Gaffer tape and clapper boards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[director666]

Right, I have never made a film but im soon going too, here are 2 of the most stupid questions ever but I wanna see poeples answersd......

come on peeps, Give me a list of what Gaffer tape can be used for, I bet their is a million and one uses for it, I know some of us have used it for some bizarre fucking reasons!

and secondly, what exactly is a clapper board for?

[MatJimMood]

A clapperboard is used when the picture and sound are recorded seperately to provide an easy way of syncing the two up while editing.

The point where the clapper hits the board and the sound of the clap are matched up and then the whole scene should be in sync.

[Littlerich]

I've used Gaffertape to actually hold a set together once!
I had a big tarpaulin that I wanted to attach to the wall, so I stuck it on with LOADS of gaffertape!

I have also seen it used to mark out where actors (Well, Karaoke Singers) had to stand so we could get them in shot.
That is 2...


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KEEP FOCUSED!
Little Rich.
http://go.to/littlerich
www.rmsgraffix.freeserve.co.uk
[email protected]

[Chance1234]

here are some uses for gaffer tape
though there are millions

1. Sticking stuff to stuff
2. Waterproofing pyrotechnics
3. Keeping Cables Tidy
4. Fixing the remotre to the tripod
5. Blacking out the edges of door frames
6. Gagging Actors
7. Blocking
8. Repairing everything
9. Fixing cables to stuff
10. Holding the universe together

And all the below

A gag when we have an annoying director
Shutting up the stupid and ignorant stage manager
Tying people up (we tied someone to a scaffolding tower using two rolls of 2" gaffer, he was a bit stuck, and a bit cross, he's never spoken to us since)
Tying people up (for sexual enjoyment, or is that the realm of safety chains)
For giving techies a birthday treat (gaffa them to the roof truss)
Taping up sound crew. Preventing them going over to check out the make-up crew
Fixing Clothing

Insulation
Making LARPS weapons
Holding up stockings when your garter belt breaks and you don't have any garters
Repairing an underwired bra if the wire pokes out
Fixing shoes with a hole in
Holding together motorcycle boots and leathers
Preventing holes in Jeans and trousers, press a piece each side, and wash
When my sister got married, the back of her dress kept falling too low and exposing her tattoo, so I grabbed some (hm, I wonder what?) Gaff, and taped her dress to her back.
Holding up a skirt if the elastic breaks
Replacing a broken watch band
Replacing a bow tie (looks ok from 8ft away)
Covering Taps on Tap shoes when they are not needed
On the Person

When I'm short of condoms
Removing hundreds of baby ticks from your legs
Keeping my eyes open during a boring ballet show
Making wallets
Holding on the master photographers wig when he drives around on his dolly
Wrapping around the end of maglites to make them easier to hold in the mouth
Making folders
A belt for jeans
When a condom develops a spilt
Waxing my legs (Flooring tape is better)
Makeup

Taping sea-shells to the chests of actors
Attaching wigs to heads (gullable actors)
Holding on false ears
Shaving during cues (rip it off!)
Repairing false mustache
Strapping down Carrie Fisher's chest in Star Wars (Alledgedly)
Joan Collins uses it for the opposite
Shaving
Plugging the hole between guys and girls dressing rooms in educational theatre
On the Stage

Providing black rims to tables and sets etc
Writing on the floor
For making reflectors for the infra-red receiver on a TV set. The actor was stationed at an acute angle to the receiver and the reflector bounced the signal right in!
Taping actors to statues and wheeling them around the stage (don't ask)
Taping Rubber Chickens to lighting pipes so that chickens hang on stage
Making a fake axe blade
Making a fake cactus. Paint it green and add fake prickers
Making a fake watch when its two minutes to curtain up and you forgot yours
Making a blast shield for flash pot/pyrotechnic devices
To muffle clumping noises of shoes on stage
To fix props to shelves on a set that gets moved
Marking stage center on the stage (usually ignored)
Laying hardboard or lino floors
Holding seperate pieces of rostra together
Reparing holes in black curtains, put a piece each side of the whole and press
Set Construction (aka What the actors don't know)

Someone once made an entire set out of gaffa
Creating a full size actually working spiders web
Wedging for casters under scenery
Creative sculptures
When we run out of Black or White gloss paint
For use when you run out of nail and screws
Holding a flight of stairs up before putting the screws in
As masking tape
Covering gaps between the set and legs
Repairing the main curtain when it develops a rip
Fixing holes in badly moulded statues
Covering up cat s@*t stains on a backdrop
Securing a clock to a muslin flat
Outling the edge of a plywood table to prevent splinters
Taping curtains to walls
Covering dangerous cracks in the rostra
Building a fake bomb. Three wooden dowels (1 inch x 1 foot) taped together with gaffe at the ends, an old lamp socket, and my wristwatch
Over Stage

