The slate has many purposes. It has a front panel with sectioned off areas where you label information about the production, as well as the scene and take information. This is so when you look at your footage, you can see what clip you are looking at without having to watch the whole thing. The clapper part of the slate is there so that resyncing audio to picture in post production is easier than trying to line up the sound to some movement in the scene.
As you can see in this picture, the top part of the slate is labeled "Prod." which stands for Production. This is where you put the title of the production you are working on. "Roll" means camera roll. Since we primarily use digital cameras these days, you would put "1" for the first tape or memory card. when you switch tapes or memory cards, you change that number to "2", and so on. If you are shooting with more than one camera, you designate them as camera A and camera B. In this case you would label the roll A1/B1 for the first tape or card in both cameras, and change the numbers whenever you change the rolls. Simple enough right? This is so that the editor knows which clip came from which camera and which roll, so piecing your film together is easier.
The scene is the number that designated which scene you are shooting. If this is scene 1, you write 1. If you are shooting the same scene from a second angle, it is called 1A. If you choose to go for a third angle, it is 1B. And so on. Sometimes when you run out of letters in the alphabet, you go to double letters: 1AA, 1AB, 1AC, etc. We tend to skip letters l, o, and sometimes s because they look like the numbers 1, 0, and 5. When slating scene numbers with letters, 1A should be slated as 1 Alpha, 1B as 1 Beta or Baker, 1C and 1 Charley, and so on.
The take section is self explanatory. Take 1, take 2, etc. If you shoot scene one three times, you have three takes. If you only do two takes of 1A, you have two takes. Etc.
Beneath that is where you put the name of the director and the cinematographer or DP (Director of Photography). If you are shooting more than one camera, you often will put the name of each camera operator so we know which camera is which.
Writing the date is very important when you are shooting for more than one day. Again, this helps the editor keep your footage organized.
The next things written are things you circle to help the editor. Day, Night, Int(erior), Ext(erior), MOS, Sync. If the scene takes place in the day, you circle day, if it is interior, you circle Int. simple enough. MOS is circled when you are shooting without sound, while Sync is used when you are shooting with sound. MOS stands for Motor Only Sync or Motor Only Shot. There are other funny theories as to what MOS stands for, and Im sure youve already heard them.
Filter is if you are using a filter on the camera. In the space next to the word Filter is where you would write what kind of filter you are using. Some slates also have an FPS alongside everything here at the bottom. This is where you should write your Frames Per Second. You should always do that, AND tell your sound person so they know what rate to record at. If you do not tell us, we will assume it is one thing or another, and if we guess wrong your audio may drift from the picture!!!
So now you know what a slate is. The appropriate way to slate is to place the slate in front of the camera to where it can see the entire slate in focus, with the clapper open (if you are recording sound with this take), or held like the picture below to designate that this take is MOS.
You can also simply hold the sticks closed. This is as an added reminder to the picture editor to not look for a corresponding audio take because none was recorded.
Once the slate is in place, the Assistant Director should call "Roll Sound". Once the sound mixer says "Speed", the AD should call "Roll Camera(s)". Once they call "Speed", the Assistant Camera or whomever happens to be slating should then call TO THE MICROPHONE "Scene___ Take ___", then let the sticks fall (not slam them, unless the sound person/mic is far away from the slate) then call "Marker", and quickly get out of the shot. Marker designated that the sound of the sticks is in fact the sticks, and not any other sound. IF the camera is very tight on an actor, and the slate needs to be placed in front of their face, you would call "Soft Sticks", and very gently tap the sticks together so as to not offend, bother, hurt the ears of, or take the nose off of the actor just behind the slate.
Once the Camera Operator says "Set", then the Director or Assistant Director will call "Action", at which time the talent should take a beat, then begin. If they do not wait for "Action" chances are they will ruin the take because the technicians around them are not ready.
Any other method of slating will generally make you look like an amateur, and people will recognize that! Slamming the sticks hurts the sound guy's ears, and causes unnecessary Sound Pressure Levels to potentially damage his expensive microphones. Dont Be A Jerk, and slate properly!!!!!!
Smart Slates! Why? I'll tell you. Smart slates are used when your CAMERA and SOUND both are using Time Code to sync to eachother, again making things easier for the editor to resync the audio to the picture. THIS IS NOT NECESSARY FOR TIME CODE USE!!! But is only used when time code is in use. What I means by that is that the sound guy with a professional kit will have a built in Time Code generator into his recorder. It is very precise, and an expensive feature to have. Do not ask for time code if you are on a super low budget, because like I said, it is an expensive feature for the sound guy to have.
The sound person can jam sync the camera to his time code, effectively putting the camera in sync. For whatever reason, cameras tend to not come with a good internal clock (which isnt much more than the technology of a quartz watch might I add!), so everyone looks to the sound person for sync. So then, if one can simply jam the audio and video sync, why use a time code slate? Well, the Smart Slate will freeze the Time Code that is on its display once the clapper has been shut, so with an exact sync point displayed, resyncing audio to video in post is that much more simple. But do remember that a smart slate is a very expensive item, and it does not help the sound department in any way do their job. So DO NOT expect your sound department to have one, unless YOU are willing to pay an extra kit rental fee to your sound department.
I usually do not offer time code services of any kind unless a minimum rate is met, because these are added expenses that dont help me with my job, and actually added tasks that I have to do on set. Many times I dont have time for these sorts of tasks, so asking me to take time out of my limited time to fumble around with something that doesnt help me do my job is not something I want to do unless Im getting payed extra for it.
And to be clear, MOST cameras that indie film makers are using DO NOT run time code!!!! DSLR cameras have no time code options, neither do many lesser types of cameras. Even cameras like the RED One do have time code, but cannot keep a constant time code because they werent built with very good precision. In the event of using a RED or any other time code camera that loses it's sync once powered down, or tends to drift, should have a lockit box attached to it to keep sync. THIS IS SOMETHING THE CAMERA DEPARTMENT RENTS! It is not something you should EVER expect your sound department to provide, as it is something to keep THE CAMERA from drifting off of time code. If it were sound that had problems with drift, sound would have one, but it is ALWAYS the camera that needs a better Time Code generator than the one it has.
The last type of slate I will talk about is the Insert Slate:
This little guy is something that your Assistant Camera person should provide. It is small and primarily used to label an insert take, which often times are a close up on an object or action that will help detail the scene. Since a lot of inserts do not require sound, these slates do not have sticks on them. Though sometimes you do need to roll sound on an insert, in which case there are small slates with sticks available, or you can tape a C47 (clothes line pin) to the top of the insert slate and flick it to create a tiny snap sound.
So, now that we have talked about slates and slating, I hope to see better ACs out there who know how to slate properly without calling the scene and take numbers to the camera and not to the microphone, and without slamming the sticks and hurting my ears. I also hope to stop getting calls from so called producers asking me to provide a smart slate on a shoot that is going to use a Canon 7D! Yes, this happens all the time, and it just makes you look bad, so please do your research before you make a fool of yourself!
