chris@sloth.bc.ca (Chris Brougham) (06/20/91)
Ideology and Cinema Sound Technology - Part 3
Nagra Tape Recording
By 1952 close to 75% of Hollywood film sound recording and
editing was carried out on magnetic tape (Kellogg, 1967). This movement
away from photoelectric sound recording seems to have been the result of
a confluence of a number of technical, economic, and aesthetic factors.
Among these were: the availability of new magnetic recording
technologies from Occupied Germany and the resulting advancement of
magnetic tape manufacturing techniques in the United States; the
increased portability of equipment and elimination of laboratory
expenses in developing production optical tracks, which aided the
adoption of magnetic recording by reducing sound track budgets; and the
increased sound quality and dynamic range of magnetic tape (Ibid).
However, the early magnetic recording equipment was still too expensive,
bulky, technically complex, and consumed too much power to allow smaller
independent producers access. Although the technology had the potential
of removing exclusive control of sound film production from the major
studios, it was not until the development of the Nagra portable tape
recorder in 1959 by the Swiss firm Nagra-Kudelski that small budget
independent sound filmmaking was realized.
The modifications on the Nagra necessary to realize its
potential as a portable sound recorder for film came over a three year
period beginning in 1959 when Nagra-Kudelski introduced pilot tone
equipped tape recorders. This was augmented by research done by the
Technical Research Division of the National Film Board, which developed
devices that would allow the generation of control track voltages that
would synchronize a pilot tone equipped Nagra to a motion picture
camera's motor. The TRD also developed magnetic film play-back devices
to ensure synchronization (Epstein & O'Donnell, 1961).
Although the details of the pilot tone feature are complex, it
may briefly be described as a tone generated on the center of 1/4"
magnetic tape governed by variable voltages obtained from a generator
geared to the camera's motor. When the speed of the camera varies, a
corresponding decrease or increase is recorded on the Nagra's control
track via a cable connection. Synchronization is realized when the
audio tape is re-recorded on sprocketed magnetic tape through a device
called a synchronizer. Here the various motor fluctuations of the
camera, noted on the control track, are resolved by either speeding up
or slowing down the tape transfer. If the picture and sound start
points are initially noted, synchronization is maintained for the length
of the shot. With little fundamental change this is the basic method of
double-system film sound recording used today. However, the need for a
cable connection between the tape recorder and the camera proved to be
somewhat cumbersome and Nagra-Kudelski's introduction of crystal-sync
recording solved this problem. The advantage here is that the camera
has its own motor controlled by a highly accurate crystal while the tape
recorder generates its own 60 Hertz control track. This makes
connections between the two unnecessary.
The use of the Nagra system for sound recording initially had
its greatest impact in documentary film production. Early experiments
at the NFB, for example, were conducted in order to provide documentary
crews with battery operated sound recording equipment so that remote
areas could be covered (Epstein & O'Donnell, 1961). In addition, the
adoption of cable free crystal-sync allowed a great degree of freedom
between camera operator and sound recorder. This clearly played a major
role in the development of the cinema verite movement, which almost
exclusively adopted Nagra technology (Handzo, 1985).
The efficiency of this portable system was not lost on
Hollywood, however, and production companies began to adopt Nagra
recording equipment for all location shooting. Although the soundtrack
produced is often used as a guide track for later post-production
remixing and rerecording, some notable directors, especially Robert
Altman, use much of the unaltered original recorded sound. It is with
small independent filmmakers, however, that the technology has had its
most significant impact, and it is here where traditional
conceptualizations of the ideology of soundtrack production can be seen
to be highly problematic.
Since the primary function of Nagra technology is to hide the
materiality of the dual nature of the sound and image track by providing
a synchronous portable sound recording solution to filmmaking, it would
seem that the technology is inherently ideological within the framework
outlined by Doane. However, there are other features of the Nagra: it
is relatively inexpensive, highly portable, and easy to use. The Nagra
allows independent filmmakers access to sound film production, hitherto
the exclusive domain of large Hollywood production studios. From a
perspective that takes into consideration actual historical
circumstances surrounding this film sound technology, and focuses on the
actual usage of that technology, it seems that adoption of Nagra
technology, even though it does follow formal technological requirements
for a bourgeois ideological cinema, is in fact emancipating and
non-ideological because it breaks the ideology of professionalism that
surrounds Hollywood filmmaking. Since 16mm films had traditionally been
silent with inherently grainier images, films of this nature were
exclusively considered the realm of the "amateur." The introduction of
synchronous sound with 16mm film helped position this filmmaking
practice as an acceptable endeavour for the professional filmmaker, at
first along documentary lines aided by television, and later allowing
the independent production of feature length narrative sound films.
