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climax of the sequence. It is normally easiest to change from one track to another when the volume of the music is low, that is, at a time when the commentator is speaking.
Sometimes as many as half a dozen tracks may be used in turn in a single news item in order to stress the changing moods. The function of music in a newsreel is such that it makes this rough and ready preparation — even if it could be avoided — perfectly suitable. The music is there to establish and strengthen the prevailing mood of the piece and to keep the track live while the commentator is not speaking. Since sudden variations in the volume of the sound track are rather disconcerting to an audience, it is most important that the dubbing editor should be able to crossfade from the dialogue to the music track at any time and the music track must therefore be laid for the whole reel.
The commentary, which is being written while the tracks are being laid, informs the audience of what is going on and interprets the picture in the way the producer wishes it. This is necessary since newsreel material often has little visual continuity. Indeed, newsreels lean more heavily on the commentary than other types of film. More than any other factor, the mood and urgency of the commentator's voice will set the key to the audience's reaction, and needs to be spoken with a wide range of variations in the delivery. As long as the voice keeps going, the impression is conveyed that a lot is happening on the screen at a great pace ; it has a spell-binding effect in that it does not allow the audience to relax.
Finally, the script written, the commentator speaks his lines from a closed booth from which the screen is visible and his voice is dubbed together with the music and effects tracks without ever being recorded on a separate track. Since this is so, the main principle of dubbing the sound tracks in a newsreel is fairly simple : when the commentary is being spoken the music is faded down, and when the commentary stops the music and effects are turned up.
Now let us look at the finished product.
ITEM FROM A PATHE NEWSREEL1
Pathe Credit Title. Ft.fr.
Cut to : Music starts. 9 10
I Crowd in front of grandstand.
Title superimposed : Music changes to rousing, brassy
" Doncaster. march.
Thousands see St. Leger
classic." Music fades down and changes to
Title fades. light sporty tunes.
1 Editor : N. Roper. Pathe Newsreel, 1950.
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