Watchers of Knightmare may not realise that during the course of Series 1-5, they witness the application of a technique developed in 1950s America and known as Syncro-Vox.

Invented and patented by Ted Gillette (1909-2003), a cameraman from California, Syncro-Vox (alternatively referred to without the hyphen, or as Synchro-Vox) is a technique for blending moving and static images. Its name points to one of its objectives: to overcome the difficulty of synchronising an animated mouth with its character's words and voice; and to its most renowned application: superimposing a live-action mouth onto an artificial face. Names of and clips from US cartoons which helped popularise Syncro-Vox can be found elsewhere online.
As for Knightmare, Syncro-Vox was most often used for creatures who were suitably static in nature yet vocal in purpose. It was employed from the first episode, in which the mask representing the face of Granitas faded onto a clue room wall before Team 1 of Series 1, having supposedly emerged from within the stone, to ask them questions.
It was subsequently used throughout KM's early series for the faces of wall monsters Olgarth and Igneous, Oracle of Confusion scenes, and perhaps also Treguard when his face would loom in a Dungeon chamber to comment on goings-on (as in fact he did prior to Granitas' debut) or address a character, as well as the more menacing facial manifestations from the likes of Mogdred (Level 2 for Team 3 of Series 2; Level 3 in many quests of Series 2-4), Morghanna (Team 6 of Series 3), Malice (Team 6 of Series 4) and Hordriss (Team 3 of Series 3).



The mouths of Golgarach and Brangwen and of the Level 3 Gargoyle in Series 3 were the results of Syncro-Vox;
in Series 4, the three door monsters and Oakley; and in Series 5, Oakley's final scene apparently brought Knightmare's last use of Syncro-Vox (though it may be possible to categorise further elements throughout KM, not identified here, as Syncro-Vox at work). The same series featured faces created by more sophisticated technology (the CGI Blockers); and just two series later, KM had entered a new technological realm with the use of Virtual Actor effects to generate the mouth movements of the wall-based Brollachan. Yet Syncro-Vox, while occasionally risible for the cheapness it was always intended to have, retains a measure of charm - even for those who didn't know what a snappy name it had.

Syncro-Vox was also used by Broadsword in The Satellite Game.


[Earlier version: 2009-11-20 19:29:23]

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