For some reason, seeing a clapper board on set is extremely exciting for many people. I guess it means that this is the real deal as you tend to only see them in behind the scenes photos and videos from big films. The truth is, the clapperboard isn’t just a novelty item, it serves a very important purpose within video and film production.
First of all, you have the sticks. The bit that makes it a clapperboard and not just a board. These sticks are designed to hit together, making a short sharp ‘clap’ sound. When using multiple cameras, or you’re recording sound separately from your camera, this provides a visual and audio reference to enable the editor to quickly sync the footage and audio together.
These days, most cameras record audio of some sort, even if it’s just used as a reference next to your proper audio recording. This allows up to date software such as premiere pro and final cut pro to automatically sync your multiple cameras and audio tracks on the click of a button. On smaller shoots therefore, it’s not always a requirement to use a clapperboard.
However, the ‘board’ part is also very important, especially if the editor isn’t on the shoot. It holds a lot of important information which needs to be up to date and accurate or else it can be more of a hindrance.
The production name is obvious – it tells the editor that the shot is for the project they’re working on and not for something completely different. In the UK, we then have 3 sections – Scene, Slate and Take. The scene number will correspond to the script if one exists, or a shot list or storyboard. For some corporate shoots, a whole video may be attributed a ‘scene number’ for reference. The slate number continuously increases throughout a production. If you’ve shot 150 individual shots, your slate number will be 150. This is particularly useful if the editor thinks there’s a clip missing. Finally, the take number represents the number of takes for a scene. If your talent fluffs their line or the camera operator doesn’t focus quick enough, we’ll start a new take.
Under that, we have the camera operator’s name, the date, whether it’s night or day and if any sync sound is being recorded, indicated with the ‘mos’ being circled or not. This stands for Motor Only Shot and comes from the old days of film cameras, indicating that only the camera motor is being used for the shot. Generally, the clapper loader will also put their fingers through the sticks on a MOS shot to indicate quickly to the editor that no audio is being recorded.
Sometimes, if a shot has been set and it’s going to be difficult to film the clapperboard at the start of the shot, the crew will shout ‘end board’ signalling to the editor that the clapperboard will be shown once the shot is completed instead. In this instance, the clapper loader will show the clapperboard at the end of the shot upside down.
So that’s a very quick overview of the clapperboard and its function. It’s not just a cool prop to have a selfie with, it’s actually an extremely important part of the film and video production process.
WhatsApp us
