19
Teme Valley Times
Sound in the Movie Industry - Take One!
The clapper board records details of the ‘take’ and facilitates synchronisation of sound and vision
Local resident Norman Wanstall was involved in the Film Industry for over two decades, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, to such an extent that, 50 years ago, he won an Oscar for his work on the James Bond film, Goldfinger, as featured in the Feb/March 2015 issue of the Teme Valley Times. We spoke to Norman about the process of creating a film and he explained that film production is a hugely creative process, involving a large team of experts, all of whom are specialists in their own particular field hence the long list of credits that travel up the screen at the end of every film. Norman commented that in the end “All film is an illusion” and in this series, with the help of Norman’s recollections, we will take a look at how some parts of this illusion have been created. Until the 1920s film was purely all about the visual, but then the “Talkies” arrived and sound became a new, exciting and increasingly important element in film making. Throughout shooting, the sound and camera crews operate independently, though they are linked electronically for synchronisation. Until relatively recently, when a digital process was introduced, the negative used during a day’s shooting was shipped off at night to the laboratory, then returned to the editing department the following morning as positive 35mm colour film, much as we used to take our rolls of film to the chemist Norman Wanstall working on a Bond film in the 1970s for processing. Meanwhile the sound recordist would take his quarter-inch tapes to the studio’s Sound Department, from where it returned to the editor the following morning, transferred onto 35mm film stock. From then on, the sound and picture would run separately, but side-by-side, throughout the making The Oscar that of the film, until eventually they were Norman won married together when the production for his work on was completed. ‘Goldfinger’ Needless to say, the first job for the editing crew each day was to Editing synchronise the sound with the picture. To Norman facilitate this, every shot in a film starts with explained that a clapper board. This not only shows the number of the shot and creates a ‘clap’ sound, it was said that the cheapest it also allows the holder to call out the shot item on any number. production was On a bespoke editing machine called a the film stock, ‘Moviola’, which has separate sound and Norman Wanstall with Ursula Andress, which probably picture facilities, the ‘clap’ and the number who played Honey Ryder in ‘Dr No’ explains why of the shot can be seen in the picture, and 300,000 feet also heard on the soundtrack, which allows could be shot on a Bond movie, even though the editing crew to synchronise every shot the scene as a master shot showing all four individually. The synchronised material would the film we see in the cinema would only be characters, the camera would be moved around 13,000 feet long. How can this come then be formed into reels of approximately around and the scene shot right through about? 1000 feet, and at lunchtime the film crew many times, but each time showing perhaps would all come together and sit back to watch Norman commented “If one takes a simple just one character, or perhaps two, or perhaps dialogue scene, lasting just a few minutes, yesterday’s ‘rushes’ in a viewing theatre. three. It’s the director who makes these involving four characters sitting in a bar, it Norman laughingly said that he’s never met decisions and plans the scene. The editor anyone outside the film industry who realised would invariably be shot right through from then has to decide from so many possibilities various different angles. After shooting what a clapper board was for! which shot to use for every line of dialogue. If
the same lines of dialogue have been shot from many angles and only one version can be used, it explains how so much film ends up ‘on the cutting room floor’. When we watch a film we never question how one can ‘cut’ from one character to another or from one angle to another, but in fact whenever a cut takes place an editor has creatively made the decision to make that cut, and has timed the moment to the split second.” Creation For various reasons (especially in action films) numerous sections of the original sound-track have to be replaced or enhanced and this would be carried out over many weeks, by means of sessions in a recording theatre, or with a sound crew on location, or from visits to a sound-effects library. All studios are equipped with a special recording theatre in which scenes from a movie can be shown and actors whose lines have to be replaced can come in and see themselves on screen and re-record the selected lines in sync with the movement of their lips. It’s a process known as post synchronising and the job is supervised by a dialogue editor. On the early Bond films this involved a considerable amount of extra work; actors such as Ursula Andress, Daniela Bianchi and Gert Fröbe were picked for their looks and charisma, rather than for their diction, and as a result they were all re-voiced. As the theatre is also used for recording sound effects, the floor has strips of a very wide range of surfaces, from carpet to cobbles, which are used for the recording of footsteps and other spot effects. Props of every description are housed in a back room, as so many different sounds have to be recorded for the scenes where the sound that was originally recorded needs to be replaced. Action scenes, such as those involving car chases, helicopters, boats, motorbikes or military vehicles take a lot of organising and the sound editor has to sketch and time every shot, so he can go out with a sound crew and the appropriate vehicle and record the sounds that are needed for the film. Norman’s role involved creating sound tracks in this way for many ‘headline’ movies, including the first five James Bond films. To be continued...