1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 508, Annie’s Diary (3)

Edison’s sound film program is quite simple in technology, which is to play a gramophone turntable at the same time as the movie is played. The sound on the turntable exactly matches the needs on the screen. This is the principle of the earliest sound film. Because the principle is simple, it is quite convenient to implement. So after getting support from Morgan, Edison didn’t take much time to get the sound film out. And they soon staged their first sound film “Singer” on Broadway. This movie is quite simple, only 20 minutes long, and records a stage performance by a singer. Moreover, dubbing is very clumsy by today’s standards, and the clarity of the voice is not even comparable to the voice in a wired phone. Moreover, due to the natural defects of this kind of sound film, some problems have appeared in the synchronization of dubbing. The sound and the picture are not completely consistent. Sometimes it will be faster, and sometimes it will be significantly slower, such as before the singer takes the stage to sing. In the back stage, during the conversation between the two actors, the voices were completely messed up. It was obvious that Peter was speaking on the screen, but the voice that came out was LaVine, who was closing his mouth.

But even so, the movie caused a sensation. After all, the audiences of that era were not as picky as modern people. Even when the characters in the movie spoke for the first time, all the audience in the entire theater was shocked. . After the premiere, almost all newspapers spoke highly of this innovation.

Of course, the shortcomings of sound and picture coordination have also been noticed, but everyone feels that such problems should be solved slowly with the advancement of technology. There should be more new things such as sound movies. Tolerant, so there is not too much entanglement on this point.

However, in fact, the solution of this problem is not so easy, especially in the case of using the Edison-style projector + phonograph mode, it is almost impossible to solve. Because even if you don’t consider the manipulation problem, just consider the different heat, expansion and contraction rates of different materials, which will inevitably lead to this problem, and this asynchrony will be expanded with the extension of the film time. So even Edison himself firmly believes that the length of this type of sound film is almost hard to break through half an hour.

“Half an hour, for some funny sketches and the like, it should be enough. It can even show some simple fairy tales.” Edison said.

…

“Mr. MacDonald, according to your creativity, we directly attached a track with magnetic powder to record the sound on this side of the film. In this way, we can read through a magnetic head while showing. The sound on the audio track is taken to ensure the strict synchronization of the sound. There will be no jokes like Edison. Although there were some troubles in the experiment, these small problems have been solved so far. So, MacDonald Sir, I don’t think there can be any problems with this test. It will definitely succeed. There is no problem at all.” Tesla is as confident as ever.

“Nicholas, I believe in your abilities.” Scrooge smiled and said, “If you don’t have a whim in this project, for example, if you want to make the film completely three-dimensional, then make the project more difficult by yourself. , Then I’m sure, those original requirements must not be difficult for you.”

“Mr. MacDonald, don’t worry, I have absolutely no nets this time. There are more things than required. You know, now, my extra energy is put on your kind of wind tunnel…” Tesla replied with a smile.

“On that project, if you have any special ideas, don’t hide it from me. We can discuss it together.” Scrooge said immediately. Tesla’s talents in science and technology are unquestionable. Even Edison is inferior to him in these aspects, but his talent is unparalleled in terms of imagining and wasting funds, far exceeding Edison’s limit. . Therefore, Scrooge had to stare at him firmly, as far as possible to guide his whimsical ideas in useful directions.

“Mr. MacDonald, I promise to discuss with you as soon as I have any new ideas.” Tesla replied, “The experiment is about to begin. Let’s take a look at our latest, one-hour audio film. …”

The experiment was quite successful, and the sound synchronization during the entire screening process was very good. As for the content of the movie, it is nothing more than the conversations of several Tesla assistants, as well as the children of his assistants singing together, playing games and so on.

“Hey, Nikola, you see those young people have children. Are you not going to quickly find a woman?” Scrooge whispered after watching Tesla see the children playing games on the screen smiling. Say to him like this.

“Ah…” Tesla obviously did not expect that Scrooge would suddenly say such a sentence, so he paused for a while before repliing, “Mr. MacDonald, you know, whether it is a woman or a child , There are very, very cute moments, but…but they also have very, very troublesome moments, and…well, in general, there are far more troublesome moments than cute moments. Therefore, I have always admired those who marry wives and have children, they can actually endure…”

Speaking of this, Tesla suddenly thought that it seemed that Scrooge was among the people he said was “admirable”. It seemed a bit wrong to say so, so he quickly said to Scrooge, “Mike Mr. Downer, you know, I can say whatever I think, I’m not talking about you…”

Scrooge couldn’t help but laughed bitterly. Tesla did not have as much control over human sophistication as Edison. Edison could never say such a thing. Even if he said the wrong thing, he would not behave so clumsy when remedying it. Fortunately, this person is very useful. Moreover, there are far less careful thinking than Edison, and many Edisons who have stronger mathematical foundations than self-taught, have more promising development prospects. It can also help Scrooge make money, so of these small things, Scrooge has always been “adults do not see villains”. To be honest, as long as there is no economic interest involved, it is not easy to offend Shi Gaozhi.

“Nicholas, after solving the problem that the sound and the picture are not synchronized, I think that movies can be used to show some more complicated and grandiose things, such as novels and dramas…” Scrooge said .

“Mr. MacDonald, this is a good idea! Unfortunately, my ability in this area is very limited, I am afraid I can’t help you much.” Tesla thought for a while and replied.

…

“Dasco, how are the files organized?” After watching the trial of Tesla’s audio film, Scrooge hurried back to Duck Castle and immediately summoned Dasco, who was in charge of intelligence work. Popov.

“According to your instructions, we have selected the most valuable and most moving one among the characters involved in these documents, and some of the materials have been polished by our propaganda department personnel to form It’s a draft.” Dasco Popov replied and handed a stack of documents to Scrooge.

“Anne Braun?” Scrooge first saw the text on the folder. He opened the folder, and the first thing that appeared in front of him was a series of photos, as well as “portraits” and “self-portraits.”

“This girl named Anne Braun was one of the dead in the Shire concentration camp. We found part of her diary and some photos.” Dasco Popov explained, “Her father and mother also She died in a concentration camp. As far as we learned, her father had studied art and had a relatively good family background before the war. From the photos, the little girl looked very cute, and her diary was incomplete, especially There are not many parts in the concentration camp, and a lot of them are missing. As far as the remaining text is concerned, compared to a 14-year-old girl, her text level is not bad…”

While listening to Dasco Popov’s introduction, Scrooge looked at these documents. After a while, he looked up from the file and asked, “Why is there no picture of her in the concentration camp and the picture of her at Death? ”

“Mr. MacDonald, not many people will have free time to take pictures after the war started. It is even more impossible to take pictures in the concentration camps. And as far as we know, her body was in batches before we entered the Shire concentration camp. She was cleaned up. So we did not see her in the pictures of the dead.” Dasco replied respectfully.

“Are there any bodies of the dead we photographed that are similar to her age?” Scrooge continued to ask.

“There are some, but they are quite different from Annie’s appearance.” Dasco replied.

“Show me those pictures,” Scrooge said. “All the pictures of the deceased who are close to her…no, show me all the pictures of the deceased!”

“Yes, sir.” Dasco Popov stepped back. It wasn’t until this afternoon that he came to Scrooge’s office with a bunch of materials.

“Mr. MacDonald, these are all the photos you want.” Dasco Popov handed a large photo album to Scrooge.

“Yeah.” Scrooge replied, and he opened the album and looked at it. After a while, Scrooge pointed to one of the photos and said to Dasco Popov: “Let your people take Zoom in on this photo, cut out the bottom half, and treat it as a picture of Anne Braun.”