Development of Sound Film Investigation - Essay Example

Question a) Drawing on the theory of industrial economics they present as a model, briefly describe the key stages of commercial developments in the conversion of the U.S. motion picture industry to sound. The first stage involved the use of a recording microphone with an increased amplification power. This sound system structurally enhanced the connection that existed between phonograph and projector. To add onto this, there was a trial of the kinetophone in almost four theatres in New York. At the theatres, for demonstrating volume and tone of the film, singing and smashing of plates merged with the film. All these activities emerged with Edison Labs though their efforts were unsuccessful for they did not manage amplification setbacks as well as synchronization (Allen & Gomery 117). In other words, Edison Labs, in an attempt to do projections, failed to ensure a balance needed to preserve the synchronized speech. In addition, the kinetophone could not reduce the metallic sounds related to the pre-electronic phonographs of that period. The next stage involved the development of a complete option to phonograph-based systems via direct sounds’ recording in motion picture films. This helped solve the synchronization problem. These constituted Lee De Forest’s efforts but their implementation failed. The third stage became successful in creating a satisfactory sound-on-film system. Western Electric, a company that was interested in developing sensitive apparatus, which they could use to test and record the quality if long miles telephone transmissions, made this achievement. This Company, to ensure achievement, experimented with both the sound-on-disc phonograph and sound-on-film phonograph. The company, by 1922, managed to develop a much more improved microphone, “turntable drive shaft” as well as loudspeaker (Allen & Gomery 118). b) How is the explanatory power of this model complicated by aesthetic or cultural considerations? Explanatory power of this model ends up being complex by the convergence of early media and technical matters in the early sound film. The commercial development of the sound systems majorly took place during a transitional period when “talkies” rapidly replaced silent movies as the normative typical cinematic format. The most common occurrence in film industries during that period included song analysis in movies (Allen & Gomery 118). Through transitional films’ analysis with this technique and exploration of popular press articles and trade from the late 1920s, the reorganization of the music and film industries including the commoditization of songs, affected the structure of early sound Hollywood films. c) Discuss with reference to Natasa Durovicovas argument in "Translating America" concerning the role of language and culture in the production of Hollywood "multilingual" films between 1929 and 1933. During the 1920s to 1930s, Hollywood would use its own American actors to act a movie originally acted by individuals from foreign cultural backgrounds (Altman 139). For instance, if a language in a film were originally Chinese, Hollywood would act the movies afresh in their own language using their own characters. This appeared eccentric as other cultures felt that Americans were undermining their culture and translating their movies in wrongly. This forced Hollywood to adopt the dubbing and subtitling system, whereby actors not on camera simply translated whatever the original actors spoke. Durovicova asserts that the system (dubbing and subtitling) lasted for a short while (1930-31), however acted as the transition to the contemporary dubbing systems. Generally, difference is language made Hollywood shoot foreign movies in their respective slang using their own actors. However, since other cultures considered this method eccentric, Hollywood ended up adopting the emerging style, which is still in use to date. Hollywood therefore had to develop “multilingual” films that could accommodate other cultures, so that they would not bear the blame of using foreign movies for their benefit while not producing films that accommodate foreign cultures. Additionally, because of differences in culture, Hollywood had to make an effort to gain a wide coverage, and the only way to achieve this was to adopt “multilingual” films. Variations in language and culture therefore pushed Hollywood into producing “multilingual” films. Question 2 a) Drawing on Springs argument, compare and contrast three of the following uses of popular song: "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye" in The Jazz Singer; "Black and Tan Fantasy" in Black and Tan; "I love to Singa" in I love to Singa; "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" in It Happened One Night; and Tanias song, "Ou est-il donc?." sung by Frehel to her own recording in Pepe le moko. The convergence of the American music and film industries commenced during the late 1920s, a time when the transition of Hollywood to sound encouraged the key movie production industries to consider investing in the popular music business. On film soundtracks and in print advertising, most of the studios supported motion picture songs as self-contained and discrete instants of performance. Katherine Spring tries to discuss the development and progression of American movie and music companies through the transition of Hollywood. Film industries used to apply popular music in their movies, but a new style commenced; a style whereby musicians began focusing more on specifically writing music for a film (Spring 68-83). A question, therefore, emerges as to whether the motion picture company diverted its attention to or adopted the music publishing business. Another question is whether the movie producers diverted their attention to the business of creating popular songs. Generally, one of the core reasons why popular music ended up incorporated into film industries was to make films arouse more interest from the audience through an attraction from popular music. Besides, certain actors then lacked the present’s popularity. Therefore, in cooperation of popular songs in their movies (with them acting as the singers when the singer is actually behind cameras) elevated