American Cinematographer - August 1990 - 49

Kodak and ORC's Cinema

Digi¬

tal Sound being adapted to
16mm. For the most part, if you
want to finish your show on film,

look is a harder, more electronic
look than the film look. The point

is,
on

if a filmed image is seen
television, the image has

even

still must transfer your audio
optical track, which is a
mono track with
very limited
frequency range, full of noise,

passed through the medium of
film, and thus its grain structure,

hiss and pops.
"Sound is such

I

stylization, of something once
removed from immediate reality.
So I think for any kind of produc¬
tion involving mood and truly
telling a story, film is a better
process."
Obviously conscientious
about sound, Engle fought hard
to bring the best possible audio
quality to Benny Carter: Symphony
in Riffs. Considering that the
source recordings spanned five
decades of changing recording
technology, the rich, even audio
track of the film is an impressive
accomplishment.

version of this show when I

"Some of the material
that plays in the background is
off CDs of one of Benny's albums,
but there was also material from

you

to 16mm

an

im¬

portant part of my shows, that I
try to have it both ways. This is
of the reasons I shoot film
and edit video - I have four
soundtracks on the final vide¬
one

otape version of the show."
But sound quality is not
the major hurdle between Engle
and full film finish. "When we

mastered, we also transferred all

key numbers to the video, so
theory we could go back and

our

in

reconstruct the film version. But

frankly doubt that I'm ever
going to do that," he laments. "I
put a lot of money into that, be¬
lieving I was going to have a film
was

tonal contrast and color satura¬
tion gives the viewer the sense of

DILEMMA
Blown.
The

light. The scene.
budget?
Unless you move quickly.
Last minute creative changes.
The spares won't do.
The clock is ticking.
The

done. I'm a filmmaker, I think like
a filmmaker, and I want to end up
with a piece of film when I'm
finished. But you end up having
to finish the show twice, and it
becomes very expensive. Maybe
in another year or two, when
some of these other translation

some

systems become more refined,
people will be able to finish on

ness," Engle says. "We would
record in stereo, but in little

sockets, quanK, HMI,

film

nightclubs and such, it's hard to
get good audio. Placement is dif¬

Mole Richardson distributor.

easily. I believe very
firmly in film, and I don't want to
see us
slip totally into some kind
more

of electronic age.

"Storage of electronic
images is still so fragile, and not
well understood, so they will
degenerate. I have referred to a
35mm piece of film I found that
was
exposed in Cuba in 1898. It
was awesome to
put that original
piece of camera negative on a
Rank and be able to pull a good,
sharp, pristine, like-today image

very old records," he says.
"We did some reprocessing, to
clean them up and get the best
sound we could from them."
The mix was done with
Ed Greene at Complete Post.
"Greene is recognized as one of
the best sound people in the busi¬

sorts of

things

-

Bulbs. Lens.

supplier.

Specialty

"To Go". Immediate

Same

pickup.
day shipment.

just getting it

down is half the trick. The other
half is knowing how to filter it,
how to flesh it out, make the tone
a little richer, all of which are

legitimate recording techniques
to bring the very best range and

The

source

with the

answers

BARBIZON

HI

tone to the music.

"In

Washington, we had
and we re¬

stereo mikes up,

corded, but

Engle's passion for film
goes beyond storage considera¬
tions, however. "I'm certainly not
the only person who's ever talked

ally unusable because the acous¬

that, at least as of today ,the video

Barbizon.
The complete now

ficult. There's ambient sound,
trucks driving by outside, all

off it."

about the film look versus the
video look. There's no question

SOLUTION

tics of the

our

audio

was

room were so

virtu¬

terrible.

This was a giant marble exhibi¬
tion hall - the worst place pos¬
sible for a big band - and the
whole room just reverberates
with a mushy, blurred sound.

New York: 426 W. 55 St., NY 10019
(212)586-1620 FAX: (212) 247-8818
New

England: 3 Draper St.,

Woburn, MA 01801
(617)935-3920 EAX:(617) 935-9273
South: 2401 Mercer Ave.,
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
(407) 833-2020 FAX:(407) 83-DELTA

Capitol: 6437G Gen. Green Way,
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(703) 750-3900 FAX:(703) 750-1448
TELEX: 226 000 ETLXUR BARBIZON

August 1990

47
American Cinematographer - August 1990

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 1990
