The Cine Technician (1935-1937)

56 The Journal of the Association of Cine-Technicians November, 1935 From Theatre to Studio The Musical Directors Renaissance By ERNEST IRVING, Musical Director of A. r. P. Studios, Ealing Since pictures have been made to talk and sing, their competition with tlie Theatre has become progressively more formidable. The companies that tour the provinces with opera and operetta are fewer and less profitable, and London Theatres, which depended for dividends upon successful tours, have suffered in equal degree. It is natural, therefore, that musicians — including composers, conductors, players and singers — should turn tlieir attention to films, just as they had to "take notice" of the gramophone when sheet-music became unsaleable in the shops. The Musical Director with Theatre experience should not, however, imagine the transition to be as easy as changing at Leicester Square, and perhaps an old hand who has been at one time or another Musical Director of nearly all the West End Theatres, may offer a few observations on the process of burning one's boats and arising Phoenix-like from the ashes. rj; si? :^ ^ The Acolyte must not be disappointed if the immediate result is not too Phoenix-hke. In the Theatre the Musical Director is the unquestioned chief of an unchallengeable department. Given his score and cast of artistes, he has to project them upon a willing or unwilling public as best he can, and nobody will interfere with him in the process. His principal difficulty will be to extract from a reluctant manager enough stringed instruments to prevent his orcliestra sounding like the Band of the Loamshire Militia, and having achieved that, he must force the best out of his artistes, and keep on doing it, night after night. No one can stop him, or alter what he does, without turning him out of the building, and if he is wise, he will have provided against that by contract. * * * * In the Studio, none of these conditions are found. There may be the same difficulty over the strings — all managers seem to like attenuating the soul of an orchestra — but everything else is changed, and the methods of the Theatre fail hopelessly when transferred to celluloid. The musician will find that his comfort and success will depend a great deal upon his studio's attitude to music. He will be lucky if he finds, as J did, a Director whose tastes are sympathetic with good music, as he will then be entrenched against the legion of Philistines for whom the highest form of musical art is embodied in the foxtrot. Anybody about a studio will hold himself free to offer opinions about the music, and the less the critic knows of the art, the more didactic are his pronouncements. Therefore, let the target thank his stars for a Director who can even put up with music which has any pretensions to class. :}; H^ :!j >{; As in the Theatre the Play's the thing, so in the Studio the Camera's the thing. And here our musician must make his first alliance, for here art must join with craft. Let him be sure that he has really shed his purple robes, for he has indeed much to learn. If he be intelligent and receptive — and not too conceited — he will acquire from his sound engineers and recordists (horrid word !) a knowledge of many curious facts of natural philosophy, besides the ordinary practical)ilitics of recording. !f: -•[: * * Gallant warriors, the sound staff, always fighting with adversity, thrusting their "mikes" into the scene against massed attacks by the entire floor staff, and bringing to the unequal struggle the theories of a Kelvin and the practicabihty of a plumber. Some have fads about "commercial" sound, and will make that an excuse to lie glibly about "curves" to the unsophisticated musico, backing the swindle with blue-prints and equations. If the Professor has remembered any of his mathematics, it is possible to turn the equations against the enginer and hoist him with his own petar, but the wiser man will arrive at some kind of compromise, as the sound man pursues the same object — good sound — and after all, he may be right. * * H: * A more formidable hurdle is the cutting-room. Here he will meet a staff of expert craftsmen whose sole interest in life (in the Studio !) is celluloid ; its length and sequence, its permutation, combination, adhesiveness and divisibility. And the musician will be brought hard up against the fact that the development and form of a picture, which is the Cutting-Editor's sole concern, is entirely different from the development and form of a Symphony or a Fugue. :ij jji ff; :(: They look askance at classical music in the cutting-room. Any irregularity of form, the most innocent rubato, or the mildest of rallentandi, is a dangerous excursion into an unknown dimension, involving the well-drilled frames in a haze of quadratic doubt. Woe to the temperamental composer if he hands to the Editor any of the surds and binomials of his hanky-panky rhythm. He will learn to make the Guards' band march at 120 paces to the minute, so that every wag of the old shako may measure nine inches, and the cutters rise up and call him blessed. He will learn to think in footage, and hear in decibels, and to make provision in advance for the requirements of the Editor, so that the film when cut is rhythmical to the eye, as well as to the ear. Tliis done, and the technique of the moviola mastered, he may become a welcome — even too welcome — guest in the cutting-room. ^ :{i :{: ^1: Having secured the respect and co-operation of these two departments, he need fear nothing, and should set about enlarging his knowledge of the duties and difficulties of other sections. He should keep on frank (and, if })ossible, friendly) terms with the Production and Studio Managers, who will regard him solely from the point of view of finance ; waste of time or money being in their eyes a heinous offence which will take a disproportionate amount of artistic abihty to wipe out. To this end, much foresight is necessary not only to budget in advance for musical requirements, but to provide lines of retreat to cover change of plans by the Directorate, or accidents and failures in other departments. :»: ^ :*: s{: All this achieved, he will find his position in some ways less authoritative than in the Tlieatre, and his musical artistry more circumscribed ; but his duties will continue to be interesting because of their difficulty. He must march forward in a branch of his profession which is constantly changing and improving its methods, and must keep step with the other technical departments, which are undergoing similar metamorphosis. And tiiat should keep him too busy to grumble — much.