Why, when and how to use a clapperboard

A clapperboard is a device traditionally made of two key components and is used during filmmaking or video production. Clapperboard, Slate or Sticks (more on these later) are used to aid the synchronising of film or digital video, and off camera sound. It designates and marks various scenes or takes during filming, which the editor uses in post-production

It is a staple and widely recognisable duty of the Second Assistant Camera (“AC”) to perform during production. This is the reason the 2nd AC is also known as the clapper, clapper-loader or loader.

The art of using a slate is a commonly known part of the filmmaking process. What is often not known, is it requires skill, knowledge, and an amount of subtlety to perform the task.

The value to an editor in post-production begins with what is caught in the camera at the beginning of each take. This is driven by the camera assistants who place the clapperboard in front of the lens. The clarity of the information written on the slate is equally important to prevent issues and lost time once the project moves into the post-production phase.

Clapperboards have distinct sections on them, which typically are the same for most production needs, although they can be customised if desired or requires. Once you understand what each section relates to, it is much easier to use the slate, as a useful tool, and a real time saver in post-production.

This useful and iconic tool has been around since its invention sometime in the early 1920’s.

Most people naturally associate with the clapping element of a clapperboard, or the steps leading up to the clapping of the sticks together. However, equally as important as this distinct step is making sure the correct information is clearly visible on the clapper-board.

The data written on the board will be dependent on the production and includes information, such as, the scene, take, roll, directors name, and of course the production name.

If the information on the board is incorrect or can’t be read, it will cause an editor to lose time, possibly edit issues, and most possibly will upset them. Alternatively, the wrong information could be mistaken as being accurate, causing confusion in post-production, which is something no one wants.

Who Invented the Clapper Board?

The clapper (two sticks hinged together) is generally credited as having been invented by Frank W. Thring (father of the actor Frank Thring). He was the head of Efftee Studios in Melbourne, Australia. However, Efftee Studios wasn't founded until 1931, which is a full decade after the clapperbaord was first known to have been used.

What is the typical Information written on a Clapboard

Each production has its own unique needs and requirements. However, we have summarised below a list of the most common information to use, along with the a short description of what each abbreviated term means.

Logically, the information on the slate will be changed during the course of the filming process. This information includes key pointers required to make post production run smoothly, and to ensure key takes (film and audio), which have been successfully captured, are highlighted, archived in a shot log, and not missed in post-production editing.

Thus, before you start slating, you need to know, and learn how to fill out the board properly.

Remember, there is only limited space on the clapperboard, so learning key abbreviations is essential to make sure everyone is on the same page, and time is not wasted. Always make sure the information is clear and can be read by anyone! Scribbled text is of no help to anyone.

The most common information used on a slate:

Production Name: The name or title of the movie
- Some companies have slates commissioned specifically for their productions
Roll: Used to identify the film roll or video tape being used. Roll is now more widely used to identify the digital media card used and the frame rate used
- The Fresh Crew Studios slate has a section for FPS (Frames Per Second)
Scene: The scene number
Take: The current take of the shot related to the scene
Director: Name of the director for the production
Camera: Name of the director of photography/cinematographer of the production or camera operator
Date: The month, day, and year that you’re shooting
MOS: "Motor Only Shot". Means to shoot without sound
Day/Night: Circled to designate a day or night shot
Int/Ext: Circled to Identify the scene as an interior or exterior shot
Filter: Used if using a filter on the lens
Sync: Circle this for a Sync shot. Covered in more detail below
Timecode Slate: Uses a digital timecode synced to the audio and in some instances direct to the camera

As mentioned earlier, the list above is dependent on specific production needs. However, the list we’ve used is common to many clapperboards.

Abbreviations and Variations Explained

A director may want to do a “pickup”, A pickup is when you shoot only a specific part of a scene and has P/U after the take i.e. Take: 12 P/U

Director’s may also choose to do a “series”, where the camera continues rolling. In the same vein as a “pickup”, you would write “SER” or “Series” next to the "Take" number.

