FILMS AND THE PLAYERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 460, 15 September 1928, Page 24

FILMS AND THE PLAYERS

iN ALL-ABSORBING TOPIC—

Practically the only topic of conversation in the film world today is that of sound and talking pictures. New Zealand will soon he actively interested, for “talkie ” apparatus will be installed in Dominion theatres within a year. The question of foreign markets for Hollywood productions is causing some concern in America, and the big makers are taking steps to offer suitable pictures. Little wonder, for about half the revenue derived from the sale of their pictures comes from countries outside the United States!

They plan to make regular Eng-lish-speaking photoplays first — the record of the voice being in the form of a wavy line that runs down the side of the film. This production will be used for the United States and all English-speaking countries. All the dialogue in the film will also be recorded in various languages, the sound strips, in each case, being substituted for the original English sound strip. The actual pictures toill be the same in all countries, as they are now.

Thus, when a Charlie Chaplin comedy is seen in Chicago, or in Edinburgh, the voice heard will be, presumably, the voice of Charlie Chaplin. When the same comedy is seen in Berlin, the voice heard will be that of an anonymous German actor, giving the translation of Charlie's original words. Those who express little or no faith in the future of the talkies do so because they say the Vitaphone and Movietone merely represent the final and fatal steps in the sordid mechanisation of art. They believe that the public will revolt against the combination of canned sights and canned sounds.

The same type of people raised precisely the same objections to the movies themselves when they were first introduced.