15. DAFFY: Now do you know how to reach Planet X?
16. PORKY: Y-y-yessir!
17. DAFFY: Well, I wish you’d explain it to me sometime, buster!
18. PORKY: Why, it’s very simple, sir, if we follow those planets we can’t very well miss Planet X …
19. DAFFY: Haw! Haw! Haw! That’s ridiculous! Of all the stupid suggestions … Ah, ha ha ha ha! Wait a minute … I think I’ve got it … I’ll just bet that if we follow those planets we’ll find Planet X!!
20. DAFFY: Gad, how do I do it?
21. PORKY: (Admiringly) I d-don’t know!
22. DAFFY: I CLAIM THIS PLANET IN THE NAME OF THE EARTH!!
23. MARTIAN: I claim this planet in the name of Mars!! Isn’t that lovely?
24. DAFFY: Look, bud … I’ve got news for you … I have already claimed this bit of dirt for the Earth and there just ain’t room enough on this planet for the two of us!
25. MARTIAN: I do believe you are right. Yes.
26. DAFFY: Little does he realize that I have on my disintegration-proof vest.
27. DAFFY: You may fire when ready, Grisly …
28. DAFFY: Who? What? Where? When? How? Who? Oh, you, eh? Just when I had him going, you hadda butt in!! Well, get back in that spaceship!!
Master shot of Planet X: DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24½ CENTURY (1953)
29. PORKY: Yessir … your heroship!!
30. DAFFY: Brother … the things I have to put up with …
31. DAFFY: (Triumphant) Ah ha!!! Got the drop on ya with my disintegrating pistol!!
32. DAFFY: And, brother, when it disintegrates, it disintegrates!
33. DAFFY: (Sheepishly) Well … whaddaya know … it disintegrated …
34. PORKY: H-happy birthday … you thing from another world, you …
35. MARTIAN: Oh, thank you.
36. MARTIAN: Now, how do you suppose he knew it was my birthday? Especially when it isn’t?
37. DAFFY: Well, I guess he’s had enough. I’ll send him an ultimatum.
38. DAFFY: I’ll see what the little stinker is up to on my supervideo detecto set.
39. DAFFY: (Hysterically angry) That’s the last straw … NOW I USE MY SECRET WEAPON!!!
40. DAFFY: (Dirty laugh … crescendo)
41. MARTIAN: (Dirty laugh) (Shorter)
42. DAFFY: As I was saying, buster, this planet ain’t big enough for the two of us so … off you go!!
43. DAFFY: And now … This planet is hereby claimed for the Earth in the name of … Duck Dodgers in the twenty-fourth and a half century!!
44. PORKY: B-big deal!
D. Recording. The actor or actors were called into a prearranged dialogue room or sound stage, where the director went over the sketches with the voice-over actor, usually the highly talented and versatile Mel Blanc, who did Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, and most of the others, except female voices, which were done by the equally talented June Foray.
Since some of the voices were speeded up to give them a quicker and higher quality (e.g., those of Porky, Tweety, and Daffy) and as Mel cannot be expected to talk convincingly to himself, we recorded one voice at a time. On the first recording I would be Daffy to his Porky, and each line was repeated as many times as necessary to get the intonation needed by the director.
It must be emphasized that the director must have the exact emphasis, timing, and character thoroughly in mind. The offstage actor does not improvise unless asked to by the director. For example, in one of the Duck Season/Rabbit Season films, Daffy, in an agony of frustration, crawls his way to Bugs, takes him by the shirt front, and blurts “You’re dethpicable!” This is not the end of the film, so we cannot conveniently iris out—so what does Daffy say now, in that absolute frustration, as Bugs turns calmly and saunters away? Daffy follows him, but he has lost all ability to insult, accuse, or shame Bugs; he has also lost his vocabulary. Explaining this situation to Mel, I said, “Daffy has forgotten every word in the English language but ‘dethpicable’—so you can use any epithet you like, as long as it’s ‘dethpicable.’” And Mel blurted out: “Yeth, you’re dethpicable, and not only that, you’re picable and deth, deth; in all the years I’ve been in thith business, I’ve never met anyone so picable!” It required several takes and suggestions, but it was well worth it.
June Foray, Mel Blanc, and Stanislavski-oriented director
E. Dialogue Reading. The audio part of the film—or sound track—is then processed (no tape then), and the director selects the proper takes, which are then spliced together and presented for his final approval.
The editor then puts the sound track on a Moviola and runs it through, listening to the sound in slow motion (this is impossible, so don’t ask me how he did it). And separating the consonants from the vowels, indicating “uhs,” inhales, and grunts as well as the words, he transfers the sounds to dialogue sheets.
F. Timing the Film. The director then brings the dialogue, background, layouts, and penciled characters together.
What happens now requires a moment of history. In the early 1930s, wages were very low and it did not matter much whether a cartoon ran seven or eight minutes. But as demand grew for them, salaries increased, and it became evident even to knuckleheads like our producers that shortening the length of a film would decrease the cost.
… I am sure our producer, Leon Schlesinger, would have shortened films to two minutes had he not encountered an opponent he could not contravene: the exhibitor, who demanded that any short subject be no shorter than six minutes, to round out a two-hour program composed of a feature, a trailer (preview), a newsreel, and a short subject (preferably a cartoon, since they made people laugh—a nice commodity).
Well, Leon knew what his next course would be. By God, if they couldn’t be any shorter than six minutes, they sure as hell weren’t going to be any longer.
So, as a matter of survival rather than artistry, the directors at Warners soon learned to time a picture to exactly six minutes (540 feet).
From the beginning of the idea, then, until the final film, the director had to keep always in his mind: six minutes, no more, no less.
Now, to
