The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

102 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN August, 1953 A FILM TECHNICIANS NOTEBOOK Compiled by A. E. Jeakins FROM France comes news of the Cinepanoramic process, another entry in the wide-screen field. In essentials it appears very little different from Cinemascope, which, it will be remembered, also originated in France — at any rate the optical elements for taking and projection did. The Anamorphot taking lens compresses a wide picture on to standard 35 m.m. film and can be fitted to any standard camera. The projection lens fitted to a standard projector expands the picture again on to a wide screen the proportions of which are 2\ to 1. The stereophonic sound which goes with the system is recorded through three microphones, disposed across the camera field, on to three magnetic tracks corresponding to the microphones. The placing of the tracks on the final combined print is shown in the diagram. It will be seen that it is possible to have either 4 magnetic tracks or 3 magnetic tracks and half an optical track. The fourth track may be used as a control track. The sponsors of the system state that no modification of the size of film perforations or projector sprockets is necessary. In the theatre the sound is reproduced through three groups of speakers behind the screen at right, left and centre. The screen itself is " composed of an infinity of tiny optical systems joined together," to quote the communication from Paris, and is made of a plastic material with an aluminised surface. The Societe Cinepanoramic D.I.C., who supplied us with the information quoted above, say that they will be in a position to deliver lenses to producers and exhibitors in France by November. The Spring number of The Quarterly of Film, Radio and Television has an article by Norman McLaren describing the animated sound method he has developed and used at the National Film Board of Canada. Readers who have seen " Love Your Neighbour " and " Now is the Time," which have been fairly widely shown here, and in which this method was used, may be interested in these extracts from the article. A small library of several dozen cards, each containing black and white areas representing sound waves, replaced traditional musical instruments and noisemaking devices in the animated sound process. These drawings were photographed with the same kind of camera as used in the shooting of animated cartoons, except that the cards arc photographed not on the picture area of the film but on the narrow strip normally reserved for the sound track. It is therefore logical to call the sound produced in this way " animated " sound, a more precise term than " synthetic " sound since the latter also includes sound made by electronic and electrical instruments. It would have been possible to make drawings of sound waves by recording " live " music sounds on film, then tracing the resulting patterns from the track. Instead a non-naturalistic approach was taken, with no particular attempt to imitate natural sounds or traditional musical instruments. The drawings consist of a basic figure or simple shape repeated to form a patterned band, and by virtue of its identical repetition, it builds up into a series of sound waves having a definite tone colour. Each card in the library carries one such band of repeated patterns on an area one inch wide by twelve inches long. There is one card for each semitone of the chromatic scale, and for the sound tracks of the films mentioned above sixty such cards were used covering a range of five octaves. These sixty cards were labelled with the standard musical notation and arranged systematically in a small box to form a kind of keyboard. When the music was being shot the box was placed beside the camera so that the composer desiring a particular pitch, could select the required card and place it in front of the camera. Because a picture camera takes film intermittently, the sound track is built up of small units each one twenty-fourth of a second long. Longer duration of a note is produced by shooting several successive frames of the same card; for a very short note one or two frames may suffice. For rests and pauses a black card is photographed. Thus, by photographing combinations of picture cards and black cards for varying lengths of time and at varying speeds, the composer controls both pitch and rhythm. Before exposing the film, however, the composer has to determine the precise dynamics of every note in the score. In other words, the composer must also be the interpretive artist. To this end, twenty-four degrees of dynamic level were used (representing a decibel scale) and opposite each note in the score the number representing the dynamic level of that note was written. Subdivisions of these twenty-four degrees were frequently used. The volume was controlled sometimes by altering the exposure (variable density control) but more often by covering up the drawing until only a half or fourth or other fraction of its width was visible (variable area control). The sound of a note, however, is also affected by its attack, sustention, and decay, or tone contour. The composer, therefore, has also to specify the exact tone contour of each note, which determines its " instrumental " effect. A piano note, for instance, has a contour like a mountain peak, with one very steep side and one gently sloping side. An organ note has a contour rather like a plateau with a precipice at one side and a steep slope at the other. In practice the note is given its contour by placing black masks of varying shapes in front of the selected pitch card; in this way about six kinds of tone contour were obtained, some not possible with traditional instruments. For several simultaneous musical parts, either in harmony or counterpoint, three methods were used. In one, different drawings were superimposed on each other by multiple exposure. In another, the sound track was divided lengthwise into several parallel strips and the different drawings shot alongside each other. In the third method each musical part was shot separately and mixed together by re-recording. To sum up : the composer has control over pitch (to the nearest one tenth of a tone), over dynamics (to at least 1 per cent of the total dynamic range), over rhythm (to the nearest one fiftieth of a second). The control of timbre is less flexible, but about half a dozen types of tone quality are possible, which by cross combination give quite a range of " instrumental " effects. It has also sometimes been found more economical to make animated rather than live music, particularly for animated visuals. For the musician, perhaps the most important