Concerns in Marketplace Over Authenticating Movie Prop Slates & Clapperboards: Update 1

This is a brief update to the article published yesterday, which articulated some concerns over the authenticity of slates and clapperboards circulating in the marketplace.  Outstanding questions include the sources of these assets, the quantities/availability of boards from certain films, and the problem in distinguishing between unused post production replicas, surplus slates, crew gifts, and authentic set-used copies.

All related articles can be found via the link below:

This morning, I also published an update in the form of a “Reader Comment” sharing an statement from The Prop Store of London:

• “Reader Comment” #1

Tim Lawes from The Prop Store of London granted permission to publish the following messages for readers of the Original Prop Blog:

—–Original Message—–
From: Tim [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12:24 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Stephen Lane

Subject: clappers

Hi Jason

Prop Store will remove all the clapperboards that have originated from Mr Wise until this matter has been fully investigated and resolved.

Best as always

Tim.

—–Original Message—–
From: Tim [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 3:50 AM
To: [email protected]; Stephen Lane

Subject: clappers

Hi Jason,

Apologies for the brief mail this morning, I was a little rushed and wanted to get something over to you while I thought you might still be awake.

Stephen has contacted Clapperboard.net this morning and the owner there said that they keep tight records of all orders. There have been no bulk orders to anyone other than productions and any “one off” makes are different to the production boards. They are also not familiar with the name Tom or Kelvin Wise.

Following your article, as a sensible and practical precaution we have removed any clappers that originated from Tom/Kelvin Wise until there is a clear resolution. All Prop Store customers can rest assured that their lifetime money back guarantee of authenticity will certainly cover their items should it transpire that fraud has occurred.

You are more than welcome to publish this mail (or aspects of it) in the blog article

Please be sure to let me know if we can assist further

Tim

I did make one note in response to Tim, which I will share here.  With regards to the information provided in the original article about Clapperboard.net and their marketing comments about one style of their clapperboards being used for Quantum of Solace and that they custom build clapperboards for £150, my point in sharing that was merely to note that it is possible to have custom/replica slates professionally produced for a nominal amount of money (relative to the values of production-used clapperboards sold as entertainment memorabilia).  It was merely coincidental that the film referenced was the same film that I published the “case study” about.

Having said that, I do appreciate Prop Store’s efforts to follow-up with the clapperboard manufacturer.  If they did indeed manufacture the clapperboards for Quantum of Solace, I would be very interested in their analysis of the comparison photos between those used on set and depicted in the “Bond On Set” book and those collector-owned examples showcased on YourProps, in that there are consistent differences between the two, as outlined in the original article.

It appears that today Prop Store removed clapperboards that were for sale on their site from the following films:

• Live Free or Die Hard
• I Am Legend
• The Beach
• RockNRolla
• Tomb Raider 2
• The Other Boleyn Girl

Today, Simon of DieHardProps.com sent me some additional photos of clapperboards that he archived from past YourProps.com listings.  Some of these were published by the Kelvin Wise/”AND ACTION !” account, which I was able to match up with photos published by subsequent dealer and collector owners.

All three examples below were photographed in the past by Kelvin Wise with no clapper tops, though they have clappertops now, per the photos of the current owners.

More, the writing on part of one of the slates differs from the photo published by “AND ACTION !” on YourProps and as photographed and showcased on YourProps by the current owner.

Slate/Clapperboard Photo Comparisons:  Then and Now

Below is a photo of one of the clapperboards that was listed for sale by The Prop Store of London (currently removed, LEFT) and a series of slates previously listed on YourProps.com by “AND ACTION !” (RIGHT).  The “AND ACTION !” watermark appears along the right-hand side of the photo, which is automatically generated by the publisher of each photo by the YourProps service.  This is true of the examples that follow below as well.

Note that the writing on the Tomb Raider slate owned by Prop Store matches the Tomb Raider slate seen in the “AND ACTION !” photo.  However, none of the slates in the “AND ACTION !” photo have clapper tops attached.

Click on photos for higher resolution in each example following with the comparisons below:

Below is a photo of a Casino Royale clapperboard currently owned by a collector and showcased on YourProps.com (LEFT).  Also depicted is a photo from a Casino Royale slate previously listed on YourProps.com by “AND ACTION !” (RIGHT).

Again, the writing on both examples match, but the slate in the “AND ACTION !” YourProps listing does not have a clapper top attached.

Below is a photo of a Quantum of Solace clapperboard currently owned by a collector and showcased on YourProps.com (LEFT).  This clapperboard was also featured in the previous article on this topic.  Also depicted is a photo of two Quantum of Solace slates previously listed on YourProps.com by “AND ACTION !” (RIGHT).

Again, the writing on both examples match, but the slates in the “AND ACTION !” YourProps listing do not have a clapper tops attached.

However, upon further examination, while most of the writing in both examples match exactly, the writing in the “TAKE” box does not – it is entirely different.  The writing in the “TAKE” box appears to have been erased and rewritten sometime between the photo taken by Kelvin Wise/”AND ACTION !” and the photo taken by the current owner.  Below is a side-by-side comparison:

Area that appears to have been rewritten highlighted in bright green:

Again, if anyone has any information, questions, or concerns on this topic, please publish a “Reader Comment” below or contact me.

Jason DeBord