Clapper Board

A clapper board is a small black or white board or slate filmed at the beginning of a take. It has a hinged stick on top that displays identifying information for each shot in a movie.

The board typically contains the following.

• Working title of the movie
• Names of the director
• Editor
• Director of photography
• Scene and take numbers
• Date and time

On the top of the clapboard is a hinged wooden stick (called a clapstick or clapper) which is often clapped to provide audio/visual synchronization of the sound with the picture during editing. Modern filmmakers use electronic clappers and synchronization instead of the old-fashioned clapboard.