Holding the handrails to scaffolding tower when they are too tall to use the proper uprights
Taping up the bar on a Genie Lift
Preventing steel rope from fraying (stick some gaffa over where you are cutting the cable, and cut in the middle of the gaffa, and it won't fray).
Backstage

For sticking the 101 uses of gaffa tape to the wall during a boring performanceso that we can read them and have a good laugh
Taping cable ties to upside down plastic cups to make little springy people (and then taping the cable ties to the desk) during 4 year breaks between Qs
Gives the Theatre Manager another thing to bitch about (this costs 11 dollars a roll)
Taping flexible pieces of foam to sharp corners so actors don't injure themselves
Wheel locks on flight cases etc
When sub renting gear, cover the logo on the road case with the appropriate color gaff tape and write your own company on it...
Use white gaffa to mark the edges of steps during black outs
Use white gaffa to mark sight lines backstage
Holding your script together
Keeping animals quiet offstage
Initiating new techies
Making white shoes or socks black before the director notices.
Covering BRIGHT logos on clothese supposed to be black
Getting high at alcahol free cast parties, just eat a roll and your buzed for 24 hours
Lighting Crew

Holding down lighting plans after the have been rolled for a while
Using the empty roll to protect wall switches for house lights etc
Replacement strain reliefs on all types of connector
Providing a protective cover on emergency stop buttons, so that lead singers don't cut out the power suppy during drum solos
Achieving greater tilt on projectors
To prevent fire exit lights ruining blackouts
Fixing gels to lights when we have lost the gel frame
Making tree patterns on a piece of glass, instead of gobos
Replacement safety chain (twist it together and tie a knot)
If the roll is used lying flat, the hole in the center is perfect for holding a can of pepsi/beer so I don't knock it over the lighting desk
To cover random lightbulbs on a string of Christmas lights that were being used as a cheap star drop
Emergency C-clamps. Hold the yoke against the pipe, wrap about 6 turns around the two and you're done
Battery Clamp
To hold gel onto the frame when it is too small
Labelling lights and sound desks
Marking on stage where lights are to be focussed
Holding truss together when you run out of pins/bolts (Not advisable if the truss hold a lot of weight.
Sound Crew

Patching holes in speaker drivers
Suspending speaker bins from exaust fans
Making Belts for radio mics
Angleing monitor wedges
When used on drums can help prevent ringing
For the band to roll across the stage "we're taping the show so clap real loud"
In the production of a digereddoo (it can also hold a microphone in one)
For repairing trumpet horns
Taping radio mic beltpacks to the small of an actor/ress' back
Holding your headset together
Making apple eating sound effects (wrap it around the palm of your hands, press your hands together and the seperate them).
Fixing positions of microphone stands
To play vinyl backward on technics 1200's. Place roll of gaffa on turntable, place record lined up carefully on gaffa, turn stylus upside down and reweight tone arm, place needle on underside of record and listen to the hidden satanic messages
Wardrobe

Strapping intrusive genitails out of sight on some 'showgirls'
Putting together costumes when there is not enough time for glue
Handy on sci-fi costumes
Making inside pockets on costumes that don't have them
Holding clothes together for those that can't sew
Giving ballerinas toes more grip
To provide shoes with traction
Making a waterproof jacket
Making backpacks
Holding rods and other controls to puppets
Front of House

Fixing up promotional signs (including a door covered in posters suspended over the side of a bridge)
Stopping gentlemen using broken urinals in the toilets (as seen in the Victoria Apollo)
Home Useage

White gaffa tape can be used for writing reminders that I should get out more and meet real people
A chastity belt for wives/partners while on the road
Keeping out unwelcome visitors. Merely cover a window with gaffa and then when your light is on, people won't realise
Patching holes in swimming pool covers
Holding up posters
For making a football (by saving all the scraps of gaffa)
Making sure my motherboard does not ground itself to my case
Making an ashtray
Tying the front legs of sheep together (If you're welsh)
Making a CD-Rom drive holder (tape the CD-Rom to the floppy drive and save on drive rails)
Repairing my old disc box which kept smashing
On the spines of books to repair the spines
Making a pencil case (combined with a zipper)
Covering remote control sensors that are set off by the wrong controller
In the produciton of a bong
Covering beercans - so its's not obvious what they are!
Holding duff terminators on network cables
To hold together my carton of beer
To add an extension to my change jar
Keeping my dining room table from falling over
Storing food when you don't have any tupperware (Getting a bowl and a plate and taping them together
In the tool shed

