Auckland to Hear First Talkies in the Dominion

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 538, 15 December 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

Auckland to Hear First Talkies in the Dominion

Details of the Invention By PHIL HAYWARD (General Manager of Fuller-Hay ward Theatres). At last, Sound lias come to Motion Pictures. The Silver Screen is beginning to speak and whistle and sing! The most frightened person in the business is your favourite screen actress, rushing to test her voice, trying to decide what entertainment you want from her for next year. “Silence!” is the watchword at all studios now where they are making these new pictures. They go in on tip-toe. It is like entering some strange tomb. Where the silent pictures Were taken in a storm of sound, the new pictures have to be taken, except for the actors’ voices, in silence. The voices that are to fill the theatres have to be recorded in absolute quiet, protected from everjr other outside sound. The camera itself has to be worked from inside, a sound-proof box with a glass front, so that the clicking does not reach the microphones. The latest development is the new sound technique—to do away with all reverberation, so that the voices will reproduce properly when the giant loud-speakers behind the theatre screen will carry the voices of the players to the audience. Although there are already a number of devices for making the talkies, they all fall into two general classes. The first is by the gramophone, improved in amplification and connected with the projection machine in a way that provides for absolute synchronisation. This type was the first to make its appearance with “The Jazz Singer,” and recently with “The Singing Fool,” both featuring A 1 Jolson. They were instantaneous hits. In the second method of sound recording, which is rapidly improving on the disc method, the voice or sound is “photographed” on to the side of the film itself. By coming against a small plate like an eardrum, the sounds are turned into vibrations. These are turned into light by means of a photoelectric cell which sets up a corresponding vibration of light and is “photographed” on to the edge of the film exactly opposite to the particular scene it is required for. When the picture is projected, the process is reversed, and the sound conveyed by wires to loudspeakers behind, the screen. The latest development of all is an elaboration of this second system by using a separate film altogether for the sound, which gives more room for the vibrations and allows for better graduations of sound. In the process of recording, sounds are reduced to less than a thousandth of what they were originally and then later amplified five thousand times and more, if desired. The patents controlling all these devices are owned by the big electrical companies and are leased out to the picture producers and theatres. There are still many problems that await solution, such as foreign distribution, as other languages will, of course, have to be used. The main question which concerns those in the business is whether or not the talkies will become a permanent part, or will be merely a novelty of picture entertainment. There lire so many conflicting opinions at the present time, both in America and England, that we can only wait and see. At any rate, Aucklanders will be the first in this country to hear the “Talkies.” as advice has been received that the first equipment will leave America early in February next.