Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Friday 5 November 1937, page 10


OPERATIC SCENE FOR

FILM.

"Play-back" Method Used.

"THE BROKEN MELODY."

The "play-back" method of filming a musical scene was used at a Sydney film studio yesterday, when Mr Ken G Hall directed an operatic episode in "The Broken Melody " It was the largest Indoor scene ever filmed in Australia.

Nearest the camera sat rows of spectators in evening dress. Beyond them was the orchestra and the stage. The setting by Mr Eric Thompson and Mr J A Kenyon would have done credlt to any opera house. In centre stage a flight of stone steps swept upward to the horizon of a star-filled sky. On elther side rose a series of houses, with balconies in the French style. Grouped on the lower steps was a crowd of men in gaily-coloured shirts. As the scene progressed, dozens of girls in lovely folk costumes crowded in from the wings. Miss Diana Du Cane, appealing at the top in wedding array, came slowly down the steps towards Mr Lionello Cecil, who waited below to receive her.

APPARENTLY SINGING

Everyone in the set appeared to be singing fervently. Mr Hamilton Webber, at the conductors rostrum, waved his baton over the players, who appeared to be putting their hearts Into the score which had been composed by Mr Alfred Hill.

One says "appeared," because actually the singers and the orchestra made practlcally no sound. All the music came fiom ampliflers behind the cameras. It had been recorded by the slngers beforehand with the help of the Broadcasting Commission's orchestra and Mr

Richard McClelland's choir. The people whom yesterday's audience saw on the stage had been chosen for their looks. It did not matter whcthei they had any voices at all.

Similarly, the members of the orchestra were all "dummy" players. All they had to do was hold their violins and oboes in the correct positions and go through the movements.

CAPTIVATING COLOUR.

This style of film-making Is known as the "play-back" method. It is used in Hollywood nowadays for all important musical recordings. It enables the director to solve the musical problems separately, and then concentrate on questions of acting and setting. One regretted that yesterday's scene at the Cineoound Film Studio was not being photographed In colour, for the assembled hues on the stage made a captivating pictorial effect. The scale of the enterprise can be judged from the figures involved. Over 6000 feet of material had been used for the scaffolding beneath the set; the total height of the construction was 34 feet; and the lighting amounted to half a million candle-

power

Mr. Hill's music proved to be particularly charming. It possessed the "body" and harmonic richness of serious opera, yet displayed a continual flow of graceful melody.