Modern Air Service

Radio, advertisements

An advertisement of a shop called Modern Air Service. The shop that sells Radio and audio instruments.

Anonymous

School Of Cultural Texts and Records

Rupa-Mancha, Ashwin-Karttik1956(1363), p.242

1956

The Media Lab

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Bengali

Challenge of Sound

Sound Technology, talkies, sound recording

S.B Thakkar’s conversations with Prabhat’s sound recordist Shankarrao Damle figure in this article. Inter alia, S. Damle mentions the underdeveloped technology and technicians available to Indian studios in the beginning, which led a few studios to hiring the foreign engineers who came with the imported talkie equipment. There were at the same time indigenous innovators like Modhu Sil in Calcutta, Goverdhanbhai Patel in Bombay. S. Damle reminisces the Audio Camex equipment he handled for the first time. The article states that the ‘sound man’ in those days was a ‘second grade citizen’ of the film studio. Though the studio floors were sound proofed, they often were not adequate in the event of pigeons cooing in the premises. ‘Crackling’ was another technical misfortune that beset the sound recording process. The article speaks of the role of the sound engineers associated with the equipment dealers, who had a monopoly over the maintenance and repair of the machines, more than the sound recordists themselves.

S.B. Thakkar

National Film Archive of India

Cinema Vision India, Vol.1, No.2, April 1980, pp.13-18

1980-04

The Media Lab

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Eng

Talking Picture in India

Talkies, talkie studios

Wilford Deming Jr.’s write up on the situation of talkie production in India in 1932 is reproduced from ‘American Cinematographer’ in Cinema Vision India. The initial reconnaissance of the studios in India, Deming states, gave him a sense of its antedated existence compared to his own experiences in film industry. Blindest groping for fundamental facts was especially true of the laboratory processing of sound films. Mole Richardson lights proved to be of little use, due to the flat lighting practiced in Indian studios. Deming also takes note of the hindrance effected by the familial ties in the organization of studios. The relatively high humidity in Calcutta renders the microphones a lot nosier. Deming considers dynamic microphones to be a solution for year round operation in India. The microphone, Deming states, was received with complete indifference in India, and the in the films he worked on, practically no retakes were necessary due to the addition of dialogues. Barring unfortunate internal fall outs, the future of Indian talkie industry, according to Deming, looks optimistic.

Wilford Deming Jr.

Cinema Vision India

Cinema Vision India, Vol.1, No.2, April 1980, pp.19-21

1980-04

The Media Lab

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Eng

Document