Synchronization in early film
By the turn of the 1920s the American movie industry had firmly based itself in Hollywood. and up until the birth of the silent movie as an art-form, synchronization of sound and image had only been of scientific interest. The first known use of music with film as an artistic concept probably occurred on December 28th 1895 when the Lumiere brothers tested the commercial value of their early films at the Grand Cafe on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. This screening consisted of a piano accompaniment and by the time the screenings reached Britain in February 1896 a harmonium was being used for accompaniment.
The function of a musical accompaniment to a silent film was probably twofold:
- practically, to drown out the noise generated by the mechanisms of the early projectors which were large and noisy.
- aesthetically, to give a film "auditory accentuation and profundity" (Jack London. taken from Prendergast, p.5).
The best early film producers extended this aesthetic by requiring specific music that would complement their films. The first original score was composed by Saint- Saens in Paris in 1908 and this was probably the last original score for some time because of increased production costs.
A year later, in 1909, the Edison Film Company recommended 'specific suggestions for music" (Prendergast. p.6) to accompany their films. By 1913, manuscripts were being published that contained musical examples of different moods that could be used to accompany different dramatic situations. These collections included "The Sam Fox Moving Picture Music Volumes" by J. S. Zamecnik. in 1913. Erno Rapee's "Motion Picture Manual for Piano and Organ" and one of the most popular. Guiseppe Becce's " Kinobibliothek" (or " Kinothek"), published in Berlin in 1919. These collections were successful in that they classified their musical examples according to mood and style. and allowed accompanists to musically reflect what the audience was watching.
The more advanced filmmakers attempted to construct cue sheets, another early attempt at synchronizing image and live sound. A cue sheet would specify what was to be played (e.g. "Minuet No-2 in G" by Beethoven), how long the piece was to be played for (90 seconds) and often included a visual cue (until title on screen, "Follow me dear''). This system was devised by Max Winkler who was one of the first people to catalogue music for silent film in the USA. He was eventually employed by Universal Films to provide cue sheets to all their films.
As the size of the accompanying orchestra for movies shown in theatres grew, more problems arose with synchronization. It was fairly easy for a lone pianist or organist to watch the screen for visual cues while he/she played but it was more difficult for an orchestra. This meant that detailed scores had to he written, but this was both time-consuming and expensive, especially considering the incredible rate at which films were being produced by some companies in the first decade of the 20th Century. One way in which small theatres avoided the expense of a large orchestra was by buying one of the many musical accompaniment machines that were on the market at the turn of the 1910s. These machines were known as "One Man Motion Picture Orchestra", "Film Player", " Movieodeon" or "Pipe Organ Orchestra". These machines could be worked by a single musician. and some, such as the American Photo Player Company's " Fotoplayer Style 50" could even play certain rural and urban sound effects (such as street noises. fires crackling, cattle lowing etc.).
There were still problems with synchronization, even with scores specifically composed for a film. One of the most successful devices invented to synchronize a live orchestra with moving images was the Rhythmonome. invented by Carl Robert Blum and displayed to the public for the first time in Berlin in 1926. Kurt London describes the workings of this device in his book "Film Music" - "Tapes registering the " phonorhythmical" signs run within the instrument in such a way that they pass a sight index from left to right... The sound can then be reproduced in the original rhythm, as the sight index allows it to be read off in exact timing..." ( from Prendergast, pp.12-3). The instrument was placed on the conductor's stand and could be synchronized with the projector, the speeds of both devices being adjustable by use of a "musical chronometer". By watching the rhythmonome, the conductor could cue the orchestra as the corresponding notes ran past the sight index.
Other, less successful devices were developed to synchronize live music with moving image. These included a picture of a conductor on a screen in front of the orchestral conductor (though not all conductors could successfully follow the guide conductor). and an abbreviated score that appeared at the bottom of the screen to guide the orchestra (though this tended to spoil the audience's enjoyment of the film).
The advent of the sound film was facilitated by improvements in recording technology that grew out of the developments in radio and other technologies developed during the War years, as well as devices developed for commercial use by the record companies.
Around 1926, the Bell Telephone Company discovered that, with slight modifications, their sound recording, techniques, which had been accepted by the phonographic industry, could be applied to the sound film. Furthermore, these techniques offered significantly improved acoustic and sound quality. This was achieved by reducing the recording, speed of their discs from 78 to 33.33 rpms for extended playing time, and the use of larger discs for the storage of a greater amount of music. Synchronization of record and projector was achieved by use of synchronous motors (as pioneered by Gaumont in 1897), the starting, points of both film and record clearly marked for exact synchronization. Film and projector technology had improved sufficiently by this time to avoid many long, cuts or pauses in the film. This device was called the Vitaphone and was taken up by Warner Bros. for experimentation to iron out the problems, before developing their own sound films.
The first full length sound film produced by Warner Bros. was "The Jazz Singer" starring AI Jolson and premiered on October 6th 1927_ Before this, films had been made to accustomize audiences to synchronized dialogue and music. One of these films was "Don Juan'" which was specially provided with a symphonic score on a set of Vitaphone discs, and first shown in February 1927.
There was no re-recording in the early sound film, so many soundtracks would be recorded "on set" just out of the camera shot. This made editing difficult, since the film could not be cut without spoiling the soundtrack's continuity. With improving recording technology, new designs for coil microphones and the eventual development of multitrack recording, the recording and synchronization of soundtracks became a Hollywood standard. Without the need to worry about technological pitfalls, filmmakers and composers could now concentrate on synchronizing music and the moving image from an aesthetic point of view, writing into the score effects that would add to the visual drama. or to recall the words of Jack London - to live "auditory accentuation".
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