Slate Writing & Recognition

How to fill out clapperboards so Enchant can read them — and how Enchant turns that into organized footage.

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What Is a Slate?

A slate (also called a clapperboard or clapper) is the board held in front of the camera at the beginning of each take. It does two jobs at once:

• Audio/video sync — the clap stick at the top makes a sharp sound that editors use to align production sound with the picture.
• Take metadata — the info board below records which scene, take, and roll this clip belongs to.

Enchant's AI reads the info board directly from the video frames, so the way fields are written has a direct impact on recognition accuracy.

Anatomy of a Slate

• Clap stick (head) — the hinged bar at the top. Used purely as a sync reference; Enchant does not need to see the clap itself.
• Info board — the main panel under the stick. This is the area Enchant analyzes. Some slates also include an LED timecode display attached to this panel.

The Information Fields

The info board has three fields that Enchant reads to organize your footage:

• ROLL — the identifier for the camera memory card. A letter identifies the camera, followed by a roll number. Example: A006.
• SCENE — the scene number from the script. A single scene may be broken into multiple cuts or shots. Example: 17-B.
• TAKE — how many times this same scene/cut has been attempted. Example: 8.

Other fields you'll often see on a slate — PROD (producer), DIR (director), DOP (DP), DATE, NOTE — are useful for your own records but are not read by Enchant.

Why Correct Slating Matters

At the end of a shoot, an editor's drive can hold hundreds or thousands of clips. Without ROLL/SCENE/TAKE on the slate, someone has to open every file to figure out where it goes.

Enchant automates that pass — but it can only be as accurate as what's written on the board. Clean, consistent slating means clean, consistent organization with no manual triage.

Slate Layouts

Slates on set generally come in one of three layouts. Enchant supports all three. The difference is small but matters for how you fill them in:

Type A — Roll / Scene / Take

No dedicated cut or shot field. Because there's nowhere else for the cut/shot number to go, it's commonly written together with the scene number in the SCENE field.

Writing the SCENE field on a Type A slate. Because there's no separate cut/shot box, productions vary in how they combine scene and cut/shot. Enchant recognizes all of the following:

Type B — Roll / Scene / Cut / Take

The standard four-field slate with a dedicated CUT box. Keep the SCENE field to scene number only and put the cut number in CUT.

Type C — Roll / Scene / Shot / Take

Identical to Type B but with a SHOT box instead of CUT. "Shot" and "cut" are interchangeable here — same field, same rules.

Writing Rules

ROLL field

The roll identifies the memory card — it's independent of scene and cut. Use a camera letter followed by the roll number, with no other characters.

• ✅ Correct: A003, B006, A010, b002
• ❌ Wrong: A-003, B-006 — do not put a hyphen inside the roll number

TAKE field

Take is just the attempt counter — a single number. Nothing else.

• ✅ Correct: 1, 2, 3, 4, ...
• ❌ Wrong: 1-1, 2-7 — no hyphens
• ❌ Wrong: retry, redo, 다시 — no letters or words

General writing tips

• Keep digits and letters fully inside their boxes. Characters that cross box lines or touch the next field cause misreads.
• If you need to correct a value, erase it completely and rewrite. Overwritten or struck-through characters drop accuracy sharply.
• Use block letters; avoid cursive.

Summary Table

All layouts: never use a hyphen inside the ROLL or TAKE field.

Supported Slate Types

Independent of the layout above, Enchant supports a wide range of physical slate styles:

Factors Affecting Accuracy

Enchant achieves up to 96% accuracy under optimal conditions. The following factors influence recognition quality:

Positive Factors

• Clear handwriting or printed text — Legible fields significantly improve accuracy.
• Good lighting — Even illumination on the slate surface.
• Steady hold — Holding the slate still for at least 1 second.
• Full frame visibility — The entire slate is visible within the frame.
• High contrast — Dark text on light background (or vice versa).

Negative Factors

• Motion blur — Slate is moving too fast during the clap.
• Partial occlusion — Fingers or objects covering text fields.
• Low light — Dark environments with insufficient illumination.
• Extreme angles — Slate held at a steep angle to the camera.
• Dirty/smudged slate — Residual marker from previous takes.

Optimal Filming Conditions

1. Hold the slate steady for at least 1-2 seconds before clapping.
2. Face the slate directly at the camera lens (perpendicular to the optical axis).
3. Ensure even lighting — avoid harsh shadows across the text fields.
4. Write clearly — use block letters, avoid cursive handwriting.
5. Fill in all fields — scene, take, roll, and production name.
6. Keep the slate clean — erase previous take information completely.

Reviewing & Correcting Results

After analysis, Enchant displays all recognized slates in a results panel. Each entry shows:

• A thumbnail of the detected slate frame
• Extracted fields: Scene, Take, Roll, Camera, Date
• Confidence score (percentage)
• The original filename and timecode

To correct a misread field, simply click on it and type the correct value. Corrections are saved immediately and applied to the file organization.

Advanced: Custom Slate Configuration

If your production uses a non-standard slate layout or custom fields, you can configure Enchant to recognize them:

1. Go to Settings → Slate Configuration.
2. Click "Add Custom Layout".
3. Define the field positions by dragging regions on a sample slate image.
4. Label each region (Scene, Take, Roll, or custom field names).
5. Save the configuration — it will be used for all future analyses in this project.