Unit 4 Music in the Early Sound Film 1920s-1933
In Unit 3 we began to look at music in silent films and discussed some of the important events that led to music being an integral part of film production. We will now move into music in the early sound film era from the late 1920s to 1933 and look at films, technology and the rise of the "Studio System" in Hollywood.
- The late 1800s and early 1900s was a period of experimentation when various inventors (Thomas Edison, Oskar Messter, Charles Pathe) were trying their hand at synchronizing recorded music on discs with the picture up on the screen.
- In 1919 German inventors Josef Engel, Hans Vogt, and Joseph Massole devised a system that could photograph sound waves on the edge of the film (worked on the principle of using photoelectric cells to convert sound waves into light waves) and ultimately launched "sound-on-film".
- Amplification systems were then developed through the advent of the vacuum tube (Lee De Forest) paired with the sound-on-film system (Theodore Case and Earl Sponable) thus allowing the sound-on-film system to be pushed through loudspeakers in theaters
- Became known as the "Phonofilm" System
- The first hit song to come from an early sound film was from Fox Film Corporation movie What Price Glory? (1926).
- Music was composed by Erno Rapee and was called "Charmaine."
- Set the trend of using pop songs to help sell movies much like today
- A second sound system called the Vitaphone (sound on disc) was making strides to sync only musical performances with film. Dialogue was still missing.
The Jazz Singer
- October 6, 1927 The Jazz Singer premiered in New York City
- Became the first feature film to contain spoken dialogue and ultimately revolutionized the movie industry
- It used the Vitaphone system and the film became a pioneering moment in cinema history
Reasons Why Sound Challenged Filmmakers
- Now that music was part of the film itself there was no longer the need for live musicians in theaters
- 100,000+ lost their jobs
- Arrival of spoken dialogue on screen would deprive silent stars of their ethereal appeal. Why?
- The addition of sound to movies robbed filmmakers of the "dreamlike" world of silent images
- Directors could no longer shout instructions during filming
- Artistic and technical problems developed due to the inadequacy of early microphones (invention of the microphone boom)
- Cameras now had to be placed in soundproof cubicles so that the microphone would not pick up the mechanical noise
- As a result the freedom of camera movement had been taken away and didn't return until later inventions of soundproof encasements
Blackmail-Alfred Hitchcock
- Blackmail was hailed as the first full length all talkie film made in Great Britain in 1929
- Originally existed in two versions-One silent; One all sound