 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of Fantasound, I'd like to share my new article on the first year of stereophonic motion pictures. I hope that you enjoy it!
http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/the-first-year-of-stereophonic-sound
There's a lot of wrong information on-line and this is new research from documented, primary source materials which include studio production files.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Nov 19, 2015 - 6:52 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
manderley
(Member)
|
Hi Bob......
A very nice round-up of the first 365 days of stereo sound---although I was at first confused because I actually viewed some other spherical films in stereo in 1953: ESCAPE FROM FORT BRAVO, ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT, EASY TO LOVE, but then I realized you didn't mean the calendar year of 1953 ending on December 31).
Now here's a theoretical question for you.
I saw/heard BLOWING WILD and ISLAND IN THE SKY in WarnerPhonic Sound in their original runs, with interlocked fullcoat mag 3-channel.
Since proper WarnerPhonic sound requires the 4th surround channel to be an optical track on the projectable 35mm picture print, doesn't this mean that any showing of a flat, non-3D film in a special WarnerPhonic engagement, of necessity does NOT have a back-up mixed track to go to in case of emergency, since the 4th surround channel takes this position on the projection print?
Though the mag 3-channel fullcoats of these WarnerPhonic pictures are likely long-gone and unrecoverable, couldn't we extrapolate from this surround channel requirement that if you could find (at the MP Academy, Library of Congress, UCLA Archive, etc.) a 35mm release print with ONLY the surround optical track (instead of the mixed track) , that channel could be captured and used (as was done for HOUSE OF WAX) to recreate at least a little of the stereo ambience for these two films?
(I hesitate to include CALAMITY JANE in this group as I'm still not sure whether we've ascertained a WarnerPhonic track for that film, but the same "single print with surround track" situation would apply here as well.)
An interesting sub-genre of this stereo discussion relates to the music tracks and their mixes in the films. Many of the music session tracks in the '50s films were mostly recorded in 3-track stereo even though the film may never have been released in that fashion.
Some of these stereo music session tracks were archived in stereo, but others (early '50s MGM, virtually all Warners) were dubbed down to mono after the feature mix was made (in mono or stereo), and then they were archived as mono masters and the original stereo elements erased and the mag stock re-used, or simply junked.
In dubbing these original tracks down to mono, however, it was likely that it was a straight across flat mix, treating each channel as equal in volume, whereas in the original mix for the mono film, the mixers still had the original 3-tracks and could vary the intensities and volumes, and thus spatial relationships of the various instrumentation when they made that original mono mix and combined it with dialog and effects.
Are you following? 
So.......since they utilized the exact same original mixing units (in stereo), the sound on the feature final release print as it relates to the intensity and positioning of the orchestral instruments MAY be different from the archived mono flat mixdowns. Thus, if today you were to line up these mono mixdowns with the feature's mixed track, at least the music MIGHT have a stereo ambience because the channels (even in mono) are positioned differently on each of the two elements.
This was discussed here about 12-or-so years ago, and some commenters were dubious, others thought it might be possible. In the intervening years, George Feltenstein and his crew remixed (for CD recording) the "Dancing the the Dark" number from THE BAND WAGON, apparently utilizing the mono mixdown music session master of the number and combining it with the actual film's soundtrack in that section. There are very few sound effects in this number, so that was not a big problem, and the stereo is quite evident---all from two mono mixed sources which had originally been stereo. George did it again with the main title to SUMMER HOLIDAY (1948), which has a nice stereo ambience now, although Leo's roar is on one channel only.
Fans of HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN on laserdisc discovered that if you played the final mono mixed track on one channel and the music/fx track on the other, a rudimentary and unmixed, but nice stereo effect was evident on the music sections, although the dialog was only on one channel.
If anyone even had the time and money to do it---at least a reel or so---it might be interesting to sync up and listen to some of these "lost" stereo feature soundtracks by combining the mono mixed track with the music/fx track and attempting a very rough stereo mix to test some of them.
This might not work in most cases, but I'll bet some match-ups would surprise you.
Keep up the good work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You make some very interesting points and it would be fascinating to research further.
I'm not entirely sure what was done on the non-3D Warnerphonic titles. My hunch is they went with three channel and a standard mono optical on the print. In other words, the effect track for the surrounds was dropped.
I doubt they would have taken a chance and not have a mono back-up if the dubber had problems.
I've written to my contact at WB and hope to get confirmation.
I'll most likely add the remaining 1953 titles to the article so it corresponds to the First Year of Widescreen page. I wanted to get this up quickly for FANTASIA's 75th.
Since most of these are lost, can you recall if the stereo mixes were very aggressive? I've found very little actual discussion of the dialogue and effects panning and would be very interested to hear your recollections. Thank you!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
