A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but it would be decades before reliable synchronization was made commercially practical. The first commercial screening of movies with fully synchronized sound took place in New York City in April 1923. In the early years after the introduction of sound, films incorporating synchronized dialogue were known as "talking pictures," or "talkies." The first feature-length movie originally presented as a talkie was The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927.
By the early 1930s, the talkies were a global phenomenon. In the United States, they helped secure Hollywood's position as one of the world's most powerful cultural/commercial systems. In Europe (and, to a lesser degree, elsewhere) the new development was treated with suspicion by many filmmakers and critics, who worried that a focus on dialogue would subvert the unique aesthetic virtues of soundless cinema. In Japan, where the popular film tradition integrated silent movie and live vocal performance, talking pictures were slow to take root. In India, sound was the transformative element that led to the rapid expansion of the nation's film industry—the most productive such industry in the world since the early 1960s.
History
For more details on this topic, see Kinetoscope.
Early steps
A number of technological developments contributed to making sound cinema commercially viable by the late 1920s. Two involved contrasting approaches to synchronized sound reproduction, or playback:
Advanced sound-on-film – In 1919, American inventor Lee De Forest was awarded several patents that would lead to the first sound-on-film technology with commercial application. In De Forest's system, the sound track was photographically recorded on to the side of the strip of motion picture film to create a composite, or "married," print. If proper synchronization of sound and picture was achieved in recording, it could be absolutely counted on in playback. Over the next four years, he improved his system with the help of equipment and patents licensed from another American inventor in the field, Theodore Case. The patents of all three concerns were cross-licensed. Superior recording and amplification technology was now available to two Hollywood studios, pursuing two very different methods of sound reproduction. The new year would finally see the emergence of sound cinema as a significant commercial medium.
Synchronization: no interlock system was completely reliable, and sound could fall out of synch due to disc skipping or minute changes in film speed, requiring constant supervision and frequent manual adjustment
Editing: discs could not be directly edited, severely limiting the ability to make alterations in their accompanying films after the original release cut
Distribution: phonograph discs added extra expense and complication to film distribution
Wear and tear: the physical process of playing the discs degraded them, requiring their replacement after approximately twenty screenings
Production and capital cost: it was generally less expensive to record sound onto disc than onto film and the central exhibition systems—turntable/interlock/projector—were cheaper to manufacture than the complex image-and-audio-pattern-reading projectors required by sound-on-film
Audio quality: phonograph discs, Vitaphone's in particular, had superior dynamic range to most sound-on-film processes of the day, at least during the first few playings—while sound-on-film tended to have better frequency response, this was outweighed by greater distortion and noise Crucial innovations
In February 1927, an agreement was signed by five leading Hollywood movie companies: the so-called Big Two—Paramount and MGM—a pair of studios in the next rank—Universal and the fading First National—and Cecil B. DeMille's small but prestigious Producers Distributing Corporation (PDC). The five studios agreed to collectively select just one provider for sound conversion. The alliance then sat back and waited to see what sort of results the forerunners came up with. In May, Warner Bros. sold back its exclusivity rights to ERPI (along with the Fox-Case sublicense) and signed a new royalty contract similar to Fox's for use of Western Electric technology. As Fox and Warners pressed forward with sound cinema in different directions, both technologically and commercially—Fox with newsreels and then scored dramas, Warners with talking features—so did ERPI, which sought to corner the market by signing up the five allied studios.
The big sound film sensations of the year all took advantage of pre-existing celebrity. On May 20, 1927, at New York's Roxy Theater, Fox Movietone presented a sound film of the takeoff of Charles Lindbergh's celebrated flight to Paris, recorded earlier that day. In June, a Fox sound newsreel depicting his return welcomes in New York and Washington, D.C., was shown. These were the two most acclaimed sound motion pictures to date. One month earlier, the first all-color, all-talking feature had gone into general release: Warner Bros.' On with the Show!
Triumph of the "talkies"
The Jazz Singer had its European sound premiere at the Piccadilly Theatre in London on September 27, 1928.
The transition: Europe
During the 1920s and 1930s, Japan was one of the world's two largest producers of motion pictures, along with the United States. Though the country's film industry was among the first to produce both sound and talking features, the full changeover to sound proceeded much more slowly than in the West. It appears that the first Japanese sound film, Reimai (Dawn), was made in 1926 with the De Forest Phonofilm system.
