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NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in a film studies class.
MALE PROFESSOR: Nowadays, we take sound in films for granted—I mean, you still might see black and white films occasionally, but you‘ll hardly ever see silent films anymore.So it’s interesting to note that the use of recorded sound was originally controversial. And some directors, uh, some filmmakers even thought it shouldn’t be used.That it would destroy the purity of cinema, somehow reverse all the progress that had been made in the art of cinema. Abby?
FEMALE STUDENT: What about all the sounds you hear in some silent movies?Like, you know, er... a loud sound when somebody falls down or something?
MALE PROFESSOR: OK, you’re talking about a soundtrack added much later, which has, over time, become part of the film we know. But this recorded track didn’t exist then.And it’s not that most people didn’t want sound in films; it’s just that the technology wasn’t available yet.Don’t forget that instead of recorded sound there was often live music that accompanied movies in those days—like a piano player or a larger orchestra in the movie theater.
Also, think of the stage, the live theater—it has used wonderful sound effects for a long time. And if wanted, these could be produced during the viewing of a film.You know, the rolling of drums for thunder or whatever. But that wasn’t as common.Oh, and another thing, that they might have in movie theaters in the early days, was a group of live actors reading the parts to go along with the film.Or, and this seems a particularly bad idea to us now, one person narrating the action… an early example of a long tradition of movie producers, the ones concerned mostly about making money, not having much confidence in their audience, thinking that people somehow couldn’t follow the events otherwise.
So, it finally became possible to play recorded sound as part of the film in the 1920s.Trouble was, it wasn’t always used to very good effect.First, it was, you know, amazing to see somebody’s mouth move at the same time you hear the words… or hear a door close when you see it closing on-screen.But that luster wears off, of course, and if you’re a director, a filmmaker, what’s the next step?
FEMALE STUDENT: Well, use sound to enhance the movie, right? Bring something more to it that wasn’t possible…MALE PROFESSOR: Yes, that’s exactly what directors who were more interested in cinema as art, not commerce, were thinking.But they also predicted that there would be a problem that sound would be misused and, boy, was it ever…Because the commercial types, the producers and so on, were thinking,"OK, now that sound is possible, let’s talk as much as possible and forget about the fact that we’re making a movie, that we have this powerful visual medium."
So, many of the films of the twenties were basically straight adaptations of successful shows from the stage, theater.The name they used for sound films then was “talking films,” and that was on the mark, since, well, all they pretty much did was talk. And talk. So, the remedy?
Well, what was proposed by a number of filmmakers and theorists was the creative, expressive use of sound, what they generally called nonsynchronous sound.OK, synchronous sound means basically that what we hear is what we see.Everything on the soundtrack is seen on the screen.
And everything was recorded simultaneously, which, well, since the sound technicians working on films often had experience with live radio, that made sense to them.Recording the sound separately and adding it in afterward, that idea was less obvious.Anyway, synchronous sound means the source of the sound is the image on the screen. Nonsynchronous sound then, is…
FEMALE STUDENT: The sound doesn’t match the picture?MALE PROFESSOR: Right. Now we can look at this in various ways, but let’s take it as literally as possible.
Music, unless we see the radio or the orchestra, that’s nonsynchronous.If the camera shot is of the listener rather than the speaker, that’s nonsynchronous.If we hear, say, background sounds that aren’t on the screen, that’s nonsynchronous.
So, that doesn’t seem so radical, does it?But, again, those early producers didn’t think their audiences could keep up with this.
FEMALE STUDENT: Excuse me, but did you say earlier that some filmmakers actually advocated not using sound at all?MALE PROFESSOR: Well, yes, but that was a bit of an exaggeration, I guess.What I meant to say was that some filmmakers thought that the way the film sound was actually used was setting the art of filmmaking back.But everyone agreed that sound solved some very difficult issues, and offered potentially exciting tools.
请听一段电影研究讲座的节选。
教授:现如今,我们把电影里的声音当成了理所当然。我是说,虽然你仍可能偶尔看看黑白电影,但是几乎不会看到无声电影了。因此,录音的使用最开始是有争议的,这件事说起来倒是挺有趣的,某些制片人甚至认为不应该用录音。他们认为录音会破坏电影的本真,以某种方式推翻了在电影艺术方面所取得的所有进步。艾比,怎么了?
