Hopscotch Sound Recording

Hopscotch Sound Recording

 

Patent Pending

 

     This is a technique for recording sound on “silent” film.  Two monaural sound tracks are optically recorded within the width of the perforations (sprocket holes), and are staggered to hide between and hop over the perf holes.  

     Super 8 film is an ideal format for this technique because the perf holes occupy only 27% of the frame pitch, leaving 73% of the area to lay down sound tracks.

Hopscotch camera

---

 

Hopscotch projector

---

 

Controller:

The controller switches back and forth between the left and right sound tracks to compile the original sound.

---

 

Advantages of hopscotch optical recording:

• The sound track is recorded optically, without the need of the magnetic stripe, turning less expensive silent film into “sound film”.
• Film without the magnetic coating is thinner and can be wound on a smaller spool allowing for a longer-running film supply, or a smaller film spool and smaller camera.
• If creating a new format, the image can be widened, making use of the area currently used by the mag stripe.

---

 

Comments:

• “why didn’t someone think of this before?“, Rick Steenblik, March 27, 2024
• “Placing the audio track between the perfs.  Very clever”, Don Iwerks, Engineering Mgr., Walt Disney Productions, January 8, 2024

---

 

Hines’ lab notebook #2:

p. 76

 

---

 

For consulting, please contact Steve Hines at: