Summer 2000 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

THE NAGRA : "IT WILL RECORD"
A personal tribute to Stephan Kudelski
When writing the citation for Stephan Kudelski's
AMPS' Honorary Fellowship Award, I became
aware, as far as I could ascertain, that no sound
man or woman who used Nagras to make their
living, had ever paid public tribute to him. So I,
being one of those guilty of this appalling
oversight, decided I'd better make some sort of
attempt to correct the situation.
For neigh on 35 years,
worldwide, Nagras were taken
for granted as the best and most
reliable way of recording motion
picture production sound on
location and in the studio, be it
for features, commercials,
documentaries or TV movies.
From 1961, by using a Nagra,
good quality synch sound could
be recorded wherever a 16 or
35mm camera could go. The
days of sound trucks with
sprocketed film channels and
banks of heavv dutv batteries
were numbered.
The documentary and short
film industry were first to see the
Nagra' s potential. Documentary
film maker Derrick Knieht
speaking recently of
documentary film making in the 1950s said that
they couldn't afford synch sound and for their
tracks, had to make do with a few library sound
FX. The Nagra changed all that. Very soon after
it's introduction, on documentaries and TV current
affairs programmes, there was no silent shot -
sound turned on everything. A sound recordist
with Nagra slung over the shoulder, a good
microphone, handheld or on a short pole, could
cover everything in camera range. Documentary
crews working together became extremely skilled
in this style of shooting, never missing a turnover
or a clapper. Sound for documentaries became
'realistic' rather than 'creative' as it had had to be in
the past due to the lack of truly portable camera and
sound equipment.
The introduction of the Nagra as a recorder for
recording synch sound was not greeted with loud
acclaim in the feature film industry. The sound
departments of the major studios were not
convinced thatll4' tape was suitable forfeature
film production. The Lrevers Rich Synchro Pulse
1/4" method for synch recording had been tried but
had a wobbly reputation, due mainly to crews
forgetting to plug up the synch cable. [t was used
by TV film units reasonably successfully but in the
feature studios relegated to location use only,
where the then policy was to post synch all sound
recorded outside the walls of a sound stage.
The 60s saw an increase in the number of
independent producers setting up to make feature
films on location without using facilities from the
major studios. The Nagra came into its own.
Facilities companies were set up to hire out camera
and sound equipment. But the astute freelance
sound mixers splashed out and bought their own
gear. The outlay for a Nagra 3, AKG or Sennheiser
mics plus cables and a few other
accessories was not prohibitive,
especially when compared with
Westrex sprocketed ma gnetic
channels and WE or RCA
microphones as used by the
major studios. With his own
equipment the mixer could know
the gear was in top condition and
also be adding to his income the
rental charge negotiated with the
production company. Work for
freelance crews at that time was
reasonably plentiful for the good
guys, thus the gear was an
excellent investment, rental
earnings being better than the
going interest rates form banks
and buildins societies.
The economical advantages to
both producers and equipment
owners were considerable but the
technical advantages were phenomenal - high
quality sound, extreme portability, astoundin g
reliability, simplicity of operation, and all at a
reasonable cost.
Very soon all documentary and independent
features were being recorded on Nagras but it took
at least five years before the major studios sound
departments accepted the Nagra. Besides technical
apprehensions there were crewing worries, not by
the union, but sound camera operators feared that
producers would question their necessity.
Freelance sound mixer Dudley Plummer who
took delivery of his first Nagra 3 in 1961, probably
the first in the UK, told me how on a job that took
him to Shepperton Studios, covering a film star
profile story, one of the resident floor mixers
snarled at him with curled lip "Oh, you're one of
those chaps who carries it all on your back and
needs a 1 ton generator to get a 50 cycle pulse!".
Many reputable sound people said the Nagra would
never get anywhere. How wrong they were.
From the start of my motion picture sound
recording career I have always been interested in
'natural sound'. Fortunately in my first job with the
New Zealand National Film Unit during WWII, I
was given every encouragement to pursue that
interest by providing realistic sound effects tracks
for many of the'Weekly Review' items and
documentary films produced during the seven years
that I was employed there.
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