Question of tense usage

[Bruce Baird]

Dear Markus,

How expansive are we talking in 1972 or early 1973?  These artists  
were not rich, (but they were used to talking people into doing  
things for free for them, or agreeing to pay someone and then not  
paying them).

Also, one of the sounds is kakegoe (the calls of approval usually  
used in kabuki to call the stage name of an actor).  If the shotgun  
mic won't pick up a cough, would it pick up a kakegoe? (Clearly the  
kakegoe would be louder than a usual cough--one you are trying to  
project above the soundscape and the other you are trying to suppress.)

Also sometimes a different camera is visible in the bottom of the  
frame (that we never see footage from) so its clear that this camera  
is somewhat back in the theater and zooming to get mid-range shots.   
If camera is somewhat back in the theater, would the shotgun mic  
presumably pick up any sound directly in front of it?  I guess the  
bigger question is this: is the shotgun mic necessarily connected to  
the camera that took the footage?  If so, that camera is back away  
from the stage presumably with (sometimes coughing) audience members  
between it and the stage.

Thanks,

Bruce





On Aug 27, 2010, at 1:32 PM, Mark Nornes wrote:

> There was synch sound technology and it very well have been shot  
> that way. It was a bit expensive, which is why so many of the indie  
> docs are shot with wild sound.
>
> As for the coughs, they might have been recording with a shotgun  
> mic. These are so directional that it would pick up little to no  
> ambient sound from behind the camera.
>
> Markus
>
> (Sent from my iPod, so please excuse the brevity and mistakes.)
>
> On Aug 27, 2010, at 1:15 PM, "Bruce Baird"  
> <baird at asianlan.umass.edu> wrote:
>
>> Colleagues,
>>
>> Apologies for cross posting, and please pardon a question that is  
>> slightly afield of Japanese Cinema.
>>
>> In my manuscript about butoh, I want to write about a 1972 dance  
>> which is preserved on film strip by Ouchida Keiya (who is now  
>> deceased and therefore not interviewable).  There are indications  
>> that the film-strip is not an accurate portrayal of what the  
>> audience would have seen in the actual performance.  For example,  
>> the sound continues across cuts and there are a couple of places  
>> where the sounds of stamping do not match the dancers' feet  
>> stamping.  There are no coughs or people clearing their throats.   
>> Thus it seems like the sound must have been added as a part of  
>> post-production.  Colleagues in Japan tell me that given the  
>> limitations of recording in Japan, it would have been very  
>> unlikely that in 1972 they could have recorded the live  
>> performance and added the recording to the edited video, and made  
>> it match up as well as it did (not withstanding the few stamping  
>> misses--most of the stamping matches nicely), and that it is thus  
>> likely that they had to have sound professionals come in and re- 
>> record the sound.
>>
>> I would normally describe the dance in past tense, but I feel that  
>> I should be specific about that fact that I am really describing a  
>> film strip (which may not be the same thing as the dance was).   
>> Obviously the editing of the film strip and the recording of the  
>> sound track also happened in the past, but somehow I have the  
>> sense that since I am really talking about a recording of the  
>> dance rather than the dance itself, I should use the present tense.
>>
>> So two questions.  In 1972 or early 1973, given the technology  
>> extant in Japan at the time, does anyone have a second opinion  
>> about the likelihood that Ouchida or any sound professional could  
>> have used an hour long live recording, edited out coughs and  
>> throat clearing, and matched it to edited dance footage with only  
>> two (or three) obvious  glitches where the sound of stamping feet  
>> wouldn't match the visual stamping feet?
>>
>> Two: Suggestions for what tense to use when writing about a filmic  
>> image rather than the event itself technically?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>>
>> Bruce Baird
>> Assistant Professor
>> Asian Languages and Literatures
>> University of Massachusetts Amherst
>> Butô, Japanese Theater, Intellectual History
>>
>> 717 Herter Hall
>> 161 Presidents Drive
>> University of Massachusetts Amherst
>> Amherst, MA 01003-9312
>> Phone: 413-577-4992
>> Fax: 413-545-4975
>> baird at asianlan.umass.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>

Bruce Baird
Assistant Professor
Asian Languages and Literatures
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Butô, Japanese Theater, Intellectual History

717 Herter Hall
161 Presidents Drive
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003-9312
Phone: 413-577-4992
Fax: 413-545-4975
baird at asianlan.umass.edu




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