The History of Sound at the Movies
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- Опубліковано 9 сер 2014
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Take the full Filmmaker IQ course on the History of Sound at the movies with sauce and bonus material at: filmmakeriq.com/courses/histo...
The inclusion of sound at the movies was one of the most dramatic changes in all of film history. Dive into the early experiments of Edison trying to incorporate sound from film’s inception, through the experiments in the early 1920s, the Jazz Singer and the industry sound overhaul, and finally the multi-channel surround and modern movie sound technologies.
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I think you are the most underrated channel on UA-cam. Amazing work, as always.
Thanks Batman. Now go save Gotham!
atmos atmos atmos
You get your checks directly mailed to you by Dolby?
You should do a lesson on the restoration of films. Films that have been saved, lost, found and the processes that have been used to preserve films.
Good idea
Definitely!
110% agreed.
I know videos about restoration of Cinerama movies. They made them looking better than initial by fixing some problems of bringing all 3 films together.
The Dixon film was the only one done live. The horn doesn't look good, so when using acoustic stylus sound, they did it with the playback process. Prerecorded music and added the picture.
It's not accident, that the availability of microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers came together with developing film sound.
One interesting thing, with cinema speakers and mixing consoles in film studios, they had all technical stuff for a PA system since 1930, but before the 1960's they hadn't use this.
This channel is like jacking into the Matrix training programs. Watching two of them will give you a headache, and I mean that in a good way. The amount of information delivered in such a concise manner is nothing short of mind blowing. It's content creators like this that make UA-cam invaluable. :)
Could NOT have said that better myself. Totally agree.
I gave it a like before the video even loaded because what ever you talk about is interesting. , so basically I already know I'm in for a treat. Thanks
Your videos on insight to filmhistory, are amazing. I think I've said that before, but such an amazing yet underrated channel, deserves to hear it again.
Good job, John, you're one of the few UA-camrs who I can't wait for when they will upload their next masterpiece. So keep up the good work
MDMart you are so right His history lessons are phenomenal
❤enjoyed your content used on my final project very knowledgeable
Great video! I studied film/TV production in the ‘80s with an emphasis on post-production audio sweetening. I got to do the sound for everyone’s projects because so few people in film school cared much about the audio. Our audio sweetening studio was set up with three synced tape systems - an eight-track 1/2" machine, a two-track 1/4" machine, and a two-track digital tape machine. While we could theoretically mix for multichannel sound, the only way to export the sound was to a stereo S-VHS machine, so everyone’s projects ended up being stereo at best.
All this work in the analog field ended up making me a dinosaur as soon as I had graduated. I didn’t know anything about digital recording or editing tools. Likewise, I got my Masters degree in photography, learning film processing and printing techniques in the early ‘90s, only a decade or so before film became essentially obsolete. There’s nothing like being the guy who learns the skill of making buggy whips right before the automobile is introduced.
So, three decades later I’m a classical musician working for an opera company. I have a killer sound system set up in my house, though! I’m still more interested in the audio of a film than the video portion…
ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL DOCUMENTARY!!!! I have long been interested in the technological elements of sound recording -- the transition from acoustical recording to electrical recording, Vitaphone, sound-on-film, etc -- but I still learned much in this video. The sound clips from the early days are priceless. This is possibly the best documentary on "the coming of sound" that I have seen. Thanks for creating it and posting it.
Bill Chambers Thank you for the kind words - comments like that really do mean a lot to us :)
+Filmmaker IQ Could you cover or have you covered the faster frame rates used today as well as the Audio High Sample Rates is it not over kill? Great series Thanks for sharing it.
Check out History of Frame Rate:
ua-cam.com/video/mjYjFEp9Yx0/v-deo.html
I talk a little about High Sampling Rate in ua-cam.com/video/S9cP1WHL0Zo/v-deo.html
I like 96KHz personally (to me anything higher is overkill), there's a lively debate in the comment section regarding that.
Four years after this video was released we have object based audio like Dolby Atmos which render "objects" "on the fly" during playback to use up to 64 discreet channels to place these sound "objects" in specific places in a room regardless of speaker location or room size.
