International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

March, 1934 T h INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Twenty-five the actor and close to him, so that it will receive practically nothing but the direct voice. In any case, the amount of reverberated voice picked up by the microphone will also be influenced by the type of set. Even in a close-up it would be permissible to have a noticeable amount of reverberated voice present if the set represented a dungeon, or other place where the voice would normally sound rather "tubby." If in a long shot the scene was supposed to be the porch of a house, or other place in the open the amount of reverberated voice that should be recorded would be much less than if the scene were in a closed room. In such situations the experience and common sense of the monitor man should dictate the placing of the microphone, regardless of any rules he may have learned. Relationship of Camera and Microphone The cameraman can change the focal length of the lens on his camera at will by switching lenses, thus making a close-up with the camera at a distance from the actor or a long shot with the camera quite close to the action ; so the monitor man must keep a constant check on the type of lens used on the camera for each take and arrange his microphone position accordingly. As an example, the cameraman can be using a thirty-five millimeter lens to take a long shot of some action located at a little distance from him, and then switch to a close-up by changing to a six-inch lens without moving his camera. On the screen, it will appear that the camera was brought up closer to the action. There must be a fixed relationship between the image of the actor on the screen and the sound of his voice, just as there is a fixed relationship between the eyes and ears of the human being. When the brain centers connected with the eyes cause them to focus on some object that is producing sound, the brain centers connected with the ears likewise focus their attention on the sound emitted by that object. If a speaker appears to be thirty feet back of the screen, the audience naturally expects that his voice will sound as though it likewise originates at a point thirty feet back of the screen and coincident with the speaker. The Effect of Monaural Hearing When an individual totally loses the hearing of one ear, he is reduced to the same state of monaural hearing that hampers the microphone. He no longer has the subconscious ability that he possessed when he had normal hearing of concentrating his mind on sounds coming from a certain direction and distance to the exclusion, more or less, of all other sounds. As a result he hears reverberation and all incidental sounds much louder than he would if he retained the discrimination that binaural hearing allowed him. The microphone faces the same difficulty. For that reason motion picture sets must be constructed so that reverberation in them is below what would sound natural to the individual with normal hearing. Incidental sounds are kept at a minimum by doing the shooting in sound-proof stages. Following the Action When the actor moves about in the set and talks, the sound of his voice naturally should appear to follow him when the scene is reproduced on a screen. To create that effect the microphone must be moved when the speaker One of the palatial new projection theatres specially built at Universal City for the showing of sound and dialogue pictures. The picture shows the screen and the general decorative effect. There is room for 1,000 spectators. moves, so that the sounds picked up by it bear a proper relationship to the image being photographed. Thus it is evident that to create the necessary illusion of reality, a sound motion picture must be so made that when it is shown on a screen the sounds appear to come from the parts of the set in which our eyes tell us they are originating. Single-Microph one Recording So that the required relationship may always be maintained between the camera and microphone during the shooting of a scene, it is desirable to use only one microphone at a time. A few monitor men claim that they obtain better results by having several microphones hung at predetermined points about the set, and by fading with the mixer controls from one microphone to another as the action progresses. The majority of monitor men, however, now favor the use of a single microphone for dialogue recording. It is sometimes difficult to handle involved action with one microphone; but on the other hand it is not easy to control several microphones at the same time or to fade smoothly from one microphone to another when the action moves swiftly about a set. A microphone man who' is experienced in the operation of a microphone boom can usually follow even the most complicated action with it, making it possible for the monitor man to do more consistent monitoring if he uses a single microphone. In a case where a close-up sijot is made of an actor speaking his lines with a noisy crowd in the background, best results are usually obtained with two microphones, placing one in the background to pick up the crowd noise and suspending the other close over the actor's head. By adjusting the mixer control connected with the crowd microphone to provide a suitable level for ths crowd noise and regulating the other microphone control to follow changes in the loudness of the actor's voice, it is easy to maintain a pleasing balance between the crowd noise and the dialogue. If the noise made by the crowd is quite loud, a two-stage microphone can be used for the dialogue and a single-stage microphone for the crowd noise, the difference in gain helping to raise the dialogue above the background noise. The next chapter will complete the discussion of monitoring and prepare to follow the speech circuit down into the main amplifier room. Ill Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.