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Monday, February 28, 2011
The Secret Art of Slating: 25 Tips to Help You Slate Like a Pro
Art Adams | 02/28
Take these to heart and become the editor’s best friend.
Slate training was my introduction to one of the most important tenets of filmmaking: always think of the next person down the production line. In the case of slating, this means taking care of the poor assistant editor who has to sync and track dailies based on your notes and your slating technique.
Just the way we are under the gun while shooting, assistant editors and editors are similarly rushed in creating rough cuts. The clearer you can be in identifying takes the easier their life will be—and that translates into fewer snide comments about your work when the producer visits the editing room.
Slating is traditionally the job of the second camera assistant, a position I don’t see much anymore except on the bigger budgeted shoots. More often than not I end up with a camera crew that consists of a first camera assistant and a DIT, and the DIT is never consistently on set as their duties dictate hovering over a laptop most of the day. This typically means that the first assistant has to slate shots themselves, although if you want to make a friend and you’re available to help you can jump in and take that burden off their hands. Just don’t think for a moment that slating is simple. There are a number of rules to follow that will make everyone’s lives easier.
1. Make the slate BIG in the frame. You won’t make any friends by holding the slate ten feet away from the camera on a wide shot. The rule of thumb is to place the slate one foot from the lens for every 10mm of focal length. For example, if the camera is sporting a 25mm lens, hold the slate 2’6” from the lens. (I’d move it a little farther back for safety, so call it 3’.)
2. WRITE LEGIBLY AND LARGE. Someone will have to read your handwriting from a thumbnail image, possibly on a laptop. It looks like this:
Keep this image in mind while slating.
3. Make sure the slate is in the frame as the camera rolls. The thumbnail in the editing software is generated from the first frame, so if the slate is in the frame when the camera starts the thumbnail will contain all the relevant shot info—which makes finding circle takes easy.
This used to be a cool trick but is now standard practice. If you don’t do this you will get a phone call from the editing room. You never want to get to get a call from the editing room.
4. Editors sync sound by finding the first visible frame where the clapper stops moving and lining that up with the first audio frame that contains the sound of the clapper hitting the slate. The easiest way to discern when the clapper stops is to watch for the first frame where it doesn’t show any motion blur. This means that THE SLATE MUST NOT MOVE WHILE THE CLAPPER IS IN MOTION. If both the slate and the clapper show motion blur it becomes very hard to figure out when the clapper stops moving.
Do not let the clapper bounce. Once it hits the slate it must remain in contact with the slate until the slate has left the frame.
5. Proper slating technique dictates holding the slate with one hand and closing the clapper with the other. This keeps the slate still while the clapper is in motion. Over time you’ll become good enough to do a one-handed slate, but that takes practice.
6. Hit the clapper louder for wider shots and softer for closeups. You don’t want to startle an actor by banging the slate loudly in front of their face. The mic is usually closer for closeups so all you need to do is tap it.
7. Finding the proper slate position for closeups can be tricky. One technique is to imagine a string running from the lens to the actor’s eye, and then hang the open part of the slate on that string.
8. When using a long lens I’d occasionally hold the directly slate in front of the matte box to get it square to the lens and then move it quickly straight out to the proper distance. This can help with proper placement. (You don’t want the operator to have to re-frame for the slate as that means they aren’t framed up on the shot. If the director calls action quickly they’ll miss the shot… and take out their embarrassment on you.)
9. The slate goes into frame when the AD calls “Roll sound!” or “Rolling!” If sound rolls and you put the slate in, and there’s a delay of some sort before the camera rolls, you can turn the slate horizontally (bottom edge to the lens) to keep it in its proper position while allowing the operator to see the frame.
10. The first camera assistant will give you a cue as to when the camera is up to speed, unless the camera gives off some sort of audible cue that it is rolling.
If the AD calls “Roll sound, roll camera, slate it!” then they are a rookie. Professional ADs will only say “Roll sound!” or “Rolling!” and expect the rest to follow.
11. Just before you hit the slate, call out “Mark!” or “Marker!” This tells whoever is syncing dailies that the next loud noise they hear is the slate closing. “Mark” is nice and succinct, but if someone on the crew is named Mark it’s better to call “Marker.” (I was second camera assistant on a feature where the gaffer’s name was Mark, and if he was pre-lighting the next set he’d always come back when we rolled because he heard someone calling his name. He asked me to call “Marker.”)
12. Typically the sound mixer will pre-slate the audio, so you only need to call out “Mark!” and not the scene and take. This varies, though, and some sound people may ask you call out the scene and take before calling “Mark” and hitting the slate.
If you screw up when hitting the slate (it happens) call out “Second Sticks!” and hit the slate again. That helps whoever is syncing dailies to line the audio up to the right mark.
13. The slate only needs to be visible for about a second after hitting it. The editor can stop the footage to read it, so it doesn’t have to sit for a long time. Hit it, count to one, and pull it out.
