1. EDT 3005A
THE HISTORY OF
SOUND AND VFX
IN CINEMA AND TV
The History of Sync Sound Films
2. Today's Discussion
Topics to Cover
• The First eleven years of Filmmaking "TheSilent
Era"
• Georges Melies and The Lumiere Brothers
• The fall of Fantasy and the rise of Poetic Realism
• Muybridge, The Zoopraxiscope and Thomas
Edison
• The Vitaphone Triumvirate
• Fox and 'Movietone'; RCA and 'Photone'
• The 1940's and 50's
• Ray Dolby
3. During the first eleven years of their
existance in the commercial market
from 1895 to 1906, silent movies
created the foudation for the entire
film industry as we know it today
with Film Studios, Cinemas
Distribution and a box office - a
whole new lucrative business model
sprang to life.
The Foundation 1895 -
1906
4. Georges Méliès and The
Lumiere Brothers
Georges Méliès the earliest example of VFX in
Cinema , while the Lumiere Brothers manage to
create a viable business model with their
cinematograph. Georges Méliès, at the time a gifted
magician and illusionist, attempts to buy the
Cinematograph from The Lumiere brothers, but they
refuse claiming that there is no viable business with
cinematograph. Georges Méliès persists and finds a
British inventor to maek him a version of the
Cinematograph, and proceeds to make more films in
his career as a filmaker than the entire film industry,
Georges
Méliès
5. Techniques
that Georges
Méliès
introduced
that we still
use in VFX
today
• FORCED PERSPECTIVE
• SUPERIMPOSURE ( WHAT WE NOW
CALL COMPOSITING)
• CROSS FADING
• MONTAGE
• USING BLACK BACKGROUNDS
• CLOSE UPS MOVING ON A SLIDER
• THEATRICAL AND PYROTECHNIC
EFFECTS
• ILLUSIONS
Georges Méliès invents a substantial
portion of what we now know as "film
grammar"
6. The fall of
Fantasy and the
rise of Poetic
Realism
THE AUDIENCE WANT MORE REALITY
As the 'Great War' (WW 1) approaches,
audiences want to see more films rooted in
their reality. 'Poetic Realism' championed by
filmmakers like Louis Feuillade sounds the
death knell for Georges Méliès and his Fantasy
genre.
Poetic realism focussed on working class
characters and trhe theme of doomed love,
the blending of comedy and tragedy, the use
of long shots and long takes and narratives
that function as critiques of society
Louis
Feuillade
7. TheBirth of Sync Sound
EDISON ATTENDS MUYBRIDGE'S
LECTURE
When attending a lectureutlilising Edward
Muybridge's "Zoopraxiscope", Thomas
Edison begins to Immagine fusing his
phonogram sound technology with film.
In 1894, 'The Dickson Sound Film' is one of
the first films able to playback sound in
time to the moving images: Sync Sound.
It takes another 30 years for anything to
change...
8. THE VITAPHONE TRIUMVIRATE
THESE THREE COMPANIES CREATE THE 'VITAPHONE' SYSTEM
In the 1920's Warner Brothers' patents "The Vitaphone". Produced in conjunction with Western Electric
and the Bell Telephone Company, the vitaphone system creates a monopoly over film and sound
technology . Sound bursts into the Cinema with films like 'Don Juan' (1926) and 'The Jazz Singer'. The
success of these films at the box office erases any doubts that Warner Brothers' have over deploying
the vitaphone system and and ignites a race to invent a rival product.
9. Fox develops their own system to
compete with and improve on Vitaphone
in 1927 called 'Movietone' and RCA follow
suit with 'Phototone'. Eventually sound
sync happens on the film reel itself. From
here more complex epic films emerge, like
'King Kong' (1933).
10. CINERAMA
THE ACADEMY
CURVE
TV STRAIGHT TO
YOUR HOME
NOISE
REDUCTION
RCA's National
Broadcasting
Company (NBC)
begins regular
telecasts from New
York City.
Cinema struggles to
compete with TV and
Cinema sound
becomes more
complex.
In 1938, the Academy
curve begins the
standardisation for
sync sound to make
film exhibition
simpler.
In 1966, Ray Dolby
reduces noise
reduction, allowing
more fexibilty and
requiring less
personel for
projection.
THE 1940'S AND 50'S
11. By 1977, Dolby has imrpoved
substantially and introduces Dolby
Stereo - revolutionary sound
compression thatallowws Cinema
designers to factor acoustics for any
given theatre.
When 'Star Wars' was launched in
1977, audiences in small local village
cinemas had a comparable
experience to audiences that watched
the film in premium theatres.
