The journey down the A4 from London to Technicolor is one I always embark on with some trepidation. I have been making this pilgrimage on a fairly regular basis for over 30 years and the Technicolor chimney is one of the few landmarks on this stretch of the Bath Road that does not change with the regularity of the seasons. It does however appear to move further away from London, Triffid fashion, every time I turn my back.
On the 19th July, twenty of us gathered in a room very close to that chimney, guests of Paul Stapley-Tovey and James Winterbon, both AMPS members and Technicolor employees, who had arranged this evening to show us the final stage of producing a film soundtrack - the optical negative. The optical negative is the essence of all our labours. It could be said that our very reputations hang on each and every mod, be it analogue or digital.
We were fed and watered to a very high standard, as is Technicolor's custom, prior to being divided into two groups to tour the laboratory and then to take a very detailed look at the optical camera and the resulting track. Following this in-depth explanation we went into Technicolor's preview theatre to listen to sections of the sound tracks (with their associated pictures) of Braveheart and First Knight, both hard hitting (loud!) action movies, comparing analogue with digital, Dolby with Sony and vice versa. Tim Partridge from Dolby, also an AMPS member, joined us at this stage to help sort out and answer some of our many questions.
Due to restricted space we had to limit this expedition to only twenty. Perhaps Paul and James could be coerced into arranging another evening in the not too distant future, allowing those of our members who were unable to attend on this occasion to enjoy Technicolor's generosity and be exposed to the intricacies of optical sound.
I think the editor of the Newsletter was expecting a technical diatribe explaining such things as the meaning of cross mods, flux meters and exactly how an optical track is produced. I have to tell him, and you dear reader, this information is available on application to Technicolor's sound department on 0181 759 5432 !