Slip

Every film roll that comes out of the camera gets a slip — a paper label that functions like a passport for the film material. The assistant camera operator or the script supervisor notes on it in real-time: which scene, which take, which camera number, film stock type, ISO value, filter combination, exposure correction. The slip is attached directly to the cassette or to the film canister before the material goes to the lab. Without this paperwork, there's no chance of reconstructing what technically happened later — and that becomes incredibly important if something goes wrong during processing or if the images are not right in color correction.

The practice looks like this: The 1st AC notes on a slip form (usually pre-printed with fields for date, production code, camera ID) which film roll is currently running during the shoot. After the take, the number is read from the monitor, the scene number is taken from the director, and a new slip is immediately labeled — illegible handwriting is poison. Some crews work digitally and print the slips later, but this is risky: in the original sound format (16mm or 35mm), the physical slip in the magazine is the only backup if the data stream fails. I've seen productions where the digital log was lost and only the handwritten slip on the film canister was the salvation.

A good slip saves hours of research later in the lab, in the DIT department, and in post-production. The processing lab needs the exposure information to choose the correct pre-exposure and development time. The colorist can understand if the lighting situation was consistent. The editor immediately knows which take belongs to which scene — especially important in multi-camera shoots. Therefore, the slip is not just bureaucracy, but production memory. Damaged or missing labeling can mean that a hundred meters of film are difficult or impossible to sort later. Therefore: clean handwriting, ballpoint pen (not pencil — it fades), and each roll is documented individually before it leaves the set.