The Impact Of Sound On The World Of Sound Cinema

The transition from the era of silent films to the sound era in the mid 1920s was a big transformation for the American film industry and mass entertainment in general. This phase initially brought about much excitement for movie goers who were thrilled with the expectation of hearing the voices of their favorite actors for the first time. However, such expectations were met with much disappointment when the highly fancied actors had voices that did not much the preconceptions of the fans. The technical difficulties and various issues that the American film industry faced during this transition are actually captured in the 1952 movie, “Singing in the Rain”. In part, the film is actually about movie making during the silent-to-sound era as its

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.

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

Oral History Sound Recording was one of the first entertainment programs implemented to the public in the 1950-1960’s. Before there was sound recording people only listened to the radio. The radio played live music, shows and stories. This wave of entertainment was done through radio. Radio gave most individuals in this time a connection to many artist and actors across the world.

After a couple of “failed” attempts of making a device that could be used for mass sharing of music in the late 1800s, an immigrant from Germany had finally come up with an idea that would change everything. Chichester Bell (Alexander Graham Bell's cousin) and Thomas Edison’s idea to record sounds on round cylinders was a good idea except for the sound quality and general effort that was required to make and replicate sound. The Phonograph was one of the earliest attempts at recording devices. Thomas A. Edison wanted to create this device in order to assist with business interactions. He originally used foil to record sounds, but this wasn't the best medium. You could only play sounds once and the quality wasn’t the greatest. This is when wax cylinders came into play. It was eventually decided that the wax cylinder wasn't strong enough to record something permanently. Next followed the graphophone. This invention by Bell fixed the replay problem, but mass production of music would’ve been impossible because of the sheer amount of work involved in recording each cylinder separately (Bells).

“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.

When they began like in most stages of a new idea it was not thought to be something was going a main stay only a fad in the film “Singin in the Rain”. Obviously this prediction was false and movies with sound have continued to evolve to this day. Sound at that point had only been orchestra accompaniments during the film but turned into a key part of the film. Times were changing and if you could not change with them you were not going to make it very far.

Audiences described their first experience with the new sound technology of the Vitaphone as “great”, “more real” and “miraculous” (Crafton 1999). The Vitaphone, endorsed by Warner Brothers was used to make the first half-silent, half-talking musical, The Jazz Singer in 1927, which was met with great success. The Vitaphone technology recorded sound on a separate wax disc that the projectionist then had to synchronize with the film (Miller

The phonograph had the ability to record sounds and replay them. A recording was made by the human voice vibrating a disk with a needle that pricked a metal cylinder. When the disk was put in, it vibrated, which is what played the

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.

Another aspect of sound in this film was how it affected the story. By using sound dramatically in certain parts and not using it at all in other parts, sound gave this story an entity of its own. For example, during long stretches of film with mostly dialogue, there was no music played in the background, only a phone ringing in the distance, or the men's voices during their deliberation. These long silences also took place during editing shots of the town and images that surrounded this German city. This dramatic difference in sound was a revelation of how mood can be made by images and sound put together to make an incredible component.

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”.

Initially moving picture film was shot and anticipated at different paces utilizing hand-turned cams and projectors; however 1000 frames for every moment (16⅔ frames) is for the most part referred to as a standard silent speed, exploration shows most movies were shot between 16 frame/s and 23 frame/s and anticipated from 18 frame/s on up . Once the 1920s rolled around and a steady speed was needed for the sound head it was decided upon that 24 frames per second was the cheapest and also the slowest speed which would create sufficient sound quality. Since then cams have been motorized which permits them to record at a more predictable pace. Another enhancement is a calm cam outline which permits the sounds recorded on-set to be usable without the requirement on “airships” to encase the cam. Finally, the advancement of synchronized sound permits sound to be recorded at the exact same speed as the activity being recorded. This soundtrack can be recorded independently from shooting the film but are typically recorded at the same time.

According to history, the first sound was recorded mechanically by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (de Martinville) in 1857 on a machine called the phonautograph (and). His device would record sound by using a vibrating membrane that was attached to a pen (stylus) which drew a line in correspondence to sound waves onto a smoked paper roll attached to a rotating drum (and). The sounds were generated by vibrating diaphragm and a series of levers that moved the diaphragm from side to side (and). Even though de Martinville was able to duplicate sound, his machine was not able to play it back right after it was recorded (and). He made his machine this way because his intensions

During the mid to late years of the 19th century, a new form of entertainment emerged. Film entered the stage of innovation. New marketing and technological innovations developed for film to become the art it is today. In the 1830s, Joseph Plateau designed the Phenakistoscope. This device had a picture in the middle of a wheel made with mirrors and small openings. When spun, the Phenakistoscope made the picture appear to move. The name changed to Zoetrope in the 1860s and producers advertised the product as an accessory every home needed (Dixon & Foster, 2008). Later inventions that preceded the first motion picture camera include: Henry Du Mont’s Omiscope, Henry R. Heyl’s Phasmatrope, Eadweard Muybridge’s Zoöpraxiscope, Etienne-Jules Marey’s fusil photographique and Eastman Kodak’s chronophotographs (Parkinson, 1997). With a design by Thomas Edison, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson built the first modern movie camera, the Kinetograph, in 1890 (Dixon & Foster, 2008). In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiére patented the Cinématographe, a machine that combined the engineering of a camera and a projector (Bergan, 2006). Businessmen capitalized on the growing need for a place to witness these brand new films, thus they charged people to see them in their living rooms (Potter, 2014). These creations made movie-making a reality.