Although independent filmmaking is only a marginal activity in North
America, it is still healthy enough to provide a reminder to Hollywood
that there are other filmmaking practices that challenge the dominant
model structured through the ideology of professionalism. It may be
suggested then that this was not possible until the adoption of a
synchronous sound recording solution.
The other technology that hides the materiality of the
soundtrack, Dolby, has a rather different history and relation to
Hollywood's ideology of professionalism.
Dolby
The reduction of background noise in soundtrack production and
reproduction has always been a primary concern for audio engineers.
Since noise in optical soundtracks primarily occurs in the higher
frequencies, sound recording and reproduction practices were formulated
during the 1930's to reduce unwanted signal distortion by attenuating
sound by 20 dB at 9kHz. This "high frequency roll-off" was codified as
the "Academy characteristic" in 1938 and served as the chief means by
which Hollywood sound films dealt with noise (Allen, 1975). The
difficulty with this procedure is that it does not fully exploit the
dynamic range of the optical soundtrack, which has the potential of
extending the frequency to 16 kHz without the addition of significant
amounts of noise (Ibid). Additionally, theaters surveyed by Dolby
Laboratories in England during the early 1970's indicated that high
frequency attenuation was employed between 1 and 2 kHz; the result was a
severe loss of treble and corresponding "muddying" of the soundtrack
(Ibid).
Since the introduction of the Dolby Type A noise reduction
system in 1966, an effective means of reducing audio noise in high
frequencies has been available to audio engineers. Briefly, the Dolby
Type A system involves an initial "compression" encoding stage during
recording. This entails dividing the audio spectrum into four bands and
filtering each band to boost quiet signals while leaving louder signals
unaffected -- resulting in an increased signal to noise ratio. This has
the effect of suppressing background noise that competes with quiet
signals for an auditor's attention.
Since compression produces an audio spectrum in which all sound
levels are equally loud, an "unnatural" scenario is created. For
example, the difference between CBC stereo, which uses limited
compression, and local FM popular music radio stations, which
over-compress, may be readily perceived by comparing the presentation of
quiet passages of music. Quiet levels of music are presented quietly on
CBC whereas on CFOX quiet levels of music are as loud as the loudest
music. To avoid this the Dolby system includes a second "expansion"
decoding stage, during playback, which restores the original relative
audio levels still resulting in a corresponding reduction of noise.
An important feature of the Dolby system is its applicability in
the production of stereo optical tracks, and this helped to propel the
system into widespread adoption. Dolby system stereo sound is realized
by applying the Dolby system to modifications of Frayne's (1955) system
of dual optical tracks representing left and right stereophonic
channels. Since Frayne's system requires optical tracks that are 50%
narrower than monophonic tracks an increase in noise results from the
smaller area in which to record. Adoption of the Dolby system solves
this problem by increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the optical
track to a level that compares favourably to magnetic tape (Uhlig,
1973). Prior to the adoption of the Dolby system, stereophonic sound
was only available on expensive magnetic film. Since optical sound
printing is considerably cheaper than magnetic sound, stripping the
former system is generally favoured, and the adoption of the Dolby
system was seen as creating a fairly inexpensive stereophonic sound
solution.
It is generally agreed (Schreger, Handzo et al.) that what
propelled the Dolby system into universal adoption by Hollywood
production companies, and almost universal adoption by large theaters,
was the financial success of films such as Star Wars and Close
Encounters of the Third Kind, both of which employed the system along
the recording chain and, in Dolby equipped theaters, in the reproduction
stage. The common explanation for the rapid adoption of the system is a
supply and demand argument which generally states that audiences had
long been accustomed to high fidelity sound reproduction at home, and
that Hollywood sound practice could not compare; when Star Wars was
released with high fidelity stereophonic sound ("in selected theaters")
audiences then demanded that all movies be made this way. The Dolby
system does improve the dynamic range of the optical track, and
audiences can clearly perceive this; but this is not a full explanation
for the system's success since it fails to consider the marketing
strategies Dolby Laboratories engaged in. These included promotion of
the system and a design that emphasized low cost and relative ease with
which the system could be adopted.
