A Brief History of Audio in Film

(excerpt)

Sound comes to film

• over 3 decades of significant innovation

• declining profits in 1927-28 led film companies to push the wide-spread implementation of sound for film

• by 1931 all Hollywood movies are ‘talkies’

Three Phases ofTechnological Development

InnovationInvention Diffusion

Major Early Events• 1877 - Edison makes first sound recording

• 1895 - Edison introduces Kinetophone

• 1902 - Gaumont introduces Chronophone

3 Major Problems

• synchronization

• amplification

• cost

Synchronization problem solved

• 1913 - Edison introduces a new version of the Kinetophone

• It successfully synchronized with picture

2 Major Problemsstill remained

• synchronization

• amplification

• cost

Amplificationproblem solved

• 1904 - Daniel Higham invents the Higham-A-Phone reproducer, the amplifier used in the Columbia Graphophone

• 1906 - Lee DeForest invents the Audion, an early tube amplifier

• 1908 - E.E. Norton invents the Cameraphone

1 Major Problemstill remained

• synchronization

• amplification

• cost

Making Sound for Film Cost Effective

• 1911-1919 - Western Electric and Lee DeForest develop Vitaphone, a method of recording and reproducing sound electronically on disc.

• 1921 - DeForest patents phonofilm, a method of recording sound on film

• 1926 - Warner Bros. releases Don Juan, the first film to include music on an amplified sound-track using the Vitaphone system.

• 1927 -The Jazz Singer featuring Al Jolson is released by Warner Bros. First full-length film with synchronized dialog.

• 1927 - Fox Film Corp. produces newsreels with a sound on film process called Movietone.

Making Sound for Film Cost Effective

• May 1928 - the major film companies sign with AT&T to produce pictures with sound on film.

• End of 1920s - Most theaters no longer have a house orchestra and organist.

• 1928 -- Warner Bros. releases The Singing Fool -- again starring Al Jolson. Makes an unprecedented $5,000,000.

Silent Films are history

• Mass Production and lower cost implementations resolved the last problem.

• Sound for Film was now cost effective and making film companies more money than ever!