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Do you all still voice slate


larry long

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If New York style is in place, which seems to be UK way too, I just say "sound speed", unless they slate incorrectly in which case I correct it verbally. End beeps were before my time, and none of my gear does the automatically. I think they're cool, albeit unnecessary. 

Saying "speed" into headset lets everyone know I'm ready too. It infuriates me when AC hits sticks before boom op calls it. It infuriates me more when boom op calls it before I have said "speed". Sometimes we aren't ready behind the cart.

I dont head slate rolls. I put tone into a file on 788T just to separate the day's work from the previous on the file list. ROLL028T01.WAV for example. I used to voice slate rolls until I realized nobody listened. For a while I'd give little private messages or play a clip of music, hoping someone would comment. Nobody ever did. 

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I'm in a spirited debate on the RedUser group right now from people who firmly believe that slating is completely unnecessary. It's madness.

​Of course they would say that. They're not the ones in the edit room having to figure out what the scene and take for each file is.

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Do you all route your slate mic to Comtek/IFB and/or camera scratch feed? I sometimes only sent it to the mix track. On some shoots I stopped voice slating because I NEVER knew when we were changing up shots, so I was often slating wrong info. I was changing metadata while mixing.

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​Of course they would say that. They're not the ones in the edit room having to figure out what the scene and take for each file is.

​Exactly. Let them do that job for just a single day without any slates, and then they'll see "OH. Now I see why you like to have slates."

 

Saying "speed" into headset lets everyone know I'm ready too. It infuriates me when AC hits sticks before boom op calls it. It infuriates me more when boom op calls it before I have said "speed". Sometimes we aren't ready behind the cart.

I dont head slate rolls. I put tone into a file on 788T just to separate the day's work from the previous on the file list. ROLL028T01.WAV for example. I used to voice slate rolls until I realized nobody listened. For a while I'd give little private messages or play a clip of music, hoping someone would comment. Nobody ever did. 

​Actually, the assistant editor (or whoever is doing the dailies does listen to the audio head slates. They may not comment back to you because they're too busy. In the event of timecode disasters and manual syncing, the voice-slates do help, particularly when you're frantically checking the beginning of every take to locate the missing one.

I worked on an awful production about three years ago where I had an impatient AD would call "roll sound! Sound is rolling!" before I had a chance to even lean forward. I warned him several times that the only person who could say "Sound Speed!" was either the boom op or myself. I think he was deluding himself into believing if he said it, it was actually happening and the day would move faster.

Edited by Marc Wielage
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I always slate out loud, because even if something is incorrect, it opens communication between departments to make sure everyone is on the same page. 

Also, slating lets your boom operator know that you're rolling, and he/she can call it out when ready.

Edited by Matt Brodnick
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​GOD, that happens to me all the time. I can't get directors to yell ROLL SOUND or say CUT! 

I'm in a spirited debate on the RedUser group right now from people who firmly believe that slating is completely unnecessary. It's madness.

​WHERE IS POST IN THIS DISCUSSION?!

Also, it brings up the old headache-inducing adage: "They'll never call camera and say 'Hey, the picture isn't syncing with the sound, they'll only call sound and say, 'Hey, the sound isn't syncing with the picture'".

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Forgive me if it's already been mentioned, but a very helpful reason for voice slates is when checking back a particular take on the set. I usually punch in the the take to be played back, and of course, look at the metadata for some degree of confirmation, but when script and/or the director is listening, they don't see the metadata, and it's comforting for them to hear the take number. Also, days, weeks, or months down the line, when the call comes in about a particular scene and take, it's comforting to hear the scene and take number as confirmation.

gt

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Also in commercial world any given take can be 6, 10, 20 minutes long. Who can remember what the head voice slate was? That is an additional reason I voice tail slate. Plus I like the sound of my own voice;~)​

Tail slates are good, too. If nothing else, it's the "belt-and-suspenders" approach.

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I appreciate the NY style. If the head slate is important and I slate it, and then the Script Supervisor changes it later, or communication fails and I am incorrect, then there is a glaring error that negates most of the advantages stated above. I prefer the Clapper to slate it. The Director and Post, and I, will seemingly be more understanding if the overworked person whose face is occasionally seen while closing the slate is incorrect.

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I appreciate the NY style. If the head slate is important and I slate it, and then the Script Supervisor changes it later, or communication fails and I am incorrect, then there is a glaring error that negates most of the advantages stated above. I prefer the Clapper to slate it. The Director and Post, and I, will seemingly be more understanding if the overworked person whose face is occasionally seen while closing the slate is incorrect.

​I used to agree entirely with the NY way: The person holding the slate can always see the slate, and therefor the slate and the verbal ID are always the same. If they are wrong, at least they are both wrong in exactly the same way, so they still be easily matched up.

