Script Supervising and Film Continuity, 3rd Edition

6

The Slating Syndrome

During principal photography, every camera shot is identified via a slate number. This number is the umbilical cord that connects the editor with the director, the sound mixer, the film processing laboratory, and the continuity supervisor.

THE SLATE

Early filmmakers pondered a modality for providing a line of communication between the stage—wherever principal photography takes place—and the cutting (editing) room. The scheme devised remains today the time-honored slate. And the assigning of slate numbers—during principal photography— remains the unequivocal jurisdiction of the continuity supervisor. Your daily notes together with the Editor's Log are the initial frame of reference the editor receives prior to the processed ...