The Introduction of Sound - module 12

 The Introduction of Sound

Academy Ratio

Incidentally, during the early years of sound, the track occupied part of the left of the rectangular frame used just for the image in the silent era. Thus, many early sound films had square images. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences soon recommended putting black strips at the top and bottom of the image to re-create a rectangular frame; this Academy ratio (or Academy aperture) remained standard until the advent of widescreen ratios in the 1950s.

 

Blimps

Technicians worked quickly to solve such problems. Studios soon built padded metal blimps that silenced the camera but were far less awkward to use than booths.

 

Microphone Booms

Next came microphone booms, poles that moved the microphone overhead to follow moving sources or swing from actor to actor. Perhaps most important, from 1931 on it became increasingly possible to record more than one track of sound for a scene and to mix them into a single final track.

 

Movietone (Fox)

  Fox renamed the Case-Sponable system Movietone and demonstrated it in 1927

   with short films of vaudeville acts and musical numbers.

   The showing was a success, but Fox soon found that most big-name theatrical talent

   had signed contracts with Warner Bros. Fox then concentrated on sound newsreels,

   including highly popular coverage of Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight to Paris.

   Fox used a Movietone musical score for F. W. Murnau’s 1927 feature Sunrise

   and made some part-talkies in 1928. In the following scene from Sunrise, notice the combination of nondiegetic music and sound effects.

 

Multicamera Shooting

This technique, multicamera shooting, was widely adopted because each scene had to be filmed straight through in its entirety. Although it would have been easier to shoot all the action in a lengthy take with one camera, filmmakers were reluctant to surrender the flexibility and emphasis that the continuity editing system had given them in the silent era. In order to be able to use devices like establishing shots, cut-ins, and shot/reverse shots and still match sound and lip movement smoothly from shot to shot, directors filmed the scene from a variety of vantage points. One camera might have a normal lens and make the long shot while another in the next booth made medium shots with a telephoto lens and a third filmed the action from a slightly different angle. At times, more than three cameras were used.

 

Phonofilm

Lee de Forest first demonstrated his Phonofilm in 1923. T

his sound-on-film process converted sound into light waves reproduced on a photographic strip

running alongside the images on regular 35mm film.

This system offered synchronization advantages.

If the film broke and was repaired,

the same number of frames of image and sound would be cut out.

Since de Forest was determined to be independent, his company remained small,

though the sale of Phonofilm patent rights abroad promoted the spread of sound in some countries.

 

Sound Bridges

He experimented with sound bridges, carrying over the sound, particularly voices, from one scene into the next—a technique that would not be commonly used until the modern Hollywood cinema.

 

Sound-on-Film

  1)Theodore Case and Earl Sponable, created a sound-on-film system,

  partly based on de Forest’s Phonofilm.

  Fox Film Corporation invested in the Case-Sponable system

  2)The next major system was another sound-on-film technology

   developed by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA, a subsidiary of General Electric and

   Westinghouse).

   Dubbed Photophone, it was demonstrated in early 1927 and for a short time promised to rival

   the most successful system to date, Warners’ Vitaphone, in becoming the industry standard.

   3)By 1928, Western Electric also had a sound-on-film technology available—and

   it offered more favorable contracts. The Big Five opted for Western Electric’s system.

Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture

is recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film

carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track

or digital sound track, and may record the signal either optically or magnetically.

Earlier technologies were sound-on-disc,

meaning the film's soundtrack would be on a separate phonograph record.[1]

Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent systems use timecode.

 

Sound-on-Disc

  American Telephone & Telegraph, was developing recording systems,

  amplifiers, and loudspeakers. Heavily funded researchers combined

  these components so that sound on phonograph records could be kept in

  satisfactory synchronization with the images.

  In 1925, Western Electric marketed its sound-on-disc system,

  but most Hollywood studios were too cautious to adopt it.

  Only Warners continued to use discs during production.

  In 1931, however, it joined the rest of the industry by switching to sound-on-film.

 

Vitaphone (Warner Bros.)

  Initially Warner considered sound a cost-cutting substitute for live entertainment

  on film programs. By recording vaudeville acts and using orchestral accompaniment

  for features, they could save on labor in their own theaters and offer similar savings

  to other exhibitors. They signed major singers, comics, and other performers to

  exclusive contracts. Warner Bros. tested the Vitaphone process in a series of short films.

  The first public screening, on August 6, 1926, began with eight shorts, including a speech by Will Hays and an opera aria. The feature, Don Juan (Alan Crosland), starring John Barrymore, had recorded music but no dialogue. The showing was successful, and Warners made more shorts and features with music.

  On October 6, 1927, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland) premiered. Most sequences had only orchestral accompaniment, but in four scenes vaudeville star Al Jolson sang and even spoke briefly (“You ain’t heard nothin’ yet”). The film’s phenomenal success suggested that sound might provide more than a cheap way of reproducing stage acts and music. Warners made more “part-talkies,” and in 1928 the first “all-talkie,” The Lights of New York (Bryan Foy), became another hit.

 

Tobis-Klangfilm - 1929

Since France was an important market, German interests sought to capture part of the production sector. In early 1929, Tobis-Klangfilm set up a subsidiary, the Société Française des Films Sonores Tobis, in Paris. Tobis produced many major French films, including the highly influential first three sound features of René Clair, which we shall discuss shortly.

April 13

Alone (Grigoriy Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg, 1931) telephone both inconsistent sounds

Behind the Lines (1926) Wartime entertainer piano 2 cameras

Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock, 1929) 2 police in hats chatting woman walking hand landlady

The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) dietrich professor rath  lola-lola students makeup

The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931) show girl goes to big mansion waves in car

Deserter (Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1933) restaurant soup sleeper man grabs bread thrown street

Hallelujah (King Vidor, 1929) black musical walking back from cotton fields Also rolling dice – multiple cameras used Zekiel Became A Preacher. Chick, Mammy, Spunk, Missy Rose

The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927) tall white singer whistles in a bar woman brown bowl hat

Liebelei (Max Ophüls, 1936)  dancing couple rich room mirrors

The Lights of New York (Bryan Foy, 1928) - two thugs and hawk in a nightclub office telephoto lens thugs

M (Fritz Lang, 1931) finger print lots of meetings - fingerprint and making faces in mirror

Madame and Wife (Heinosuke Gosho, 1931) Striped nightclub singer serious guy in robe geisha wife at home mad bends pin sings he comes home

Mädchen in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931) striped uniforms woman

À Nous la Liberté! (René Clair, 1931) making toy horses men hats numbers bars wink with medal hides tool march out in line

La Petite Lise (Jean Grémillon, 1930) prison yard white brimmed hats gate prisoners playing cards guy looks at locket guy saws through bars prisoners sing

Sunrise (F. W. Murnau, 1927) - wedding exit into the street don't notice cars trees honking car jam

    In the following scene from Sunrise, notice the combination of nondiegetic music and sound effects.
    Used Movietone musical score by Fox

Three from the Filling Station (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930) cuckoo gas station three guys

Westfront 1918 (G. W. Pabst, 1930) tired soldier walking grave crosses made wife cheats on him gun
  enlisting papers wife in white bed hair in bun