学生:那么在一些无声电影中听到的声音又怎么说呢?比如,当一个人摔倒时的一阵巨响等诸如此类的声音?
教授:好的。你说的是音轨的添加,这个的出现要晚得多。音轨已经变成我们现在所知电影的一部分。但是这个录制好的声道,当时是不存在的。另外,不是人们不想要声音,而是当时技术还达不到。别忘了,在那些日子里,通常会有现场音乐伴随着电影,而不是录制的声音——就像电影院里的钢琴家或大型的管弦乐队。
另外,想象舞台,也就是现场表演的剧院,其使用很棒的音效已经相当长的时间了。而且,如果需要的话,放电影的时候可以再现这些音效。比如需要雷声的时候就滚动鼓之类的。但当时来说,这种操作还不是很普遍。还有一件事,当时在影院里,可能还有一组演员,现场随着电影朗读各个角色的台词。或者一个人用旁白解释电影里的动作,这点在我们今天看来很糟糕。这一点很好地例证了当时绝多数情况下只顾挣钱的影片制作人,对自己的观众没信心,担心不这么做,观众就看不懂电影了。
所以,上世纪20年代的时候,录制好的声音终于可以作为电影的一部分一起播放了。问题是,它并不总是能产生很好的效果。一开始,大家都觉得很神奇,当看到别人嘴在动的同时能听到声音,或者在屏幕上看到关门的动作的同时带着关门声。但是新鲜过一阵儿,就不新鲜了。如果你是一个导演,制片人,下一步怎么办?
学生:用声音来增强电影效果,对吧? 带来更多不可能的东西。。。教授: 没错,这正是那些对电影作为艺术而非商业更感兴趣的导演们所想的。但是他们也预计到了声音有可能会被误用,哈哈,(现在来看)误用肯定不少啦。因为商业类型,制片人等等,都在想,“好吧,既然声音是可能的,让我们尽可能多地谈论,忘掉我们正在制作的电影这个事实,忘掉我们有这个强大的视觉媒介。”
因此,20年代的电影基本上都是直接从舞台(也就是剧院)里成功的戏剧直接转换过来的。当时,人们用“会说话的电影”来称呼有声电影,这个名字还是很切题的,因为,那个时候电影基本上都是在说说说。那么,怎么补救?
好几个制片人跟理论家提出来,声音的使用要有创造性跟表达性,他们把这个技术成为“非同步声”。OK。“同步声”基本上是说我们所听即所见。音轨上的所有内容都能在屏幕上看到。
另外,录制的时候也是(声音跟画面)同步录制,呃,因为参与电影制作的音效师经常会有电波现场演绎的经验,所以,这么做对他们来说很正常。那么把声音分开录制,再后期加上去呢?这个想法就不那么明显了。不管怎么说,“同步声”意味着声音就是屏幕上的画面。那么“非同步声”就是……
学生:声音跟画面不匹配咯?教授:是的。接下来,我们可以多种角度看待这点,但我们还是尽可能地以字面意思对待。
除非我们看到无线电或者管弦乐队,音乐就是“非同步声”。如果摄像机拍到的是听众,而不是演讲者,那就是“非同步声”。如果我们听到不在屏幕上的背景音,那就是“非同步声”。
那么,这么讲听起来不那么激进,对吧?但是又回到我们前面讲过的早期制片人,他们认为这么做,观众会看不懂电影。
学生:打断一下,你刚刚是说一些制片人真的鼓吹过,声音一点都不要用吗?教授:这个嘛,我是说过。但是那可能有点夸张在里面。我的意思是一些制片人认为,在电影中引入声音的方法,会让制作电影这个艺术倒退。但是人人都认可的是,声音的引进,解决了一些很棘手的问题,也给一些很棒的工具开发提供了可能。
题型分类:主旨内容题
题干分析:问这篇文章主要讲什么?
原文定位:
MALE PROFESSOR:Nowadays, we take sound in films for granted—I mean, you still might see black and white films occasionally, but you hardly ever see silent films anymore. So it’s interesting to note that the use of recorded sound was originally controversial and some directors, uh, some filmmakers even thought it shouldn’t be used.
选项分析:全文主要是在讲早期电影中对声音处理的不同观点(贯穿全文),在文章的开头教授也说recorded sound的使用是controversial的,选B。
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