The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1911)

26 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. PROGRESS IN TALKING PICTURES. Advance in Recording Art Has Made Practical Solution of Problem Possible — What Is Necessary in Successful Combination of Talking Machine and Cinematograph — Where Psychology Enters Into the Problem — Some Troubles That Beset the Experimenter — Obtaining Synchronism Between Talking Machine and Projector — How Recording Necessities Limit Free Movement on the Part of the Actors. Every observer who has followed the progress of cinematographic art during the past few years has doubtless been impressed with the advantages that would clearly arise through a union of the lilm-picture projecting apparatus with the talking machine record. The proposition is easily stated in terms, and as easily comprehended, but its practical realization is quite a different matter. Nothing seems more natural than that the actors who present silent tabloid drama through the medium of the instantaneous photographic camera and projecting machine should at the same time record their voices on the wax of the talking machine. Yet nothing in the whole realm of cinematography can be compared for difficulty with this apparently simple idea. It is sufficient to say that, until the last year or two, there has been no chance of a successful attempt in this direction, simply because the art of sound-recording had not reached such refinement as would permit of any satisfactory union of the two elements. Within the last year or so, however, there has been seen a noteworthy advance in the art of recording, so that the time now appears to be ripe for some definite step in the direction of a complete affinity between the moving picture and the talking machine. In the present remarks we desire to point out some of the practical conditions which limit and bound the path of the experimenter who tries to unite the talking machine with the film projector, and to show what are the main and essential obstacles to be overcome, in order that thereby a start may be made toward clearing the ground and furnishing to future experimenters some notion of the direction which they must all take, if success is to be theirs. This article, in effect, is a brief analysis of the factors which enter into the problem of talking-motion-picture attainment. When a man walks up and down a room, talking and gesticulating, his words and the appropriate gestures accompanying them synchronize with each other so perfectly and naturally that it seems as if the two operations of speech and gesture were one. The same notion seems even more plausible when we note how, with growing excitement, his steps back and forth over the floor seem to time themselves with his words. As a matter of fact', however, what we are witnessing is a series of entirely distinct and altogether separate processes, directed by the brain, and forming, in their aggregate, the complex phenomenon which appears to our senses. Some external circumstance has excited, through eye or ear, the mysterious something which we call "mind." This in turn has re-acted upon one set of motor nerve centers to produce speech through its action on the vocal cords and upon other sets to bring about muscular movements of the hands and arms. Although the re-actions from the source of original sensation are one in their original impulse, they are two and individual in their causation. Two separate things, in short, are being done. The psychological reactions which result in the psychological motions leading to speech and gesticulation are separate reactions, and each can and does exist without the other. We speak, but do not move, or move without speaking; each at will. We may take these remarks as a basis for observation of the talking motion picture problem. Although the immediate cause of the actions and words which we see and hear in such picture presentations are thought of as the result of activities simultaneously co-ordinated on the part of the actors, yet the physical and mechanical mediate causes are distinct and separate. The whole problem is to co-ordinate these separate mechanical processes in such a way as to make one run with the other, infallibly and naturally. This problem is what we refer to when we speak of "synchrony." But there is more to be considered than the mere synchronism of talking machine and projector. For it must be remembered that the actual doings on the stage which we desire to represent are the product of a perfectly co-ordinated series of actions and re-actions on the part of the actors. If it were possible to separate the speech and action entirely, if we could so train ihe actors that they could go through their appropriate posturings and then, afterwards and separately, speak their lines while thinking a perfect representation of the unacted physical motions; if in short, we could make our actors not only speak their lines perfectly when doing the "business" before the camera, but also think their "business" perfectly, though without physical corresponding motion, while in front of the talking machme horn; then the problem would not be so difficult. It would then be simply a matter of running the picture film so carefully that the action would not run behind or ahead of the words. And this could be done with ordinary care on the part of the film and talking machine operators, respectively, or better still, through some mechanical system of mutual control between the rotary motions of the films and the talking machine cylinder or turn-table. Unfortunately, however, except when the speech and accompanying "business" are of the simplest and most elementary character, except in fact where the two classes of actions to be co-ordinated are in the simplest relations of rhythm, it will be found impossible to separate them and then carry them out one by one with any natural correspondence as a result. In the course of ordinary, not to say dramatic speech and co-ordinate action, we continually perform most complex series of physiological motions, involving a great variety of relations and sub-relations one to the other. And the more complex