British Kinematography (1950)

May, 1950 irving and mathieson : musical treatment 149 every possible technical device which would simplify the questions of balance and synchronisation, and leave the musicians free to concentrate on making music. An effect is that less footage is shot than formerly ; but the footage that is recorded is the track that is going into the finished picture, approved by the composer, the orchestra, the editor, the sound mixer and finally the director or producer and myself. Two of the devices at Denham are known as the " ticker " and the disc playback. The " ticker " is a seconds-counter, which is placed in full view of everyone, at the side of the screen (Fig. 1). This avoids the endless clicking of numerous stop-watches during a take and the inevitable arguments that follow.3 Use of Disc Playback In considering how the disc playback helps the various people involved in a music session, we may start with the Music Director. He is the link between the film technicians with their sequences, cuts, dissolves, and the musicians, with their crochets, quavers, seques, ritenutos and fugal developments. He naturally holds a watching brief over the various problems that may arise as between composer, director, sound mixer or editor. Once he has a " take " on disc it can be played back any number of times : details of synchronisation and balance can be settled, without the orchestra playing incessantly. The disc may be used instead of the orchestra for rehearsal purposes. An orchestra, after all, is human and while it can and will work for any length of time, there comes a moment when the excitement goes from the playing. It is usually the moment when the players begin to know a section too well and become bored playing it. The disc playback not only helps the orchestra and the music director, it enables the editor and the sound engineer to express their views at the time, as to whether any of the orchestration is likely to interfere with their final dialogue or sound effects tracks. This normally cannot be settled until the picture is in the re-recording theatre. By this method the need for re-takes is reduced to an absolute minimum. Selection of Takes The composer has a chance of demonstrating, rather than trying to explain, what he has in mind, and the director can have, what is in effect a rough dub of his picture, within one minute of recording — that is, he can see the recorded sequence with the music and dialogue mixed. Within about two minutes if he wishes, he can have the effects track added. Thus he is able to judge the full and final effect of any sequence long before the picture reaches the re-recording theatre. Time is saved on the selection of takes. The O.K. take is the only one printed. This playback system has been proved absolutely invaluable in creating unusual orchestral effects. Often we have added two or three additional music tracks to a basic one to give a fuller or more stereophonic effect. On one occasion we were able to hear an original voice track, played back with three different accompaniments — the full orchestra, then a track of all the violas, clarinets and cellos in unison, and finally the upper strings divided into four very high parts. The effect staggered even the orchestra. i III. POST-SYNCHRONISATION AND EDITING Ernest Irving r is the last stage of the musical treatment which is most troublesome, and the higher the class of the music the more hazardous its passage through the rapids of cutting and dubbing. The pink sheets are alleged to express