Marking sync in camera

- Once you start recording all these audio sources, you're going to need to synchronize them, because they're going to be on different devices, and that's something that usually happens when you edit. Now, there's different strategies. In the world of professional work (mumbles), we'd use something like Time Code, but that's not going to come into play here. So we really need an audio sync point or a visual sync point, or both. Now, what'll happen here is the audio recorder is going to be recording, and you have nothing to synchronize with other than a sound. So something like a clap board when this closes makes a very loud, distinctive noise.

(claps) - And there's two parts about this, right? One, it's obviously being seen in the video when it snaps there. - [Rich] Yeah. - It's being recorded to the reference audio of the camera, that's whatever audio that camera happens to be recording, and it's also being picked up by the digital audio recorder, so later on in post production, you just align all three of these things together, and then you have sync (mumbles). - And if for some reason there's a problem with your remote camera having no sound whatsoever, well, it can go off of the visual point of the slate closing.

- Yeah, now you see the front of the slate here also has room on this particular slate to put in additional information about the production, who's shooting it, the scene, the take number, all of that kind of stuff, and the clap board has been used, this kind of low-fi clap board has been used forever in productions, and it's a great way of not only getting information about your scene but as Rich said, as a sync point for your audio and your video. - But there is a digital equivalent, because this doesn't really fit into the pocket. - Yeah, Rich, this is actually a digital slate. This one is called HDSLR Slate. There are a wide variety of ones, and you'll notice that it actually mimics the traditional analog slate pretty well.

- [Rich] Right. - I can punch in some information on the slate, and when I'm ready to go to that sync point, simply click the clap board right here. (beeps) You'll notice that you get a beep, and you also saw visually it kind of snapped together, as well, and again, there's a wide variety of these slates available with different options. Some have things like color charts and stuff like that on them, as well. - Now, here's what's important. Throughout the day, you might end up getting several of these things done. Maybe you're doing multiple interviews, and you go, oh, it'll be easy to synchronize. We'll just use the information on the slate. Well, that's fine, because the camera can see it, but the audio recorder can't, so you're going to want to call things out, like this is interview three, take one, mark.

(claps) That way, the camera and the audio slate have the same information, and you can synchronize things up inside of post production. But if both devices are recording audio, one being high quality, one being reference, that's the easiest, and we'll actually show you how to fix these things and put them together in post next week. - Right, and there is one more alternative here when you don't have any of these items available. If you're just really running and gunning and have to get something done real quick-- - It's hi-tech. - It's really hi-tech, and it's just this.

(claps) Right? It's a mark that serves the same purpose. - [Rich] Yeah. - You get the audio sound of the clap together, and you get it visually, but if you announce the information, as well, it's almost just as good as having a traditional slate. - All right, well, that's the basics of doing it on location. Join us next week where we'll walk through how to actually put this together using a few different editing tools.