Careers A–Z · Camera
Clapper loader
The clapper loader — formally the 2nd AC — is the camera department’s record keeper, quartermaster and slate. If the department has a memory, you are it.
On a film job you are the loader in the literal sense, threading stock into magazines in the dark.
The basics
Also known as, and where the grade sits.
| Clapper loader | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Clapper loader informally; 2nd AC on the call sheet. On film, loader. |
| Level | Assistant. The second rung in camera. |
| Reports to | The 1st AC (focus puller). |
| Comes after | Camera trainee. |
| Leads to | Focus puller / 1st AC, or across to DIT or video assist. |
The job
What does a clapper loader do?
You build the camera with the 1st at prep and at unit call, and rebuild it whenever the DoP changes configuration. Body, matte box, filters, follow focus, monitoring, power.
You slate every take, called clearly enough for sound and for the editor. Numbers on the board must match the sheet, and the sheet is what survives. You keep the camera reports, the lens and filter records, the mag and card numbers.
The unglamorous end: taping marks on wet pavement, cleaning glass, chasing card numbers. Load a mag wrong and the day is fogged. There is no gentle version of that conversation.
The requirement
What is a clapper loader good at?
Arithmetic and composure, not artistry — and the best seat for learning the craft.
Accuracy
Board, sheet and card agree. Nobody checks until it has gone wrong.
Fast hands
Lens, filter and mag changes on a clock everybody is watching.
Working blind
Loading a magazine by feel, correctly, first time.
A clear voice
You call the slate. Mumble and the editor loses ten minutes.
Paperwork
Reports written as you go, not reconstructed at wrap.
Kit
Tools of the trade.
| What | The actual items |
|---|---|
| Slate | Acrylic or dry-wipe clapperboard, chinagraph, markers, timecode slate where one is run. |
| Media | 400ft and 1000ft mags, changing bag, cans and tape. On digital, Codex, AXS or CFexpress cards, wallets and readers. |
| Build | Matte boxes, 4x5.65 filters — ND, IRND, Black Pro-Mist, polarisers — follow focus, lens gears, rods, baseplates. |
| Measurement | Tape measure, Cinetape or laser, depth of field tables, a torch. |
| Paperwork | Camera and lens sheets, filter continuity, a clipboard, the right shared drive. |
The unit
Who does a clapper loader work with?
| Who | What passes between you |
|---|---|
| 1st AC | Your boss. Build to their spec, leave the cart as they left it. |
| Camera trainee | Your responsibility. Train them well and your day gets shorter. |
| DIT | Card handover, naming, checksums, a signed sheet where one is run. |
| Script supervisor | Slate, take and circled takes must agree with theirs. |
| Sound recordist | Timecode, sync, and whether a take starts on a slate or a tail slate. |
Routes in
How do I become a clapper loader?
Most loaders came up the truck. A few arrived with the technical half in place.
Rental prep
Prep techs know builds, mounts and faults cold.
Trainee schemes
Funded schemes place people into assistant grades on drama.
Stills and trades
Photographers and technicians transfer well.
A degree is not required and is not expected for this grade. Film school helps mainly because it puts kit in your hands; a course that does not is not buying you a loading day.
What gets you the day is a 1st AC who will say your name out loud.
Nearby
The grades either side of this one.
The loader who understands what the focus puller is fighting gets recommended upwards.
Camera department guide
Everything free and worth paying for in this department, in the order to take it, with the books.
Never been on a set? Start here. Offered a first day? Read this first. Want to know where this grade leads? Where people have gone names people who trained here and the productions they went to.
