sountrack area on 16 and 35

[Enrique Lombana]

I was recently on a film set and the dp said that the sountrack part is never used during filming. It is just for holding the spot for later when the soundtrack is added.

 

Now I understand the sound is captured on a dat/board but isn't the soundtrack area used on some shoots to record the sound directly, or would that only apply to low, low budget stuff?

 

Thanks

Enrique

[David Mullen ASC]

Super-16 and Super-35 both expose picture information into the soundtrack area, hence why they are not theatrical projection formats and the footage has to be converted into post into a standard projection format.

 

Some old 16mm newsreel cameras (like Auricons, some CP16's, etc.) used to record audio onto the soundtrack area, that's about it. And of course, Super-8 sound cameras did that. But it was a pain to deal with in film editing since your picture and sound are not at the same place on the roll, but offset by a number of frames (i.e. the sound recording head was not in the same place as the film gate).

[Enrique Lombana]

Thanks again! :rolleyes:

[Leo Anthony Vale]

Some old 16mm newsreel cameras (like Auricons, some CP16's, etc.) used to record audio onto the soundtrack area, that's about it.

 

There were 35mm newsreel cameras that had single system optical sound. They were used from the late 20s into the 50s, when portable magnetic recorders appeared.

 

the Wall was the most common, used by fox Movietone & others. also the Audio Akeley & devry sound.

The Devry sound:

 

 

The Wall:

 

 

 

The taller cameras are Audio Akeleys:

 

[Enrique Lombana]

Great pics, thanks! :rolleyes: