Identifying and Printing Takes

As you probably will not see the filming taking place, you will have to rely on notes provided by the production team. Whenever film is shot detailed camera report sheets must be prepared by the camera assistant. The sheets serve a dual purpose. They contain instructions for the processing laboratory and they tell the editor what the day’s film consists of. Camera report sheet forms may differ slightly in layout but the main facts they contain must always be the same.

Printing selected takes

One copy of the camera sheet is sent to the laboratory with the film. Another copy is sent to you in the cutting room. When you look at it you will note that many shots have probably been photographed a number of times. For example, for Slate 21 there may be take one, take two, take three and so on. Somewhere on the camera sheet you may find a note instructing the laboratory to ‘print only circled takes’. What does this mean? All the original film exposed in the camera must be developed, but it may not all need to be printed. If, for example, a four hundred foot reel of 16mm film contains only three takes of a shot and only one is known to be good, it may be possible to print only the good take. The laboratory must be told which take to print and the normal way to do this is to encircle the scene and take number required on the camera sheet. On some camera sheets the letter ‘P’ for print is used instead of a circle to indicate the appropriate take. For example, on the camera sheet illustrated, Slate 21 has been shot three times. The Director has instructed the cameraman to print only take three. Slate 9, has also been shot three times but on this occasion both takes two and three are to be printed. Printing parts of reels like this is known as printing selected takes. It is a way of reducing costs.

False economies

It is only practicable to print part of a reel when each of the shots concerned is clearly identified on the head or the end. The best way to identify shots and takes is to use a clapper board. We’ll hear more about that on page 120. It is not worth wasting laboratory time or risking extra handling of the camera original by ordering prints of parts of a reel containing no kind of shot to shot identification. Print the whole reel. There is no sensible alternative.

CAMERA REPORTS

Camera report sheets differ in layout but always record the progress of filming and provide instructions for processing the original and for making a cutting copy. Note the takes which are not being printed.