Filmmaker IQ Thanks for making these. Learning so much from it. The way the videos are layed out and the way you explain the topics is just great.
John, still one of your best episodes, I show this to my friends often. The scene regarding the Jazz Singer, really illustrates how amazing the sound transition was... Imagine being in the audience and the film switches to recorded dialog and then back to title cards... At that moment anyone watching would have realized that "silent film" was dead... There's only a few times in history where such technological realizations were so abrupt.
In any case your work is always of the highest quality Mr. Hess and glad you continue to contribute.
+David Simmons You know what - I never thought of it that way. The fact that it was both talkie and silent must have been really jarring - which explains why Jazz Singer is always listed as the first talkie even though it wasn't... it was the first public demonstration in a very graphic form that silent film was indeed dead ;)
Not only all of this, but the off-the-cuff effect of Jolson's seemingly improvised joshing around with his "mother" lends that "voyeuristic" effect that John mentions, and this individual personality coming out in an intimate and humorous way made an actor more human and not some idealized frozen icon graven in light, as in silents. NIce presentation, as usual, John, btw.
I find your videos utterly amazing, you speak with such enthusiasm, knowledge and love for cinema and its history it's just infectious to watch. It's always just brilliant.
Brilliant. I haven't seen a video of yours in a while. I was so excited when I saw this pop up in my subscription feed. Time to put on popcorn and soak this in:)
Working my way through your back catalog. This was really well done. I knew some high level information but you really filled in all the details. Loving watching your presentation style.
@29:51... my wife is obsessed with that sound. Just loves it.
The Quality of your content is just incredible.
wow! excellent as ever! Your videos always throws light on every aspect of the topic you chose. Thanks!
I'm incredibly happy to find this channel. I've been working in cg for 10 years now, and have learned a lot from your video's! Keep up the good work!
Star Wars did "kind of ok" at the box office. Yeah I think so too.
I discovered you channel a few days ago with "The history "The history and science of Color film" and now this - loving your videos a lot. So informative and interesting, and very well researched and presented. Thanks!
Top quality from John as always. Thank you for your hard work, it was really educational.
Great show John, I'm always amazed by the information you are able to provide. I know these shows aren't easy to produce, but don't wait so long next time to put out your next piece;-)
All this time, I have never seen the Jazz Singer and never knew that only a couple parts of the movie have talking. The rest of this video is fascinating!
Cinerama had three surround speakers, left, right, and center, switched manually, literally by a person sitting at the audio console. Perspecta didn't switch the mono track to one of the three screen speakers at a time. It dynamically and smoothly varied the volume of each speaker individually, so the sound could go to one only, any two, or all three in varying amounts with split-second timing. For example, a full orchestra playing would come from all three screen speakers, and if a cymbal crashed on the right, the right speaker would get louder and fade back just for the duration of the crash. Most of the time, the effect was indistinguishable from sound recorded and played with three channels because, like Dolby, it took into consideration psycho-acoustic listener considerations (I've studied Perspecta articles and patents and attended a theater screening of a Perspecta feature).
Once again amazing video! Good job to the Filmmaker IQ crew.
Great video! One thing that I found particularly interesting was that larger theaters would have an orchestra in the pit playing the music while the movie was projected above. A recent phenomenon is for symphony orchestras in larger cities to play the scores for movies, such as Star Wars or E.T. , live, while the movie is projected on a screen above. So it turns out that this is not new at all, but a revival of an old tradition!
Such passion John, that ending really was a statement from you to your love of cinema! Another great video, with amazing excerpts! Thank you so much! ;)
This was awesome , I'm glad I subed to this channel.
I also did that!
I am always excited getting a new vivid course like this on film history ((-:
Nice, I was waiting for this particular video for a while. Great job
You always inspire me, John. I am busy making something great. Thanks.
The information itself is awesome but I especially love the commentary at the end. Your passion is so real!
Great channel!!! :) You put information in a way it is impossible to stop watching! :D Thanks, awesome job! :)
I'm really enjoying learning from these! Thank you!
T his is a great, informative video! Thanks for explaining the history of sound in film in an easy-to-understand way.
