Sound-on-film
Lee Deforest first demonstrated his "Phonofilm" in 1923 -- This sound-on-film process converted sound into light waves reproduced on a photographic strip running alongside images on a regular 35 mm strip: This system offered synchronization advantages (bu
Sound-on-Disc
One of American Telephone & Telegraph's subdivisions, Western Electric, was developing recording systems, amplifiers, and loudspeakers in 1910s and early 1920s -- Heavily funded researchers combined these components so that sound on phonograph records cou
Vitaphone Shorts
-series of short films created by Warner Bros. used to test the Vitaphone system
-included speeches, operas, vaudeville, and other forms of live sound entertainment
-Static; all about the performers
-Broadway sensation
-October 1927: The Jazz Singer -- pa
Vitaphone
-1925: WB vertically integrates; needed to expand to large theater chains
-Waddill Catchings; on Wall Street; could get them money
-1926: Contract with Western Electric (AT&T) - Vitaphone CO.
-AT&T develops a new market through WB
-WB gets money for their
Warner Bros.
-Was first into the sound field
-The Western Electric system was offered at a time when the small firm of Warner Bros. was expanding/ trying to become vertically integrated -- Initially Warner Bros. considered sound a cost-cutting substitute fro live ente
Part Talkie
-1927-1929
-film that only used sound in selected scenes
-Warner Bros.
-early sound films (such as "The Jazz Singer" by Alan Crosland [1927]) were in this category
All Talkie
-film that could be categorized as a "sound" film from start to finish (used recorded sound in all of its scenes)
-first case of this was produced by the Warner Bros., "The Lights of New York" by Bryan Foy (1928)
RKO
Next Major system was another sound-on-film technology developed by the RCA (Radio Corporation of America)
-- Photophone - was demonstrated in early 1927 & for a short time RCA promised to rival the most successful sound system to date, Warner's Vitaphone
The Big Five Agreement
In Feb., 1927, the five largest producing companies in Hollywood at this point signed this agreement, pledging to act together in adopting whichever sound system proved most advantageous
-The two leading choices were Western Electric's sound-on-disc and R
Effects of sound coinciding w/ the depression
-many American films were released in both sound and silent versions bc some theaters could not afford the sound equipment.
-Still, by mid-1932, the conversion to sound in the US was nearly complete.
Multiple-Camera Shooting
Filmmakers & technology workers struggled too cope w/ the unfamiliar, clumsy new technology -- microphones were hard to move/ it was difficult to mix sound tracks -- scenes often had to be shot w/ multiple cameras & soundproof booths
-multicamera shooting
Multilingual Production
-Dubbing a new sound track in a foreign language was clumsy and expensive
-subtitles were rejected as distracting-- dubbing, eliminating dialogue/substituting intertitles or even editing in narrators to explain the action in a different language was compl
Tobis-Klangfilm creation
-In 1918, 3 inventors came up w/ the German sound-on-film system: Tri-Ergon -- tried to introduce the process, but nobody moved into sound production
-In August 1928, various international companies pooled their sound patents (including Tri-Ergon) & forme
Tobis-Klangfilm v. the US
-Interests controlling TK were determined to compete w/ the American Firms
-When WB opened its successful "The Singing Fool" (1928) in Berlin in 1929, TK obtained a court rejection to stop the film's run -- claimed the Vitaphone equipment WB installed in
Tobis-Klangfilm and US make up
American firms realized that their boycotts were not working -- TK was threatening to control large portions of the world market
-- Soon MPPDA & firms linked to Western electric reached a settlement w/ TK -- On July 22, 1930, at a meeting in Paris, all pa
The Blue Angel
-1930 German film directed by Josef von Sternberg
-avoided multiple-camera shooting almost entirely, but still created dialogue scenes with excellent lip synchronization
-this film is also famous for its offscreen sound that creates motifs
-brought world
Contrapuntal use of sound
In the 1928 "Statement of Sound", signed by Sergei Eisenstein, his associate Grigori Alexandrov, and V.I. Pudovkin, they all claimed that "Only the contrapuntal use of sound vis-a-vis (in relation to) the visual fragment of montage will open up new possib
Benji or the katsuben
-This performer was a backbone of exhibition, sitting in the theater near the screen, explaining the action and vocally portraying the characters during public viewing of Japanese film
-came from traditional Japanese theater performances
Rene Clair
-became one of the most widely known of early sound directors
-"Under the roofs of Paris" (1930), "Le Million" (1930), and "For Us, Liberty" (1931) all found an international audience
- His imaginative use of camera movements, stretches of silence, and so
Blackmail
-BIP was founded in 1927 by John Maxwell � he quickly wired his Elstree studio facility w/ RCA equipment -- His first production, Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail", was released in silent and sound versions and was a big hit in 1929.
- was one of the most im