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How to Create Your Own Clapboard

Clapboards are some of the most-used tools in the film industry. Clapboards are slabs of information about a specific film that are displayed for the camera between every scene and take to help the editors find which takes they would like to use for the final production. Professional clapboards can cost anywhere from $40 to $60, however, you can make your own with some common materials and cut the costs in half, thus helping to lower the overall budget of your film.

Things You'll Need

  • Paper cut to the same size as your dry-erase board
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Dry-erase board cut to the size of desired clapboard
  • Black paint
  • Two pieces of 1-by-1-inch wood cut to the length of desired clapboard
  • White paint
  • Methacrylate
  • Three screws
  • Three nuts
  • Construction adhesive
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Instructions

    • 1

      Draw the template on the piece of paper, adjusting the guidelines and size of the letters to match your preference. At the top should be "Production"; beneath that, write "Scene." Across from "Scene," write "Take," leaving enough room for you to write to the right of the label. Beneath "Scene," write "Director," and beneath that, write "Camera." Finally, beneath this, write "Date."

    • 2

      Cut out the letters on the template to create a stencil. Tape the stencil to your dry-erase board so that it will not slide around while you're working.

    • 3

      Paint the spaces in the stencil with black paint and allow the clapboard to dry before continuing.

    • 4

      Sand the edge off of the bottom left-hand side of your top piece of wood. Keep sanding until this side has a rounded edge that will not stop your hinge from opening and closing.

    • 5

      Paint your pieces of wood, methacrylate, screws and nuts black. Paint white zig-zagging lines on the sides of the pieces of wood, making sure that when you put the pieces of wood on top of each other, the lines line up.

    • 6

      Place your pieces of wood on top of each other and your methacrylate behind them on the left edge. Make sure that the piece of wood with the rounded edge is on top. Screw in your first screw on the bottom piece of wood, running through the wood and a lower portion of the methacrylate. Screw your second screw through the same piece of wood, but closer to the right-hand side of the methacrylate. Screw your third screw into the top piece of wood as close to the left-hand side as you can, also running through the methacrylate.

    • 7

      Place your nuts on the screws and tighten. In order to get a nice loose hinge, you might have to leave the top nut looser than the others.

    • 8

      Attach the wooden section of your clapboard to the dry-erase board by placing a line of construction-grade adhesive to the top of the dry-erase board, and placing it on the bottom piece of wood.

Film Production

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