Rap around tool handles to provide better grip
Holding together nuts & bolts that go together for during storage
Decoration

Using Gaffa on a door instead of a name plate
Taping plastic sheet around windows to act as double glazing
Building a 'dust tent' to confine dust to one area of a room
Taping doors and windows closed to prevent draughts
Blocking out gaps of light in a dark room
My toilet is on a platform with five stairs leading up to it. Throne? I think so. So, I'm covering the toilet in white Gaff and painting it gold!
Pest Control

A trap for ants (like fly paper)
Use gaffa tape on curtain cords etc to stop cats chewing them
Travelling

Constructing a make-shift solar array to provide power to an ailing space station (at space camp)
Taping your seat belt shut while flying (just in case)
Back up cycle clips
Repairing backpacks when heavy strain from books causes them to disintegrate
Tying objects to a roof-rack
Fixing a video camera to a sail plane
Making funky stripes on the brake light of our car
Car Repairs

Holding the break fluid line in place on a kombi after hitting a kangaroo
Fixing side view mirrors (a friend fell off my roof and broke it off)
Repaing holes in my car roof (it works)
Repairing holes in exhausts (this works quite well if you can clean the exhaust)
Fixing a car accelerator (gas pedal), use it with roofing nails. Just the job.
Setting the spark plug gap
Repairing the break light on a motorcycle
Holding on the Licence/Number plate to my car (lasting about a year)
Clutch Alignment tool (with a spanner & 3 foot of scaf pipe)
I was on my way on a skiing vacation to the north of Sweden, where of course I'm from, and since I have a small car I couldn't fit the packliner on it's roof properly without bending the doors open at the top. Then I found my roll of Gaffer and we had one of us masking the car from the outside with one front door window rolled down and the othersmasking it from the inside to keep the cold air and draught from getting to us on our 12 hour drive in mid winter. Afterwards he jumped in throught the window and we masked it from the inside while a guy at the gas station finished up the window he jumped in through with the last of the tape. We then started our journey but it turned out to become a real nightmare since we couldn't go out of the car except to get gas (we had to sacrifice one window in order to do that) since we were out of Gaffer and we had to sit on our bladders for over 12 hours.
Fixing Taxi signs to the top of taxis
Dangerous Uses

Covering asbestos covered pipes (don't tell anyone there there)
Insulation tape on bare wires
Holding the walls in our theatre together. When painting the theatre from time to time(O.K. frequently) we come across cracks in the wall (large several inches high by several feet long) the solution is simple, just cover in gaffa and paint over.
Rewiring live orchestra pit lights during act one
Fixing the Genie when the control box fell off
Keeping plugs together when you have lost the screw
Sticking things to the floor (esp Dance shows)
Holding together a scaffolding tower with CID followspot on top, plus the operator and cue reader
Medical Uses

For replacing plasters (and stiches) when I cut my finger
For holding dislocated fingers in place during a performance (before you can get to the Hospital)
Taping an actor's ankle after he broke it leaping into the wings at the end of act II. Fortunately it was the closing night.

[marti-c]

Chance.........you truly are the gaffer tape king...........I salute you

[director666]

chance, You are the don of the gaffer tape underworld. you have my upmost respect!

anyone else think they can beat that!?

[Mat Overton]

Far too much time on your hands.....!

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Mat
http://www.onscreen.org

[marti-c]

Getting a bit worried about you chance ( waxing your legs and fixing your underwire bra)
It seems to me that no self-respecting homeless tramp should be without a couple of rolls of this. Next time they ask me for 10p for a cup of tea i am going to whip out my gaffa...........as for the medical uses.......do you think i could get it on prescription

[Chance1234]

I am deeply touched

[Jairen]

To another point mentioned in the original post (though Chance's 101 and more uses for Gaffer tape were great), does anyone have any recommendations for where to get hold of some clapperboards and stuff. I am a total newbie and want to know where to go to get some of this stuff. I have a couple of screenplays I have finished and I want to try filming them. I'm in Leicester, England so unless they offer a really good overseas delivery service, a UK supplier would be better.