Dear Editor Concerning the article It Will Record - a Tribute To The Nagra which seems to have led to a somewhat irrelevant letter, concluding with a rather insulting comment concerning part of the article written by our AMPS hard working editor. Bob is absolutely right in saying that it most certainly was the policy of at least one studio in the late 1940s/early 1950s to post synch all dialogue recorded on location as a matter of course. I know that was the policy of the Rank Organisation at Pinewood at that time because I was offered a job with the post synch unit which was responsible for that job of post synch all location dialogue as soon as it reached the studio. I gratefully declined the offer which seemed to be one of the most boring occupations imaginable. As for the unnecessarily insulting comment about working on documentaries, that type of sound recordists’ s work can be difficult and interesting, providing some opportunities for innovative experiments with different types of microphones or equipment which would not be possible when working on expensive features, quite apart from the fact that a sound recordist working on a documentary is very much alone in every way. PETER HANDFORDSuffolk
Dear Editor I have read Bob Allen’s Tribute To The Nagra article in issue 34 of the AMPS Newsletter. This is certainly a fitting tribute if ever there was one and so well deserved. In Bob’s article, he made references to the acquisition of location sound (in the period 1950 / 1960) by the major studio sound departments and states that the policy was to record a guide track for later post sync. This drew a sharp reply from Ken Osborne (issue 35), pointing out how hard the Sound Department at ABPC, under Tony Lumkin, worked to produce usable location sound. The ABPC Sound Department employed some very talented people both on the floor and in post production, as did the Sound Departments of the other major studios, and I have no doubt that what Ken says is correct. I started as a Production Runner working for Mirisch / United Artists at MGM British in 1968 and stayed there working on Man’s Fate, the Fred Zinneman picture that was cancelled about one week before the start of shooting. During this time I got to know several of MGM’s Production Mixers and Boom Operators very well, and this I repeated when working at Shepperton and Pinewood. | The Rank Organisation did appear to post-sync all location dialogue in the Rank films of the 1950s / 1960s, certainly all the ones I can bring to mind. If I watch on TV a British film made during the 1950s I 1960s most location dialogue appears to be post sync. Therefore I think that Bob Allen is correct in his views, and Ken Osborne correct in his. Yours sincerely GORDON THOMSON (Sound Recordist)South Ruislip
Dear Editor A propos recent Newsletter correspondence, it may not be inappropriate to consider come not too distant history; the reason d’etre for an unhealthy situation being entirely vested interests - evenjobs for the boys! It is absolutely true that Tony Lumkin was unique in his untiring efforts to use location recordings wherever possible, giving enormous encouragement to all his crews to use every possible opportunity and equipment to this end. It is regrettably true that another major studio disgracefully exploited every situation to further the income when active production was almost at a standstill, while the post production arm of the Sound Department was the only part of the complex to be making any money. It was a big ‘put-down’ to both boom operator and mixer to have a cynical and inept HoD say “...it seems to me Laddie that you have an awful lot of equipment there to try and get a few guide tracks”. As the doors of the plane thudded shut, it was nice to think that we were on our way to prove him wrong. Some thousand miles further on, and somewhere along the line, nice things said from the Director - even on very rare occasions from a Producer - when one could up the adrenaline on hearing some rushes that would deserve to end up in the cinema. Back at that studio: an even bigger put-down to see and hear that same dialogue being forced through the ADR bit, but a slight lift to know that one’s friendly dubbing editor would see both the original location dialogue and the post synch would be laid up on dialogues 1 & 2. Let the highly qualified dubbing mixer decide. So often Dialogue 2 did not get its chance, but the post synch theatre had paid off! The studios post synch dogma was an all too blatant racket that lasted all too long to keep the post synch theatre busy for no better reason than the studio’s bottom line. Again, thank you AMPS; we can say what we mean - and mean what we say. PETER T DAVIESZurich |