Consumers of electronic products had been aware of the Dolby
system since the introduction of Dolby Type B consumer noise reduction
circuitry for compact cassette tape recorders in 1971. When Star Wars
and other Dolby encoded stereophonic films were released, the Dolby logo
was prominently displayed in promotional material and theaters promoted
themselves as being "Dolby Equipped." It seems rather odd why Dolby
rather than Nagra would receive so much attention on the level of
promotion since magnetic tape recording also had a profound impact on
presentation by increasing location shooting and thus the variety of
visual spaces depicted in narrative film. However, since Dolby did mean
something to consumers who had exposure to the consumer Dolby system,
whereas the Nagra didn't, it may be suggested that rather than supply
and demand exclusively creating the desire for Dolby, it was also the
promotional strategy conducted by Dolby to create a desire for itself.
Promotion was not, of course, limited to the movie goer. The
Dolby Laboratories promotional campaign began in the early 1970's,
before wide spread adoption of the system, with motion picture trade
journals publishing articles on the system and advertisements
proclaiming "The Dolby System: An important advance in audio technology
permits better motion picture soundtracks to be madenn" (Dolby
Laboratories, 1973). In the Journal of the SMPTE, these advertisements,
along with a proliferation of technical articles on the Dolby system,
stand in stark contrast to the rather scant promotional literature and
technical treatment of Nagra magnetic tape recording since its
introduction in 1959.
Although the entire sound production and reproduction chain must
be constructed with the Dolby system in mind for complete success, the
additional expense is not too daunting. In 1978 Schreger (1985)
estimated that an additional $25,000 was needed to dub a film in Dolby
and $5,000 to convert a theater to Dolby stereo if there was existing
stereo amplification equipment installed. As well, the system is
designed so that only minor technical modifications are necessary to the
sound heads on existing monaural equipment to convert to Dolby, and
during reproduction of monaural optical prints the system may be
bypassed and Academy roll-off applied. Since there is backward
compatibility, a simple upgrade path, and little additional expense, the
system was in widespread use by the early 1980's. Although the supply
and demand model does play an important role, it should not be forgotten
that a great deal of marketing and design strategies were involved in
order to realize the system's adoption.
Doane has discussed the implication of the Dolby system in light
of the overall ideological programme of Hollywood film sound practice,
and he finds that "technological advances in sound recording (such as
the Dolby system) are aimed at diminishing the noise in the system,
concealing the work of the apparatus, and thus reducing the distance
perceived between the object and its representation" (Doane 1985b).
Once again it is difficult to see how the apparatus is concealed when
the Dolby system itself is directly marketed to audiences. It seems
that the problem with Doane's argument is that there is still too much
attention given to the form of Hollywood film rather than its
socio-historical position. That is, within a realist filmmaking
strategy, ideally the apparatus should be concealed. Yet Hollywood
filmmaking cannot exclusively be analyzed in realist terms. Most
Hollywood films are not really positioned as art, instead they are much
more like products, and all products have features such as Technicolor,
Bruce Willis, or Dolby sound. Doane's mistake (and to a certain extent
Comolli's) is to analyze Hollywood cinema in terms exclusive to a
modernist artistic practice rather than viewing Hollywood cinema
primarily as a product to be consumed. There must be a balance
maintained between formal and sociological analyses when dealing with
Hollywood cinema.
The introduction of the Dolby system is problematic not because
it conceals the apparatus helping to create the perfect cinematic
illusion; rather, Dolby is ideological in the same way the Nagra is not.
The marketing of the Dolby system has created sound recording and
reproduction practices that exclude the independent filmmaker. Whereas
$25,000 is a small proportion of a $5,000,000 budget for a very low cost
Hollywood film, it represents a considerable proportion of a $200,000
independent feature. Since audiences have now come to expect Dolby
stereo, the ideology of professionalism has ensured that Hollywood films
are not effectively challenged by independent filmmaking. Moreover, the
demand and praise of the Dolby system is explained fully only when the
system is analyzed within the parameters that surround its use.
Filmmakers (Altman) and theorists (Schreger, Handzo) who praise the
system fail to take into account the emergence of Dolby within an
identifiable socio-historical moment. They also create the impression
that sound prior to the Dolby system's introduction was in a sorry
state of affairs and that Dolby Laboratories rescued sound from the
straightjacket of the Academy roll-off. This is true in a purely
technical sense, but care and attention in soundtrack production is
evident in Rene Clair's work in the 1930's, Orson Welles' work in the
1940's and, of course, Jean-Luc Godard's work. Creative use of sound
does not primarily rely on technological advance; instead it is the
result of individual and collective practice.
End of Part 3
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chris brougham
chris@sloth.bc.ca