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449
VI
Sound Recording
The supervisor of the sound recording at the Radio Studio, Hollywood, relates a few of the eccentricities of friend " mike."
by J. V. Maresca
THE recording of sound has developed in many interesting ways, since that memorable night in 1926, when the Warner Brothers exhibited a sound-picture (in which the Metropolitan tenor, Martinelli, sang the popular " Vesti la Giubba," from Pagliacci), and decided to invest their tottering capital in talking pictures (a decision which enabled them later to put aside a trust fund for themselves of more than ;^3,ooo,ooo). The immediate success of Vitaphone pictures caused all the studios to throw over their production plans for the year and plunge into the business of making talking pictures. Large sums were spent. Hollywood was turned upside down with excitement. Some directors and stars failed to " click " in this new medium of expression, while others suddenly shot up to new heights.
The first results were poor. "When the excitement had abated somewhat and the first pictures had gone forth to mumble their way through the theatres, studios settled down to the business of perfecting the sound devices with the result that, in a wellequipped theatre to-day, a properly recorded picture comes very close to the illusion that is desired.
The first sound tracks were made on wax records, just as in the manufacture of gramophone records. Copies could be made and shipped with the film, the theatre operator placing the disc on a turn-table that turned at a speed in proper ratio to the machine projecting the film. This was found to be unsatisfactory. Records became worn and voices were foggy and un
intelligible. Also, there were difficulties in keeping the picture in synchronization with the sound. On the screen you sometimes saw a character open his mouth, but the words came a few seconds early or late, spoiling the effect. Now, however, pictures made with the new method do not get " out of sync," as we call it in the studios.
Following the wax record method came sound-on-film. It was found that sound waves could be photographed right on the edge of the film. This led to further complications. Room had to be made on the film for the sound track. This made the picture smaller. The size of the picture aperture and screen had to be changed. And when a sound-on-film picture appeared at a theatre where this had not been done, there was an ugly white margin at one side, not to mention a good view of the sound track running alongside the picture, looking like a very irregular Jacob's ladder. Then, to make matters worse, many theatres had only disc-record equipment and couldn't play the other pictures. All this led to changes in equipment in both theatre and studio, until the present method was reached.
Let us follow the recording of a talking-picture from the beginning. While the studios still use different systems, they are now nearly enough alike to be used in any theatre. R.K.O. studios uses what is known as the Photophone system, developed by the Radio Corporation of America, which is the system we shall follow here.
The camera is set up ; the micro
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