Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-21

dustry is paying for the big mis-
take. AS yet no noticeable price adj
vance has been saddled on the public.
Some students believe it is nonsense to
talk about the great possibilities of
audiovision. The fact that few pic
lures have drawn record-breaking
crowds means little. With the adoption
of talking projectors by neighborhood
theaterS, will these Jams continue?
The supply, they argue, has close rela-
| ton to the demand. When talkies be-
come more plentiful they will not be
nearly so popular The novelty will
have worn off, and what will happen
after that most exhibitors are afraid to
predict.
One authority reports:
AT the studios everybody Is running
around in circles. Producers want
equipment, but can't have it. Without
| Soundproof studios the present machin-
cry is useless for high-clasS work It
| is said that soundproof material cannot
| be supplied during the present selling
| season. The result is that the pro-
| ducerS. pressed by necessity, will adopt
makeshift methods, and their product
will be likewise.
even with soundproof studios, re-
cording requires that they be located on
| big ranches, far from the noises Of city
| streets. And few studios are thus sit
uated.
"And the technical problems Of pro-
duction are massing themselves solidly
They demand sound experts especially.
Heretofore there never was a demand
for acousticians. and now their salaries
are mountainous.
Scenes must be made longer in order
| to permit liberal cutting. Reels, too,
must be made longer. The 3,O0O-foot
reel Is the vogue, the object being to
have as few joints as possible. All this
adds to production costs.
Producers having studios near streets
are often compelled to do their work
during the dull hours Of night, even
| though they may have soundproof
rooms. This keeps the company idle
during the day and often necessitates
additional helpers.
while a scene is being shot the
| carbon arcs may start Kissing and
| singing. This plays havoc with the re-
cording. The scenes must be retaken.
Within the past few months producers
have been convinced Of the wisdom Of
incandeScent lighting systems. These,
too, cost money.
THE problems Of acting are multi
plying. A picture is cast, but after the
shooting Is begun the director finds
that the voice of one star does not
register well. Recording must cease
and time be taken to recast the whole
production"
What faces the industry, then, b a
mass Of technicalities that rarely con-
Germ the public, although they show
themselves in the finished product. A
new call has gone out for technicians,
vast armies OF men trained and schooled
in science. Yet even after they are
developed they must become privy to
some mysteries of psychology. The
producer Is playing a game of hearts
and minds, not ions and electronS. An
acouStician must not only understand
technical problems; he must know
what voices have human appeal, what
pitches excite pathos and commisera-
ton and what tickle the sense Of
humor.
The movie laboratories are wound I'D
in a labyrinth of film. Printing of
talking pictures Is an amazingly diff
cult operation. Film must be free from
grain or spots. The tinieSt defect will
cause rumbling in the theater's loud
speakers Silent film is printed for
about 212 cents per foot. but the cost
OF printing taliiies is double.
New troubles come with distribution
There prints are made-one with the
sound track. the second synchronized
with disc records, and the third for
possibilities of mistakes in shipping.
If the wrong records are sent with the
wrong film, somebody loses money and
suffers.
The scenario writer's have their cor
rugated brows. too. They are
confronted with the writing and shap-
ing Of new type of story-a literary
work that will bridge the yawning gap
between action and talk. This requires
minds of the most fertile imagination.
The whole picture must be written in
the writer's minds eye before he sets
down the opening dialogue. And a
movie dialogue is not any old speech.
Actors must be made to talk naturally,
stilted language, obscure words and sub
tie expressions being barred.
Deep in their hearts and privily,
producers know that most of the pres
ent sound pictures are "fiops." With
out the noisy accompaniment they
would be Missed of any village screen.
But the public takes to them, neverthe-
less.
Actors who can make the Presidents
American language behave are in de-
mand. The frigid zero hour is nigh for
Hollywoods B. B. D. beautiful but
dumb. The movie mart is freighted
with young men and women who have
learned to do exactly what the director
tells them and at the right time. Only
a few ever discovered what In the name
of horse sense it's all about.
What the lusty voices of directors
bawl for Is a voice. articulate, musical.
refined and we'll modulated. At the
same time the speaker must be an
actor and not unpleasant to the eye.
Candidates for this position are rare
enough. Consider that in the several
years in which the public has cast its
critical Spectacles on the audiovision
scene. only -one-Al Jolson-has been
admitted TO the ranks of high-powered
stardom. It's whispered about that the
crooner who used to sing on the streets
of Washingtons Southwest Is drawing
pay roll in the seventh place of
bank digits.
Now much midnight oil and kilowatt
juice has been expended in a profound
study of how the blackface comedian
and his hackers did the trick. The
value of THE jazz Singer" without
sound is assumed to be only 20 per
cent. The public had already seen and
heard talking sequence in The Better
Ole" but the human appeal was not
emphatic.
After lot of banter the diagnostic
minds pronounced judgment. w..
made The jazz Singer q great pic
ture," they said, was the novel sound
of an emotional heart talking and sing
ing to mother, the soul-stirring chords
OF Nanny believing out from what
seemed to be a real human mouth,
tearing the strings that bind every
mother to her son and bringing Q tear
storm into the eyes"
Even though audiovision should in
crease theater attendance, grave re-