Extention Task (Sound)

 A) Until the late 1920's, motion pictures were silent. After World War I there was a great boom in electrical research and a new attitude toward technology.

1926 Warner Brothers, in conjunction with Western Electric, introduced a new sound-on-disc system were sound effects and music were recorded and would later be synchronized with the film projector.  In order to exhibit this new technology, Warner Brothers released "Don Juan", the first motion picture to have a pre-recorded score and synchronized sound effects. 

This technology was held in the grip of RCA and Western Electric, which, in 1926, cross-licensed each other’s amplification patents. Using state-of-the-art vacuum tube amplifiers, movie sound, whether recorded on disc or film, could boom into the auditorium.

The company (Warner Bros.) formed the Vitaphone partnership with Western Electric in April 1926 producing and distributing sound films and licensing recorders to the other Hollywood studios.

Some of the films of early 1929 were substandard movies to meet the unexpectedly strong demand for talkies. Many of the clichés of the early sound cinema (including those in SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN ) apply to films made during this period: long static takes, badly written dialogue, voices not quite in control and poor-quality recording.

By mid-1930 the film industry was in a severe recession from which it did not emerge for about four years. American producers, ERPI, and RCA took advantage of the recession in Europe to get an early lead in licensing Continental studios and wiring theatres.

Bi) Parallel Sound

ii) Contrepuntal Sound