Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/790371
47 Q1 2017 / CINEMONTAGE cue: picture, guide track and blank recording stock. (By the late 1950s, a low-budget alternate method was audio-only loops.) Each had to have a common start mark, as well as identification. Multiple characters in a scene to be line-replaced could require multiple black- and-white picture dupes. The nature of the playback and recording equipment mandated limitations to the physical dimensions of the loops. They ranged from as small as six feet, to as large as 150 feet. Anything shorter couldn't be threaded on the playback machines; longer loops ran the risk of getting tangled and shredded in the gears. As Emory Cohen, former vice president of operations at Glen Glenn Sound, described in an e-mail to this writer, "If there was a lot of looping to be done, the sorting of the picture and track loops in the machine room was crazy. Imagine the machine room with hundreds of loops in cans, boxes, on the floor — everywhere — and the same in the projection booth!" (See Figure 2.) Changes and alterations were both difficult and time-intensive to do after the loops were prepared. Combining or dividing cues required stopping the session and physically re-cutting the loops. Additionally, the true art in the whole enterprise was in knowing the capabilities of the performers. There were actors who could handle a cue lasting a minute and a half, while there were others who could barely manage a simple phrase. With a long cue, if actors flubbed at the beginning of the line, they would have to wait for the loop to finish its route before trying another take. Because all the recordings were made onto loops, there was no possibility during a session of playing back an entire scene to see how it all worked together. And almost to add insult to injury, physically cutting up a print required getting enough black-and- white dupes to cover all the characters, and getting them quickly. If the dupe of a scene was too dark to see the lips, a color reprint of the original negative would have to be ordered; another delay. Getting ready for a looping session often turned into a race against the clock. By 1965, forward- backward machine control and insert recorders were introduced for re-recording. This new capability not only was a boon to post-production sound mixing, but it pointed the way toward loop- less looping. Some facilities were experimenting with rocking the system forward and backward over a specific line for purposes of line replacement. The American Cinematographer Manual, Second Edition (1966), had a lengthy section covering various aspects of sound recording and post-production. in the projection booth!" (See Figure 2.) Changes and possibility during a session of playing back an entire scene to see how it all worked together. And almost to add insult to injury, physically cutting up a print required getting enough black-and- white dupes to cover all the characters, and getting them quickly. If the dupe of a scene was too dark to see the lips, a color reprint of the original negative would have to be ordered; another delay. Getting ready for a looping session often turned into a race against the clock. forward- backward machine control and insert recorders were introduced for re-recording. This new Figure 2: A Loop Tree. American Cinematographer, October 1978 Figure 1: Scan of an ADR programming page for The Empire Strikes Back is dated November 1979, with the header information on the sheet reading "Automated Dialogue Replacement."