The Cine Technician (1935-1937)

Ma\-, Ki .•>ri The JourjKil of the Association of Cine-Technicians S. S. A. Watkins A Few Sound Remarks For the first thirty vears or so of its hfe, the motion picture increased wonderfully in size and beauty, but failed to develop a voice. The art of pantomime being an exceedingly difficult one, it was quite impossible to convey to the audiences any but the most elementary ideas through the medium of gesture, and therefore narrative and dialogue were furnished by means of captions, simplified as much as possible to save programme time and displayed on the screen just long enough for the audience to read aloud all but the last line. 'On account of civilised man's inability to be comfortable in quiet surroundings, it was necessary to provide music, which de\'eloped from simple accompaniments on a piano to the full outbursts of organ or orchestra, with sound effects. This period is, retrospectively, known as the day of "silent" pictures. Every caption flashed on the screen was of course a witness to the need for audible dialogue and, as soon as technical progress had advanced far enough, this became available and the "talking picture" was launched commercially. The public bewailed the passing of a great art built up on silent pantomime ; and crowded the box offices of the "sound theatres." In the earlv days, few of those concerned with the exploitation of sound with pictures saw clearly beyond its use for musical accompaniments to silent films, and the reproduction of vocal and instrumental performances. It is true that the first presentations, in 1926, included speaking "shorts," but it was later and with some trepidation that dialogue was inserted into feature films. The makers of pictures had, of course, to adapt themselves to the new conditions. Their stars could no longer be beautiful but — mute. We of the audience could indulge in criticism of their accents, whereas in the "caption" days we were confined to an occasional gibe at their spelling. If you point out to me that this is unfair, since the stars did not write their own captions, I shall retort that nowadays they do not inx'ariably sing their own songs. After the world recovered from the shock of hearing the screen characters actually saying the things they had formerly been endeavouring to "get across" by gestures and telegraphic captions, the full acceptance of sound as an essential part of a motion picture took place rapidly. Fortunately, the quality of sound reproduction was, even at that time, acceptably good and audiences were not as critical of sound quality as they are now. During the N'ery few years which have passed since then, there have l)een many changes in equipment and technique. Consider the process of re-recording which, to my knowledge, was first used tentatively in the winter of 1926. It has now grown to foremost importance in the making of a picture. It is interesting, by the way, to note how rearprojection, the pictorial equivalent of re-recording, has leapt into prominence in recent years. The foundations of talking pictures, both in equipment and technique, were soundly laid before commercial exploitation was considered and the developments which have taken place since have been mainly improvements in degree, and adaptations to the practical requirements of the industry. These requirements — usually real, occasionally fancied — have sometimes acted as limitations to technical improvement, but the net result has been a very considerable gain in quality of product, in working conditions acceptable to the industry. Whereas, at the beginning, sound was looked upon by some producers as an interloper, an added nuisance to be tolerated, I think it is fair to say that, to-day, it is as shortsighted a policy to turn out an otherwise good picture with bad sound, as it would be to neglect the photography in like manner. The degree to which dialogue should be used in a picture has been much discussed and not yet agreed upon. The reason for lack of agreement is obvious ; there is no answer. The amount of sound to be used and the manner of its use should depend upon what picture is being made. At present it is largely a matter of fashion. When sound first came in, it was used with timidity. Then followed a terrific rush of words, until even the public rebelled. Now we are seeing a swing of the pendulum back to a state of much less dialogue. The pendulum is usually at work somewhere or other in this motion picture business ; its greatest present activity being in the moral plane, where it is swinging violently from plus sex to minus sex. At the present time, the sound camera is technically capable of being used as a medium of expression as exquisite as that provided by the picture camera. In my opinion one of the chief reasons why, given first-class equipment and an experienced sound crew, it frequently falls far short of this, is the sound system's great flexibility, which should be an asset but is often a drawback. Before the picture camera is turned o\er, the director must know what he wants to photograph. To add a crowd to a scene originally shot with only the principals is a difficult matter photographically, whereas to add crowd noise to the sound track is merely a matter of "dubbing it in afterwards," the magic words which too frequently cloak the fact that in planning the scene no thought whatever has been given to the composition of the sound. Again, if it were generally realised that it is sometimes as difficult to remove a defect in an actor's voice by "dubbing" as it is to remove a wart on his nose in the printing, doubtless more importance would be attached to voice tests. 1 make a plea to directors to extend to their sound cameras the consideration they give their picture cameras. In the pictures in which this has been done — a small but growing aristocracy — the results speak for themselves.