score click terminology

[sprout]

hello!
I suspect this is a pretty basic question, but I'm just not familiar with the terminology.

In a film composing workshop I was in this weekend with Ron Jones, he shared a number of his lead sheets and scores from "Family Guy". At the top, in the tempo/click section, they say things like "15-3 click, 4 free, quarter note = 93.66", or "13-7 click, 8 free, etc."

I get the quarter note tempo part, but could someone please explain the 15-3 click, 4 free part? Any illumination appreciated!

Sprout

[bdr]

The '15-3' part refers to a traditional way that clicks were once calculated for film...originally they used to literally punch holes in the film and as the film ran through the projector the punches would click, that would be the metronome for the musicians. Film is 24 frames per second, and they would subdivide each frame into 8ths, so 15-3 means a punch every 15 and 3/8 frames. If you calculate that:
24 frames divided by 15 and 3/8, then multiplied by 60 (seconds) will give you the metronome marking.
Some composers still like to do their clicks using this method.

'Free' basically refers to how many clicks count in before bar one.

[sprout]

Thanks for the explanation, that makes perfect sense! I knew about using punches for hits, but hadn't known (or ever thought) of using them as a visual metronome, very cool.