Listen to part of a lecture in a film studies class.

请听一段电影研究讲座的节选。

Male professor: Nowadays, we take sound in films for granted. I mean, you still might see black and white films occasionally, but you'll hardly ever see silent films anymore.

男教授：现如今，我们把电影里的声音当成了理所当然。我是说，虽然你偶尔也有可能看到黑白电影，但是几乎再也不会看到无声电影了。

So it's interesting to note that the use of recorded sound was originally controversial. And some directors, uh, some filmmakers even thought it shouldn't be used.

因此，录音的使用最开始是有争议的，这件事说起来倒是挺有趣的，某些制片人甚至想过不应该用录音。

That it would destroy the purity of cinema, somehow reverse all the progress that had been made in the art of cinema. Abby?

他们认为录音会破坏电影的本真，以某种方式推翻了在电影艺术方面所取得的所有进步。艾比，怎么了？

Female student: What about all the sounds you hear in some silent movies?

女学生：那在一些无声电影中听到的那些声音又怎么说呢？

Like, you know, er…a loud sound when somebody falls down or something?

比如，当一个人摔倒时的一阵巨响等诸如此类的声音？

Male professor: OK, you're talking about a soundtrack added much later, which has, over time, become part of the film we know. But this recorded track didn't exist then.

男教授：嗯，你说的是后期添加的音轨，随着时间的推移，形成了我们现在所知的电影的一部分。但在当时，这个录制好的声道是不存在的。

And it's not that most people didn't want sound in films, it's just that the technology wasn't available yet.

另外，不是人们不想在电影里听到要声音，只是当时还没有这种技术。

Don't forget that instead of recorded sound there was often live music that accompanied movies in those days--like a piano player or a larger orchestra in the movie theater.

别忘了，在那时，虽然没有音轨，但是电影院里通常会有现场音乐伴奏——像是钢琴家或大型管弦乐队。

Also, think of the stage, the live theater, it has used wonderful sound effects for a long time. And if wanted, these could be produced during the viewing of a film.

另外，想象舞台，也就是现场表演的剧院，它使用很棒的音效已经有相当长的时间了。而且，如果需要的话，看电影的时候可以演奏这些音效。

You know, the rolling of drums for thunder or whatever. But that wasn't as common.

比如用阵阵鼓声来代表雷或者其他声音。但当时这并不是很普遍。

Oh, and another thing, that they might have in movie theaters in the early days, was a group of live actors reading the parts to go along with the film.

噢，还有另外一件事，在早期的影院里，可能还有一组现场演员，随着电影朗读各个角色的台词。

Or, and this seems a particularly bad idea to us now, one person narrating the action.

也许在我们今天看来--用人给电影做旁白，是一个相当糟糕的主意。

An early example of a long tradition of movie producers, the ones concerned mostly about making money, not having much confidence in their audience, thinking that people somehow couldn't follow the events otherwise.

这就是长期以来“电影制片人绝大多数情况下只顾是挣钱”的早期的例证。他们对自己的观众没信心，担心不这么做，观众就看不懂电影了。

So, it finally became possible to play recorded sound as part of the film in the 1920s.

所以，上世纪20年代的时候，录制好的声音终于可以作为电影的一部分一起播放了。

Trouble was, it wasn't always used to very good effect.

问题是，它并不总是能产生很好的效果。

First, it was, you know, amazing to see somebody's mouth move at the same time you hear the words…or hear a door close when you see it closing on-screen.

一开始，当看到别人嘴在动的同时能听到声音，或者在屏幕上看到关门的动作的同时带着关门声的时候，大家都觉得很神奇。

But that luster wears off, of course, and if you're a director, a filmmaker, what's the next step?

但新鲜劲儿会过去。如果你是一个导演，制片人，下一步该怎么办？

Female student: Well, use sound to enhance the movie, right? Bring something more to it that wasn't possible…

女学生：用声音来增强电影效果，对吧？带来更多不可能的东西……

Male professor: Yes, that's exactly what directors who were more interested in cinema as art, not commerce, were thinking.

