I'm bouncing around in the back of a kidney-shaking emergency vehicle. It's Washington DC's Rescue Squad One, sirens blaring, on the way to a suspicious package call zig-zagging through night traffic, part of an episode for for Discovery Channel's new series "Nerve Center". It's dark. My DOP is filming the firemen suiting up, trying to keep his balance in the crowded vehicle. I'm asking the firefighter questions. We're bouncing around. Despite that, My iPad is lit up and I'm taking notes as the fireman talks to me, punching a key at a time in on my keyboard - content, time code, time of day , tape number, Name of subject, scene title. It's all there. Try doing that with pen and note book. Welcome MovieSlate.

Five hours later I'm back in my hotel room, reviewing the day's shot log from a spreadsheet I emailed myself from the iPad, along with voice memos on related shots, all exported and emailed from MovieSlate. I clean up the notes, send it off to the post supervisor as an XML for direct input to Final Cut. In my twenty five years of shooting, I have never had more organized notes on location, and never have I saved so much time in post. My location PA was still taking notes, for posterity, I guess. "Your threatening my job", he says.

Five days into the shoot, my AP asks me a detail about something we shot five days ago. For the first time on location, I flip through MovieSlate, get the exact detail, on the spot. "Awesome", she says. She downloads a copy for herself (the DOP got his own copy the second day, then ordered and iPad just because of MovieSlate).

On the post-production end, the Supervisor saves a week and a half on the guy who used to do the logs. My story elements have never been so clear. MovieSlate forces me to keep organized notes that easily blend into my script later on - it's so easy.