Clapperboard
From Free net encyclopedia
- This article describes the equipment used during filming. For the British children's television programme see Clapperboard (TV series).
Image:Clapboard Plexiglass.png In motion picture and videotape production, a clapboard or clapperboard or slateboard is a device used to synchronize picture and sound; additionally the clapboard is used to designate and mark particular scenes and takes recorded during a production.
A clapboard traditionally consists of a wooden board with a slate surface, on which the details of the scene and take can be written or taped, and a movable clapper (a hinged arm) which can be brought into sharp contact with the top of the slate. Modern clapboards use whiteboard surfaces, or translucent plexiglass which does not require additional lighting from the camera side to be legible. In addition, expensive electronic SMPTE time code versions with LED numbers are available. In some productions, particularly those created in the digital domain, electronically-superimposed versions of a clapboard have supplanted the real thing.
In use, the details of the shot about to be made are written on the surface of the clapboard. This always includes the date, the production title, the name of the director, and the name of the camera operator. Additional information might include the name of the director of photography, the scene number, the take number, and the number of the roll of film. The clapboard is filmed briefly at the start of the shot and the clapper is snapped sharply. The simultaneous visual image of the clapper closing on the body of the clapboard and the audible snap sound can be used as a cue to synchronize the audio and visual aspects of the film or video recording, and to synchronize the recording from multiple cameras or other devices. Sometimes an end clap is filmed at the end of a long scene, during which the clapboard is held upside-down.
The clapboard may have been invented by Frank Thring, head of Eftee Studios in 1920s Melbourne, Australia.[1]