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THE ROLL CUE SYSTEM in action. Robert Earle, host of CBS's "The General Electric College Bowl," narrates a film on the Cornell Uni¬ versity sound stage. Wire from recorder, seen between his ankles, leads to concealed hearing-aid by which Earle listens to pre-recorded nar¬ ration as he speaks.
Pouring A filming session about a year ago our crew was jokingly called down for using the term “idiot card” on the sound stage. The learned professor remarked, “On the college campus, can’t we call them refresher cards or something more be¬ fitting the academic climate?”
His remark was in jest, of course, but it pointed up a basic problem of many a film production crew: the shortcomings of visual cue systems for talent appearing before the camera. We decided to do something about it.
An electronic cue system was subsequently de¬ veloped at the Cornell TV Motion Picture Sound Stage which has been highly successful in various phases of film production. First, with electronic cueing, our production time is cut to a minimum. Less time is needed for rehearsals because no mem¬ ory work is necessary. The second and possibly the most important problem the cue system solves is that of retakes due to the talent’s lack of “eye con¬ tact” with the camera lens. The electronic cue sys¬ tem permits the narrator or actor to keep his eyes right on target. A third production bonus is that of retention by the talent of the instructions given by the director before the cameras roll. A fourth and final benefit is the gain in overall production qual
ROLL CUE!
... a tape-recorded cue system for film narrators.
By GUSTAV E. LANDEN
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.
ity due to the acting or projection of more person¬ ality into the talent’s performance.
Our cueing system frees the talent of script prob¬ lems and lets him concentrate on performance, the visuals used, camera shifts, and all of the finer points that many producers would like to add to their productions.
Any film producer with a little imagination, a i/^-inch tape recorder, a few feet of plastic tubing, a hearing aid earmould, a $1.49 earphone, and lots of wire can set up his own electronic cue system as we have done.
The system works in this fashion: The talent does a walk through, script in hand, and records on 14inch tape the dialogue or narration for upcoming scenes in their proper shooting sequence. The direc¬ tor has, of course, gone over the actions with the talent, and time for action is left or spaced on the tape. There are times when verbal reminders are added to the tape such as directions for certain movements, or “Show such and such an item to camera 1,” or “Turn to camera two,” etc. Such
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SOUND FROM hearing-aid earphone is piped through flexible tubing to earmould in subject’s ear. Earmould is used because it is smaller, less conspicuous than earphone.
342
AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, JUNE, 1963