Charlie Waugh's Dry Erase Slate

Hey Scott,

I like your post about the dry erase slate for $8 back in October. I never thought I would need something like that until my boss came to me with an assignment to shoot 4 commercial spots. I work at a small ad agency out of El Dorado Hills, California and one of our clients asked for 4 spots to be produced in Spanish.

I don't speak any Spanish whatsoever so I knew it was going to be a challenge working with Spanish actors. The day of the shoot I was trying to figure out a way to mark the takes so post would be easier. I started to make something on my own then remembered your post!

I printed out the production slate you made available. I didn't have time to laminate it because the actors were on their way to our office so I folded it in half, cut the back of a legal pad the same size for strength and slid them both into a plastic page protector. I folded that in half, taped it down and it worked great!

With 2 actors and 13 parts to record I ended up with 107 takes (not the most professional actors). Marking each take was especially important because no habla espanol. Editing took forever but without this simple production slate it would have been impossible!

I appreciate your site and all the info! So far I've made PVC Camera Stabilizer, slate, 2 PVC light stands and I've purchased 2 work lights all from suggestions and posts from your site.

Charlie