TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

Drawing sound directly onto film, therefore, involves different techniques which give different results. In this respect, we could mention McLaren’s re-use of techniques perfected by Rudolf Pfenninger in the early 1930s which consist in drawing sound waves on cards and then filming them with an animation camera, positioning them in such a way that the image is recorded on the films sound track. McLaren’s contribution in the 1970s (in collaboration with Evelyn Lambart) was to ensure precise control over the volume of these sounds by using cards of different sizes, making it possible to reproduce a chromatic range of six octaves.