sound

pre-history

  • the jazz singer (1927) is often mistaken as the beginning of sound film; however, the history of sound in cinema goes further back — films were never silent

  • 1895: first known film with live-recorded sound was made by William Dickson for Kinetophone

    • Kinetophone was a proto-sound film system developed by Dickson and Thomas Edison

    • it was consisted of a Kinetoscope and a cylinder playing phonograph

  • 1900: the first known public screening of sound film using a system called Cinemaphonograph or Phonorama

  • 1914: 8-hr long film called the Photo-Drama of Creation was publicly screened. Slides and live action were synchronized with separately recorded lectures and musical performances

  • in 1928, the 7 hollywood majors released 220 silent films and 74 sound films. out of all of them, only 10 were made by Warner Bros

  • in 1929 the balance shifted radically. out of 290 films, only 38 were silent, and 166 were talkies

3 main problems with early experiments

  • synchronization: pictures and sound were recorded and played back by separate devices

  • playback volume: especially problematic for large venues

  • recording fidelity: very low quality of sound unless the source of sound was right in front of the recording device

influence of sound on image

  • cameras were noisy, so a soundproofed cabinet was used during the recording which severly limited the ability to move the camera. Blimps (camera casing) were invented to overcome this problem

  • actors had to stay in the range of still microphones which meant that they had to unnaturally limit thier movements. boom microphones were invented to overcome this problem

  • for the sake of exact synchronization, there needed to be a standardized camera and project speed. before sound, 16fps was the norm but after sound a strict standard of 24 fps was enforced

  • after sound, the noisy arc lights could not be used any longer. the switch to quiet incandescent light required a switch to more sensitive and thus more expensive film stock resulted in superior image quality. directors could now shoot scenes in lower light levels

  • sound also changed the stars of the time as many actors became less popular due to the quality of their voices, and many new stars were born

perception of sound

  1. loundess (or volume/intensity)

    1. describe as loud or soft

    2. related to the amplitude (or degree of motion within the sound wave)

  2. pitch (or level)

    1. described as high or low

    2. related to the frequency (or speed)

  3. timber (quality, texture, or color)

    1. described as simple or complex

    2. related to harmonic content (or texture resulting from a single sound wave or a mix of sound waves)

  4. rhythm

    1. described in terms of beat (pulse), tempo (pace), and accents

types of film sound

  1. vocal sounds

    1. dialogue

    2. narration

    3. spoken word

  2. envrionmental sound/noise

    1. ambient sound

    2. non-spoken environmental sounds

    3. sound effect (post-synchronized, foley sounds)

  3. music

    1. musical score

    2. diegetic music

  4. silence

audiovisual relationships

  1. rhythm

    1. any sound, not only music, has its proper rhythm. moving images also have a rhythm

  2. fidelity

  3. space

    1. diegetic vs non-diegetic (also trans-diegetic)

    2. diegetic: offscreen vs onscreen

    3. diegetic: internal vs external

  4. time

    1. synchronous sound: what we usually expect and experience

    2. asynchronous or out-of-sync sound:

    3. simultaneous sound

    4. non-simultaneous sound

7 functions of film

  1. audience awareness

    1. guides our attention

  2. audience expectations

  3. expression of POV

  4. rhythm

  5. characterization

  6. continuity

  7. emphasis

role of music

  • whether original score or licensed, or royalty free, music can contribute to the mood/story of the film

stages of sound production

  • design: the overall plan for a a film’s sound

    • sound should be integral to all 3 phases of production not an after-thought

    • a film’s sound is potentially as expressive as its images

    • images and sound can create different worlds

    • image and sound are co-expressible

  • recording: single system & dual system

    • sound recordist (sound mixer)

    • boom operator

    • sound assistant (sound technician)

  • editing

  • mixing: the process of combining different sound tracks onto 1 composite sound track synchronous with the picture