14. Update the take number IMMEDIATELY, during the shot. You’ll quickly master the art of taking the cap off your pen quietly. If the take is blown and the director wants to go again immediately, the last thing they want to wait on is you updating the slate.
15. You’ll get scene and take info from the script supervisor, but you should know how the system works (at least in the U.S.):
The first shot of a scene is just the scene number, so if you’re on scene 17 you’ll start at “scene 17 take 1.” Most of the time this is the master, but not always. Every time the setup changes or there’s a change in the action (an actor picking up a line, for example) you add a letter: 17A, 17B, etc. (Certain letters, like O and I, are skipped because they look too much like numbers.) If you run out of letters you’ll then proceed to 17AA, 17AB, etc. (Yes, it happens.) When in doubt, check with the script supervisor. They’ll usually call out the slate info as it changes.
Some will tell you to mark the slate “take 2 p/u” if an actor flubbed a line and the director decides just to pick up that line. I think that’s sloppy, because “p/u” is hard to read. Besides, what happens if the actor flubs the pickup line? Do you call the next take “p/u p/u”? The proper way is to go to the next letter, but ultimately that’s the script supervisor’s call.
Here’s an important bit of trivia: the script supervisor is part of the editorial department, so what they say to put on the slate is what you put on the slate. They are giving you information directly on behalf of the editor. Don’t argue with them. If they make a mistake, it’s their fault—not yours.
(Early in my career I worked on a TV series where the script supervisor left and was replaced by another who had her own “system.” It was completely different from anything the crew had ever seen, and I remember the sound mixer pre-slating the takes by adding “and that’s the stupidest f***ing scene number I’ve ever heard.” The next day she got a phone call on set, turned a bit pale, and reverted to the commonly used system. Filmmaking is hard enough as it is without making up your own systems and expecting everyone down the line to follow them. Sticking to the standards means spending less time on the process and more time on creating.)
Commercials tend to work a bit differently. If you’re shooting several commercials over the course of a day or days then the slate will typically start with “101” for the first commercial, “201” for the second, etc. Letters are rarely used; instead the numbers are incremented for each new set up. Sometimes the numbers will track a shot in the boards.
You’re not done yet… turn the page for more hot tips.
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This is excellent and very useful. Thanks Art!
Posted by Steven Bradford on 02/28 at 09:46 PM
Thanks, Steven! Send students! 
Posted by Art Adams on 02/28 at 09:53 PM
Yes these are fantastic tips. As an editor that are appreciated. I’ll add a couple more:
On music video shoots where you’re not going to clap the slate be sure you hold the clappers sticks open and far apart so the editor knows there will be no clapping.
And on those shoots where it’s very important that the editor be able to READ the timecode readout of the timecode slate be away of glare or sunlight that can make those numbers unreadable. If you’re not shooting reference audio (like when shooting film) then those numbers are the only way the editor has to sync the playback.
Be diligent about keeping the slate on-hand and ready to pop in at a moment’s notice. This might make a hurried director more likely to use it. Good directors know that the time will be saved in the editing suite.
Art’s mention of having the slate in frame when the camera rolls so there’s a slate there in the NLE’s poster frame is very, very good. In the edit you can change the poster frame if the slate wasn’t in frame but to do this for every shot is a real PITA time waster.
Great post!
Posted by Scott Simmons on 03/01 at 08:58 AM
This is a great list! A couple thoughts from a working assistant editor.
Don’t forget the date! This is very helpful on longer shoots, especially a season of TV when pick-ups are done for episodes other than the one currently shooting. It really helps you dig through binders full of script notes when trying to see if there’s B-Neg that could be pulled, as well as many other situations.
Re: 15, The P/U is actually very helpful. All it has to indicate to the editor is that it doesn’t cover the whole scene (or doesn’t cover the same part of the scene as the other shots in the setup). It’s also always a new take number, just indicated that it’s not a full take. (i.e 17-1, 17-2, 17-3PU, 17-4PU) The different PU shots may cover different lines, but that info is in the script notes.
Re: 22, sound rolls are as important as camera rolls when you’re using double-system sound. I’ve worked on a lot of union shows (mostly episodic TV) and they’ve never left this out, though.
Re: 17, It’s also a good idea, once you’ve have the slate in the frame and clapped it upside down, to turn it right side up and hold it for a second to make it easier to read.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/01 at 10:38 AM
This is a fantastic article! I do lots of tv commercials and corporate videos and am always looking for better ways to be more organized. This was VERY VERY helpful.
I’ve been searching Amazon trying to find a book that outlines how a corporate video or television commercial script should look, but I haven’t found any books on script techniques. Maybe in the future you could write another article about script writing techniques. (not the narration, I’m talking about how the shots are organized and listed)
Thanks again Art!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/07 at 10:20 AM
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