FILMS THAT TALK.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4472, 27 September 1922, Page 4

FILMS THAT TALK.

I NEW DEVELOPMENT IN THE KINEMA WORLD. 1 A kinematograpih camera with ears and a projector with a living voice is mow nearly perfected by Mr A. W. Kingston, the clever photographer who is working for British Productions, Hove, in their series bf historical films, “The Field of Honour.” Roughly,, the mechanism consists of a semi-telephonic attachment to the camera which .directs sound vi-’ brations not to the ear, but to a sensitive filament lamp, which again reflects a moving beam on to the side of t'he film as it passes through the gate. The negative therefore shows the photograph in the ordinary'way, but with a running diagram of sound curves down the side. In the case of projection the process is exactly reversed. A beam of light from the prbjector_passing through the portion of the film bearing the impression of these waves is electril cally translated again into terms of ' sound and given out through a loudspeaking trumpet-loud enough to fill any ordinary-sized hall. I Mr Kingston took a “speaking film” • of Sir Ernest SKa'ckle.toij just before his departure in the Quest. Save for one or two very slight defects it is possible to throw the film on to the screen and listen at tlhe same time to a departing message from the great explorer. Of course the movement and the voice are absolutely synchronised. Both are a precise reproduction of action and voice at the moment the film was taken. It is not difficult to imagine the immense future before a film camera of this kind, should the final experiments succeed. One can imagine the films of! the next, few years —the cheering crowds at a football match, the bells pealing at a society wedding or the actual words, tone, and voice of the King’s speech at some public function. The possibilities are boundless.