Whenever you have to go back to a scene that was previously thought to be complete, aka in the can, it qualifies as a re-shoot. A re-shoot can be captured on the same day, the same week, or in some instances several months into a production.

The problem re-shoots pose from a slating perspective is that you are technically shooting the same scene as previously logged. A solution for re-shoots is to put an “R” in front of whatever shots are being re-taken. Thus, if you are re-shooting Scene 12, the re-shoot becomes Scene R12.

When a slate is used to mark a “MOS” take, the slate is held half open, with a hand blocking the sticks, or closed, with a hand over the sticks, and if “MOS” is printed on the board it may also be circled or a TAG with "MOS" stuck over the clappers, which is used to indicate no audio is being used.

A very popular method among many camera assistants is to hold the slate with their fingers between the sticks. This lets the editor know there is definitely no clapping of them, and is a widely accepted method of communicating a “MOS” shot.

When you circle the sync label on the slate, you are indicating that the clapboard is being used to synchronize cameras with the clapping sound from the sticks on the clapboard.

Clapperboards can be categorised into two main types of info:

Production Specific:

This includes the name of the production, director name, cinematographer, and producer, as well as the date or shooting day.

Shot Specific:

The roll or digital media used, the scene number, and the take number are the most obvious shot-specific pieces of information. However, this also encompasses further details like MOS, Day/Night, Int/Ext, Sync which we covered above.

What other names are used?

Clapperboard’s are known by many names, such as a Director’s Slate, Clapboard, Slate, or Film Slate to name just a few. They are typically made of two components as mentioned earlier. The first component part is the clapper, which creates the audible sound we have all come to know, and the second is the board where key information for each take is displayed.

Clapperboard’s without the board are generally referred to as sticks. Sticks are used in more run-and-gun filmmaking to aid with synchronising off camera audio and denote a new take with no information added.

Depending on the board type such as the traditional blackboard, chalk would have been used. Modern acrylic boards such as the one we use at FreshCrewStudios utilise a specific type (this does matter) of non-permanent marker to enter the information.

With the advent of iPads apps have been created to emulate clapperboards, there are a few like DigiSlate and MovieSlate. The best ones integrate with a pair of sticks, as the audible sound the electronic device makes is not sufficiently loud to operate effectively.

App based slates allow you to log footage as you shoot and tie it into the timecode marks. You can also log shot info in the app, such as the lens, ISO and more.

Physical slates have been around for a long time remaining unchanged for the most part. The step change for them was from chalk to dry erase and more recently from analogue slates to digital slates that can display a jam-synced timecode.

Digital Clapperboards and SMPTE or NTP Time Code

Zebra Board Marker used by Fresh Crew Studios on our Slate

Many big productions with complex scenes and special effects frequently use modern digital clapperboards. Digital slates mark the hour, minute, second and frame (1-30) of a production ensuring lip-sync editing and special visual effects have never been more precise.

After that, there are small slates for insert shots, larger ones for wide shots, some use coloured sticks, some have reversible sticks, but for the most part the slate has stayed the same since it’s invention in the 1920’s. Perhaps this is why it is such an iconic tool and is instantly associated with filmmaking due to its instantly recognisable shape and the long history it has played within the industry.

Are all clapperboards equal? The short answer is no, as they can be customised to meet a specific project, or production company’s work flow or many other factors unique and specific to the team using them. For example, the Fresh Crew Studios clapperboard was custom made to meet our current needs. We were very excited when ordering the slate, as the clapperboard was made by the organisation that worked on James Bond and many other iconic movies.

For our current usage at Fresh Crew Studios we wanted our name at the top of the board with space for each working title (a name used during film production) to be included. Our clapperboard has black and white sticks for the clapper and an acrylic board to write key information upon using a WBB board marker as shown in the image.

We are often ask “Do you have to use a slate for filming?l. No, you don’t, although you should hopefully come to the conclusion after reading this blog post, that it is best practice, worth using, and not just something we movie folk do just for fun.

The Clapping Sound

On set, if the clapper on the slate was not visible when the shot was being marked, the camera person might call out “second sticks!” this is used to tell the 2nd camera assistant or person responsible for the slate, to mark the shot for a second time.

