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Reviews
Blossom Seeley and Bennie Fields (1927)
Remarkable Performance
A few technical observations: In the 'Vitaphone' process - which involved a 16 inch phono turntable mechanically slaved to a movie projector, recording was normally done with 2 or 3 cameras running simultaneously - along with the disk recorder creating the master disk. Since the cameras were noisy, they were housed in soundproof housings the size of a large walk-in refrigerator. Usually, one camera was set up for a close up, one for mid-distance, and the last for a distance shot. Since the housings were quite large - they were immobile. All action had to take place at a fixed location. The records ran for the duration of one reel of 35 mm film (15 min for 24 frames/second - which was the speed selected for sound). Silent movies ran at a slower speed - which is why silent sections of 'The Jazz Singer' appear to be speeded up. Due to the mechanical sound recording (record)- this was way before magnetic recording remember - once a 'take' was started, it had to run to it's conclusion. It was impossible to stop, and then restart the recording process.
The 3 song medley performed by Seeley and Fields here was shot in ONE TAKE! This is an amazing achievement (imho). Today, such a thing would never be done. The sequence would be shot in 30 or more separate 'takes' and pieced together. Careful examination of the image reveals that all action is continuous - with a few swaps from camera to camera - or possibly changing the lens on a camera - but the movements of the two performers is without pause. A REALLY impressive performance - particularly considering the 'state of the art' at the time.
One of the problems with the Vitaphone process was - that if the film were broken, it was impossible to repair. A splice - however carefully done - would result in the loss of at least a few frames of film. The sound synchronization would be thrown off by the shortened film, and could not be recovered. This is why today, we use 'sound on film' - where the audio track is on the same strip of film as the image.