Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/790371
48 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2017 Near the end of the section on looping ran the following: "Another system of line replacement that has been in use in several European countries, and is now finding some acceptance in the United States, is the 'forward-backward' system. In its operation, the sound and picture are not made into loops, but are run forward while recording a new dialog [sic] track, then reversed to a selected spot and run forward for either a review or another 'take.'" At that time, the systems could only travel at sound speed. Once a specific area had been played, the operator had to stop the system and reverse it back to the start point of the cue. Sound speed forward, sound speed backward. It was hoped that in this modern age of circuit boards and transistors someone could devise a controlling mechanism to automate the process. Here in Los Angeles, two gentlemen — Roy Swartz (an engineer at Glen Glenn Sound) and Carlos Rivas (of Rivas splicer fame) — created a post-sync dialogue replacement system that did not use loops of either film or track. Glen Glenn Sound obtained exclusive rights to the system and had it installed and operational sometime between 1967 and 1968. (Sadly, Mr. Rivas passed away in March 1967 and never saw his co-creation fully realized.) As Cohen described it, "The system was electro- mechanical. The 'interface' to the ADR programmer was a thumbwheel for entering the actual start and stop footage of the line to be replaced, and a unique method of entering frames. It was a 19"x 19" silver- anodized aluminum panel with two concentric circles of small (approximately 1/8") holes (about 1/4" apart), forming a circle about 15" in diameter. Mounted in the center of the circle was a single arm, like the arms of a clock, that reached to the inner circle of holes. The circles of small holes were labeled with a frame number. "Using the thumbwheels, and by inserting steel pins into the correct holes on the panel, the ADR programmer entered the feet and frames of the beginning and ending of the first line to be replaced, as shown on the editor's session cue sheet. "Sensors and relays behind the control panel sent start, stop, and record instructions to the projector, sound reproducer and recorder. The control electronics triggered a tone generator to [play] the three beeps at the correct place before the dialogue." The "automatic" aspect referred to the system's removal of the need for human operation of such tasks as advancing the projectors, reproducers and recorders to the next event, cuing the actor as to the start point of the event, and having the recorder go in and out of record. Once the start and end points of a given line were entered, the controlling system would play and rewind and play and rewind, all the while sending audio cues (three beeps) to the actor to signal the start of the specific line, and it would continue until stopped by the operator. When introduced, the system was originally called "Automated Dialogue Dubbing," or ADD. (Imagine, we came that close to being called ADD editors...for real!) Cohen told this writer that he gave an oral presentation about the system to the Hollywood chapter of the SMPTE, but never Here in Los Angeles, two removal of the need for human operation of such Figure 3: Description of MTE's Post- Synchronization System. American Cinematographer, October 1968