The transition: Asia
Consequences
In the short term, the introduction of live sound recording caused major difficulties in production. Cameras were noisy, so a soundproofed cabinet was used in many of the earliest talkies to isolate the loud equipment from the actors, at the expense of a drastic reduction in the ability to move the camera. For a time, multiple-camera shooting was used to compensate for the loss of mobility and innovative studio technicians could often find ways to liberate the camera for particular shots. The necessity of staying within range of still microphones meant that actors also often had to limit their movements unnaturally. Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), from First National Pictures (which Warner Bros. had taken control of thanks to its profitable adventure into sound), gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the techniques involved in shooting early talkies. Several of the fundamental problems caused by the transition to sound were soon solved with new camera casings, known as "blimps", designed to suppress noise and boom microphones that could be held just out of frame and moved with the actors. As David Bordwell describes, technological improvements continued at a swift pace: "Between 1932 and 1935, [Western Electric and RCA] created directional microphones, increased the frequency range of film recording, reduced ground noise...and extended the volume range." These technical advances often meant new aesthetic opportunities: "Increasing the fidelity of recording...heightened the dramatic possibilities of vocal timbre, pitch, and loudness."
Technology
While the introduction of sound led to a boom in the motion picture industry, it had an adverse effect on the employability of a host of Hollywood actors of the time. Suddenly those without stage experience were regarded as suspect by the studios; as suggested above, those whose heavy accents or otherwise discordant voices had previously been concealed were particularly at risk. The career of major silent star Norma Talmadge effectively came to an end in this way. The celebrated Swiss actor Emil Jannings returned to Europe. John Gilbert's voice was fine, but audiences found it an awkward match with his swashbuckling persona, and his star faded as well. Clara Bow's speaking voice was sometimes blamed for the demise of her brilliant career, but the truth is that she was too hot to handle.
Commerce
In the first, 1930 edition of his global survey The Film Till Now, cinema pundit Paul Rotha declared, "A film in which the speech and sound effects are perfectly synchronised and coincide with their visual image on the screen is absolutely contrary to the aims of cinema. It is a degenerate and misguided attempt to destroy the real use of the film and cannot be accepted as coming within the true boundaries of the cinema."
Silent films
Talkies
The first sound feature film to receive near-universal critical approbation was Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel); premiering on April 1, 1930, it was directed by Josef von Sternberg in both German and English versions for Berlin's UFA studio. The first American talkie to be widely honored was All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone, which premiered April 21. The other internationally acclaimed sound drama of the year was Westfront 1918, directed by G. W. Pabst for Nero-Film of Berlin. Cultural historians consider the French L'Âge d'or, directed by Luis Buñuel, which appeared in October 1930, to be of great aesthetic import, though more as a signal expression of the surrealist movement than as cinema per se. The earliest sound movie now acknowledged by most film historians as a masterpiece is Nero-Film's M, directed by Fritz Lang, which premiered May 11, 1931.
1927: The General (U.S.; VV 01, S&S 02), Metropolis (Germany; VV 01, S&S 02), Napoléon (France; TO 95), October (USSR; VV 01); Sunrise (U.S.; TO 95, VV 01, S&S 02)
1928: The Passion of Joan of Arc (France; TO 95, VV 01, S&S 02), Steamboat Bill Jr. (U.S.; VV 01)
1929: Man with a Movie Camera (USSR; VV 01, S&S 02), Pandora's Box (Germany; TO 95)
1930: Zemlya (USSR; TO 95)
1931: City Lights (U.S.; TO 95, VV 01, S&S 02)
1932: negligible silent film production
1927: negligible talkie production
1928: none
1929: none
1930: none
1931: M (Germany; VV 01, S&S 02)
1932: none Aesthetic quality
"Talking film is as little needed as a singing book."
Cinematic form
History of film
Silent film
Sound stage
Film soundtrack
Category:Film sound production for articles concerning the development of cinematic sound recording See also
This system used an operator adjusted non-linkage form of primitive synchronization. The scenes to be shown were first filmed, and then the performers recorded their dialogue or songs on the Lioretograph (usually a Le Eclat concert cylinder format phonograph) trying to match tempo with the projected filmed performance. In showing the films, synchronization of sorts was achieved by adjusting the hand cranked film projector's speed to match the phonograph. the projectionist was equipped with a telephone through which he listened to the phonograph which was located in the orchestra pit.
