The art of sound pictures (1930)

228 THE ART OF SOUND PICTURES apparatus were interlocked. In this way, the sounds of the camera were not recorded on the sound film. The camera booths were placed on wheels, or “dollies,” so that they could be easily moved around the set. There has been developed a camera, however, which is said to be perfectly noiseless, so that sound-proof booths are not necessary. Fiber gears are substituted for steel, and fiber plates for steel plates. Solid brass bearings are substituted for ball bearings. With regard to synchronization by the method just mentioned, the interlocking process itself sometimes fails because of undetected faults in the electrical apparatus. For instance, during the filming of Broadway, the work of an entire day had to be done over, because the interlocking system between the sound room and the picture camera “went haywire,” as the studio saying goes. It was later discovered that one of the synchronized motors failed to run at its proper speed because of some minor defect in the wiring. The cost of one day’s retakes, due to such a defect in the interlocking system, may run as high as $25,000 or $30,000. Is it any wonder, then, that motion picture producers were thrown into consternation when sound began to come into the movies? Still another method of synchronizing the sound record and the photographic record is known as “dubbing” the sound on the picture film. A silent picture may be photographed in the usual way, without any sound apparatus whatsoever on the set. The film is then developed and run in a projection room in which sound recording apparatus is set up. An orchestra plays an accompaniment to the silent picture as it is shown on the screen, and the orchestration is recorded on a separate sound film, which