Acrylic Plastic Director's Film Clapboard Easy Wipe Cut Action Scene Clapper Board Slate with 2 pens and a Blackboard Eraser for Movies, TV Shows, Studio Live, DIY Videos.

TOPLINE: This was cheap and does it's job well enough, but needs a quick easy nut modification first. More on that (e) below. Overall I'd call this a sensible buy for many enthusiasts. For sure you can pay more for similar or lower quality. It comes with an OK eraser (you can also use fingers or many small cloths too) and two non permanent black marker pens - these don't permanently mark (some reviews suggest they do, but test it yourself on the rear) - mine always wiped clear within an hour. TIPS: a) Keep pens and eraser to hand - I chose to attach pens and eraser to the back of my slate using (DIY) Velcro. b) Pre-test any new 'non permanent' pens on back first before ruining the front face. c) Consider using marker tape (to write upon) for data fields that don't change - I like to use yellow 'Frog' tape d) Know how to use use a slate properly, or at least well enough for your own needs. Ditto for any assistants (nominally an AC) that help out (many online sources of help eg YouTube). e) VITAL - Attach top hinged stick properly (ie DIY fix this or it will fall apart in minutes). Use a good threadlock adhesive on the 3 small bolts used to make hinge and attach top stick so domed nuts don't fall off and get lost. Even better, replace the domed nuts with stainless steel nylock nuts so they don't ever fall off (nb you will need 3 small M4 size nylock nuts, readily available at good hardware stores or online eg eBay). I'd recommend using stainless steel grade A2 (or A4) nuts but any locking metal nut would suffice. Q) Why would you buy or use a slate anyway? - A slate like this this can seem an unnecessary extra faff. - For many short clips and solo shooters it will be extra hassle. - Key reason is to help sync multiple devices (cams field recorders). As you move on to separate sound recording, via a field recorder or try or use multiple cameras in an interview situation (all good ideas) then syncing different devices is vital for the edit. It can potentially save a lot of time if other sync methods fail. - Secondary reason is to save time and provide your edit team (or yourself) with useful tagging header info (eg scene, take etc). WORKAROUNDS: If just using one camera and an on-cam mike for ambient sound already synced to the video frames then you won't usually need a slate. When syncing is helpful, beginners and minimalists are oft advised to just use a simple 'hand clap' and/or attempt wave form matching between the scratch audio tracks from different cameras and possibly a separate field recorder. This is honestly at best 'hit & miss' technique. Often as not it won't always work and then it can takes ages of careful checking to align different clips or wave files. That's when you realise there has to be a better way. A hand clap can be less visibly precise than two stick hitting together on a slate (aka clapperboard). You can alternatively use timecode , which can be excellent and can be a time saver too, if done properly (eg look at devices from Deity and Tentacle Sync amongst others). But that's expensive, and more tech to go wrong. It's also useless if you haven't first synced all cameras and recorders properly and retained jam- sync on all devices (leads not unplugged etc). Another problem is most 'consumer' cams won't accept native time code, albeit there are workarounds. CONCLUSION: A simple slate, like this, is cheap, easy to use, effective and worth considering as your work becomes more serious. It doesn't need batteries. Won't fail or at least it looks obvious if it does break. If budget is no constraint, you have a good knowledgeable team to help, then one can splurge a lot more for an electronic timecode displaying slate - as used on many professional productions. But for simplicity with reasonable convenience this is hard to beat.

I recently bought the Acrylic Plastic Director’s Film Clapboard, and I’m really impressed with its quality and functionality. The board itself feels sturdy and durable, with a smooth surface that’s easy to write on and wipe clean. It comes with two pens and a blackboard eraser, which is super convenient—no need to buy extra accessories. The clapper has a satisfying snap, great for syncing audio and video during editing. I recommend!

This great. It lost a star as the screws do come loose so have to tighten often. I’ve never lost a screw so figure it’s still great.

I found this very helpful when I was a film student, especially with the whiteboard pens, kept all my footage very organised

Perfect for my needs. Cheap and sturdy!

Really well made product and amazing quality. Didn’t expect it to be this good for the price. Recommended!

Cheap and simple but gets the job done!

Bought this for exactly what it is, a basic clapperboard. It performs this task well although some of the bolts did work a little loose on the first shoot. The idea of keeping the pen in the sticks is clever but the pen only goes in one way (cap first) which makes for some fumbling in a hurry. Not the finest of quality but what do you expect for this price?

Très bon clap amateur, le système de rangement du crayon est vraiment utile. Le claquement du clap n'est pas parfait cependant.

Buena elección

De bonne qualité. Nous a bien accompagné pour le tournage du clip "Voorhees 4" (à voir sur youtube). Je recommande.

Perfecto

Je cherchais un clap afin d'identifier plus facilement les diverses séquences vidéos que je suis amené à tourner. Dans le positif on peut citer: -Grande surface d'écriture -2 Stylos et 1 éponge fournis -Repères de couleur sur le clap -Aimant dan le clap qui maintient ce dernier fermé Par contre j'ai été déçu par les points suivants: -Écrous du pivots ne tenaient pas en place: J'ai dû les resserrer en ajoutant de la Loctite -Qualité des stylos moyenne -Logement en bout du clap pour y ranger un stylo: le stylo a tendance à tomber -Qualité de l'éponge décevante, n'efface pas à 100% le stylo, j'ai dû nettoyer à l'alcool isopropylique pour avoir une surface nette. Donc un accessoire utile, mais j'aurais été prêt à payer un léger supplément pour des stylos et une éponge de meilleure qualité EDIT: Le vendeur m'a proposé un geste commercial sur le prix de l'article, d'où ma modification de note. Ce clap saura se montrer utile pour les petites productions, mais pour un usage intensif il vaudra mieux se tourner vers des marques de la gamme professionnelle. Mais pour le prix il est difficile de trouver plus complet.