Camera clip numbers
If a take is no good, does the clip number still count?
Yes, if the camera recorded it. NG describes the performance, not whether the camera wrote a file. If the camera rolled and stopped, that take used a clip number and the number stays spent whether the take is a keeper or not. The number only comes back if the camera genuinely never wrote anything for it, for instance a take was logged that the camera never actually recorded.
Two different questions people conflate
"Was the take good" is a creative call: NG, hold, print, circle. It happens after the camera has already stopped rolling and gets decided by the director, sometimes on the day, sometimes in dailies. "Did the camera write a file" is a mechanical fact that happened the instant record was pressed and stopped, and it does not care what anyone thought of the performance. A log that only tracks the first question and assumes it can infer the second from it will drift out of sync with the card by the end of the first day.
Why this matters at wrap
An editor or an assistant editor cross-checking the card against the shot log is checking one thing above all: does the count of spent numbers on the log match what the card physically has. If a rejected take's number quietly gets handed back because someone treated NG as if it meant "this never happened," every clip number after it on that camera is now off by one relative to the card, and the whole log needs to be walked back to find where the drift started. Keeping "bad performance" and "no file exists" as two separate facts is what prevents that.
The rule that keeps this simple: if there is a file on the card, discard it. If the card has nothing, delete it. Ask what the card has, not what anyone thought of the take.
Struck through, not erased
A rejected take still shows up in the log
Clapper's PDF export puts every discarded take in an appendix at the back, struck through, so an assistant editor can see what was shot and rejected without it cluttering the GOLD summary up front.
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