Or maybe my computer's on the Fritz. I don't know. I can't figure it out. Whatever it is, it'll probably be better tomorrow. Anyway here's something that'll probably look good in print. It's the opening title for an old 30s radio show called...
GRAND CENTRAL STATION
ANNOUNCER: (SLOW BUILD) As a bullet seeks its target , shining rails in every part of our great country are aimed at GRAND CENTRAL STATION, heart of the nation's greatest city.
Drawn by the magnetic force of the fantastic metropolis, great trains rush toward the Hudson River... (FASTER BUILD) ...SWEEP down its eastern bank for 140 miles...FLASH briefly by the long, red row of tenement houses south of 125th Street!
SFX: RACING ENGINE. TRAIN'S BELL.
ANNOUNCER: DIVE with a roar into the two and one half mile tunnel which burrows beneath the glitter and swank of Park Avenue! AND THEN...
SFX: ENGINE CHUGGING SLOWS. TRAIN'S BELL. HISS OF AIR BRAKES.
ANNOUNCER: ...GRAND CENTRAL STATION!
Nifty, huh? That's what a REAL writer does! Why can't we have writing like that in our industry!?
9 comments:
I'm having that problem too! Blogger is messed up- it'll probably get fixed by tomorrow though.
We should record you sometime!!!!
That's a great piece of writing, Eddie. No question about it. Why can't we have writing like that in our industry? Because that intro would probably take 20 to 25 seconds - and we only have 11 minutes to tell a story. The restrictions of time require that we establish the location and get into the story ASAP. But I agree, the example you've shown is a great intro.
Evidence of just how memorable this opening title was: I'm pretty sure that I remember hearing it on the radio, which would have been 1952 at the latest, when I was about six years old!
This is a link to an episode of the series.
But... But...
That would be (Gasp! Choke!) illustrated radio and that is bad! BAD, I TELL YOU!
Steve: Honestly, I don't think the time limit is the reason. I'll post some more about this.
Eddie, if the script you posted was used in a film, it would be narration over an establishing shot. There's no plot or dialogue. It's simply setting the scene.
There was some kind of bug happening last night, I couldn't even see pics on other people's blogs.
Steve: Regarding your first comment, it's really easy to shoehorn a 25 second narration into an 11-minute dramatic cartoon if the cartoon is written right.
The Fleischer Superman cartoons were written right and look at their lengths. According to YouTube they are: Bulleteers, 7:59; Magnetic Telescope 7:33; Artic Giant, 8:34 and so on. And that's with titles (Mechanical Monsters came in at 10:08, maybe because it was one of the first)!
These versions had the abbreviated titles which are still better than any dramatic cartoon on TV now. They started with "Faster than..." then they introduced Superman. If they included the story of Krypton exploding, it would have taken a little longer but they still would have come in at a lot less than 11 miniutes.
Regarding your second comment: sure, the narration had nothing to do with the plot, it was part of the title. I can't remember if I called it dialogue in the post but if I did then I used the wrong word. Is that important?
You may have noticed that I use the wrong word more often than the right one here. Doing that, and avoiding spell check like the plague, is what enables me to get this blog out every day and still have a life.
Lester: Thanks for the link! I listened to the whole show! I heard a later reading of the title narration that was a lot more dramatic than the link version. Even the ad for flour was done better. Maybe this show was done early before the show got its legs.
The Fleischer Superman shorts were made for Paramount in an era before networks mattered, when creative execs were unheard of and animators were trusted to do what they did. The Fleischer Superman cartoons spent a long time in production and ran up the highest costs of any shorts that studio ever did. Only essential dialogue was used, the bulk of the stories were told visually and backed with full orchestral scoring. Today, the powers that be don't trust the audience more than a few seconds without complete dialogue coverage, spoken by characters onscreen or narration. It leaves scant room for visuals and they won't pay for decent music. That money goes for creative exec bonuses.
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