Brian Simmons & Maurice Smith
After the fiasco of last year's awards and the subsequent input of AMPS, the CGGB and BFC, I would have hoped for an improvement in the programme and regard for the Craft nominees and winners. But no! This year, hosted by Julian Cleary - a dubious improvement on Ruby Wax, continued the theme of patronising the Crafts, failure to recognise the nominees and passing over the winners as quickly as possible to get back to the tele-fodder of 'celebrity'.
The importance that the Awards' producers placed on the Crafts was demonstrated by the ostensibly 'impromptu' going-outside of the Hilton to secure the services of a taxi driver as a potential presenter - he was dismissed after being subjected to a thinly disguised mickey-take; and then bringing in 'off the street' a passing Dutch businessman to make one of the presentations. He acquitted himself well, scoring a point on the assembled company by admitting that whilst he was sure they had awards in Holland, he never watched TV! A wise man, if this BBC presentation was on offer.
As last year, many awards were skated over rapidly behind the end credits, the banter between Cleary, the taxi driver and the business man obviously being better value airtime.
At least the protestations after last year may have had some effect; next year TV and Movie Awards will be two separate ceremonies. However I rather doubt that the Crafts will be given any more prominence than hitherto, and I'm confident that the full coverage of the the 'glitterati' will preclude the Craft nominees being fully acknowledged!
Whilst in the general area of lack of recognition of the Crafts, how about the seeming lack of recognition of sound in movies in particular? It does seem strange to me that one of the most important components of the movie-going experience is not acknowledged in the title credits. The contribution of Sound is lumped together in the seemingly endless list of end credits along with caterers, drivers, construction, assistant to assistant whoever etc etc, and of about equal importance. Not that these crew members don't make a contribution but would the absence of any of then have the same effect as the absence of sound?
The 'Sound Experience' is now a major component of the cinema presentation; audiences are more discerning, and with the growth of more sophisticated home systems these audiences are becoming more critical. Bad sound detracts from a good movie, good sound sometimes can help a poor movie, but what is blindingly obvious, or should be to those of us in AMPS, is that Sound is an important intrinsic component of films as cinematography, picture editing, costume and set design, and those innumerable Associate, Line, Executive Producers, Casting Agents et al.
It was a rare pleasure to see that the French movie Ridicule had a full screen front credit for sound the three names who I assume were the Rerecording Mixer, Supervising Sound Editor and Production Mixer. Full marks to the Producer for recognising that he had a Sound Movie!
Another important factor is that with sound recognised on the front titles, the standing of our craft is raised, and perhaps we would see an improvement in the way our colleagues, not in our area of expertise, view our contribution.
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Brian Simmons & Maurice Smith |
The informative article in the March Newsletter on Production Sound for Evita brought back memories of my first venture into movie-musicals, The Boy Friend, back in 1972. Crystal-controlled camera motors and Nagra pulse were all in their infancy and everything was referenced to mains. Playback was from 1/4" tape with all the attendant problems of marking-up ever changing cue-points, usually 'in the heat of the battle'! Not a happy time for the playback operator, Maurice Smith, who would be the first in the firing line for the fallout from the wrath of Ken Russell, a Director not noted for his patience and forbearance.
Production planning for sound playback for the large number of 'live' on-stage and BusbyBerkley-style 'fantasy' sequences was virtually non existent, being of the 'we'll give you some 1/4" lifts from the Master 35' variety. I viewed the shoot with some trepidation, and as neither I, or any of my crew could read music, a way of making ourselves reasonably fireproof was needed. Fortunately I was able to get access to the Musical Director, Peter Greenwell and asked if he could be present when the transfer from 35mm to 1/4" playback was made. Utilising a Nagra 4S, track 1 would carry the music, and track 2 would carry a count by Peter, as annotated on the sheet music, each bar idented by a letter alphabetically, followed by the remaining counts in the bar, viz "A-two-three-four, B-two-three-four, C etc etc." Thus everyone had a specific start point to work to, not the vague "let's go to dum-dum-de-dum'. Track 2 could be faded in as required and pips were not needed except at the start of the number.
I don't recall there ever being a problem if there were more than twenty-six bars of music; I guess we must have doubled up the lettering! The system worked well and was of value to the Music Editor, though I doubt if it was ever used again.
Another non-technical device was a pair of flags, one red and the other green, which we gave to Ken Russell to signal 'stop' or 'go' as we had the occasional breakdown in verbal communication, due to the high levels on playback! Even then, according to Ken, Maurice always got it wrong!
BRIAN SIMMONS