Music+Fits+The+Films

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=How Music is Made to Fit the Films= (1917/18) Setting the "movies" to music, or, more correctly speaking, setting music to the "movies" is an art in itself. When one witnesses some especially thrilling photo-play the music and the action on the screen usually synchronize so perfectly that the spectator is scarcely conscious of the accompanying music until it ceases. Moving-picture promoters in Cleveland have made a special study of this musical feature. The Spitalny brothers- there are three of them- conduct the orchestras at three of the photo-play theaters, where the music is made to fit the film, and the Cleveland //Plain Dealer// declares: It is a trick and an art, this arranging a musical setting for a photo-play- a trick to record the memorandum as the film flashes past, an art to arrange the orchestration, synchronize it, and, finally, offer it with an orchestra. The general scheme of arranging and directing corresponds in all cases. Some, perhaps, are a trifle more elaborate in working out their detail. But the general plan is identical. This is the way it is done: When a new film is booked for an engagement the print to be used is sent on a week ahead for a private screening. This may occur in a private projection-room, in the theater proper before the performance time, or in the studio of some film exchange. In any instance, it is at the private screening the work of the musical director begins. it is there he lays the foundation for his next week's score. The picture is projected at the same speed at which it will be shown to the public. As the scenes flash across the screen, the director jots down his notes as to varying incidents and characters. Three or four of the leading characters are selected as vital to the action. Varying themes may be given them, character themes, in fact; or the basic principle of the play may be themed, theme of idea. Elaborate notes are made as to the varying scenes, with memoranda whether the action is fast or deliberate, long or short, and what characters participate in them. This is the working model, as it were, the skeleton, upon which the director fastens his themes and builds up a musical composition to fit the performance. Then comes the real task- the arranging of the score. The average feature of the program presented to-day runs from five to ten reels, with an average of 1,000 feet of film to a reel. The six- and seven-reel feature is employed as frequently as any. The total of musical numbers selected in making up the score for such an offering may number from eighty to one hundred different compositions, irrespective of repetitions; the number is never less than from forty to fifty. When these arrangements are completed, the music selected, the themes worked out, the cuttings indicated, and the rough version of the setting is ready, then comes the second showing of the film, which is reviewed by the director and the pianist. Then, says //The Plain Dealer//: The music is made to fit. Some bits may be found to be too long; some may run too briefly; all this is noted, tried, rearranged, and, finally, when the session is ended, the score has been synchronized to a nicety. The musical arrangement is reviewed. The part for each of the various instruments is made to correspond with the master score. Then, when this is done, all is ready for the dress rehearsal, at which not only orchestra and operators, but stage-hands, electricians, and others may be present. Hyman Spitalny takes a wide view of the responsibilities of the musical director of a photo-play, for, he says: He is a conductor, in fact, not only of the music but of all other departments. The director's desk at the Stillman is equipped with telephone connections to all parts of the house, a, series of buzzers for signaling, and a speedometer, which assist materially in synchronizing during the actual performance. When the time of a performance arrives the stage buzzer is signaled for lights out. The orchestra starts. The operator is signaled, the film is projected on the black curtain, the curtain is signaled and withdrawn, and the projection curtain displayed. All these signals are sent from the director's desk. Here at the Stillman we employ a speedometer for synchronizing. One of these is on my desk; another is attached to the machine in the projection-room, while still another is installed in the manager's office, that he may check the running time if he desires. This machine has a double index-sheet, on which the footage per minute is indicated, and, at the same time, the minutes per thousand feet. Usually we run about 1,000 feet to sixteen minutes. [[|1]] Of course, actual projecting time, may vary a bit, due to one reason or another, and we may find, in the midst of a scene, that it is necessary to change the tempo of the film in order to preserve the musical setting. I signal by the buzzer, and the speed of projection is changed to suit the occasion. And it is thus that time, effort, and any dollars are expended on that part of the picture-play which really appeals only to the subconsciousness of the spectator. The Spitalnys are the pioneer photo-play musicians in Cleveland. They have assembled a musical library containing completed orchestrations valued at $15,000. //The Plain Dealer// says: In the setting to //The Woman God Forgot//, Geraldine Farrar's spectacle of the Aztec days, $700 worth of music was used, while the numbers employed in Nazimova's //War-Brides// approximated the same.

1 "1,000 feet to sixteen minutes" works out to 62.5 feet per minute, or a projection speed of 16 frames per second.

//"//How Music is Made to Fit the Films," //Literary Digest//, January 26, 1918, page 58.