Is Music Worth Saving? No great volume of evidence is required to answer this question. Music is a well-nigh universally beloved art. From the beginning of history, men have turned to musical expression to lighten the burdens of life, to make them happier. Aborigines, lowest in the scale of savagery, chant their song to tribal gods and play upon pipes and shark-skin drums. Musical development has kept pace with good taste and ethics throughout the ages, and has influenced the gentler nature of man more powerfully perhaps than any other factor. Has it remained for the Great Age of Science to snub the Art by setting up in its place a pale and feeble shadow of itself? American Federation of Musicians (Comprising 140,000 musicians in the United States and Canada), Joseph N. Weber, President. Broadway, New York City.
Sources
"Documentary and the Coming of Sound" essay on the impact of synch-sound on nonfiction film by scholar Bill Nichols
Edison: The Marriage of Sight and Sound brief discussion of Edison's experiments; part of the Library of Congress/Inventing Entertainment website
Film Sound History well-organized bibliography of online articles and resources; part of the FilmSound website
Hollywood Goes for Sound charts showing transition to sound production by Hollywood studios, 1928–1929; part of the Terra Media website
"Hollywood Learns to Sing" essay on early film musicals by John Kenrick
"Let's Hear It for Sound" essay on the positive effects of sound on cinema technology by Bob Allen
"Moving Pictures That Talk" essay by audio engineer and historian Mark Ulano
100 Years of Cinema Loudspeakers detailed chronology by John Aldred
Progressive Silent Film List (PSFL)/Early Sound Films comprehensive and detailed listing of first generation of sound films from around the world; part of the Silent Era website
Recording Technology History extensive chronology of developments, including subsites, by Steven E. Schoenherr; see, in particular, Motion Picture Sound
A Selected Bibliography of Sound and Music for Moving Pictures compiled by Miguel Mera, Royal College of Music, London; part of the School of Sound website
The Silent Film Bookshelf links to crucial primary and secondary source documents, a number of which cover the era of transition to sound
"The Sound of Sound" essay on theatrical sound reproduction by historian Rick Altman
Sound Stage—The History of Motion Picture Sound informative illustrated survey; part of the American WideScreen Museum website
The Speed of Sound chapter 1 of book by historian Scott Eyman; excerpt focuses on developments through the mid-1920s
Vitaphone Varieties essays by amateur motion picture historian Jeff Cohen on the system and the films made with it
"Why The Jazz Singer?" essay speculating on the basic source of the film's impact by Bob Allen (note that Allen erroneously describes The Jazz Singer as "one of the big box office hits of all time"—it was not)
"'You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, Folks—Listen to This!': The Sound that Shook Hollywood" article on the transition to sound by historian Guy Flatley; part of the MovieCrazed website
Early stepsA number of technological developments contributed to making sound cinema commercially viable by the late 1920s. Two involved contrasting approaches to synchronized sound reproduction, or playback:
Advanced sound-on-film – In 1919, American inventor Lee De Forest was awarded several patents that would lead to the first sound-on-film technology with commercial application. In De Forest's system, the sound track was photographically recorded on to the side of the strip of motion picture film to create a composite, or "married," print. If proper synchronization of sound and picture was achieved in recording, it could be absolutely counted on in playback. Over the next four years, he improved his system with the help of equipment and patents licensed from another American inventor in the field, Theodore Case. The patents of all three concerns were cross-licensed. Superior recording and amplification technology was now available to two Hollywood studios, pursuing two very different methods of sound reproduction. The new year would finally see the emergence of sound cinema as a significant commercial medium.
Synchronization: no interlock system was completely reliable, and sound could fall out of synch due to disc skipping or minute changes in film speed, requiring constant supervision and frequent manual adjustment
Editing: discs could not be directly edited, severely limiting the ability to make alterations in their accompanying films after the original release cut
Distribution: phonograph discs added extra expense and complication to film distribution
Wear and tear: the physical process of playing the discs degraded them, requiring their replacement after approximately twenty screenings
Production and capital cost: it was generally less expensive to record sound onto disc than onto film and the central exhibition systems—turntable/interlock/projector—were cheaper to manufacture than the complex image-and-audio-pattern-reading projectors required by sound-on-film
Audio quality: phonograph discs, Vitaphone's in particular, had superior dynamic range to most sound-on-film processes of the day, at least during the first few playings—while sound-on-film tended to have better frequency response, this was outweighed by greater distortion and noise Crucial innovations
In February 1927, an agreement was signed by five leading Hollywood movie companies: the so-called Big Two—Paramount and MGM—a pair of studios in the next rank—Universal and the fading First National—and Cecil B. DeMille's small but prestigious Producers Distributing Corporation (PDC). The five studios agreed to collectively select just one provider for sound conversion. The alliance then sat back and waited to see what sort of results the forerunners came up with. In May, Warner Bros. sold back its exclusivity rights to ERPI (along with the Fox-Case sublicense) and signed a new royalty contract similar to Fox's for use of Western Electric technology. As Fox and Warners pressed forward with sound cinema in different directions, both technologically and commercially—Fox with newsreels and then scored dramas, Warners with talking features—so did ERPI, which sought to corner the market by signing up the five allied studios.
