The community over at r/Filmmakers is pretty incredible, with a ton of verified pros (who go through a pretty extensive process to receive that verification) who give their time to helping aspiring filmmakers work on their craft. Sometimes this is done through comments, other times through very detailed posts. This is the latter case, where a verified film industry technician gives a thorough explanation of slating.

Seriously? Slating? Is it that important? Yes. Yes it is.

Slating is a critical component of effective, professional filmmaking, and has roots that date back to the early days of the medium. Doing it properly helps maintain your set’s momentum and the efficiency of your post-production workflow, whereas doing it improperly can throw your crew and editorial departments into total chaos. 

Because I want to maintain the original post to help the community at r/Filmmakers, I’m going to point you all to the full post there rather than quoting it here. Go give it a read, you won’t regret it.

[Lead Image via Pro Video Coalition, who also has a great guide on Slating]