[78-L] film request for a silent 78 side

[DanKj]

In an episode of Jeeves & Wooster (BBC), there's an Orthophonic Victrola playing a 
Whiteman record, and it sounded authentic


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "joe at salerno.com" <jsalerno at earthlink.net>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 12:48 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] film request for a silent 78 side


> OK, that's 2 for the visual channel.
>
> joe salerno
>
>
> David Lennick wrote:
>> They looked correct in "The Harmonists" but sounded awfully scratchy for what
>> were supposed to be brand new Electrola pressings.
>>
>> I may have been incorrect about the machine in "Out of Africa" (can't remember
>> whether it was external or internal) but not about the 70s LP on the turntable.
>>
>> dl
>>
>> joe at salerno.com wrote:
>>> 99.99%? Really?
>>>
>>> I think that is optimiistic. (no pun intended, optical having been
>>> discussed in regards to MOS)
>>>
>>> Has there EVER been a scene in a movie, excluding documentaries about
>>> playing grammo records, that DOES accurately depict a record CU on
>>> screen being played?
>>>
>>> Can anyone name even one?
>>>
>>> joe salerno
>>>
>>>
>>> David Lennick wrote:
>>>> If they were doing live television, that would make sense, but films are shot
>>>> from various angles and takes are intercut, so the source music can't possibly
>>>> be live from "the source".
>>>>
>>>> Even so, it's great (and unheard of) to find someone actually trying to get the
>>>> right materials for a scene involving phonograph records, which are
>>>> misrepresented 99.99 percent of the time. An external horn gramophone was seen
>>>> in "Out of Africa", with a close-up of a record with an HMV label. A 70s LP.
>>>>
>>>> dl
>>>>
>>>> Chris Zwarg wrote:
>>>>> At 21:14 12.10.2008, you wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Joe wrote,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I don't get it - just use any record
>>>>>> Hmmm, Joe, nobody, seems to have understood what the film producer wants
>>>>>> to do....
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The way I understand it, as she says there's a problem for the sound
>>>>>> dept., she wants to film a needle being placed on a rotating 78, then
>>>>>> the camera pans back to film the actors/dialogue, all in one take.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So, they don't want music bellowing out from the gramophone while the
>>>>>> actors speak (they will dub some quiet music in later).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now do you see why they want a 'silent' 78 ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So, can anyone help the producer?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> John
>>>>> IMHO, they should find a "suitably quiet" 78 with music fitting the mood of 
>>>>> the scene, maybe put a "soft" or "pianissimo" needle on, and record dialogue 
>>>>> AND music in the same take. This way, the music will actually sound like music 
>>>>> coming out of a gramophone, which I presume is what they want to achieve - if 
>>>>> that gramophone is not supposed to play music in the volume and tone quality 
>>>>> such a machine will typically produce, the scene setup is somehow silly, isn't 
>>>>> it? The "natural" volume of the gramophone music should be low enough that the 
>>>>> actors can easily hear each other, so the sound recordist should have no 
>>>>> problem to pick the dialogue up clearly; if OTOH the music is so loud as to 
>>>>> mask the dialogue, that merely shows that the characters *could just not have 
>>>>> been talking the way they do standing next to the machine, as they wouldn't 
>>>>> have understood each other*, and they shouldn't try and film it that way, 
>>>>> pretending the gramophone sounds more softly than it does.
>>>>>
>>>>> Chris Zwarg
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>
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