American cinematographer (Mar 1933)

I March 1933 • American Cinematographer Dubbing, or Duping by Nathan Levinson Director of Recording Warner Brothers-First National Studios series of disc turntables controlled by relays operating in pre-determined sequences, whereby a series of one or more disc records could be started and stopped automatically as desired; and with this equipment available, we proceeded to the production of large musical pictures, which are now history—“The Singing Fool,” “The Show of Shows,” etc. The development of automatic equipment continued un- til Warner Brothers decided to adopt completely the record- ing of sound on film. By that time the development of automatic equipment had been developed to such a high state that it was possible to scramble a ten-syllable word to the point of unintelligibility and bring it back to its original form at will. The problem of re-recording from film is quite simple as compared with re-recording from discs, as the film can be cut at any point desired and patched to other pieces of film, forming fairly smooth sequences. The smoothing out of these sequences where they are joined together, however, can only be efficiently negotiated by men who have de- veloped a technic or “touch” from long experience in dubbing. In fact, as I have intimated, the re-recording mixer is very definitely a specialist. But not only is this man a specialist in the art of dubbing, he is also a specialist in the technic of the individual studio where he is employed, as the final result, or the finished sound track, is secured in a different manner at different studios. I can, therefore, only indicate how this result is obtained at Warner Brothers and First National studios. Here, after a director completes the direction of his pic- ture, the editorial department assembles the sequences in- to reels, and the production executive views these reels in what we term editorial runs. After the production execu- tive has the picture reduced or lengthened to his satisfac- tion, with lap-dissolves, fades and cuts made to form a smooth and pleasing production, the editorial department transfers the working print, together with the sound track, to the re-recording department. Here the picture is care- fully analyzed by the re-recording mixer, the sound effects editor, and the Recording Director. During this analysis, we determine the sound effects to be added, and the places at which dialogue sound tracks are to be overlapped for smoothness. After very careful checking of the working picture and sound track prints, they are forwarded to the film laboratory for the cutting and the assembly of the final negatives. A complete sound track of constant transmis- sion printed from this negative is furnished the re-recording crew. Music which has been prepared by the Music De- partment, and sound effects which have been prepared by the sound effects editor, are combined with the dialogue which we receive on this constant transmission print to make a master sound track. After the print of constant transmission is received, the re-recording mixer determines which portions, if any, will require re-recording for quality, volume intensity or sound perspective. The detail of re-recording these tracks to a composite, or master sound track, is, as stated before, a matter of indi- vidual technic, and as we believe we can only secure the best composite by the absolute control of each individual track, we are equipped with a large number of special re- producing machines, in order that we may have the fullest possible latitude in combining effects, music and dialogue. The importance of having the dialogue always clearly under- standable goes without saying. Great care must be exer- cised at all times to have the sound effects recorded with the proper intensity and the music recorded at the proper level to make the finished sound picture as realistic as possi- ble. In this effort to create realism, we have used as many as sixteen separate sound tracks, each one carefully con- trolled as to level, perspective and quality, to make a pleasing composite sound track. In our own experience we have found it most desirable to re-record only such portions of the sound track as re- quire the addition of sound effects or music, or correction for quality, intensity or perspective, as in all cases where sound track is “duped” we have, even though it might be quite small, a certain inescapable deterioration in quality— even as there is deterioration in picture quality when a pic- ture is duped. But as to the recording of sound itself, it is my feeling that, while sound has great possibilities for future develop- ment, and will, indeed must, play a more important part than heretofore in talking motion pictures, it is today capable of performing every function demanded of it. In fact, it is safe to say that wherever a camera is capable of photographing objects or persons, the natural accompany- ing sounds in the vicinity of the objects or persons can be simultaneously, and satisfactorily reproduced.