[78-L] Mit-Out Sound

[Michael Biel]

From: "DanKj" <edisone1 at verizon.net>
> Motor-only sync, is what I've read.

This makes no sense because if there is no sound being recorded there is
nothing to sync with.

From: "Ron L'Herault" <lherault at verizon.net>
>> MOS, Mute onstage sound?

Makes even less sense!

> "Mit Out Sound" is more amusing, of 
> course !

Quite true, and I think that it IS quite true.  See below.

>> A scene shot
>> with sound is SOF or Sound on Film. Maybe they used
>> MOS instead of "Silent" because they wanted another
>> three-letter acronym to go with SOF, I dunno.


Only cheap TV stations and film schools used things like Auricons which
record the sound on the film during filming.  REAL pros always use
double-system sound which records the sound on a separate medium, such
as mag-film, quarter-inch tape or digital tape.  So the opposite of SOF
is "double-system", not "silent".  One other phrase to mention is "wild
sound" which is sound that recorded without any synchronization with the
camera.


>> dl, yes indeed, MOS stands for Mit-Out Sound,
>> referring to the German directors prevalent in the
>> film industry during the late silent-early talkie era.
>> I found this in several textbooks when I was a film
>> production student back in the '70s.
>> Randy Skretvedt


From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>>>Is there any truth to the oft-told story that the
>> term MOS dates back
>>>to many years ago when a producer of ethnic
>> background said that >he wanted the scene shot MIT OUT
>> SOUND?
>>>
>>>dl


The director in question was Erich Von Stroheim, and I heard this story
from professionals who were old enough to have been there.  


Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com