The sound of Churubusco Studios

Once upon a time a machine that across a complex mechanism was putting simple static images in movement: the cinematograph. The whole world adored it, nevertheless, it was lacking a fundamental element: the sound that the objects were producing, animals and persons who were appearing on the silver screen, it could not be listened. Time later, this one could add him to 24 pictures in a second were creating the optical illusion of movement. Since then, the cinema changed and with it, the way of doing, of recording and reproducing the audio.

In our country it took place the Golden epoch of the Mexican Cinema, in this time big composers were writing special scores for the movies, the audio of the movies was recorded separately and finally, the images and the sound were joining across the Rerecording. To be able to carry out this process, the Sound technician was taking charge transferring the recordings of the Sound operator in Filming to a final tape; in this process the audio was cleaned, that is to say, the noises and distortions were weakening in the voices of the actors or the environmental sound of the scenes. The transfer, since he is known to this tape, was going on to hands of the Sound editor, who is the one that was doing the Rerecording.

The histories created in the imagination by the sound before that for the image: this it is the cinema that the Engineer René Ruiz Cerón has seen during 55 years that he takes being employed at the Churubusco Studios. At the age of 18, in the 50’s decade, he came to the Churubusco, the biggest and modern Studies of Cinema of Mexico, as Helping of the Sound laboratory and now, at his 73 years, his labor has suited him the fact that the Room of Rerecording THX C of these Studies takes his name.

The Engineer Ruiz Ceron witnessed the transition from optical sound (which used light to record the sound on the audio tape) to magnetic (which uses magnets to shape the sound on a special tape) and it, to digital (which converts the sound into data). "Here in the study used the optical recorder that it was mono (in a canal was mixed across the audio of the movie: music, ambient sound, sounds and incidental dialogue). Then comes the transition from optical to magnetic recording. This change was a pretty big task, we adapt [heads of] many moviolas optical (editing machine) a magnetic power to make the transfer. After the cinemas had to adapt to head projectors in the same way they'd done with the moviolas. That was the first conversion of audio.”

Don Rene began to make transfers from the rushes and through them listened to what was happening during filming, "a Scene, El Santo against women vampire! Hear the blackboard and how it will be the scene, the actor is the girl said her dialogue and the director says: Court stays that!. These small bits of sound, and puzzles that more or less carry a sequence, you hear all the days or what has been filmed this time, because what you had to transfer "

"When I finished the transfer to the three weeks already had an idea of what concerned the film, who was the main character, who was ill, who was the good, who was the protagonist, but only under fictitious name the voice. That was then and came here armed with a rewritable [editor] that by mixing in a console. "

Samperio Galdino "Crusi," editor of more than 250 films and companion of Engineer Rene Ruiz, debuted the first console of the magnetic studies. He mixes and to synchronize sound with the image of the film for rewritable end on a single tape. "Many times I told him: 'Hey, I did all the rushes of that film, let me see what it is', then saw the movie and told him to Galdino:' You know what? Your movie disappointed me, my image of what it was is richer than I saw right now. " Just the image was not as creating my mind, the actress it was so beautiful as the imagined but the trouser no longer gave me the voice I had heard. That was part of why I grabbed the cinema, "says Don Rene excited about the images he created soundtracks for himself.

he Engineer Ruiz Ceron, has worked with some of the most important directors of the national film industry as Emilio Fernandez, Felipe Cazals, Arturo Ripstein, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Alberto Bojórquez, Carlos Enrique Taboada, among others. "Appears in the credits of Red Dawn, which I did with Arturo Ripstein," Women's port "for example, there are many that I made and put someone else in the credits."

"With all the directors must have affinity because you become in their hands, you have to be very flexible, you have to understand what he wants, what it said on the screen and it is difficult not to ride with one, or if don’t you take you will be a product of Cocol, there must be chemistry, as they say, or if you don’t understand the project you're not a good operator ... and an operator must understand it "believes Don René.

In addition to participating in the Sound Editing, the engineer was one of the pioneers of the Board of dubbing, since it installed and operated for the first time the team of Churubusco Studios. "Many directors called me to do dubbing, because if the recording was estimated in one week I got in four days, since they bring in players was a lanota."

"For example, to Raul Araiza doesn’t like the idea of dubbing, but when he made" Fuego en el mar", he was not pleased as was a dramatic sequence in the final edit because the audio was cut. I thought that in dubbing could be better. I said: 'let's do it' and he said no, because the players did not like the voice in dubbing it in the film and I said to him, who do so. Finally it became convinced, Raul loved the outcome and because he wanted dubbing the entire movie. "

Currently, the engineer Ruiz is no longer involved in the creative part of the Department of Sound or in the dubbing room, but still works for the studies as head of the department. " recently one of the assistants told me to correct the buzz that had one of the dialogues of the actress, and I had not heard, so I went back to locate the sound, it cost me hear it five times and until you hear it corrected.”

"At that point I decided it was time to retire. When your ear does not begin to record the changes, you need to give freedom to those who come behind you. That was my opinion and that's why I stopped operating. I devoted myself more to the maintenance of the equipment but no longer make decisions mixing at the time that this was cleaning the audio."

In recent years, the Board of stereo recording, where the engineer made much of his work, and almost not used; audios now go directly to the lab THX where not needed magnetic consoles, for that very reason, the engineer now advises the new generation of editors Sound. "Working at Churubusco Studios and be in this room where I was doing recording projects for a long time, is the life for me and go the other way would be like to die." Fiinalizó Engineer Rene Ruiz Ceron.