MovieChat Forums > Lord Love a Duck (1966) Discussion > the boom mike issue

the boom mike issue

posted 18 years ago by wilbrifar
6 replies | jump to latest

One of the reviewers said that the visible boom mike was not a mistake, but an intentional satirical comment by the filmmakers. Interesting theory, but simply not true. I've seen Lord Love a Duck on the big screen, run by a qualified projectionist, and the booms are not visible.

LLAD was intended to be shown widescreen. While a super wide process like Cinemascope creates a wide image on a square film frame by use of an anamorphic lens, a more moderate widescreen film such as LLAD would have simply composed the center of the frame for widescreen, with instructions to the projectionist to matte off the top and bottom of the frame when the film is shown.

In the earlier days of tv and home video, no one wanted letterboxing, so the film had to be shown "square". In the case of a Cinemascope film, this meant centering in on a portion of the wide image (pan and scan). With a film like LLAD, it meant going back to the original print and showing the whole thing without matting off top or bottom (open matte). The result was sometimes visible boom mikes and floor cables that were not meant to be seen. Examples can be seen in the early video releases of Walking Tall, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, the Chevy Chase comedy Modern Problems, and John Cassavetes' Husbands, just to name a few off the top of my head. The boom mikes in Lord Love a Duck are not meant to be seen. The film is indeed ahead of its time, but it wasn't quite THAT post-modern.

[–] shootr2 17 years ago

Another excellent example of not using a "matte" or aperture mask during transfer to video (and getting more than you bargained for!) is the RCA Videodisc release of John Ford's The Searchers. During the scenes at Scar's village, the top of the frame often revealed the upper limit of the BG painting, lights on stands (turned on, and revealing a hint of flare!) and stagehands. It was only much later that I became aware of the myriad ways a film can be "shown" and therefore the need for many films to be shot "looser" than one might have expected.

[–] awyagawa 17 years ago

When I saw it in the theatre, whatever the intended film format, it was shown in an old opera house. The screen had been modified for Panavision and similar films. The lens used to "convert" the "condensed" frames clearly revealed the boom mic in scenes most notably in a dining room or living room.
Being very young I didn't understand the wild laughter. My dad explained it was a mistake.
This mistake was partly responsible for the popularity of the film in the Orange County, Mid Hudson region in 1966/67. When shown at drive-ins the boom mic was clearly seen. People came to see an somewhat inane movie, and to look for the boom mic and any other mistakes (real or imagined).
I did not see the mic when it was shown on N.B.C.'s movie of the week in the late 60's early 70's, probably matted out in transfer.
Years later (in the 1980's) A&E broadcast the movie several times, and the boom mic was clearly evident in that print.

[–] michaellax 17 years ago

Another example of a "fullscreen" version unintentionally showing content that was matted out for the theatrical release is the MGM/UA fullscreen LaserDisc version of "Blow Up" which reveals Vanessa Redgraves breasts!

[–] wallerworld 16 years ago

I've written to the imdb staff to try to get them to remove the boom mike as "satire" comment from the trivia section. When correctly shown, no boom mike is visible.

[–] gattboy 10 years ago

i didn't notice any boom mikes in the version i rented from amazon last night

[–] Teach417 9 years ago

I saw Blow Up in the theater when it was first released, and Redgrave's breasts were clearly visible. They were also saggy, not very appealing. In fact, I consider that movie to be one of the most overrated films of all time. Critics reacted to Antonioni's reputation, instead of the movie itself. His next film, Zabrieski Point, was so bad that even the critics realized he'd lost it.

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