Sound Film History

Sound Film History

The Early Days

First Experiments

Pre-History

In The Early Days of Motion Picture

The Recording Medium

W.K.L Dickson & Edison

Kinetophone

Kinetograph & Kinetoscope

Thomas Alva Edison

Scott de Martinville

Phonoautograph

1860

Earliest "Sound On Disc" method of sound and film synchronization, 1895

Motion picture machine and "peep show" style viewer

1891

Other Early Experiments

Problems with Sound On Disc

Sound On Disc Method

Chronophone

1902

Documented sound in real time by etching on smoked glass or paper

The Phonograph

Edison Records

1888-1929

1877

Phono Cinema Theatre

1900

Innovation

Technology Evolves

Warner Bros. and the Vitaphone

Inventors start solving problems

Tri-Ergon

The Audion

Vitaphone

Sound On Film

Lee DeForest

Vitaphone Corp.

Josef Engle, Joseph Massole & Hans Vogt, 1919

First Sound On Film method utilizing an optical audio track

Advanced Sound On Disc Technology

The "Father of Radio" invents the first amplifying vacuum tube, 1906

Warner Bros. & Western Electric

Vitaphone Shorts

Major Studios Still Refuse Sound

Considered a Passing Fad

New "sound studios" and "sound stages" would have to be created

New production equipment would have to be purchased

Theaters would have to be wired for sound playback

A technological standard didn't exist

Movie stars of the time were not prepared

Foreign language market translation

Fledgling company Warner Bros. makes a big move and teams up with Western Electric in 1925

Phonofilm

Created by Bell Labs and Western Electric in the early 1920's

Optical Soundtrack?

World Premiere

Lee DeForest one ups Tri-Ergon

DeForest Phonofilm Co., 1923

Sound Recorded as Light

Warner Theater in New York

Early DeForest Phonofilm Production

1924-1925

The Vitaphone premieres in 1926 with the synchronized musical accompaniment to the silent film Don Juan

The Industry Moves to Sound

Warner Bros. Dominates, 1927- 1929

Vitaphone Takes the Film World by Storm

Fox and RCA Jump On Board

Fox Case Corp.

The Jazz Singer, 1927

Fox teams up with inventor Theodore Case

Theodore Case, inventor of the "Movietone" sound on film system signs agreement with Fox in 1925

Warner Bros. Success

RCA & The Photophone

Radio Corporation of America

• Fall 1928, Warner makes the complete transformation to Talkies

• 1929, Warner Bros becomes the most profitable motion picture company in the world

• Between 1928-1929, Warner Bros. profits jumped from $2 million to $12 million, 600%

RCA aquires the "Photopone" sound on film system and forms RKO in 1928

Sound Becomes the Standard

Ushering in the "Golden Age" of Hollywood

Major Studios Turn to Sound

• By Sept. 1929, MGM, Fox, RKO, Universal Paramount and United Artists had made the full transition to talkies

• Academy of Motion Picture Sciences was created as a resource for studios as a consolidated source for all the new technical information in the production process

• By 1930, more than 75% of theaters in the US were wired for sound

• By 1932, that number would almost reach 100%

Standards Begin to Emerge

Tobis-Klangfilm’s Tri-Ergon became the standard in Europe

Fox Movietone and RCA Phtophone became the standard in the U.S.

• Warner Bros. Vitaphone (sound on disk) was abandoned

• The company’s huge success gave them the money to easily make the switch to sound on film technology

• Sound became commonplace in film and so began the "Golden Age of Hollywood", 1930’s - 1950’s