Wow! How inspiring! This is so helpful as always! THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU GUYS DO!
I love your history videos. It’s so soothing to watching and learn. Well presented and enjoyable. Thank you
I really enjoyed this John..You are brilliant!!! Love your energy!
Can I just say, getting to listen to your courses is the reason why I wash dishes in my household. 😂
Excellent channel and format.
Thank you, great information learning great things from your channel. Keep it up
Boy I just discovered your channel. Am I going to bingewatch everything ? YES SIR !
Amazing video as always
Thank you
Great Video! It really came in handy when I had to prepare for an exam
That was pretty awesome. Appreciate your passion as well! Thanks for lesson.
Wow, the colours of fantasia are amazing. Great vid as always!
Taking on the fact that I love to edit videos, including greenscreen, recording video, and special effects, this channel is AMAZING.
Fantastic video, thank you for this!
I love your videos, I have been using them in music class for my middle school students very well put together.
The sound of the chalk on the board is very pleasing
shaggy!
What is a chalk board??
Dude I just love your videos! I really don't know why more people don't know about this...
I know right?
A great lesso. You are amazing at keepung me focussed and keeping the spark there
Awesome as always!!!
Brilliant explanations, still stunned by the magic of the history of the industry.
Thank you for helping with my exam revision. You saved me a lot of time! I have now subscribed! :D
There was also Eugene Augustin Lauste who "exhibited a sound film in the United States, possibly the first-ever American showing of a movie using sound-on-film technology" in 1911. From Wikipedia.
John, I really enjoy these history lessons. I think most of my peers in Hollywood have no clue of what this history is. Thank you so much. Looking forward to more of your work.
Another great episode. What about an episode talking about cinema's resolution? "from 35mm to 8k"
i would love that.
Emm, actually ordinary 35mm film from 1960s have digital resolution equivalent of about 4k (depending on film stock used and equipment), and 70mm IMAX is about 9.3k. This is the main reason why digital cinema novadays still lags far behind film in terms of actual sharpness.
I'd rather make title something like "From 8mm to IMAX", and only mention digital projection (2k, 4k, and future 8k) in the end.
Artūrs Savickis I don't know about the comparison between 35mm resolution from 4K, but it's sound plausible. But most movies today are shooted in digital cameras (As RED, for example), there's a documentary of Keanu Reeves talking just about that, called "Side by Side", and saying pretty much that tradicional cinema will ended up dying, as digital cameras starts to get each time more and more available and cheap
About "sharpeness", I have to disagree, digital cameras shooted PIXEL by PIXEL, there is no "film grain", for example in digital cinema. If you look many movies shot on film, and that later on were converted to Blu-Ray, you'll notice that many of them, have a very grainy image, that's not happen on digital cinema.
Cinema standard has been 2k for the past 100 years
My god, what a great video! Thank you so much!
I think this is the greatest UA-cam channel. Such fantastic work, you know whats up! U still making these wonderful videos?
Excellent Essay! Thank You!
It took me eight years to find "Filmmaker IQ", but these are so well done and easy to understand.
a very well researched documentary. thanks.
Long wait, well worth it !
I honestly learnt more from this video than almost a whole term of learning about sound for film at film school!
Thank you for this great, intresting and entertaining video!
B-R-A-V-O!!! Great job!!! Thanks for the journey :)
Very good documentary - although when talking about the 1976 version of A STAR IS BORN, you showed a poster for the Judy Garland version from 1954.
Damn John, this stuff is fantastic. You're doing phenomenal work. It's almost criminal that this has so relatively few fews. I guess people generally don't watch UA-cam video longer than about 10 minutes. It's a shame, they're missing out on some brilliant content. Cheers!
Great, excellent as always. thank you
Dude, awesome channel! Subscribed!
Thanks John
Another very informative episode.
