"TALKIE” PICTURES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5377, 21 January 1929, Page 3

"TALKIE” PICTURES.

FIRST FILMS ARBIVE IN DOMINION

SCREENING WITHIN TWO MONTHS.

When Mr Charles Munro, sales manager for Fox Movietone (A’sia), Ltd., arrived in Wellington this week by the Maunganui fr;om Sydney, he brought with him the threje first “talkies” tp New Zealand, in an interview with a “Dominion” representative Mr Munro described the synchronisation of action and sound as marvellous, and expressed the conviction that the public of the Dominion would respond to the talking picture just in the same manner as the public had in the United States.

The equipment will arrive in New Zealand in a months time, and, according to Mr Munro, in less than two months the talking picture will be screened in the main centres.

‘“The pictures’ have advanced in less than a quarter of a century from the position of a curious experiment to that of one of the most strongly established and universally popular amenities of our social fabric,” said Mr, Munro. “Indeed, it is not alto-’ gether too much to say that they have practically become a necessity. That is, of course, if we admit into the catalogue of nep'ftssities the satisfaction of that desire for recreatioh and entertainment which is innate in the hearts of the great majority of us—an admission which it is difficult to In short, as an English writer recently put it. “The kinejma has comfor,t, speed, apd variety, and Offers these things at a fraction of the theatre cost. Is it any wonder, thegi, that it attracts the crowds ?” Surely not. These things being it is evident that any development is a matter, which is of very general interest, and that is why the innovation ■of the ‘talkies’ —as they are already beginning to be called in the popular tongue;—is bound to rouse attention and discussion. The ‘pictures’ appeal to all of us to a greater ox; a less degree ; anything which will affect .that appeal—whether to increase it or diminish it —must therefore necessarily affect us, too. “I went to the Regent Theatre, Sydndey, first to hear the Fox Movietone, and the synchronisation- of action and sound was marvellous,” continued Mr Munro. “In. ‘The Red Dance’ I saw a convict guard strike a gong heavily two or three times. Simultaneously I hqard .the boom of the gang. It was so realistic, that I stood up in my seat to see whether, the real orchestra was there or not. In .the same picture I saw children dancing exactly in time to the music; every gesture, every movement, coincided with the rhythm and beat of the mdsic. Another picture, Showed many thousands of people; at a football match, whose cheering thrilled ■me as the football game saown on th® silent screen had never done;

“I would like to give; a brief outline as to how the sounds and music are recorded and br,ought to the screen,” concluded Mr Munro. “Firstly, by means ef a small electric cell, simultaneously with thq photographing of the subject matter in a motion picture, tble sounds are recorded ate little dashes, differing in intensity, on the side of the film. This in turn is developed into the film and printed again into the positive print, which forms the print used in the theatre, and by means of special apparatus constructed under .special patent rights and owned by the Western Electric Company, which company attends to all installations, it is possible to bring about the recording and amplify it, in accordance wit|h) the requirements of each individual theatrq It is my thorough conviction that the public of the Dominion will respond to the talking picture just in the same manner as the public has in the United States.”