We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
336 CINEMATOGRAPHIC ANNUAL
These developments have a bearing on the sources of sound picture personnel. Many of the sound technicians now in the picture business began their careers as wireless operators or engineers. The early history of radio showed the usual characteristics of instability and financial turbulence of any new industry. The men who chose it for a career were, as a consequence, young, adventurous, and more adaptable than the average. When broadcasting became an adolescent member of the family of radio industries, a certain percentage of these men chose the path away from electrical communication into a business with theatrical elements and immediate contact with the amusement-seeking public. In the meantime technicians from the radio and telephone industries, finding positions in phonograph recording organizations when that field turned to electrical methods, likewise became available for work in sound pictures. As a third major source of supply, the laboratories of the electrical and telephone companies produced their quota of engineers who were more or less fitted for the special requirements of sound picture production. In addition to these groups, there were men already in the picture field who had qualifications for sound work.
IMPORTING PERSONNEL
This brings up the first of a number of arguable points. In the building up of an effective sound department, to what extent was it advisable to go outside of the motion picture industry for personnel? Had the adoption of sound been a gradual process, it might have been necessary to import personnel to the extent of only a half, say, of the total number of people required. Because competitive conditions, and the inherent nature of the business, required an extremely rapid consolidation, it is estimated that eighty percent of the sound men were taken from the outside. The majority of sound executives in Hollywood appear to feel that this ratio is somewhat high, and that the best results at the present juncture may be secured by mixing about two thirds of what may be loosely called radio personnel with one third film personnel. There are, however, extreme views on either side of this compromise. One prominent sound head expressed the opinion that the personnel of the department should be secured entirely from outside sources, such as engineering schools; telephone, radio, and electrical laboratories; broadcasting stations;