John another awesome job as usual! One of the new problems with the advent of sound was that it gave certain contentious elements in society a voice that could be widely heard. This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote in grad school concerning the depiction of homosexuality in pre-code movies of the 30s. Will Hays himself suggested that the development of sound necessitated the development of the code, "The problem with the development of motion pictures with a sound track according to censors and the American public was that the pansy now had a voice. That through the use of certain tones and vocal inflections the film makers and the movie going public understood that these particular speech patterns implied homosexuality with the result that the, “new sound technology posed an even greater threat to the status quo than silent pictures,” and the Code was instituted to counter that threat. In a press release dated April 1, 1930 from the MPPDA announcing the Motion Picture Production Code, the advent in sound in motion pictures was the very first item on the agenda. “Sound, which revolutionized the art of the screen, has brought about the formation of a new Code.”
GDF2 Very fascinating!! just to piggy back on the idea that sound brought social implications came in the European market. It was fine to show American films with translated titles, but governments were very staunch against "talkies" that didn't speak in the native tongue. This led to Paramount creating a studio in Epinay where they would remake the same script using the same sets with different actors. Then a few years later, they invented dubbing and all that was forgotten about. Just something that didn't make it into this cut of the script.Really fascinating to think about - thank you!
Ironically nowadays dubbing is a given, while hard-coded texts (signs, title in art form etc) are a a pain to edit and often left as-is.
Great work !!! As always...
As always : really good episode :)
Amazing, thanks for your service to the humanity!
I was wondering what the next videowas going to be. Another great lesson in film. I love this kind of history
Outstanding! This might be the best explanationof what makes movies great entertainment.
Jesus, I'm going through your videos and you have gone through an entire college course. BRAVO! I am not sure if people like you understand how much you are having an impact on the popularisation and accessibility to knowledge. When Aronofsky said that the Internet is more than enough for you to learn about filmmaking and then put it into practice, I understand what he had meant. A low bow from everyone for your work!
This was well done. Thanks for the info!
I don't know what it is about John Hess, but I like his presentation. Anyone else would be boring to me. I sat through lectures like this in school that were painful but John keeps it interesting for me.
Great stuff, Thanks for the knowledge
Great informative video, I teach video production and showed this to my classes for our intro to sound unit!
Fantastic video. Thank you.
glad to have seen this video considering that nearly all of us take sound in films for granted because nowadays we focus on the fancy CGIs
Well-Done & Quite Enlightening
Ur channel deserves more subs
The organisation is wonderful
Excellent presentation!
This is a Master Class! Thanks a lot!!
Such an amazing history lesson on both cinema and audio technology. Ever since my love for film, I have always been an avid fan of technicalities with sound on films, especially acoustical treatment with the actual cinematic experience, which even home theater systems can't really replicate 100%, it's just not the same. I love this topic so much, thank you for this! 😁 Also, DTS is still better for me. 🤣
Loving these videos! I wish I could have been around in the 20s for the earliest talkies. The leap from silent to sound was quantum, because you no longer had to mentally pause to read the cards. For me, reading the cards would have reduced the sense of immersion. I assert, therefore, that sound was more important to the movie experience than color.
I think your theory proves to be true, we've all seen a modern film shot in black and white, but have we seen a modern movie with dialogue cards?
Immensely informative and entertaining, thank you!
A wonderfully compressed and highly detailed documentary of the history of sound which is over 100 years. Masterfully done by John Hess. He sure knows his stuff. I have always been fascinated by the transition from silent to sound, especially the change from 16 to 24 fps projection speed. There is still no satisfactory explanation as to why that was necessary. Anyone care to have a stab?
Michael Watkins We cover it a little here: ua-cam.com/video/mjYjFEp9Yx0/v-deo.html
Haven't gotten into the real nitty gritty but it seems for sound on film 16fps just wasn't fast enough to get the data needed for sound.
Wonderfully done
great lesson on sound in film!
Great shit yo! Keep it coming
Excellent presentation, thank you !
My family goes back in showbusiness before there was electricity.
This is a great review !
Bill P.
The best history lesson ever. Thanks
I must say that as a film sound educator, this really hit all of the right points and was incredibly informative and concise. However, I'm hugely disappointed that you didn't mention Dolby Atmos, which has now been around for a couple of years and is really the pinnacle of theatrical sound at 64 channels. It should have at least been given an honorable mention.
I loved the passionate sign-off!
Thanks for this!!!!