The big sound film sensations of the year all took advantage of pre-existing celebrity. On May 20, 1927, at New York's Roxy Theater, Fox Movietone presented a sound film of the takeoff of Charles Lindbergh's celebrated flight to Paris, recorded earlier that day. In June, a Fox sound newsreel depicting his return welcomes in New York and Washington, D.C., was shown. These were the two most acclaimed sound motion pictures to date. One month earlier, the first all-color, all-talking feature had gone into general release: Warner Bros.' On with the Show!
Triumph of the "talkies"
The Jazz Singer had its European sound premiere at the Piccadilly Theatre in London on September 27, 1928.
The transition: Europe
During the 1920s and 1930s, Japan was one of the world's two largest producers of motion pictures, along with the United States. Though the country's film industry was among the first to produce both sound and talking features, the full changeover to sound proceeded much more slowly than in the West. It appears that the first Japanese sound film, Reimai (Dawn), was made in 1926 with the De Forest Phonofilm system.
The transition: Asia
Consequences
In the short term, the introduction of live sound recording caused major difficulties in production. Cameras were noisy, so a soundproofed cabinet was used in many of the earliest talkies to isolate the loud equipment from the actors, at the expense of a drastic reduction in the ability to move the camera. For a time, multiple-camera shooting was used to compensate for the loss of mobility and innovative studio technicians could often find ways to liberate the camera for particular shots. The necessity of staying within range of still microphones meant that actors also often had to limit their movements unnaturally. Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), from First National Pictures (which Warner Bros. had taken control of thanks to its profitable adventure into sound), gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the techniques involved in shooting early talkies. Several of the fundamental problems caused by the transition to sound were soon solved with new camera casings, known as "blimps", designed to suppress noise and boom microphones that could be held just out of frame and moved with the actors. As David Bordwell describes, technological improvements continued at a swift pace: "Between 1932 and 1935, [Western Electric and RCA] created directional microphones, increased the frequency range of film recording, reduced ground noise...and extended the volume range." These technical advances often meant new aesthetic opportunities: "Increasing the fidelity of recording...heightened the dramatic possibilities of vocal timbre, pitch, and loudness."
Technology
While the introduction of sound led to a boom in the motion picture industry, it had an adverse effect on the employability of a host of Hollywood actors of the time. Suddenly those without stage experience were regarded as suspect by the studios; as suggested above, those whose heavy accents or otherwise discordant voices had previously been concealed were particularly at risk. The career of major silent star Norma Talmadge effectively came to an end in this way. The celebrated Swiss actor Emil Jannings returned to Europe. John Gilbert's voice was fine, but audiences found it an awkward match with his swashbuckling persona, and his star faded as well. Clara Bow's speaking voice was sometimes blamed for the demise of her brilliant career, but the truth is that she was too hot to handle.
Commerce
In the first, 1930 edition of his global survey The Film Till Now, cinema pundit Paul Rotha declared, "A film in which the speech and sound effects are perfectly synchronised and coincide with their visual image on the screen is absolutely contrary to the aims of cinema. It is a degenerate and misguided attempt to destroy the real use of the film and cannot be accepted as coming within the true boundaries of the cinema."
Silent films
Talkies
The first sound feature film to receive near-universal critical approbation was Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel); premiering on April 1, 1930, it was directed by Josef von Sternberg in both German and English versions for Berlin's UFA studio. The first American talkie to be widely honored was All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone, which premiered April 21. The other internationally acclaimed sound drama of the year was Westfront 1918, directed by G. W. Pabst for Nero-Film of Berlin. Cultural historians consider the French L'Âge d'or, directed by Luis Buñuel, which appeared in October 1930, to be of great aesthetic import, though more as a signal expression of the surrealist movement than as cinema per se. The earliest sound movie now acknowledged by most film historians as a masterpiece is Nero-Film's M, directed by Fritz Lang, which premiered May 11, 1931.
