Paramount Pep-O-Grams (1927)

Page Six P E P-O-G RAMS COMEDIES TO H WE BOTH IRENE F. SCOTT, one of the livest of the Club's Committee Chairmen, is splendidly aware of the necessity for the Club members keeping abreast of the swiftly changing times in this motion picture industry we are all part of. That’s why she makes every effort to contribute, on behalf of her Educational Committee, articles which are both timely and informative. This one on Sound Pictures, written by George W. Weeks, at her invitation, is an excellent sample. By George W. Weeks Have you ever heard the crunch cf a custard pie as it reaches its destination? Have you ever been able to learn a true appreciation of the plight of a man who falls into a pool of water. Have you even a faint idea of the sounds which accompany a free-for-all battle, a chase or any one cf a hundred noisy incidents on view in ycur picture entertainment? If you haven’t, your education is going to be improved starting August first. My reason for voicing this prophecy is the fact that the Christie Film Company is going to endow with sound effects all its product released during the next season and from then on. For the past 12 years the Christies have been producing comedy short subjects in one and two reel lengths. But the picture experience of A1 Christie, production head for the company, antedates that period by many years as he is one of the industry’s pioneers. Starting with 1916 A1 Christie has pro ' duced each year from 30 to 50 one and two reel comedies with distribution through various distributors. In making this product Mr. Christie pioneered and his comedy formulae lead other producers as regards story and gag details. His players became proficient in the art of hurling all kinds of missiles and performing all manner of dangerous stunts, racing along roof ledges, falling from house tops, tumbling like acrobats and doing the thousand and one foolish and dangerous tricks necessary to make audiences laugh — for it is a truism that the great majority of the people derive their pleasure from the discomfiture of their fellow men. From the beginning the antics of these comedians, either tumbling about or throwing various implements at each other, have caused convulsions of merriment in the spectator who literally laughed himself sick at the sight of a pie squishing through the air and landing on the face of some unfortunate. Through the years broad hokum has never palled but now added insurance of its ability to make people laugh will be issued in the form of synchronized sound effects which You'll hear the splash SOUND AND SEX APPEAL will make audible the squish of the pie as it lands at its destination. In order to make possible a better understandingof how the synchronization of sound with the picture wrill be accomplished I will try to give you a non-technical explanation of these new devices — there are a number of different machines on the market at present but there are only two which differ fundamentally — Vitaphone and Movietone. The Christie Company, following the lead of its distributor. Paramount, recently signed a contract with Electrical Research Products. a subsidiary of the Western Electric Company, whereby it is licensed to use the l Western Electric systems of sound> recording and reproduction. Western Electric controls the two principal recording systems, the I Vitaphone and Movietone methods. The Vitaphone system consists of recording voice, sound effects and music scores by means of discs such as are manufactured by the Victor Company for phonograph reproduction. The Movietone system is a more involved apparatus. Western Electric Company manufactures a light bulb which has the property of transferring sound to light rays. When making a picture which will have a Movietone accompaniment it is necessary to use a microphone (the same as is used in radio broadcasting) which picks up in the manner of a telephone transmitter, voices, sound effects and music audible on the sets on which the various motion picture scenes are photographed. These sounds, entering the microphone, are carried through to the back of that mech a n i s m and come in contact with the special electric bulb. The intensity of the light of the b u 1 b , b r i ghtness or darkness. depends upon the volume of the sou nd carried to it by the n:ic ophone. This microphone and elec 1 trie bulb are attached to the camera which You il hear the squelch takes the pic tures of the various scenes. The bulb is placed in such position that its light rays fall on the same film taking the photographs of the motion picture action. One portion of the film, about one-sixteenth of an inch, is reserved for the ii photographing of the light rays from the bulb. Thus, in addition to the ordinary picture, . we have photographed light rays on the same film, representing sound, which range from a pure white to almost a Cooper black. These light rays are in the form of bars S the length of the negative space reserved . for them. After the negative is shot, developed, printed and shipped to the theatre, a reversal of the process, insofar as sound reproduction is concerned, takes place. The light rays are projected from the positive film through the electric light bulb. The variations in intensity of light in the electric light bulb set up a series of minute electrical vibrations which are picked up by a microphone attached to the projector which analyzes and sets them in a true sound continuity. This sound continuity is broadcast through the theatre by means of wires which carry the sound from the microphone in the projection booth to the loud speakers located back stage ' and in the proscenium. (To be concluded next month.)