"TALKIE" PICTURES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5369, 28 December 1928, Page 3

"TALKIE" PICTURES.

MISCWITY OF ABSOLUTE QUIET, m — / b4|stio measures adopted. Jgeryone becomes rigid when the wOr le a ® Mrill3, A sneeze ° r cough cost thousands of (Dollars. The d dLtor takes up a hand telephone fcJWii cjmin to speak to the operator, he 9 ue ries. An affirmative cifabtomes over H ne which the direcffr answers with a clicker in his h^ nd ' Up cre ? p Cffieer, contraptions; like war-time tanks, on rubber, rollers. Inside these are cameras, thus/ enclosed to deaden the sound w hiAh they make in operation, as Ma&ne Omer Peak writes in the “Kansas City Star.” The players on the brilliantly lighted set are “palpably nervj ous. No help from the director now) They are absolutely on their own. A forgotten line, a poorly L spac ed Wit of business, the slightest hesi ■ation will spoil the record. Cutting aill patching film is ,not possible in ti e “talkies.” For, we learn from the "Star" writ* »r, we are on a soundi-proof stag* > where any noise not called for in t le play will be disastrous. Wl Sire watching the making of one of .the mew talkie moving-pictures which are beginning to be shown and which, it in predicted, will revolutionise cinema production. Whether, this is good or bad is something on which thofl ! most concerned are not agreed, and into which we do not intend to go. Beading on of how these pictures ■ are ?! hade:— Bv erything that once was familiar is m Easing. Even the Kleigs, which erpM rot entirely silent in operation, havf been replaced by huge incandesa mt lamps, mounted in. special reflactl *rs. The atnejgaplhone—directorial . ol—is nowhere to be seen. As.-) sista at directory formerly valuable by r sason of lung power, how move soft, y on rubber-soled shoes. So d° the.’ property and make-up men, the iramen and electricians. Si spended oven the heads of the play irs just out of range of the cameras' are the microphones that pick up t be voices and carry them to the amn Hying and recording apparatus. These instruments are so sensitive to sound that the most feeble whisper is r« , .®rdled. That’s winy cranking camera! have been enclosed in soundproof booths and shoot through plateglass windows. When the players are going through th<4ir action, these booths look for. all the) world like tanks creeping up on a ma&hine-gun nest in No Man’s Land. In Ifact, they are called “tanks” because of the manner, in wihidh they are moved around to various positions '■ ingenious synchronising d® v *eesinside theT tanks keep the camera in constant accord with the recording apparatus in another part ,of the building! The operators of the cameras wealr eadphones during the filming . process in order, that they may receivluUistructions from the jnan ait the dreiiitor panel outside, on which are raounted multi-coloured lights, switches, and an intercommunication telepl one. / Tht director calls for a rehearsal. The dryers ftp through th«ir scene, speak tog" their lines distinctly. “Don’t forge t the* mike,” cautions the direc.tor a; aln and again, as players incline to rai Able beyond its range. Immediately the’ actress or actor becomes self-c mscious, keeping half an aye on the -m isenable little mike—a veritable tnstrt meat of tontuto f! Fin; illy the rehearsal is over. The direct or sits quietly and tensely ta t his bl air. One signals his assistant, who b lows a sharp blast on a whistle. Every ;hing within s'ound of that whistle must hold an absolute quiet .until » twonblast whistle lifts the spell after the scene is stopped. Tha scene is ended), if there has been |io mishap. Otherwise, it has to . be deme over from the start. I was on tine Vitaphone stage, at Warner’s one day when several were spoiled, one after another, just' by some sight littld hitch on the dialogue between two vaudeville player’s! On another occasion a carpenters hammer — operated a block away—did the dam- ' ase ' ! | When the scene is over, the wooden soldier S-relax with obvious relief. But everything is not ended, after all, as we see:— k Then comes the verdict from the [■ operators outside —newcomers in the movie world —the mixer man, the monitor, and who-not. Down from the listening booth, built like a traffic tower above the stages, enirely en-> closed in glass, alights the expert on voice, culture, who sits before a speak- ? er and hears the voices of the play- ■ ers just as they will register on the screen. He tells the director just how maybe May McAvqy spoke too high in the middle of that sentence about her lover, or Emil jannihgs gave a grunt that sounded like a blast of dynamite. Once, Chester Conklin in “Varsity’’ registered an admonition for, caution in a hoarse whisper to Mary Brian k that rocked the stage; when it came L through the amplifier! So the scene is done over, and the mixer, man—the technician who contrjois the volume and modulation of -the voices—gets busy reducing or rewiersing the process if voices are scarcely audible. The monitor man is a sort of • “talkie” traffic cop. He sees and beans everything that goes on during a scene and by means of an elaborate system keeps in con-i stant touch with the “mixing” panel, amplifying and recording rooms. This latter room, where the voice is impressed! on discs and films, the ; heart of the whole system, I have never been able to enter yet. At first such secrecy surrounded the talking stages, you weren’t permitted to print anything you saw, even; it ;■ admitted. Now things tire worse. It k is more difficult for a reporter to get * a patyg to a sound-proof stage than for. a itotfrist to pass one of the CosMtaacks at the studio gates.