Tab projection room: episode 46: the birth of sound in the movie "Singing in the Rain"

"Tab projection room" Episode 46: "Singing in the rain" behind the development from silent film to talking film (2)_ Bili Bili _ Bi Li Bi Li

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This scene in the movie "Singing in the Rain" is an indoor shooting scene of Simpson Production Company. This 50-second follow-up shot shows us the shooting scene in the silent film era.

The camera followed Tang's first film crew, who was filming "Indigenous Dance". The director took the guide tube and gave orders at any time during the filming. The actor who speaks quickly directs, and other actors who are not involved in the filming walk back and forth on the side.

From this point of view, silent film shooting is more convenient, because the director can direct the actors at any time, regardless of the sound, only to ensure the picture.

Even at the beginning of the film, the actor's shooting scene presented by Tang's previous shooting experience is very convenient, whether indoors or outdoors.

In the indoor studio of the production company, because there is no sound restriction, multiple films or multiple crews can be allowed to shoot at the same time without affecting each other. In this follow-up shooting, at least four plays were shot at the same time, and multiple crews were preparing the set, so the staff could walk around and chat at will. As long as it doesn't affect the picture, even if the camera is noisy,

Therefore, in the silent film period, the filming efficiency and the utilization efficiency of the filming site are much higher than those in the audio film period, and the filming cost of the silent film is much lower than that of the audio film because of the relationship between the venue and the filming.

Compared with silent films, sound films are much more restrictive.

This humble symbol in Singing in the Rain is a milestone in the film history. "Keep quiet when recording" means "Keep quiet when recording",

This is a requirement in sound film production, which greatly changes the film production technology: the director can no longer direct the actors at the shooting scene at any time, several crews can no longer shoot in the same shed, and the staff at the scene can no longer chat and walk around during shooting.

Because the film has added another important element: sound. While shooting the picture, you need to record it on the spot.

At this time, it is also the most important moment in film history. "In order to record good sound, I would rather sacrifice a certain degree of pictures", so that a camera is installed in the photography room, which makes it very difficult to schedule the camera.

Moreover, every time the director finishes filming, he has to stop to consult the sound engineer, and then with the development of film recording technology, the priority of recording gradually loses.

For actors, talking movies bring more challenges.

After the birth of the sound film, a group of actors in the silent film period were either used to the silent film performance because their lines failed. They can't speak in front of the camera, so they can't adapt to talking movies and are eliminated overnight. In Singin' in the Rain, Tang's screen partner, Lemon, was forbidden to speak because of his harsh voice when thanking the film. After the release of Knight of Caballe, the audience asked her to sing, and the consequences could be imagined.

We can pay more attention to the shooting scene of this famous song and dance scene in Singin' in the Rain. From this shot, we can see the shooting information of early audio movies: the microphone, microphone car and live recording scene in the early stage of audio movies.

At that time, the microphone was very heavy, about the size of a thermos; The microphone car is made of wood, which reflects the humble equipment in the early days of talking movies; At that time, the camera was not low-noise, but a "sound" movie camera, so the camera should be placed in the photography cabin to isolate the noise of the camera.

However, in this scene, there is no camera installed in the camera cabin, so a pre-recorded process is probably adopted, and the sound recorded on the spot is for reference only.

In the early talking movies, the microphone was quite heavy, so it was impossible for the radio technician to support the microphone to receive the broadcast as it is today, and it had to be hung by a long pole on the microphone car.

In the early stage of talking about movies, the noise of cameras and recording equipment will affect the recording quality.

Cameras, in particular, are not low-noise movie cameras suitable for shooting audio movies. Therefore, there should be two cabins at the shooting site, which are used as recording cabin and photography cabin respectively to isolate the noise of recording and photography equipment.

At that time, the photography cabin was soundproof, the front window was equipped with optical glass, and the camera lens shot through the optical glass; Install wheels under the house and adjust the position of the hut according to the needs of angle and distance when shooting; However, the photography studio is too heavy to move and can't shoot sports scenes. Therefore, it can be seen that there are basically no moving shots in most early audio movies, and the application effect of montage editing is also greatly reduced.

The recording cabin has a window through which the sound engineer can watch the actors' performances and tune them.

After the location of the studio is adjusted, the recording studio often moves with the studio to facilitate recording.

However, due to the low sensitivity of the microphone at that time, the sound engineer in the film often asked the actor to speak into the microphone, otherwise it would not be recorded. Or as the actor walks, he can't talk into the microphone at any time, and the recording will fluctuate. If the effect is not good, he needs to re-record it several times, which means that the cost will increase.

The movie "Singing in the Rain" vividly shows the biggest problem in the early stage of audio film: the sound and picture are not synchronized.

The unsynchronized sound and picture will often lead to the indiscretion of words. When men and women talk, male voices and female voices will cause the most serious damage to the sound film. In the early days of sound movies, the unsynchronization of sound and picture is a common problem.

Wax disc recording, once the picture film breaks, the broken sound will not be synchronized with the picture, unless a professional repairs the picture.

In optical recording, even if the film is broken and reconnected during projection, the sound and picture are still synchronized.

The film Singing in the Rain shows the formation of the later dubbing process. After "female voice changed to male voice and male voice changed to female voice", the sound engineer was inspired to replace the actual voice with dubbing, which achieved the later dubbing process and gave birth to the corresponding dubbing actors and seiyuu.

This film shows scenes with pre-recording technology, including pre-recording, live playback during shooting, lip-synching for actors and followers, and lip-synching methods with voice commands.

In Singing in the Rain, you can see the pre-recorded and synchronized playback shooting scene, in which two speakers are used for playback, and a solid wooden microphone truck is used to hang the microphone for pickup.

The sound recorded on site is only used as reference sound, which is convenient for synchronization during editing, and the sound recorded in advance is used for later editing.

The reason why music song and dance scenes are recorded in advance is because music requires continuity, and the middle can't be disconnected, but the voice of lines can be disconnected and edited between sentences, so the language part is dubbed later.

In addition to the technological revolution from silence to sound, Singing in the Rain also expresses dissatisfaction with the shoddy Hollywood film industry. In order to please the audience, a large number of entertainment films were shot, and so on. In the film, Kasmo sings:

"You can study Shakespeare and be a gentleman. Although you can charm the critics, you may not eat three meals. If you fall down a banana peel, you can laugh at all beings. "