How Sound Developed Changed America During The 1920s ' Beginning With ' Silent Films '

Language developed tremendously through the use of silent films in the 1800s and early 1900s. A silent film is that which consists of only the picture, and no sound. This was an era of truly transformative filmmaking, forcing writers and producers to have to step out of a comfort zone in order to allow purely visual expressions to touch their audiences and convey their stories. This was achieved through a greater emphasis on facial expressions and body language.

Occasionally there would be subtitles of dialogue, but they were often short to ensure that audience would not be distracted. Live music played a large role in silent films and conveying the emotions to the audience. One ruinous aspect of the transition from silent films to sound films is the actors lack to transition with them. Important silent film stars such as Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino faded away with silent films. However, stars like Charlie Chaplin and Lionel Barrymore were able to make a successful transition from silent to sound, and continued their strong acting

New and exciting technologies have always played a huge role in the culture of American people. When the motion picture came out it was no surprise that both consumers and producers were more than happy to get in on the action. Back in the 1920’s film was still pretty new and was only in black and white with no sound, but the films were always accompanied by orchestral pieces to help set the mood. The art of movie-making has come a long way since then with the addition of not only color and audio, but new techniques and new ideas. Both The Kid and Iron Jawed Angels are very popular films about the early 1900’s. Although they share some common thoughts, but because they were made in two completely different time periods their focuses are

Many studios at the time probably ended up losing a lot in terms of revenue due to the poor outcome of the new sound films that were produced at the time. With all the challenges faced during the shooting of the films, most of the productions could hardly handle synchronization of sound and video, not to mention the awkward voices of the actors. As such most movies ended up not meeting the expectations of the fans, thereby forcing the studio houses to reshoot or accept the embarrassment and abandon the project altogether. In “Singing in the Rain”, the directors are faced with a similar problem later on in the film. In a certain scene, the movie “The Dueling Cavalier” is finally completed despite the various problems faced during the set; the major one being Lina’s voice as well as her inability to speak through the microphone. Nevertheless, the studio decides to preview the movie in Hollywood. The preview turns out to be a disaster as the fans laugh at Lina’s voice and howl at the synchronization problems in the film. Synchronized sound added to the impact of motion pictures in that the audience was able to get more feeling from the actors in addition to the actions. They found this new feeling to be rather exciting. However, problems with synchronization made the sound films a disaster to watch. The sound and the pictures had to be in sync for the films

The cinematic language that we know of today would not be as it is today if we had synchronous sound recording from the beginning of film. Cinematic Language is the systems, methods or conventions by which movies communicate with the viewer. A few examples of cinematic language are; montage; mise en scene, the use of long takes, depth of field shooting in order associate people or objects; Expressionism, the use of lighting techniques, severe camera angles, and elaborate props, to name a few aspects; and realism, a technique to make the action seem as true to life as possible. The list of techniques and styles of cinematic language go on, and can only be limited by the imagination. Early films, and early sound films both had something in common; they lacked many elements of the cinematic language. The reason sound films reverted back to the same pre-cinematic style of early films, was due to the fact that they had technical difficulties, that required them to fall into the style of the old ways. I do believe that if filmmakers would have had sound from the beginning, with the same sense of movie direction they worked with, they would have used sound as a crutch rather than an enhancing element.

Throughout history sound has been used to help convey a story. As early as the 1900’s, without today’s technology, movies would often be accompanied by a soundtrack played on a piano or record players. In 1927 The Jazz singer was released, a warner bros movie that featured music and dialog on the actual filmstrip. This film is

Silent films first appeared around the 1890s in America. 1 They are films that were without synchronised sound and especially no spoken dialogue. Music was recognised as an important part of film/moving images from the beginning, as it contributed to the atmosphere of the films and allowed the audience to understand and feel the emotions being portrayed. 2 When music was first being combined with moving image pianos, organs and phonographs were the first instruments used to provide the music, and as the popularity of film grew over the years, some of the larger theatres began using orchestras to accompany the film. 3

When silent movies were beginning to be replaced by movies with sound, or ‘Talkies’, controversy began to surround Hollywood and it stars. Between Fatty Arbuckle hitting an actress at a party

“The most exciting moment is the moment when I add the sound… At this moment, I tremble.” (Akira Kurosawa) Sound is arguably the most important concept in cinema studies, being there ever since the beginnings. It can radically change the way a motion picture is looked at and it can render what the director may sometimes find hard to depict using only his camera. Looking upon silent cinema one discovers an era which wasn’t at all silent, but rich in sound of different forms, from the simple narration of the images shown on screen, accompanied by a piano, to the complex score later composed specifically for that film. An example of that complex score is shown in Sunrise, a film by F.W. Murnau, which lies at the border between silent cinema and sound cinema. Considered to be one of the first films with an actual score, Sunrise is a great example of the multitude of dimensions and effects sound can have.

In 1928 ground-breaking technology made it possible for movies to have sound. This revolutionized horror films because sound gave an extra dimension to terror. Noise built suspense and signaled the presence of a threat. (Wilson) Instead of a monster suddenly making an appearance without warning, music would signal that they were near. Growls, Snarls, footsteps, and screams allowed the audience members to feel like the victims of the movie.

The development of 1920s and 1930s media and technology was extremely influential upon the period of time immediately after. Media in the 1920-30s and its relevance to the years that followed, focusing on the western world. Through the journalism and writing movements during the era, new technology was exposed to the public and impacted events in the years that followed. The term technology can also apply to machinery, medicine and weaponry; however, none of them corresponded with the changes to media in the 1920s and 1930s. The evolvement of media and technology in the 1920s and 1930s impacted events during the era and later in the Second World War.

In 1927 new technology emerged in sound, people started going back to the theatres to watch films,

The first film that showed early signs of a rise in the quality of technology was the Western “The Great Train Robbery.” When this film first came out the audience were so amazed at the fact that they could watch something on a TV or at the cinema. Although this film was very good for the 1900s it still lacked some key features that make films much easier to understand such as dialogue, sound and camera shots. The one feature of a film that developed the quickest over the period of time was sound. Sound was introduced in October 1927 in the film “The Jazz singer”, which had three song numbers and a few lines of spoken dialogue. Apart from these few songs and words, the rest of the movie was silent, but the audience still thought that it was amazing that words had been spoken in the film, they used to call it “the movie that talked”.

The introduction of sound films in the late 1920’s was a divisive issue among those involved and interested in the emerging motion picture industry. Even though it wasn’t the sudden breakthrough it is often perceived to be, the addition of sound and voice to mainstream cinema revolutionized movie making and led to conflicting viewpoints as to whether or not this innovation was a positive progression for film as an art and as an industry.

The release of Gordon Hollingshead and Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer in 1927 marked the new age of synchronised sound in cinema. The feature film was a huge success at the box office and it ushered in the era David Bordwell describes as ‘Classical Hollywood Cinema’; Bordwell and two other film theorists (Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson) conducted a formalist analysis of 100 randomly selected Hollywood films from the years 1917 to 1960 in order to fully define this movement. Their results yielded that most Hollywood made films during that era were centred on, or followed, specific blueprints that formed the finished product. Through this analysis of Hollywood films the theorists were able to establish stylised conventions and modes of