SHOOTING TALKIES

Evening Star, Issue 20252, 13 August 1929, Page 12

SHOOTING TALKIES

SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES DIFFERENCE PROM FILMS. Tim scientific correspondent of the ‘ Manchester Guardian ’ recently gave the following interesting comparison between the taking of ordinary films and taikics : A film can be made up of photographs of just as many scenes as there are pictures on tho film strip. There may be 10.000 separate pictures on the film strip, so tho producer could con ceivably have had to photograph 10,001 scenes to obtain his basic series of pictures on tho strip. In practice lie does not subdivide his scenes as finely as this. Ho lakes a few hundred successive photographs with a cinema camera of two or three gestures lasting perhaps one minute. He has these few gestures performed over and over again before tho camera until he is satisfied with them. From half a dozen sets of photographs of these gestures lie can choose tho .best set. The next day he commences with tho rehearsals of tho next short scene preparatory to the photography. Having rehearsed tho actors satisfactorily, he has another halfdozen sets of photographs taken, and chooses the best set. This will provide him with another minute of his final reel. By tho end of a month or two lie has ’ collected together enough sets of pictures to be pieced together to form tho complete reel. ■lt is evident that tho producer must have' a remarkable gift of imaginative organisation if ho is to make anything of this process. Ho has to assemble harmoniously sections taken at intervals of days and weeks. Through all that period he should hold in ids imagination a clear picture of the story and make Ids scene sections fit it.

This' discussion of just one point in film production emphasises the difficult tics and possibilties of silent film tech T nique. In talkie film production there is sound as well as sight to be organised. -There is the division of the story into a few gestures and sentences. These have to be “ shot ” or photographed repeatedly. While watching tho production of a talkie in the studio of the Brilsli Talking Pictures Company at Wembley Ibis sort of thing went on; The .sou ot a farmer staggers into the kitchen drunk. The -father is seated in a chair by tho lire, with his wife standing beside him. The mother says some tiling like this: “What’s tho matter with tho boy?” Tho young man staggers against the kitchen table, and his father rises from the chair and steps with his-mother towards him. “He’s drunk,” says tho father, “ that’s what’s the matter with him.” ’Hie son shouts: “ Who sez I’m drunk? If you weren’t my father I’d ” “Young man,” the father interrupts, “keep a civil tongue in your head.” Mother rushes in between them and tells her husband to leave the boy alone, and coaxes he' son to rest against the table. The scene, would last, say, two minutes The producer rehearses the movements several times until they are organised satisfactorily. Then ho has to listen to the speech and sounds. As the son staggers into tho room he slouches his feet along the stone floor The loud-speaker registers a screeching slither. The actor is asked to slouch without slithering. The scene is “shot" again. This time tho actor is so careful not to slither that, in his distraction, he forgets the correct route for the stagger. The scene has to bo shot again. Then another difficulty is caused by something analogous to Spoonerisms The sound-reproduction apparatus is liable to cause certain sounds* to suffer a sea change. Conse quently words beginning with these sounds are sometimes transformed into other richer and stronger words not used in drawing rooms. Words exhibit ing this transformatory characteristic aro struck from tho scenario. The scene is shot again with the un stable word expunged. Attention to the now construction of tho sentences again distracts the actors from the ap proved movements. The scene is shot once more. This time the actors get tho movements right, but owing to con ccntration on these one of them clean forgets the words. Tho scene is shot yet once more. No wonder soft music is played in the intervals to soothe everyone’s nerves!

The addition of speech to movement has greatly increased the organisational complexity of production. It is quite conceivable that \tho producer will photograph and record talkies word by word. Then his imagination, will bo required to hold the auditory as well as the visual story of the film for a period of mouths, so that he can com pare the tone of the one word in each “ shoot with that ideal he ought to have in his mind. .

Talent will find plenty of worthy problems in talking-film production.