If we go back to a time when movies started to have sound (talkies) which was synchronised with the picture, the sound was not recorded onto the film, instead it was recorded separately off of the camera.

Early film cameras were also very noisy, ironically something many modern day digital cameras suffer from too, such as excessive fan noise to cool the electronics used to record the images. The noise of the camera would have contributed to the difficulty of recording live crisp sound and is even more noticeable with today’s highly sensitive microphones.

Present day movie productions still record sound separately using sophisticated wired or radio microphones and to reduce noise such as wind they use clever wind-blocking covers known as windjammers, suspension arms to reduce handling noise, and designated sound recording devices and mixing equipment, rather than straight into the camera, where the audio quality would not be suitable.

So, the primary purpose of the clapper board or clapper sticks from the very early days of filmmaking to our current time, is the much the same; to help sync the visuals and the sound in the cutting room.

SMPTE Time Code
This is a set of standards to label individual frames (1 through 30 for each second) with a Time Code, which is defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers ("SMPTE").

Time Codes provide an embedded time reference for editing, synchronisation and identification. The invention of Time Code made modern editing possible, and is still widely used in today’s digital production cameras. Some time code products may be locked into legacy systems built before the 1990s when the NTP (Network Time Protocol) systems became more available.

NTP
This is the latest competing solution for SMPTE. NTP (Network Time Protocol) is something you may have spotted on your computer and came into existence with the Internet. The NTP server is ideally synchronised to an atomic clock for very precise time accuracy.

NTP offers increased time accuracy, and an additional benefit because the wire used to carry the signal can also carry power, which is needed to run the clock, so wiring is less complicated. This approach is called PoE (Power over Ethernet) and has become very popular. NTP typically uses standard category 5 ethernet wiring to synchronise computers, clocks and other network connected devices to an NTP reference server, which as mentioned earlier keeps very accurate time.

Time is very important when needing to synchronise accurately, and there are companies who specialise in proving these services

Why, with modern radio technologies and microphones are we still recording sound and images separately? Surely the technology is good enough to record both audio and images in one device.

There are actually many reasons why we still record separately. Firstly, being able to separate the camera operator and the boom operator means that the camera isn’t restricted and is free to move however the director wishes. The sound recordist and sound mixer are also free to record from multiple sources; using radio mics on each of the actors and/or condenser mics for room ambience for example.

Furthermore, designated sound recorders are manufactured and designed to record the cleanest sounding audio possible, whereas most cameras aren’t designed with this in mind.

So, we use clapper boards whenever the highest quality audio is required, and when the situation allows.

Do you need a slate if no audio is being recorded?

No, it is not essential.

There are situations where a clapperboard is not essential. Sometimes you have no choice but to record sound directly into camera (events, video journalism, documentaries etc.) due to time, budget and other restraints.

In some situations, the effort required to record sound separately and sync it up afterwards actually gives you more work with little noticeable gain, costing you time and money. Decide carefully if a board is for you and how often you may use it.

“I love editing. It’s one of my favourite parts about filmmaking.”

— Steven Spielberg

Example Clapperboard Workflow

The following is a quick and simple example of a typical slating process, used on set, when sound is being recorded to an external device:

1st Assistant Director: Silence or Quite on set please… We are about to go for a take… Turnover.

Sound Recordist: Sound is rolling.

Camera operator: Camera speed.

2nd AC: Scene 1, Slate 1A, Take 4, Mark.

[2nd AC claps the sticks with the clapperboard in shot and in focus and then leaves shot]

Camera operator: Set.

1st Assistant Director: Background action!

Director: …. and… Action!

Hopefully, this gives you a good understanding of why and how a clapperboard is used. There are many good blogs found by searching the inter-web which cover many more aspects of the slate. Some blogs are written by experienced working second assistant camera operators, and some from productions companies. All are worth reading, as this iconic, and on the face of it, simple tool, is actually a very powerful solution in any production workflow.

Post was written by Stephen B. Sinclair

Using a Clapperboard