In movie making, what do ‘setup’ and ‘slate’ mean?
Question by flemmingbee2: In movie making, what do ‘setup’ and ‘slate’ mean?
I encountered this comment; “We did 11 months, we did 1900 setups, we did 1200 slates…” It’s a movie director speaking to his crew after the final shot on the last day of shooting. He then went on to thank the crew.
I know slate means clapboard, so ‘1200 slates’ is basically 1200 takes? What about setups – what exactly they did 1900 times?
Best answer:
Answer by Clancy the Wonder Pony
Simply put, every time the camera moves position you have a new setup. Let’s say you have a scene where two people are having a conversation. First you get the “master,” which is the shot where you see both people and the room around them. That’s one setup. Now you move the camera over to get a closeup on one character. That another setup. Now get the matching closeup on the second person. There’s your third setup. You’re right about the slates, as well, which confuses me. I’m not sure how you could 1900 setups and only 1200 slates. Either you misheard the quote, the director misspoke, or he’s using the terminology in a different way than I’ve ever encountered it.
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