Slate really necessary for DV?

[Ed Sarkissian]

I'm sure the answer is 'yes', but I'd like to understand why.

I can think of 2 reasons for slating - to sync audio to video, and to mark the beginning of a take. So, is slate really necessary on a mini-dv shoot when recording sound to the same tape?

The audio is already synced to the video, and you can just check the camera log timecode for beginnings of takes.

Thanks,
Ed

 

[David Mullen ASC]

It's really more of an aid in organizing your editing process; sure, if you have a script supervisor marking time codes and takes, you can use those logs as a guide to organizing your footage, but it may be faster to organize your takes in the editing process if they are already easily labelled and separated by camera slates.

 

[Filmosity]

when i'm shooting a narrative or a fictional tv show, then I'll use a little slate that doesn't have a clapper on it. That helps me keep track of what I'm doing in the edit suite. But it's not completely necesary, especially if you have someone recording timecodes.

Syncing sound is pretty much not an issue.

Only time you'd use a clapper board slate would be if you're doing a multicam shoot, and you can't sync timecodes on the cameras. You'd use it to sync the cameras together.

 

[DBXMe2]

when you're doing a DV shoot, you dont really need to use a slate, because all that can be achieved by having your assistant cam, or more like the Script Supervisor to take down where you are "time code" wise on your tape.

The slate is used in DV only when you are recording the sound with a different machine... a DAT or a Nagra, because you dont want the noise of the camera for example. Then you're shooting you're DV ...MOS then yea, the slate comes in to sync your rushes

SO thats what a slate does.. it does also classify your shots better... but anyway.

 

[element80]

I was working on a shoot a few weeks agoe where we had a few steadicam shots. To make life easier on the operator, we recorded sounds on a different camera, and then clap-slated (we didn't ahve a real slate at the time) for syncing later. A slate is always something good to have, just in case, but at the same time, having someone clap slate can be just as effective. Another good reason to have one is that if you get a professionally made one, a lot of times they'll have a mini chip-chart on the clap-sticks, which could be useful for color adjsutments in post.

 

[DBXMe2]

another good trick to sync up sound to, if you dont have a slate, is that you slap your hands infront of the camera like a slate... just Clap your hands and says SYNC MARK and Clap your hands once or twice and VOILA you're sync point.

 

[Clint Johnson]

I used slates on Ragnarök the Series pilot I shot and it was invaluable. Especially so on the two camera days, where it made it a lot simpler to pull the good sound from the one camera and sync it with the good visuals from the other.
Even with single camera editing, it was often necessary to unlink the audio and video so it was always nice to have the clap to line them up after I had been cutting and shuffling for a few hours.
And never underestimate the importance of keeping track of the shot and take... ingesting the footage into the computer with each take as a separate file is necessary and the software rarely gets the naming conventions correct. I had to go through and manually name each of the 800 plus takes and without a slate it would have taken tens of hours longer. Once they are named, I would be able to edit each scene with the appropriate takes named and visible in the bin. On the set the AC wrote the date along with - roll #, Scene #(letter) and Take #. Once I am editing, I know that all the takes for A5-3L where the closeups on Abe at the morgue while A5-3N series of takes where the closeups on Ted.

I would never shoot without slates.