1 The Director of Photography – an overview

The camera crew 29
Figure 3.5 The clapperboard
Production:
Director: D P:
Roll No. Slate Take
Date:
Mute
Syne
Day
Night
Int.
Ext
improvement. The stick and an equivalent thickness on the board are
still of wooden construction, but the whole of the information section of
the board is made from a sheet of opaque, white, acrylic sheet. This has
the huge advantage of being capable of illumination from in front or
behind. The simple expedient of putting waterproof sellotape on the
Production/Director sections, writing on them with pental and then
covering them with a second coat of sellotape makes the writing permanent
for the duration of the shoot and is still easily removable before
the next production. White board wipable markers are used for Roll,
Slate and Take. Figure 3.5 shows a typical layout for a backlight board.
Very often, the only way a production judges a clapper loader is by
their report sheets and the state of the clapperboard. It is not at all
uncommon for a loader to get the chance to work up to focus puller
simply on the strength of the immaculate clapperboard the producer
has seen every morning at rushes. If there are no hairs in the gate, what
else does the producer see of the loader’s work?
If there is no trainee on the crew, the loader often brings the camera
crew tea and coffee. The DP, the operator and the focus puller can
rarely leave the set. Someone has to bring them their tea or they won’t
get any – so it’s the loader or trainee’s job.
If you are a loader and you want promotion, be clean and tidy, make
up legible, well-written clapperboards and have immaculate report
sheets.
It is sometimes the loader’s job to negotiate with the production
office for expenses and touchy matters like extra money for running a
second camera. Great tact is required here, as you can easily fall out
with the camera crew and the production office all at the same time.
This is clearly not a good plan.