the relations are, the less does it become possible to detach any of them from the rest, perform it separately and then fit it in to the general scheme again. Clearly, then, the first question that arises, the first problem to be solved, is that involved in the possibility of performing the two operations of sound and motion recording simultaneously. No difficulty is presented in the second of these, since the eye of the camera is now of sufficient capacity and rapidity of action to enable the just recording of motions undertaken over large spaces and under conditions involving both complexity and rapidity. But in the case of sound recording, the problem is by no means as yet so well in hand. So far no satisfactory recording of musical or other sounds has been possible except when the machine has been brought into very close proximity with the source of sound. Free movement about a stage during the recording of action in front of the camera has therefore been incompatible with the recording of sound. Hence, in all experiments which have been made hitherto it has been necessary to record the sounds separately. Not only so, but absolutely no free movement or reproduction of stage business has been possible. The actors have been obliged to place themselves directly in front of the recording machine horn, and even then ha\e had to exercise the greatest care, lest some 'essential part of their speeches be lost. The Edison interests state that they have now developed such a recorder, one of sufficient delicacy to catch sounds of all kinds accurately within a radius of twenty feet from the horn, while the actors are performing their stage business. Although no details have been given out, it seems most probable that this problem has been solved, in so tar as a solution has been gained, through the employment of improved external means for deflecting the heterogeneous series of sound-waves toward a central focus ; in short by an improved sound refractor. Anyone who is familiar with practical acoustics can imagine the kind of wave refractor and conductor which might conceivably be used for this purpose. After the matter of sound-recording, comes the further one of synchrony between the motions of film and sound machine. Let us see precisely what the problem is. The camera is started working in front of the actors on the stage. It is only necessary, in addition, that the talking machine should begin to* rotate at such a time in advance of the first spoken words that the first of these will be recorded only after the machine has attained its proper speed of rotation. But this speed of rotation must bear some definite relation to that of some moving element in the camera, so that the motion of the one may control that of the other. If, therefore, we have, let us say, two electric motors, one to drive the camera shutter and film and the other to rotate the talking machine, and if these synchronize with each other, then it is plain that the operator who controls the one can also control the othei\ It then becomes a matter of adjusting the starting point of the recording stylus in its travel so that it begins its recording at some convenient moment after the camera has begun its work, or so that it begins simultaneously with the camera, if action and words also begin coincidentally. Since the talking machine must be behind the projecting screen, while the projector itself is some distance in front, it is plain that synchronous motors for driving each element present the most obvious solution. This does not mean that the two motors must necessarily travel at the same revolutions per minute, but simply that their respective revolutions per minute must bear some definite relation one to the other. Synchronous motors have been developed, and several patents have been granted here and abroad for such motors. The synchrony is attained by certain proportionate systems of winding the rotating and magnetic elements of the two motors, and by other cognate methods. Other methods for obtaining a proper union between projection of the picture and reproduction of sounds have contemplated engraving the soundrecord right on the edge of the film. In this case, of course, there would have to be some means devised for transmitting the vibrations communicated to the stylus of the talking machine through the record, to the back of the projecting screen. This might perhaps be done on the same principle as used in the telephone. So far, however, nothing has been done in this way except experimentally. Enough has been said to indicate in a broad and general manner the practical problems which must be faced by those who would undertake to unite sound and sight recording. Of the artistic or commercial possibilities of the union it is unnecessary to speak here. They are plain to all. That the day will come when grand opera may be given in every hamlet throughout the country is certain. With characteristic timeliness the Edison interests recently made an announcement which indicates that Mr. Edison, who has been working on a combined moving and talking picture machine, has succeeded in accomplishing some wonderful results in this union of the film picture projector apparatus with the talking machine record. Full details have not been given out, but sufficient is known to indicate that some move of great importance in this line is imminent. George Allen Hedden, who formerly traveled New York State for the National Phonograph Co. (Thomas A. Edison, Inc.), is now proprietor of the Hotel Knickerbocker, Third avenue and Twentyfourth street. New York City, a smart and wellconducted place. When in the trade Mr. Hedden had the reputation of landing some of the largest single sale orders on the company's books. He was also one of the most popular men on the road, and this reputation has followed him into his new field of business activity. "Advertising," says Dean Williams, of the University of Missouri, " is merely store news, business news. That its publication is paid for does not make it any the less important news. Often it is the most important news in the newspaper. It is always news that appeals to the pocketbook of the reader."