Proper Claboard Use

The clapboard is also known as a clapstick, sound stick or slate board.  I’ve been on two television shoots recently for national, professional productions where the crew did not use the clapboard properly.

There are many types of clapboards.  Some are made of blackboard material, some are wipe boards and some are digital. The iPad has a clapboard app that I don’t like very much.  Most of them have a place where you can write in information about the production or takes.  It is common to see spaces that allow the user to add the name of the project, the take number, the scene name and some crew names.  I particularly like the digital ones that allow you to jam sync time code to each camera.

By far, the most important role of the clapboard is to allow the footage from each camera on a multi-camera shoot to be easily synced up in the edit room. The loud “clap” sound that is made when the stick slams against the board creates a visual waveform on the audio line of the editing system.  This allows the editor to easily line up all of the footage saving both time and money.  In order for this to really work, ALL CAMERAS must simultaneously shoot the clapboard when it makes the “clap.”  If you find yourself without a clapboard, you can just clap your hands together or slap a clipboard loudly.  As long as it makes a loud, sharp noise and all of the cameras are rolling on it at the same time, it will work.  If you need to “slate” the shot, in other words, share the written information on the clip board, you can verbally say whatever information needs to go with the take.

One common mistake are just showing one camera the clapboard.  Although each camera can hear the “clap” sound, seeing the visual of the stick hit the board on each piece of footage can really speed things up in edit.  Another mistake is clapping the board to each camera individually.  I’m not sure what that is supposed to accomplish.  I supposed if the clapboard has digital time code, it could help line up the footage but you will still miss that synchronized “clap.”  Either way, you end up frustrating your editor more than anything.  A frustrated editor is not creative nor very fun.

A word about the iPad clapboard app.  It doesn’t work very well for two reasons.  One, to make the clap sound, you have to push a little button. By doing so, you cover up the iPad screen which takes away your visual.  Two, the clap just isn’t that loud.  Sometime there can be too much technology.  An old-fashioned hand clap works better.

In some instances when the cameras are in shooting position, they are unable to see the clapboard at the same time.  For instance, one camera may be shooting an arrival from outside a house and one from inside the house. In that case, bring the cameras together, start rolling and “clap” the clapboard.  Then move back into position while the cameras are still rolling.  When all else fails, do the best you can.

For more production insights, visit the How To category.

Should I Buy A Hard Drive?

I asked my friends and colleagues at the Washington, DC area Women in Film and Video (WIFV) if it was time for me, as an independent and freelance producer, to buy my own hard drive.  The resounding answer was “yes.”

Some people, like Stephanie Foerster Owner of StepFilms, says the question takes some consideration.  “If you are responsible for the footage upon conclusion of the shoot, then yes, a hard drive is a great investment. That said, if you are simply handing over the footage for post, I think it’s fair to request the client to provide their own drive before the shoot.”

There are a lot of hard drives out there and not all of them will work for every situation.  For instance, are you looking for a hard drive to simply store and transport footage?  If so, a small drive will work.  The most popular compact drive suggestion I got was for the 350gb LaCie.  I’m using this drive now (in fact it is packed up ready for my shoot today) and it seems both rugged and easy to use.  It doesn’t need a power cord because it runs off of the firewire cable. It costs about $100.  For Mac users, My Passport Studio has been recommended because it is small and very affordable.  Another recommendation is the $90 Smartdisk FireLite which holds about 80GB and fits in the palm of your hand.

But as Roland Hudson of Flipbook Productions points out, you will need something bigger and faster if you plan to edit from the drive.  Anything less than 1TB can make moving media on and off of the drive painstakingly slow.  The G-Raid mini, another highly recommended drive based on responses, runs about $300.

Bonnie Green, a Digital Assets Manager, warns not to store too much on one drive.  “I usually advocate digitizing your assets into a searchable database, then archiving physical assets in off-site storage. Never keep the two in the same location. Use the “what if” scenario in laying out your plan.  Also, using one hard drive for multiple clients may not be wise, as it only takes one corrupted file to ruin to the soup. Then, you’ve just screwed up your other clients’ stuff and made yourself look like a novice.”

The crowd was split on how “consumer” to go with these drives. Some felt that standard drives found at Best Buy to provide storage for a home computer wouldn’t suffice.  Others were excited about cheap and cheerful drives that could be bought for under 100-bucks.  Personally, I feel that is it worth a little extra to safeguard a client’s footage.

And last but not least, back up your footage!  Some producers use their drives as backups. Others store the footage on their computer.  It doesn’t really matter where you keep it just as long as you can get to that backed-up footage if needed.