Sound Effects

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

Sound Effects

Not What They Seem

npHE heroine is trapped In a fiery inferno. Around her is a seething, writhing mass. Roaring flames lick hungrily at her shapely ankles; and, in the distance, preceded by ominous thunder, another wall comes crashing, filling vour favourite theatre with a crescendo of ruinous terror. But take a peep backstage whilst the produc.,lo crew of a movie company are filmin„ such a scene, instead of thunderous noise as the building burns, you U see a nonchalant young man with his right hand held close alongside the microphone .. . disinterestedly crushing . cellophane or brown paper between DiS • fingers. The minor explosions, as he crushes tjie paper, swell to unbelievable proportions, thanks to the njpe.rsensitive stringing of the modern movie microphone. The sound operators and camera crew work in close co-operation, under the guiding hand of the director. At Cinesound, where Ken G. Hall is both producer and director, he has Clive Cross, the sound engineer, “mixing ! sound, and George Heath as ace cine- : matographer. They make an all-Aus- ' tralian team which is responsible for - anv number of amazing sound and - photographic effects. According to Cross, there are many everyday sounds, ■ which paradoxically do not sound like • what they really are when recorded. 1 For that reason, an engineer must ■ create his own artificial noises to sound ■ to an audience more realistic than the sound of the real thing.

Peas in a Barrel. For instance, the roar of an angry surf doesn’t sound half so turbulent as dried peas swished about in a wooden barrel. The moaning of wintry winds sounds ever so much more eerie when produced by the whirling of steel rods, projecting from a central axle and rotated by a head crank. An aeroplane crash sounds terrifying . when the audible impact of a plane with the earth is created by plunging a hot soldering iron into a tumblerful of water; and a train signalman would be entitled to look closely at his switches if he heard a wire brush swished rhythmically on a piece of tin to resemble a locomotive. “We always endeavour to use real sound where possible,” says Clive, “but where the genuine article is considered lacking, then it’s our job to augment it with additional effects. That s why, in recording an automobile crash, we always crunch a matchbox near the mike after the moment of impact. Otherwise the sound .would die too quickly for screen purposes, and the terrible grinding and crunching would be missed. One of the most difficult sounds to record on movie film is. that of the villain taking a punch right in the solar plexus,” he says. “If he’s hit too hard, production is delayed until he recovers; and if the hero pulls his punch, then the microphone will find him out. So we pack the villain’s stomach with a half-filled hot-water bottle! Beneath it and next to his skin is a thick padding of felt to minimize the blow. And when he eventually takes the right across to the body, it sounds vicious enough to please any audience.” But the sound operators met their Waterloo during current production of “Mr. Ohedworth Steps Out,” which stars Cecil Kellaway, and Is now nearing completion. It was necessary to record the meow of a cat for a particular sequence in the film. So the best feline impersonators in the studio — property boys, electricians, cameramen, even Ronald Whelan,\ the assistantdirecfor—grouped around the mike and each took turns to give their version of a cat’s “meow.” But, despite their efforts, their enthusiastic audition brought a sorrowful “N.G.” from Clive Cross. Result —the purchase of a eat from the R..5.P.C.X,, and the pathetic picture of a sound operator sitting, microphone in hand, waiting for a “meow.” He waited two hours! But that doesn’t often happen.