Editor’s note: There was an interesting discussion on the Theatre Sound List recently about the best way to make a telephone ring on stage. Suggestions included using Mac Mini Wi-Fi interface and Internet Sharing, Dante networks, routers, and APIPA packets. Nick Kourtides’ response about the role of phones in various productions prompted us to post a story on our website, which resulted in the following comment and words of advice from UK-based sound designer John Leonard, who admits to owning 200 or so phones from various productions. One can only hope they don’t all ring at the same time!
Somehow, I’ve amassed a collection of around 200 phones of one sort or another, simply by taking the responsibility away from the props department. They include wooden phones from the late 19th century, Bakelite phones from the 1920s, the celebrated Karma Chameleon phone with illuminating chameleon and harmonica-playing ladybug, 1980s Motorola “Brick” cell phones, and many others too weird (and in one case, too rude) to be believed. If I can make them ring for real, and the situation allows it, then I’ll always try to make that happen, but otherwise it’s a concealed loudspeaker, sometimes in a desk drawer with a suitable cut-out, sometimes in a convenient trashcan, and sometimes in the phone itself.
With a recorded effect of an old bell-style telephone, there’s a little trick that makes it more realistic, which is to have what I call a “ting” effect that triggers at the same time as the main effect stops when the phone is answered. This is just the ring-out of the internal bell, and it gets rid of that terrible dead-end cut-off that you still get in some badly dubbed movies and TV shows when someone answers a phone, and the sound editor can’t be bothered to finesse the pick-up, and the bell cuts off instantly. This has been a little trick that I’ve used for many years and simple to achieve in any decent playback system, but adds hugely to the realism.
Some plays revolve around phones, like The Front Page, or Michael Frayn’s sketch “Immobiles” in his underrated Alarms & Excursions. The lessons to be learned in those: Always have a backup. If the plot can’t progress unless the phone rings, you need to have an alternative that can be pressed into service immediately the failure becomes apparent, but even that can go wrong. I once sat next to the director during a performance where the phone, which should have rung at a crucial plot point, failed to do so. After an agonizing pause, during which the stage manager, busy doing something else, failed to operate the backup bell, one of the actors improvised by pretending to get the message off-stage. He returned, relayed the message, and at that point, the stage manager, finally realizing that something was amiss, triggered the backup. With great presence of mind, the actor picked up the phone, listened for a few seconds, and said, “Thank you. I’ve just heard that from someone else,” and slammed the phone down. The director gripped my knee so hard during the hiatus that the bruise took about a week to fade. Don’t let it happen to you.
John Leonard is an award-winning designer who has been working in theatre sound for over 40 years. In his spare time, he records anything that makes an interesting noise in high-definition surround sound. His sound effects libraries are available online at www.johnleonard.co.uk/immersive.html. Live Design readers receive a 30% discount on all libraries, excepting the monthly Dollar Deals, with the code LDM30.
For more, download the March issue of Live Design for free onto your iPad or iPhone from the Apple App Store, and onto your Android smartphone and tablet from Google Play.