American cinematographer (Oct 1929)

Eight American Cinematographer October, 1929 fcoRiNG, Synchronizing and ^^-RECORDING SoUND "PICTURES A Paper Presented at theS. M. P. E. Spring Meeting, New York City, May 6-9, 1929 By K. F. Morgan Electrical Research Products, Hollywood, California M otion picture engineers will understand better perhaps than electrical engineers the necessity for what has been termed “dubbing.” The entire realm of trick photog- raphy and duping as a necessary adjunct to editing of the silent motion picture now has its counterpart in sound production in this process. Dubbing may be subdivided and classified as fol- lows: (1) “Scoring,” or adding music to a picture that may or may not already have dialogue or sound; (2) “Synchronizing,” or adding new sound effects or dia- logue in synchronism with a picture which has previously been photographed with or without sound. (3) “Re-recording,” or transferring a film or disc record to a new film or disc record by the electrical process originally used. Thus the art of dubbing may be simply making a sound record with the microphone to match a picture, it may be the combin- ing of new sound picked up by the microphone with one or more sound records already made, it may be the combining of sound records only, or it may be simply re-recording one sound record. The last mentioned has three principal purposes: First, to make a new master record; second, to transfer a record from film to disc or vice versa; and third, to correct volume variations and other defects. Probably ninety per cent of all the world’s present day mach- inery and electrical apparatus for adding sound to the silent drama has been installed and placed in operation in less than a year. While this tremendous demand for the manufacture and installation of equipment, together with certain contemporary modifications and developments found necessary in the field, was being met, it was natural that no great amount of thought was given to what might be considered a secondary adjunct, namely, re-recording or combining sounds for the final editing of a picture; consequently, this demand, almost as urgent as the first, presented itself when the first few productions were ready for editing, and while the recording installation work was at its height. Plans were under consideration, it is true, providing facilities for these processes at an early date, but it is doubtful whether or not anyone anticipated the variety of problems that would present themselves in adapting sound production to all the “tricks” of the motion picture art. The first synchronized talking pictures were short Vita- phone subjects and Movietone news reels. In either case, the cut- ting and editing was fairly simple, each take being one scene complete in itself. About the same time, due to the demand for “sound” pictures, there were those with electrical sound effects manually operated at each performance, not being mechanically synchronized with the picture. Then came the practice of making records of sound effects or dialogue to match the silent sequences. Schematic drawings indicating the general methods used in re- cording, scoring and synchronizing, are shown on Figure 1, A, B and C. A close similarity between these processes will be noted from an inspection of the figures. In synchronizing and scoring a projector and screen replace the camera and stage. The introduction of synchronized sound and dialogue into pictures of feature length presented the problem of sound cutting. When the sound was recorded on film the problem was fairly sim- ple since the sound track could be cut in the same manner as the picture. With the original recording on disc, the cutting became a rather involved mechanical as well as electrical process since the scenes as recorded had no definite chronological relation to the final product. This introduced the first necessity for re-recording sound. The re-recording method required the use of a number of disc reproducing machines so connected as to operate in synchronism with a recorder. The sequence and duration of the various takes on several original records having been determined, a cue sheet was prepared. The application of the cue sheet involved a revolution count, which insured the cutting in and out portions of these sound re- cords in the sequence of the cut picture. This process required an operator at each turntable, as well as personnel for counting rev- olutions and cueing. Subsequently, the counting was simpli- fied by the use of a record which actually reproduced the revolu- tion count. Finally a machine was developed which rendered the process automatic. Early sound pictures, due to recording and production prob- lems, were part talking, with the silent scenes scored, and sound effects added. The latter was accomplished by projecting the picture upon a screen on the recording stage where the desired sounds could be produced. If the projection and recording ma- chines were interlocked by a synchronous motor system, the re- sultant sound record would be in synchronism with the picture. A schematic drawing indicating such a set-up is shown on Figure 1, C. Synchronizing and scoring are now extensively employed. The results are often more satisfactory when the original take involves dialogue only, than when all the incidental sound ef- fects are recorded at that time. This is true for two reasons: First, many exterior shots must be built up on the sound stage and WOTOK FlG !A RECORDING no l-B SCORING SCT-UP rot' ADDING SOUND TO PICTURE MADE WThOUT SOUND.