When this happens you’ll do a “tail slate.” Remember how earlier I said that the Head ID comes at the head of the clip - except when it doesn’t? Well, there will be times on set when you won’t be able to slate at the beginning of a take for whatever reason. Just speak in a normal, conversational tone unless directed otherwise.

The sound person’s whole job is to record dialogue at various volume levels. Speaking of volume, you don’t need to shout when you’re slating. Then, as always, get the heck outta the frame. When this happens, simply call out “second sticks” and re-clap a bit harder. If you clap them too gently, you might have to go for “second sticks.” This means that you didn’t clap the sticks loudly enough to be recorded for audio the first time. Soft sticks.” Then you clap the sticks gently. Using our trusty Scene 42 example above, let’s slate with soft sticks: “Scene 42 Charlie. You’ll also announce that you’re going to be using “soft sticks” (instead of “Mark!”) when you slate for camera and audio. In these instances, you’ll want to use what we call “soft sticks.” That means you clap them very gently. When you have to slate for a close-up, you’ll need to put the slate right in the actor’s face for it to be both in frame and in focus. There’s some nuance to clapping the sticks that you’ll need to develop as well. I, S, O, and Z all look too much like numerals, so we don’t use them on the slate - at least, not in the U.S. Use the NATO phonetic alphabet:Īlpha, Bravo, Charlie, Denver, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Tango, Uniform, Victory, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee. Once you’ve been doing it a while, you’ll be able to have fun with slating.įor your first few shoots, it’s probably best to stick to using polite words when slating for camera. For A, apple or alpha for B, Bravo or Benjamin, and so on.įor example, for our diagram practice scene above, you would call out: It’s better to use a word that starts with the letter of the shot you’re on. Letters like D and T sound a LOT alike when you only have audio to go by. Remember, you’re also slating for audio so you need to make it really clear which shot you’re on when calling out the scene number. Then get out of the frame immediately.Įasy peasy, right? Okay so there are just a few more things you need to know to slate perfectly. When both the camera and sound are “speeding” you call out the scene number and take number, then “Mark!” and clap the sticks together. If the camera has to refocus, it will just take up more time. Stand where the Camera Op tells you your slate is both in the frame and in focus. Get into position and open your clapper sticks. Now, once you’ve marked everything on the slate correctly and the AD is ready to call the roll, it’ll be your time to shine.

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