Countdown clock with production info template

[Jeff Herring]

I’ve seen a variety of templates from very elaborate to extremely simple (font over black) it’ll mainly depend on what you want it to say. Some spots may have.

Spot name: jojo-cola
company for: Spiffy cola inc
Spot title: “Jojo Super Thirst”
Duration: :30, :60, 2x:30

Producer:Jane Smith
Director:Jack Hadly
Videographer:Shannon Marker
Editor: Mark Camermill

You’re production company and contact info in the backgrond.

the the animation can be a simple countdown, 10 > 0 or a circlewipe 10 > 0 , or maybe some spiffy morphing of the numbers

or just 30 seconds of bars&tone 1 seconds of black and then the spot.

It doesn’t have to have all of that. it’s upto you.

My own openion:

When I get a spot tape, I’ll look at the case to see what the spot is. (milk, insurance company, car delaership).

on the slate I’m mainly interested in the spot’s name/title and the duration. (southern insurance, 30)
If there’s a countdown of 10 – 2, 1 sec of black then the spot. that helps me out all the more.

hope that give you some insight. I”m sure some of the other cowers may have different methods/rulesets for their slates.

[Deleted User]

Hello Jeff,

Many thanks for those tips I’m looking at getting hold of a pre-built template with clock already there and space to add production comapny info etc.

Are there any pre-built solutions without having to get a custom clock made?

Thanks,

Leo 🙂

[Dylan Reeve]

This is something the editors here do in our downtime, we come up with new countdown IDs…

The rule (for us at least) is that we normally count from 10 seconds to 2 seconds (although we only display the 2 second count for a single frame, the “two pip”). It is important that it be clear when each number ‘hits’.

So for example we have a flying skulls one, where a variety of neon skulls with a number in them fly toward camera, at eight seconds to go, then 9 second skull has faded and is flying past camera, and the eight second skull flicks up really bright as it flys toward camera.

There is another where the numbers, 10-2 are lined up along the top of the screen in a mid-grey colour, as each second comes up that number flashes bright white, then slowly fades out before the next number comes up.

And there are a bunch of others. Basically they are all blank except for the company logo and contact details. We then overlay basic text with production details when we put it on the tape.

The standard here is generally:
00:58:30:00 Bars and Tone
00:59:30:00 Black/Silence
00:59:45:00 ID Board begins
00:59:50:00 ID Board countdown begins
00:59:58:00 2 pip
00:59:58:01 Black/Silence
01:00:00:00 Start of Message/Programme

For some networks we are required to have 30 seconds of ID board (we generally still only count the last ten seconds) and some people start at 10:00:00:00 – but that’s generally how we do it.

We get ideas from all over the place… All that really matters is that it counts evenly and that it’s clear what number is being displayed at each second. Beyond that, it’s just whatever we find entertaining or pretty when we make them (we just have a tape of ID board countdowns we pick from and add to when we create new ones)

Have fun, it’s not rocket science.