MovieChat Forums > Rope (1948) Discussion > Sound Recording

Sound Recording

posted 8 years ago by jmillerdp
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When you have a film shot like live theater, my thought was: How did the Sound Recording go so well?

It seems that, even when the characters are distant from the camera, the sound is very present. Typically, I would think of the boom mic being overhead, fairly near the camera.

Since the actors move far from the camera, would the good sound recording be because there were microphones stationed above the actors' paths throughout the different parts of the set, and they got recording from all of them, then mixed it in post?

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[–] Doghouse-6 8 years ago

Inasmuch as photography and sound recording are entirely separate operations on-set, the mic - or multiple ones - can always be placed for optimum recording irrespective of the camera's position relative to the players.

Hitchcock was always the most meticulous of preproduction planners, but Rope's unconventional shooting method - uninterrupted 10-minute takes - required unprecedented technical preparation and rehearsal. As the camera moved about the set to as many as 25 different positions in each take, nearly everything - furniture, even portions of walls - had to be mobile to allow for that movement. The noise of doing so often made portions of the production track unusable, and a fair amount of the dialogue had to be ADRd (looped) in post.

The entire endeavor was stressful for everyone involved: players, technicians, grips and Hitchcock himself. Undaunted, he nevertheless resolved to shoot his next film, Under Capricorn, in the same manner. By the time of production, however, those plans had been modified and, although it does involve some unusually long takes involving complex camera movement and blocking, it was shot primarily in the more conventional manner.

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