Talkie Making

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 874, 18 January 1930, Page 25

Talkie Making

A STUDIO IN ACTION Army of Technical Experts STRANGE talk of “tracks, long shots, mikes, booths and footage - ’ are exchanged by a host of experts during the laborious business of making one talkie scene. A slight idea of what it means to produce a talking picture may be had from the glance into the rehearsal hall at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio where Robert Z. Leonard, the director, is preparing to film “Marianne.”

a HE director is sitting ■with nearly twenty persons grouped around him, watching the performers, headed by Marion Davies, the star, going through their lines, songs and action. Dale Van Every and Laurence Stallings, authors of the story are on hand and Gladys Unger, dialogue adviser, is present to make necessary changes.

Close by the director is Martin Broones, composer of the song numbers, and Arthur Lange, arranger of the orchestrations. No bit of action or scene is approved by Bernard Hyman, the producer, until the music-makers agree that it will fit into the musical arrangements they have in mind. Production costs are high on the sound stage. Every precaution is taken to obviate last-minute technical problems. They must be faced before a camera is turned. And so, at the rehearsal round-table, are two sound experts. The man who will have charge of the microphones on the stage where the picture is to be screened also is in the rehearsal hall making notes on his charts. Two young women, at a table in front of the director, are making stenographic notes. One uses a stenotype machine upon which she registers every spoken word in the rehearsal of individual scenes. When a scene is rehearsed she glances at the tape iia her machine which is gauged with the footage of a motion picture camera. “Four hundred and fifteen feet!” she announces. “Can’t give it that much,” says Mr. Leonard, and he goes into a c6nference with the authors and dialogue advisers. In the meanwhile, the unit production manager is consulting with the art directors concerning the building of sets. He has already saved building an exterior by carrying a brief bit of dialogue to the listeners inside by means of a convenient window.

The property men are busy noting every “prop” called for in the action and, with an old desk, a table and a few chairs, are changing the rehearsal hall into a kitchen, a bar, a French village and an army camp at a moment’s notice. The chief cameraman and electrician, with floor plans of the proposed sets, are charting camera and lighting arrangements. “We want a double close-up here of the two boys and a medium shot of Marion as she turns and catches them stealing the cookies,” Leonard says as he rehearses a scene. “Three cameras will do it,” the cameraman says, glancing at his charts. “I don’t want to light for long shots and close-ups at the same time if I can help it,” says the electrician. “You don’t have to,” said the sound technician. “Make your long shot a silent shot and we’ll superimpose the sound track over it for whatever footage you need. The baud will be outside anyway. Is there any dialogue outside of the close-ups, Mr. Leonard?” “No, just where Ike says something and walks out. I don’t like the line anyway, so let's cut it out now. Ready for the next scene?” And so the rehearsal goes on.