Sound Counting
Here is a simple way to synchronise your film action to your sound track, over and over again. (It’s especially useful when you want to begin with the sound.) Take a 50-foot cartridge of film – either sound or silent – a mechanical frame counter and your camera. Beginning with your counter at “0001″, film one number per frame, to the end of the cartridge.
After processing, record the sound track you want to synchronise onto the film’s stripe. (If you used silent film, have it striped). Now you’ll need an editor to “read” the sound track by pulling it back and forth through the magnetic sound head. As you listen, you’ll see the frame numbers that correspond to the beginning and end of each sound.
I’ve been able to plot out on paper the exact frame numbers for cartoons, and also for effects where the best of the music was important to the action. You can re-use the same 50-foot reel time after time, by just erasing and re-recording. One refinement: put a red dot in every 24th frame to enable you to count off the seconds easily. If you use both 18 and 24 frames per second, put a green dot in every 18th frame.
- Edward B. Tomlinson, Sr.
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