'To Slate or Not to Slate?' That is the ?

[Peter Moretti]

I've done a search on slating and it's usually mentioned when recording to separate recorder.

I will be using a double system: Sound Devices 302 recording to both a Sony HDR-FX1 and a Sound Devices 702 recorder. So for synching purposes, I don't believe I need to slate.

But should I slate anyway? Isn't it more professional, a good habit and helps organizing the footage?

A potential downside is that slating might freak out my documentary interviewees. They're not theatrical talent, so having a board in front of their face and a clapper sounding off might make them uncomfortable.

So "'To slate, or not to slate?' that is the ?"

[Lisa Shofner]

I found slating VERY helpful when I filmed scenes out of order from the script. Makes it much easier to log and do the rough edits, in my opinion.

[Kevin Randolph]

Maybe check out the "Easy Slate" by Vortex Media

http://www.easyslate.com/Home.html

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Peter Moretti

I've done a search on slating and it's usually mentioned when recording to separate recorder.

I will be using a double system: Sound Devices 302 recording to both a Sony HDR-FX1 and a Sound Devices 702 recorder. So for synching purposes, I don't believe I need to slate.

But should I slate anyway? Isn't it more professional, a good habit and helps organizing the footage?

A potential downside is that slating might freak out my documentary interviewees. They're not theatrical talent, so having a board in front of their face and a clapper sounding off might make them uncomfortable.

So "'To slate, or not to slate?' that is the ?"

You can always "tail slate" if you think slating the start of the take will disturb the interviewer. At the end of the take, announce "tail slate" and have an assitant hold the clapper in front of the camera and clap before cutting. The convention, B TW, is the board is head rightside up for normal headslates and upside down for tail slates.

I think slating should be the rule unless circumstances make it impossible, even if sync isn't an issue. Every take needs visual identification on the tape and aural identification in the sound, whether you're shooting single or double system.

The fact that you're using an FX1 that has timecode and the SD 702 recorder doesn't automatically give you sync, by the way. You need to have the SAME exact timecode on both, accurate to the frame level, and the FX1 doesn't have TC in or out so there's no way for the two devices to talk to each other in order to lock the two together. You still need a common reference mark in both the picture recording and in the sound recording to give you a line-up point in post.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Peter Moretti

But should I slate anyway? Isn't it more professional, a good habit and helps organizing the footage?

It certainly helps in organizing numerous clips. If you're going to roll 15 minutes or more of interview at a time it doesn't help that much.

You'd be interested in the slate and time-of-day timecode threads over on the "Now Hear This" forum:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=98952
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=36541

Oh. I see you've contributed to some of these threads - search on "timecode" and there are more.

Is that the SD 702 or 702T? If the 702, a slate will help a great deal, long takes or not. If you can afford a timecode slate all you really need to do is show it to the camera - not quite as intimidating as a clap stick.

[Peter Moretti]

Originally Posted by Steve House

... You need to have the SAME exact timecode on both, accurate to the frame level, and the FX1 doesn't have TC in or out so there's no way for the two devices to talk to each other in order to lock the two together. You still need a common reference mark in both the picture recording and in the sound recording to give you a line-up point in post.

Which is why I'm not really considering the "T" version of the recorder. W/o a timecode enabled camera (like Canon's $6,500 XH-G1) having timecode on the recorder would help only with synching to a timecode slate. But it won't help with drift.

My intention right now is to use the camera recorded audio tracks as a reference for synching the recorder's audio. I'm hoping that the sound laid down on the tape can act as a defacto "clap." But maybe that's too messy and if I'm going to slate anyway, I should just "clap" and hope the interviewee gets over it soon into the shot.

[Glenn Chan]

If you're going to do that you might as well slate. It'll speed up syncing things up in post.

2- Something sneaky you can do...

Slate
Then turn off the tally light on your camera and put your headphones done and chat with the interviewee. You might get something they would otherwise not say on camera.

[Peter Moretti]

BTW, any reason to go with the colored clapper bands instead of the traditional black and white ones?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...roduction.html