=The Theme Song=

Synchronization of a Film Is a Far More Delicate Task Than Ordinary Orchestral Accompaniment -How to Counterfeit Sounds
By David Mendoza (1929) Since the advent of sound pictures, the theme song has become one of the integral factors- one might almost say the key factor- about which a photoplay score is constructed. While in some cases the musical setting of a picture is developed in advance of actual production, especially with those films which, like //The Broadway Melody//, have original numbers interwoven with and sung as a part of the story, nevertheless in the majority of recent pictures the scoring has been a separate task. The unusual facilities of the Capitol Theatre musical library, now transported to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer New York studio, have been of great aid in the preparation of musical scores for new productions. Major Edward Bowes, managing editor of the Capitol Theatre and recently in joint charge with Louis K. Sidney of the M-G-M Eastern studio, has made a specialty of a finely equipped reference library. Most of the silent films made in Hollywood are sent East for synchronization. Our product is handled at the uptown sound studio, where one of the large sound-proof stages is devoted entirely to work of its kind. William Axt, with whom I did the Broadway scores for //The Big Parade//, //Ben Hur// and other pictures, has collaborated with me on virtually all the synchronizations, worked out at the New York studio. Our first step is to preview the picture, thus getting an accurate idea of the mood, atmosphere and general type of music required for the film. In all probability this first showing will also suggest a theme number, which we will work out together. Directly after the preview of the picture we plot out a cue sheet, comprising definite suggestions about pieces that seem to fit into the schemes of the orchestrations. The musical library is next visited. The filing cabinets here classify practically all existing music- sacred, profane, old-fashioned and jazz. One classification tabulates all music according to composers: Bach, Beethoven, Irving Berlin, and so on. Another lists everything according to mood: joy, anger, sorrow, and the like. Another gives the style of the music (waltzes, lullabys, fox trots) while still another grouping indicates what music is humorous, nautical, religious or inspirational. There are still other files, including one arranging all music nationally. In each listing one can find the score both for orchestra and for piano. Some orchestrations are made up largely of original music or original "blendings" composed by Mr. Axt or myself. Other scores consist almost entirely of carefully interwoven excerpts from various existing music. The cue sheet always explains just what music, of course, is the vital factor for perfect synchronization. Several recordings, i.e., from two to ten, are required for each reel of a film that is being synchronized. Once in a long while an orchestra may get every note and sound across perfectly the first time; not a single discordant murmur is audible to the check-up man listening intently in the monitor room adjoining the sound-proof stage. But even then a second "canning" is advisable, More frequently the number of recordings runs to four, five or six. The synchronization of a picture is, needless to say, a far more delicate job than the ordinary orchestral accompaniment, because in the sound-proof room the tiniest error is caught up and magnified. A rustling of a garment may necessitate the rerecording of an entire reel, and a cough or sneeze is fatal. If a trombonist is half a note off key, if a violin squeaks, or a musician taps on the floor with his shoe, the supervigilant microphones are sure to include this noise with the music. Such sound effects as the noise of a steam boiler, the blowout of an automobile tire, or the clanging of a siren are worked in as part of the score, along with the music. This process is suitable only for the score-sound effects type of picture, and not for the all-dialogue or all-singing production. The theme song of a picture not only establishes a mood, and often popularizes a title, but has added substantially to the music business. All songs written for the new films- and this means a dozen or more weekly- are circulated on a wide scale and often attain tremendous popularity. Two of the numbers from "The Broadway Melody" are ranked near the top, I believe, of the present crop of musical best-sellers. The average motion picture that is synchronized requires the blending together of between a hundred and a hundred and fifty different musical numbers. In//Our Dancing Daughters//, a recent release, there were 135 separate musical numbers, 90 of which were original pieces of composition. It is the theory of Major Bowes that the ideal score should resemble an opera. Each line should be as highly individualized as possible, fitted to the changing atmospheric background of the film. The problem is how to obtain the best score after the picture has been completed; of course it is manifestly impractical to prepare a score for 100,000 feet of "working film" and later cut this to 8,000 feet. I believe that the future of sound and dialogue pictures, as well as of theme songs, will depend in large measure on the amount of taste and discretion used in adapting ourselves to new demands of production. There may be cheapness or artistry, haste or careful selectivity. Vocal sequences in a sound score are good, I feel, if done with restraint and with judgment; otherwise they may materially damage a photoplay. Sound effects interspersed with a film lend realism and human interest; on the other hand, there are many sounds that would be distinctly out of place. It is up to the supervisors of the musical score to exercise a sense of balance. One of the interesting factors in the recording of sound effects results from the counterfeiting of sounds. Certain noises, such as the firing of a bullet, will not reproduce on the screen unless a camouflage sound is used. We had to hunt about until we found a way to make a noise that sounded, paradoxically, more like a bullet than the bullet itself. No one can prophesy the future of sound pictures with any degree of certainty. From a musician's point of view, it seems to me that the addition of sound has been a great constructive step in bringing the best Broadway theatre orchestras to the smaller community. Every picture will have the best possible score, not merely a slapdash accompaniment used alike for comedy, tragedy, or melodrama. Sound effects lend an air of authenticity and realism to hundreds of situations. Talking pictures have attracted much favorable and much adverse comment and must work out their own destiny. Technical perfection in recording is very near, and one must remember the far greater scope and popular appeal of such films as contrasted to the theatre. But we are past the point where they can hope to succeed through novelty alone. The quality dialogue picture must be judged by exactly the same standards as the silent film or the stage play. Original article by David Mendoza, 1929. David Mendoza, "The Theme Song," //American Hebrew//, March 15, 1929, page 124. © 1997, David Pierce, on editing and revisions (if any)