Most professional sound recordist have a “smart slate” slate with an LED timecode readout which the camera shoots.

The timecode on the smart slate reflects the audio recorder timecode.

The Iphone app is useful for a visual slate to indicate the roll number and other info but as far as the time of day timecode it is useless unless it is locked to the actual timecode recorded on the audio recorder or camera.

Indies always seem to have a lust for going in cheap to save a buck only to have it cost them a lot of time, effort and additional money on the back end.

It’s a ass backward approach in my opinion.

Matt why waste time testing a prosumer system when a professional workflow and standard already exist that has been documented to be effective and working.

No need to reinvent the wheel with a square one.

John Smith

I agree completely with your main premise, which is that time-code drift (or — simply — going off-sync) is a complete and total bitch. I would also agree with the notion that the iPhone Movie*Slate app is not a professional slate… Quite honestly, it’s not — and any recordist who would show up on a major commercial set with an iPhone and an app as “the slate” would get kicked off in a second.

On the other hand, the Movie*Slate app does seem to be more than just a toy, as it was actually designed by people with experience in the the production industry. I spoke with the folks over at PureBlend Software (the designers of the slate) about the time-code stability issue, and they’re finding that their app stays within 3 frames during the course of an hour. Sure this isn’t as good as Ambient Lockit Box — I don’t think that anything’s as good as an Ambient Lockit Box — but it’s certainly good enough for most short takes (twenty to thirty minutes and under).

My concern — and you absolutely nailed it — would be the actual stability of the HDSLR’s frame rate. If the camera’s sync can’t be relied upon, then whatever stability that the iPhone app (and the associated audio recorder) might have would be fairly worthless. Myself, I don’t actually own a DSLR that can shoot video (I’m waiting for the next generation of Nikons to come out), so I can’t conduct any sort of sync/stability tests with the gear that I have.

Sooooo… I guess that the thing to do right now might be to toss this one out to Zeke’s readership and say: “Hey! Do any of you guys own an DSLR that shoots video, an iPhone with the Movie*Slate app on it, and a Final Cut Pro (or Avid) system? If so, are any of you willing to test out the sync/drift issues that might come up when all three of this set-ups come into play on a long take?”

Matt

Yea, you can definitely line of the clap and go with your double system, and on short takes you’ll be fine, but when you get to longer takes, you’ll definitely see drift. You can see this if you sample-accurately line up the on-board audio from the camera (which IS referenced to the video) and your outboard audio. The two will definitely drift since they don’t reference the same clock.

Sorry, maybe my post is a little TMI, but I spend much of my professional life syncing other people’s “wild” audio. Proper sync is what separates the pros from the ams and yes, it usually starts with a slate.

As an added bonus, running time of day time-code (and wearing a half-way accurate watch) makes it easy to log shots. When you get the “keeper take,” (you know what I mean) just look at your watch to get the outpoint for the scene.

Matt

Here’s a link:

http://www.appstorehq.com/movie-slate-clapperboard-shotlog–iphone-50018/app

Matt