A movie slate is actually pretty necessary. You will wish you had one when you start editing or even reviewing your footage.
I bought a real nice one- it’s backlit so you can use it in the dark!You could probably make your own slate. The bare essentials:
- writing area for either chalk or dry-erase. I prefer dry-erase; chalk is too messy and I never shoot anything where people are wearing white, so it can potentially get on clothes or set.
- clapper – with stripes, so you can tell when they are fully closed
- hinge at the exact center of the two halves of the clapper. This is necessary because, by definition, the clapper must close
- magnet in the ends of the clapper to make the last moment the clapper closes as brief as possible
but the features that the nicer ones have:
- larger area- duh
- inlaid stripes on the clapper. No stickers = higher durability
- COLOR stripes on the clapper… Nyeh… who cares really. If you’re doing your color balance based on your clapper you are insane.
- etched lines on the slate itself. Again… no stickers = higher durability
- BACKLIT writing area for night shoots. VERY nice. That feature adds you around $60. Or adds me that is, since I actually bought it.
- (super expensive) digital readout with the current time. Ideally it synch’s with your camera gear!
I’m considering making a simple LED readout which would display the current local time, along with the fractions of a second. That way I could tell when something was shot, and not have to get the crazy expensive kind of display that plugs into the camera!