Cab 16: soundtrack by Rick Hancox

The soundtrack was recorded on a portable Philips cassette recorder at 1 7/8 inches per second (its only speed), however this gave me about 350 feet of tape or 1 3/4 hours. For a six minute film this was a great advantage for reasons that are obvious.

The original tape was reduced to half an hour, and then to eleven minutes on the optical track. This gave me about five minutes leeway which included a number of optionals I could use in case my timing was off in my original sound plan, or if footage was accidentally ruined during splicing. Such a mistake occurred when sound cue “E” was found to be too long. It was my first attempt at cutting out pauses and I succeeded in totally annihilating the footage. On the extra footage on my optical track I found a suitable substitute.

I found it an advantage to record miscellaneous background, and in one case I managed to find a sound on this footage which corresponded exactly to the sound of a car door getting slammed shut, which I proceeded to sync with the visual.

The quality of the sound was not perfect, which I attribute to a possible loss of power in the cassette batteries, the tape speed, and a slight loss in frequency due to a couple of re-recordings. There is also considerable interference at times from Elmer’s taxi. The day before I recorded the soundtrack, I tested out gain levels and positioning of the microphone, which was of fairly good quality. I found the positioning of a mike in a car is most effectively handled when the mike is wedged solidly above a padded sun-visor on the passenger’s side, and directed toward the driver. I do not feel any sound defect in this film was due to the recording level or the microphone.

I had thought of cutting out and revising the sound for the beginning of shot #17 because I discovered unfortunately that SILENCE DOES NOT NECESSARILY INDICATE DEAF PEOPLE. The immediate reaction of an audience is to sense something has gone wrong with the sound track. I discovered later however that silence in the context of this particular shot is perhaps effective. The shot shows a number of children walking right to left past the camera with a row of bicycles seen at low angle in the foreground. The proceeding shot is a close-up of a crippled girl’s legs wrapped in leather casts. The contrast of these two shots therefore is heightened by the sudden loss of volume in shot #17. I considered this when the film was put together, so for anyone who does not expect to see deaf children in the film I feel the shot succeeds.

The fact that I had no proper equipment to synchronize sound led to what I feel is an important discovery for me in future documentaries. Racking my brains over how to synchronize certain sound effects and semi-synchronize conversation I found that certain conversations etc. between characters not directed at the invisible interviewer can be most effective when used next to solo shots of the various characters doing something completely out of context in relation to the dialogue. For example shots of the main character drinking coffee in my film are next to certain spirited conversations between characters while traveling in the taxi. This same technique can be used with shots solely of familiar objects or scenes of one of the characters engaged in the conversation. The more active the live conversation, and the less active or dynamic the visuals, the more effective this technique will be.

Similarly the reverse of this process can be equally effective. In Cab 16, for example, the chief character is calmly relating how he got involved transporting the crippled children while the visuals comprise a sequence of quick cutting on movement showing Elmer giving the kids candy, wiping their faces, the kids laughing in the back seat, etc.

I also found that cutting the credits into the middle of a conversation and letting about ten seconds of dialogue go before introducing the next credit was effective.