The difference now is that the sound mixer enters metadata on the sound files, and it's more important that the metadata and the verbal ID match, especially since we are almost universally using timecode slates and jamming camera to sound timecode (doesn't matter so much what the scene and take number are on the slate... Timecode will be used for matching anyway).

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Technology moves forward, but the tried and true methods of filmmaking should stay in place as stated excellently above by Glen, Crew and Marc. This points to the need of sound mixers to visit the post picture and sound editors during or after the show.  My experience is that the assistant editors do listen to the voice slates as confirmation that they are listening and watching the right take. I'd prefer to give them as much information as possible to assist the process to the final mix.

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  Despite the age of metadata making it redundant and/or unnecessary, I do slate each take at the head; once in a while at the tail if corrections need to be made.  It lets anyone on cans know when I'm actually rolling.

  The sound roll head slate is my little twice-daily podcast!  I play music, comment on the weather, share stories about happenings with the company, commentate on things (catering or our location), and eventually run through the settings and scenes for the day.  Tone is at the end.  I will often say something like "... and if anyone has made it this far, please text me three little words that would mean so much - 'I hear you' and then I leave my phone number!
  Believe it or not, I've had about three dailies dudes text me!  And they say the podcast is their favorite part of the day.  I usually play extremely obscure music that doesn't show up on Shazam or Soundhound.
  If any producers heard one I might get in trouble, but in the 8+ years I've been doing it I've gotten nothing but silence or laughs from posties.
  I just had a nasty tick-born infection (thanks Mississippi!) and had to get a sub for a few weeks, and I got a text from the dailies guy saying he missed the podcast.
  I think it's good practice to voice-slate, even if it's redundant three times over.  Old school all the way!
  Hey Larry - do you still do it?
  Dan Izen
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Yes I still voice slate also, as well as noting end marks or tail sticks and sometimes off speed cameras.

The head slate for the start of the Roll/File with date, production info, specs and tone I still do also. I am very very sure that no one ever listens to it. I have offered $100 and $50 if they will send me a email saying they heard it. I have been doing that several times a week for a year and have never received a email or anyone wanting the money. Too funny!

 

Whit

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I've lost count how many times I've heard the mixer give a different verbal slate than whats on the camera slate and hear the scripty make the correction. For that alone its worth it. 

Also some telecine folks use the verbal slates when putting dailies together.

Edited by Nick Ray Harris
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A related question: you people record a verbal slate for each roll? Habit had me include all the usual info (Date, SR, tech specs then tone) until recently when I started putting tone first 'cause metadata, then more recently, only tone unless I've something clever to say (rare).

Read in a thread here from a post person saying he didn't use the tone, ".....since it was a file," so wonder if I should just give that up too.

I don't head slate takes unless the AC has goofed or is too quiet for whatever reason.

I quit verbally slating each sound roll when we went away from linear media. 

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I slate every roll. It is its own file. I mentioned in the thread about it before that it lets me know that everything is working/recording. It's a bit of a joke...but seriously, then at least I know the cart can record something each day. But I'm assuming no one actually listens to it.

It it also helps me to verify that the 788s are putting the files into the correct folder. "SLATET01.WAV" is good, "SLATET01A.WAV" means it went into the wrong folder. 

Yes! Of course Josh! Now you mention it that's part of my new-roll workflow having found the 788 sometimes didn't like how fast I back out of the folder menu. Finding the slatesoundroll_1.wav file properly placed is a comfort with which to begin the day. Between this and the morning gain staging check, why, [singing] "Never gonna give you up, never ever gonna stop.....".

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Usually my "sound rolls" are all of a day's work.  I "headslate" the roll, ie make a file that's called "TONESLATE" where there is tone, then the job name and number, the date, fps, sample and bit info, then I count the TC for half a minute or so.  I play this back to make sure the gear is actually working (most file recorders have no "read after write" so you have to playback to know if you are actually recording anything--right?).  I try to get ACs to do a hybrid NY/LA method--"marker:___" (take number),  this helps me find the take later if there has been a screw up in what it has been labelled in metadata etc.  On many shoots anymore there is NO scripty, in that case I kind of take over the take numbering so that what's on the slate matches my filename.  There are still scripties who think nothing of changing scene names etc in the middle of takes while no one wants to wait, this leads to protracted renaming sessions and problems with multiple takes having the same name etc.  They don't like to hear it, but having a UNIQUE name for each take/file is more important than having the "correct" name in a sequence invented by someone who made the storyboards, and it's better to let some errors stand with appropriate notations than to get into a time-wasting confuse-fest over various folks' film-school dictats about scene numbering.

philp

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