Theory of the film : (character and growth of a new art) (1952)

216 SOUND ible ones. The expression of the shot, its atmosphere, enhances the expression on the actor's face, adds body and intensity to it. For this reason the cinematic shot does not merely reproduce, it also creates. But in a sound record there is no more and no less expression than is put into it by the voice of the actor and faithfully reproduced by the sound camera. The sound engineer does nothing more than record and reproduce; he cannot project the subjectivity of his own personality into the sound picture by means of viewpoint or set-up. But only the possibility of such subjective influences would afford the sound engineer scope for artistic self-expression. The shape and outline of sounds cannot be changed by varying perspectives as the physiognomy of visible things can be changed by varying angles. Sounds have no 'angles'. The same sound coming from the same point cannot be recorded in different ways. But if the sound engineer has no free choice between many possibilities, his recording will remain a mechanical reproduction and nothing else. SOUNDS CANNOT BE REPRESENTED BY IMAGE S What we hear from the screen is not an image of the sound but the sound itself, which the sound camera has recorded and reproduced again. It is the same sound that has been passed on to the screen. Sounds have no images. The sound itself is repeated in its original dimension with all its original physical qualities when it is echoed from the screen. There is no difference in dimension and reality between the original sound and the recorded and reproduced sound, as there is between real objects and their photographic images. SOUND MONTAGE The formal problems of sound montage, the acoustic and musical rules which govern the effect of sounds are purely musical and acoustic questions and it is not proposed to dis