clapboard w/timecode

[Joe Batt]

Hi, I'm not having a problem, just trying to figure something out. Would a guy using a camera that imbeds TC in the video and audio signal ever need a clapboard with the LCD timecode display? I'm racking my brain and I can't see a use for it. The timecode is already in the video. Isn't the TC showing on a clapboard redundant? Is the only use for film or a signal w/out TC? Just wondering, thanks

[Adam Gold]

You'd also use it to sync multiple cams without a genlock or TC In function. Even the TC LINK function in some cams isn't perfect and wouldn't necessarily reflect the exact real time of day, which is sometimes important.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Joe Batt

Hi, I'm not having a problem, just trying to figure something out. Would a guy using a camera that imbeds TC in the video and audio signal ever need a clapboard with the LCD timecode display? I'm racking my brain and I can't see a use for it. The timecode is already in the video. Isn't the TC showing on a clapboard redundant? Is the only use for film or a signal w/out TC? Just wondering, thanks

With double system sound and a timecode workflow, one needs to have some way of of getting identical code recorded in both the video file and in the separatly recorded audio. Most film and many video cameras do not have a timecode output to send to the audio recorder, making synchronization of the two clocks impossible. So a timecode slate synced to the audio recorder's clock allows you to record an image in an exact frame in the video that corresponds to the timecode in the audio, thus establishing a known point on which to align the two files in post. You drop the video into the NLE and slip the timeline so its numbers algn with the numbers shown in the photographed slate. Then when you drop in the audio file alongside it, the audio track aligns with the video.