UK versus US clapperboard slating

[3Dsf]

There's some idiot selling bogus "replica" Star Wars clapperboards on eBay that purport to be "memorabilia" and "based on" the clapperboards used in "actual filming". And of course none of those things are true. In fact, his "clapperboards" look nothing like the ones actually used, and contain information that clapperboards don't actually have. Plus they don't use the UK slating system, when Star Wars live action footage was of course filmed by English crews.

So, whatever. Another scammer. But it got me thinking about the UK versus US systems of marking clapperboards. In the British system (much hated by American editors, it seems), the second AC/clapper loader writes down the "slate" number. (the clapperboard is essentially a chalkboard surface, and thus is the "slate") This is 1 at the start of a day's filming, and is incremented with each take. The slate number is, according to some sources, then reset for the next setup (camera move or lens swap). Americans don't do this and instead append letters after the take number. Which has its own pros and cons.

But why are the shots I've seen of the Star Wars clapperboards marked with really crazy high slate numbers? This one has a slate number of 582. That couldn't possibly have been the 582nd take since the last setup. Any ideas?

 

[ScreenFashions]

582 is the scene number. Obviously that's not the scene number, I didn't notice it was at the top of the clapperboard.

 

[3Dsf]

Yeah, the Star Wars board has:

- Scene number
- Production title (when it was still "The Star Wars")
- Director - George Lucas, but it could be an assistant director for second and third unit takes)
- Camera (DP/cinematographer) - Gil Taylor
-The aforementioned mysterious slate number
- Take number
- Date day/month/year
- Location name

Stuff a 1970s board doesn't have, that they generally do today:
- Roll number
- Day/Night
- Int/Ext
- Sound/MOS (mitout sound/shot silent)
- Timecode (for digital sync)
- Sometimes other stuff like FPS or shutter angle
- Camera for multi-camera shots

 

[ScreenFashions]

Could it be "slates" equals scenes in total over all the days of filming so far, as opposed to slates/scenes from that day? So by this point they had filmed 582 scenes each with a "new" slate but they'd been filming for a few weeks. Depending on how many scenes they were filming each day this is somewhat plausible.

 

[3Dsf]

My understanding was slates are reset each day.

 

[PB Props]

For what it's worth, a "slate" number is the camera set up and tend not to be reset each day. It would still refer to a scene and shot number - which can be marked elsewhere on the board, not always though - but it would certainly be listed in the supervisor's log. So slate 587 (for example) could be Scene 37 Shot 14. You'd then have the "Take" number. It's a system that I really don't like as it just feels unnecessarily confusing - you can't tell at a glance where you are.

The US set up, but the UK also use this too, so it seems quite interchangeable depending on the production you're working on, you'd have something much more obvious as to what you're working on, like Scene 12 / Take 4 - which would be a master shot. Move the camera for a new angle, lens etc, it'd then become Scene 12A / Take 1.

 

[3Dsf]

PB Props: Thanks for that info! It seemed clear that they couldn't have reset the slate number each setup, owing to the massive number. But it's definitely confusing.

One other interesting thing is the variety of slate types that they used filming Star Wars. The white tape arrangements were obviously different, but there was also a lot of variation in the actual clapperboards themselves.

 

[PB Props]

Yeah, slates / sticks / boards come in all shapes and sizes. Some are quite basic, others can have a tonne of additional information on them. It really depends on what the director and editor are looking for when marking up.

I see on some of your shots, a few of the boards even have the grey scale charts stuck on the back and flip down when needed.

 

[joberg]

For a lay person this is quite confusing. No wonder that guy is selling copies on line...you really have to know your stuff

 

[3Dsf]

For a lay person this is quite confusing. No wonder that guy is selling copies on line...you really have to know your stuff

Well, it is confusing in a sense. But if you're selling something that looks nothing whatsoever like any of the photos of the actual clapperboards, while claiming it's properly researched and whatnot, then that would be a total lie!

They're really pretty simple. It's not like making a model of an EVA pod or the Millennium Falcon or something like that.

 

[JACUK]

I've used 3 versions as a 2nd in the UK
1st is the american system roll A009, scene 24A, take 3 then when something changes ie lens change or camera move 24B take 1
2nd is UK version scene 24, slate 1 take 3 then onto slate 2 if something changes then for scene 17 slate 1 take 1 so you know the amount of slates per scene.
3rd is continuous slate, day 1 take 1 is slate 1 and that counts up so you could be 13 days in and be on slate 573, meaning we have done 573 different camera set ups over the entire shoot so far

It all depends on what your told day 1, the shoot I'm on now is using the American system A, B, C and so on for each scene

We don't stick to one system in the UK

 

[joberg]

Thanks for that info JACUK I'm sure it all makes sense when using either model on a daily basis...as for me; I'm still a bit confused by the whole thing

 

[JACUK]

Thanks for that info JACUK I'm sure it all makes sense when using either model on a daily basis...as for me; I'm still a bit confused by the whole thing

What model are you used to... new slate each scene or continuous count slate when something changes?

 

[3Dsf]

We don't stick to one system in the UK

I wonder how much of that is the power of US production companies these days. I would imagine that the UK systems were more common in the past, no?

 

[JACUK]

I wonder how much of that is the power of US production companies these days. I would imagine that the UK systems were more common in the past, no?

I'm not sure what it depends on. Obviously shows I've worked on like good omens is amazon so US boarding is the way they want it, the short I've just finished on today has no reason to but decided that's what it is, when I was on jekyll and Hyde for pick ups the producer decided we were using the new slate each scene which was separate to the actual run which used the UK style, bbc drama is always UK system, it makes no difference to me but also I don't get it, you film in the uk... you use UK system the camera notes will go with it all so your editors can't be that confused if it says slate 356 or 25AB you still have the scene number and the camera notes + script sups notes and dit notes ... it makes no sense to me but I board as told

 

[JACUK]

I'm not sure what it depends on. Obviously shows I've worked on like good omens is amazon so US boarding is the way they want it, the short I've just finished on today has no reason to but decided that's what it is, when I was on jekyll and Hyde for pick ups the producer decided we were using the new slate each scene which was separate to the actual run which used the UK style, bbc drama is always UK system, it makes no difference to me but also I don't get it, you film in the uk... you use UK system the camera notes will go with it all so your editors can't be that confused if it says slate 356 or 25AB you still have the scene number and the camera notes + script sups notes and dit notes ... it makes no sense to me but I board as told

The real prople arises as I have UK boards not American so mine are set up for our system and I'm not going to spend money on America boards for the few times I do them