1927: The General (U.S.; VV 01, S&S 02), Metropolis (Germany; VV 01, S&S 02), Napoléon (France; TO 95), October (USSR; VV 01); Sunrise (U.S.; TO 95, VV 01, S&S 02)
1928: The Passion of Joan of Arc (France; TO 95, VV 01, S&S 02), Steamboat Bill Jr. (U.S.; VV 01)
1929: Man with a Movie Camera (USSR; VV 01, S&S 02), Pandora's Box (Germany; TO 95)
1930: Zemlya (USSR; TO 95)
1931: City Lights (U.S.; TO 95, VV 01, S&S 02)
1932: negligible silent film production
1927: negligible talkie production
1928: none
1929: none
1930: none
1931: M (Germany; VV 01, S&S 02)
1932: none Aesthetic quality
"Talking film is as little needed as a singing book."
Cinematic form
History of film
Silent film
Sound stage
Film soundtrack
Category:Film sound production for articles concerning the development of cinematic sound recording See also
This system used an operator adjusted non-linkage form of primitive synchronization. The scenes to be shown were first filmed, and then the performers recorded their dialogue or songs on the Lioretograph (usually a Le Eclat concert cylinder format phonograph) trying to match tempo with the projected filmed performance. In showing the films, synchronization of sorts was achieved by adjusting the hand cranked film projector's speed to match the phonograph. the projectionist was equipped with a telephone through which he listened to the phonograph which was located in the orchestra pit.
Is Music Worth Saving? No great volume of evidence is required to answer this question. Music is a well-nigh universally beloved art. From the beginning of history, men have turned to musical expression to lighten the burdens of life, to make them happier. Aborigines, lowest in the scale of savagery, chant their song to tribal gods and play upon pipes and shark-skin drums. Musical development has kept pace with good taste and ethics throughout the ages, and has influenced the gentler nature of man more powerfully perhaps than any other factor. Has it remained for the Great Age of Science to snub the Art by setting up in its place a pale and feeble shadow of itself? American Federation of Musicians (Comprising 140,000 musicians in the United States and Canada), Joseph N. Weber, President. Broadway, New York City.
Sources"Documentary and the Coming of Sound" essay on the impact of synch-sound on nonfiction film by scholar Bill Nichols
Edison: The Marriage of Sight and Sound brief discussion of Edison's experiments; part of the Library of Congress/Inventing Entertainment website
Film Sound History well-organized bibliography of online articles and resources; part of the FilmSound website
Hollywood Goes for Sound charts showing transition to sound production by Hollywood studios, 1928–1929; part of the Terra Media website
"Hollywood Learns to Sing" essay on early film musicals by John Kenrick
"Let's Hear It for Sound" essay on the positive effects of sound on cinema technology by Bob Allen
"Moving Pictures That Talk" essay by audio engineer and historian Mark Ulano
100 Years of Cinema Loudspeakers detailed chronology by John Aldred
Progressive Silent Film List (PSFL)/Early Sound Films comprehensive and detailed listing of first generation of sound films from around the world; part of the Silent Era website
Recording Technology History extensive chronology of developments, including subsites, by Steven E. Schoenherr; see, in particular, Motion Picture Sound
A Selected Bibliography of Sound and Music for Moving Pictures compiled by Miguel Mera, Royal College of Music, London; part of the School of Sound website
The Silent Film Bookshelf links to crucial primary and secondary source documents, a number of which cover the era of transition to sound
"The Sound of Sound" essay on theatrical sound reproduction by historian Rick Altman
Sound Stage—The History of Motion Picture Sound informative illustrated survey; part of the American WideScreen Museum website
The Speed of Sound chapter 1 of book by historian Scott Eyman; excerpt focuses on developments through the mid-1920s
Vitaphone Varieties essays by amateur motion picture historian Jeff Cohen on the system and the films made with it
"Why The Jazz Singer?" essay speculating on the basic source of the film's impact by Bob Allen (note that Allen erroneously describes The Jazz Singer as "one of the big box office hits of all time"—it was not)
"'You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, Folks—Listen to This!': The Sound that Shook Hollywood" article on the transition to sound by historian Guy Flatley; part of the MovieCrazed website
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