What is a 'click track'? [FAQ#7]
A
timbreless, metronomic 'pulse' heard in headsets by the conductor only or (mostly the
current practice) by the conductor and the orchestra during the performance of a film
music cue. In either case, the purpose of a click track is to 'guide' the conductor and
the orchestra temporally so that 'moments' in the music when played will in fact match
'moments' in the picture as intended by the composer when crafting his composition. It is
said that this technique or procedure was 'invented' by Max Steiner for his score for
The
Informer (1935)... he wanted to control precisely the placement of the performance of
certain musical events as written to match footfalls in a particular scene. But it appears
the Mr. Steiner may have gotten the idea from Walt Disney's people who for some time
earlier had used the technique to match, precisely, animation sequences with sound. See also
(a) flutter ... in a sense a 'silent',
visual click track; and, (b) variable click
track.
Traditionally, a tempo in film
scoring is called a "" or "".
A "click," or film tempo, though, is not the usual Maelzel Beat Per
Minute.
In film, tempos are expressed in terms of a specified number of
frames plus "half-sprockets" (1 "half-sprocket" = an eighth of a
frame) that pass a film projector's shutter. The standard U.S. film rate is 24 frames per
second. Hence a 24-0 "click" means that an audible click is heard exactly once
every second (BPM = 60). A 12-2 frame "click" means that an audible click
is heard once every 12¼ film frames or once every 0.51 seconds (BPM=117.55).
P.S. Here's a little math trick to convert BPMs to a close
approximation of film Clix::
Divide 1,440 by the known BPM. For example, 1,440 ÷ 60 BPM
= 24.00 (or 24-0 frame film click).
