Screenland (May-Oct 1928)

78' SCREENLAND stage in equipment only. It is heavily pad' dcd with celotex to produce a uniform sound and that in turn is padded with lined burlap. The ceiling in addition to this provides a net work of tracks to accommodate heavy baffling curtains, used in isolating the subjects to be photographed. Universal calls these portable sound deadeners 'baffles,'' a new word in cinema parlance. The camera men have little portable rooms heavily padded with a graduated door which they close during the taking of a scene. The front of these camera rooms is equipped with a pane of flawless ground glass through which the scene is 'shot.'1 This is imported from Germany and takes six months to get because several welds have to be made before a flawless one is completed. In an up-to-date sound-proof stage the floor is perfect, for every tiny sound records and if anyone has a cold and coughs or sneezes — well, sneezers are just 'out' on a sound picture stage. Arid if you had the asthma you'd have to get over it if you wanted to work in sound pictures. When a scene is being taken people stand perfectly still, afraid to move a muscle lest they should accidentally knock a stray board or touch something that would make a noise. This care is taken so that none of the mechanics of the trade will impose themselves upon the ear of the listener. The devices are not perfect yet but they are making rapid strides and in a year the sound pictures made today will be marvelved at their crudity. The mixer or monitor sits in his little box aloft listening to the sounds that come to him over the wire, judging whether the inflections are of the right quality. He supervises the placing of the microphones on the set. It matters a great deal whether a microphone is too near a player or not near enough. If two people are playing a scene and .sitting side by side they can use the same 'mike' and speak almost naturally. If they are across the room from each other and have a scene which uses rapid dialogue they have to speak slowly with time pauses between each sentence. If they spoke too quickly the action would not synchronize with the words. Can you imagine the new technique that has to be used? In a quarrel or tense emotional scene an actor can't speak quickly as he naturally would under stress of emotion. He must count his time pauses and yet give his words full emotional value. -One thing saves time and one thing only, but it is a tremendous relief for the whole outfit. It takes ages to get 'set' for a sound picture but once the scene is taken that ends it. Sometimes it has to be taken two or three times for cover shots, but what I mean is that the long shots and closeups are taken at the same time. Anywhere from two to six cameras cover the scene from different angles. The delay caused in 'setting up' for long shots, then medium shots, closeups and special camera angles is done away with in a sound picture. The scripts are entirely different from the silent picture scripts. They are almost exactly like the Mss. of a stage play. Clever dialogue and crisp situations are now very important and the scenarist of old will have an awful headache before very long. Every dog has his day. The dramatist who wanted to write for pictures and was high-hatted by the movie writers is now the cock of the walk. Yet with reservations. A king does not share his throne too graciously. None of the studios are dismantling because just as many silent pictures are being made, and will be made for many months, as before. There is the foreign trade to consider and the theatres that have not sound device equipment to think of. But this is what happens. The pictures are made twice. Once silent and the second time for sound. Can you imagine the delay and expense of this? Only a few are made for sound alone. I believe that Bryan Foy is the only director in the business so far who makes sound pictures alone. It is said that by fall 1000 theatres in America will be equipped for sound. England is preparing rapidly but the continent very slowly. Only newsreels and pictures with sound effect and musical accompaniment alone can be shown in foreign lands until they get around to making their own sound pictures. Just at this time American producers are not thinking about C[ Harold Lloyd talking to a deaf fish pedler. the problem of all-sound American-made pictures for foreign trade. The chatter on a temporary sound stage is amusing. In a silent studio it doesn't matter if a board creaks when a scene is being taken. It matters plenty in a sound studio. You hardly dare breathe when a scene is being taken and if a trolley car goes by the studio it is just too bad, because the whole scene has to be taken over again. Not all the studios are equipped entirely with incondescent lights, the only ones to use on any set because they don't smoke and they don't sing. "Quiet down that spot!" the director said when a light began to hum just before the taking of a scene. If a mistake occurs in the action the scene has to be taken again. The director can't say a word during a shot. When the scene is ready an electrician presses a button which gives an outside signal. At that signal every bit of work on the entire lot stops until the release signal buzzes. Trucks stand still, hammers cease. Is it any wonder that pictures cost so much? Think of the wasted time among the workmen. Of course when the concrete stages such as Metro is building are finished this will not happen. As I see it, everything has to be hushed. At the Carthay Circle theatre they showed a 'short' called The Family Picnic. When some packages were put down on the steps the noise was deafening. Later I saw a 'short' being taken. Some traveling bags were put down on a wooden floor. The first time the mixer said the sound was like a report from a cannon. Since the slightest whisper registers I can't see why they don't have felt props. When you drop a bag naturally there is a thud — even a felt bag would register and probably just enough. How do the players feel about all this? The majority are for it strong. A very few loathe the idea. But whether they are for or against it, the subject of sound pictures is the main topic of conversation at any gathering large or small. The beauty of Lionel Barrymore's voice and Alec Francis' voice above the untrained voices of the other members of The Lion and the Mouse cast put everyone without stage experience in a panic. Almost overnight an army of voice teachers sprang into existence. Sue Carol counted eighteen announcements that came to her in one week. Many of them threatened that if she didn't study with so and so, the only worthy voice teacher in Hollywood, her voice would soon be gone and her promising career over. At least ten said practically the same thing. Most of the stars had the same experience. What were they to do? What were they to think? Having had no experience at all with voice teachers they didn't know a good one from a bad one. But motion picture players have learned caution and in general they are stepping slowly and are being pretty well guided. The mistake they usually make, however, is in thinking that they can learn to sing or speak in a week or two. It can't be done. Two interesting people I have heard about are director Paul Sloane and his wife. Mr. Sloane is taking six months of his time and financing his own trip to New York to study every method of sound picture production of any importance now in ex' istence. It will set him back about $25,000. but he feels that it will be worth many times that amount to his work. His wife, long a student and teacher of voice production, is coming into her own in Hollywood. She already has Olive Borden. Mary Brian, Carmel Myers. Sue Carol. Marian Nixon and Nancy Carroll numbered among her pupils. Vilma Banky, John Gilbert. Norma Shearer, Janet Gaynor — and oh, just dozens of others are going in for voice culture, but the one thing they all have to work out is a new voice technique. Breath control is important, the most important thing there is, diction is equally important. These two things perfected, a different method of production will have to be experimented with. . The players that have had experience with sound pictures all say the same thing. They didn't recognize their voices. Robert Edeson wouldn't believe it at all at first. Hobart Bosworth declares that screen actors have no more to fear than stage actors had when they first went on the screen. There is a new set of rules to learn, that is all. Greater simplicity will be required. He thinks the brittle, staccato voice with crisp, clear diction will be most successful. When he first heard his own voice he said, "My God, is that what I sound like?" and realized that all the old tricks learned on the stage would have to be discarded. The fact that he knew them helped, but he would have to forget them, make them invisible, use them only as a sculptor uses his tools. The finished statue doesn't show the steps by which it climbed to beauty. Esther Ralston confided her fear to Mr. Bosworth and he asked her what on earth she had to be afraid of. Her voice is like silver and her diction clear and clean. He also said another interesting thing. That there are as many screen actors with good voices as there are stage actors with good