had to use it a lot with the acting of one William Shatner. They had to do a lot of takes of everything that man did, because he single-handedly accounts for about 65% of the bloopers on the Star Trek blooper reel. One possibility is that they wore full slates out very quickly due to the many claps they had to do in front of a one James T. Kirk. Another explanation for this shot is that they used the top of a clapboard as a prop for the Captain's futuristic watch, akin to the very creative use of a 20th century microphone for a "white sound device" in the episode Court Martial. I assume the shot was cut because William Shatner forgot to wear his uniform for the take, and no one caught it until they got into the editing phase.

 

On a more serious note, I am surprised that there is a composite onto the screen for the very beginning of a shot. I wouldn't think that they'd begin the traveling matte until the hand got out of frame. This is the shot they reused whenever something was on the viewer in TOS. Where did you get this frame grab from, Curt? They wouldn't need sound synch at all for this shot because it is just a shot of the back of Sulu and the navigator's heads in order to help the primitive television audiences of the time figure out just where the viewscreen of the USS Enterprise was in relation to the rest of the bridge. Very interesting find though.

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

[Curt McAloney]

Where did you get this frame grab from, Curt? They wouldn't need sound synch at all for this shot because it is just a shot of the back of Sulu and the navigator's heads...

 

It's from an editors film trim. And yes, they didn't use sound on this take. Its stock footage. But the question remains, why just the top portion of the clapper?

[Francis Kuhn]

Wait. . .is that actually Ensign Pavel Chekov's head? Don't know about the slate.

[K Borowski]

Definitely Sulu. . . From the first season when the navigator was a guest-star every episode. I don't remember whether they ever got around to filming a new composite with both Sulu and Checkov. For a while they just cropped it so you could only see the back of Sulu's head.

[Brad Grimmett]

I think Tim's right. I think it's just in for an eye focus. He's holding it right up next to the actors head, almost touching him in fact, which makes the focus explanation make sense to me. I spent more time staring at that picture than I've ever spent watching Star Trek!

[Matt Butler]

*It's a slate Jim, but not as we know it*

I believe it is an *end-slate* where the slate is held upside-down and open to indicate an insert FX shot.

A couple of older slates in my collection! stay open when held this way.

The rest of the slate has been masked by the star field comped into the original scene over a blue-screen panel on the set.?? A possibility???

cheers

[Brad Grimmett]

If that's really tail sticks then that A.C. must have broken a lot of slates holding them that way. For tail sticks he would almost certainly have two hands on the slate, and wouldn't be holding it like a meat cleaver.

[Matt Butler]

It may be just an Australian *technique*, but many TVCs I've worked on, have had the clapper-loader hold the slate single-handed in the open position with particular info including SFX insert notes,a reminder to the editorial dept.or film laboratory etc. written on the slate.

Remember this is vintage TV, before laptops and computer based production tools.

cheers

Edited October 26, 2005 by matt butler

[Brad Grimmett]

Hmm, maybe you're right, but my point was that if he was actually going to tail slate and hit the sticks it would be impossible because of the way he was holding it. Also, I was thinking about the weight of a smart slate with running timecode, which is a lot heavier than a non timecode slate, and holding it like that could possibly damage it. So it could be possible....he just might have a sore hand after he hit the sticks.

[Michael Collier]

look closely at the window and you can see how the window cuts the rest of the slate off. if what we saw was all there was to the slate, then the end of it has awquard angles. They should be 90 degree corners, but it is cut perfectly by the star feild

[Chris Fernando]

It's not a trim. The ship was actually being attacked by clapper/loaders! "The Trouble W/ Clapper/Loaders" (lost episode).

[Matt Butler]

I think it's time to call in the forensic team from CSI:Hollywood (Clapper Slate Investigators)!

Cheers

[Curt McAloney]

look closely at the window and you can see how the window cuts the rest of the slate off. if what we saw was all there was to the slate, then the end of it has awquard angles. They should be 90 degree corners, but it is cut perfectly by the star feild

 

I think I figured it out. The slate is there, but the hard matte of the star field has cut off the rest of the slate. It's MOS, which is why the assistant is holding the slate in such a matter.

[Guest beanpat]

In the picture below there is an effects/stock footage shot with just the top part of a clapper board. Any reason why one would use this instead of the entire slate?

It's looks like a set of sticks that are closed. just sound sync. if you look carefully you can see a faint line separating the two I think.

[Stasha]

they had to cut on budget

 

 

:D

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Er, yes. Only just looked at this, but even with cursory inspection it's pretty clear that part of whatever stripy stick he's holding is being obscured by the comp.

 

Phil