男教授: 没错，这正是那些对电影作为艺术而非商业更感兴趣的导演们所想的。

But they also predicted that there would be a problem that sound would be misused and, boy, was it ever…

但是他们也预计到了声音有可能会被误用，哈哈，误用肯定不少啦。

Because the commercial types, the producers and so on, were thinking,

因为商业类型，制片人等等，都在想，

"OK, now that sound is possible, let's talk as much as possible and forget about the fact that we're making a movie, that we have this powerful visual medium."

"好吧，既然声音是可能的，让我们尽可能多地谈论，忘掉我们正在制作电影这个事实，忘掉我们有这个强大的视觉媒介。"

So, many of the films of the twenties were basically straight adaptations of successful shows from the stage, theater.

因此，20年代的电影基本上都是直接从舞台（也就是剧院）里成功的戏剧直接转换过来的。

The name they used for sound films then was "talking films," and that was on the mark, since, well, all they pretty much did was talk. And talk. So, the remedy?

当时，人们用“会说话的电影”来称呼有声电影，这个名字还是很切题的，因为，那个时候电影基本上都是在说说说。那么，怎么补救？

Well, what was proposed by a number of filmmakers and theorists was the creative, expressive use of sound, what they generally called nonsynchronous sound.

曾经有很多制片人跟理论家提出来，声音的使用要有创造性和表达性，他们把这个技术称为“非同步声”。

OK, synchronous sound means basically that what we hear is what we see.

OK，“同步声”基本上是说我们所听即所见。

Everything on the soundtrack is seen on the screen.

音轨上的所有内容都能在屏幕上看到。

And everything was recorded simultaneously, which, well, since the sound technicians working on films often had experience with live radio, that made sense to them.

另外，录制的时候也是（声音跟画面）同步录制，呃，因为参与电影制作的音效师经常会有电台现场表演的经验，所以，这么做，对他们来说很正常。

Recording the sound separately and adding it in afterward? That idea was less obvious.

那么把声音分开录制，再后期加上去呢？这个想法就不那么容易想到了。

Anyway, synchronous sound means the source of the sound is the image on the screen. Nonsynchronous sound then, is…

不管怎么说“同步声”意味着声音就是屏幕上的画面。那么“非同步声”就是……

Female student: The sound doesn't match the picture?

女学生：声音跟画面不匹配咯？

Male professor: Right. Now we can look at this in various ways, but let's take it as literally as possible.

男教授：是的。接下来，我们可以从多种角度看待这点，但我们还是尽可能地直白地讲。

Music, unless we see the radio or the orchestra, that's nonsynchronous.

除了广播或者管弦乐队，音乐就是“非同步声”。

If the camera shot is of the listener rather than the speaker, that's nonsynchronous.

如果摄像机拍到的是听众，而不是演讲者，那就是“非同步声”。

If we hear, say, background sounds that aren't on the screen, that's nonsynchronous.

如果我们听到的背景音不在屏幕上，那就是“非同步声”。

So, that doesn't seem so radical, does it?

那么，这么讲听起来就不那么激进了，对吧？

But, again, those early producers didn't think their audiences could keep up with this.

但是又回到我们前面讲过的早期制片人，他们认为这么做，观众会看不懂电影。

Female student: Excuse me, but did you say earlier that some filmmakers actually advocated not using sound at all?

女学生：打断一下，你刚刚不是说一些制片人真的提倡过，一点声音都不要用吗？

Male professor: Well, yes, but that was a bit of an exaggeration, I guess.

男教授：这个嘛，我是说过。但可能有点夸张在里面。

What I meant to say was that some filmmakers thought that the way the film sound was actually used was setting the art of filmmaking back.

我的意思是一些制片人认为，在电影中引入声音的方法，会让制作电影这个艺术倒退。

But everyone agreed that sound solved some very difficult issues, and offered potentially exciting tools.

但是人人都认可的是，声音的引进，解决了一些很棘手的问题，也提供了一些很棒的潜在工具（用来更好地表现摄影艺术）。