their popularity. In addition, this combination, also created market and increased the popularity of the popular songs. In addition, the artists singing the popular songs, gained more fame and their music sold a lot when their Hollywood would include their songs in films. The key aim was to market pop-film music in a period when Hollywood was undergoing the sound-on-film transition. In other words, Hollywood was not only marketing its actors and movies but was also trying to maintain the standards set by the emergent knowhow; it aimed to maintain relevance in the film industry. Question 3 a) According to Richard Maltby and Ruth Vasey in "Temporary American Citizens," what was the impact of the international diffusion of sound technology in the late 1920s and early 1930s on the effort of European countries to develop self-sufficient national film industries and protect national cultural identity? The sound technology came with big investment requirements and equipment that greatly led to the collapse of the small theatres that had come up in especially Germany and France (Maltby & Vasey 44). This gave way to the huge companies with American origin that could sustain the newly highly technical requirements of the sound technology. Additionally, in the 1920s and the early 1930s the sound technology had greatly spread across the European countries and all over the world. This created a fear on the part of the European legislators that their culture would be polarized by the American culture (Maltby & Vasey 32). They argued that this was because of lack of a fair ground since the sound technology in America was already developed than in the European countries. Therefore, there was outrage that the American film industry was corrupting the cultural values in the European states like France and Germany (Maltby & Vasey 36). b) In light of Maltby and Vasey’s account, briefly compare and contrast how the actions of state governments contributed to and complicated to and complicated the projection of national identity in early sound films in two of the following countries: Germany, the USSR, and France. Many European states, for illustration, Germany and France formulated laws meant to limit the American products already sold in their states (Maltby & Vasey 45). This though had different effect in the two states because unlike France, Germany had a more developed industry (Maltby & Vasey 33). Therefore, with the legislation to support more of their domestic production they were in a position to sustain them. France on the other hand, with their legislation could not be sustained, as they still needed the American’s sound technology to complement their local content (Maltby & Vasey 33). Question 4 Catherine M. Soussloff and Bill Nichols propose that, rather than praising Leni Reifenstahl as great woman artist or condemning her as an evil propagandist, we would do better to focus on the "complex set of responses" that the films she made for the Nazi Party have elicited for different viewers over time. Moya Luckett pursues a similar line of inquiry in her article on Fantasia, proposing that the cultural value of Fantasia is best revealed through an analysis of the reception of Disneys purported "masterpiece" over time. a) With this in mind, compare and contrast the ways in Soussloff and Nichols, on the one hand, and Luckett, on the other, employ a "reception studies" approach. Diverse ways in which authors argue significantly employed critiques and supporters bear certain similarity in both articles. In both articles, cultural criticism is significantly in use where by many; criticize how the cultural aspects have been misrepresented in both. Leni Riefenstahl is accused of violating the cultural values as a woman even in the representation of her films (Soussloff & Nichols 28). Fantasia on the other hand criticized the film as degrading what was meant to be classical while on the other hand was presented to what was termed to be “high culture” (Luckett 216). In both articles, the authors make great use of cultural aspect to bring out the critique’s perspectives by different authors. The critics in both articles similarly describe the perspective of whether the films are a representative of the “art”. For instance in"Leni Riefenstahl: The Power of the Image" this is greatly demonstrated when her work is termed as “timeliness art” due to its lack of influence among the Germans (Soussloff & Nichols 24). They contend whether the films be in categories as art or not. The both articles employ the response approach yet they fail to come to one stand on what really is the true standing of the film. “Fantasia” film on the other end is described as a film of high cultured in the society. This is was due to its premier originally staged at the high society of New York (Luckett 215). Quite contrary though is the way the two articles view cultural aspect responses. From the Leni Riefenstahl, social cultural aspect is the matters of concern where her being a woman is the matter under debate (Soussloff & Nichols 28). This is not same in Fantasia where culture is ranked in terms the high and low in the society. The reception of the film gives an interpretation by the high people in the film industry (Luckett 215). b) What kinds of evidence do they rely upon in mounting their arguments? What broader conclusions do they draw? The two articles greatly draw their basis from the opinions of their critics and from those who were in support. They greatly evaluate what the critiques say on the films and from this they draw their arguments. They also greatly rely on those in favor of the subject matter and thereby comparing their response as a basis for their arguments. The authors similarly conclude that the focus should not be based on who is right between the critiques and the supporters. Rather, they should generally focus on the responses from both sides and analyze them to determine their effect in the film context. Works Cited Allen, C. Robert & Gomery, Douglas. Technological Film History: Theory and Practice. New York: McGraw Hill, 1985. Print. Altman, Rick. Sound Theory and Sound Practice. New York: Routledge, 1992. Print. Luckett, Moya .Fantasia: Cultural Construction of Disneys Masterpiece."New York: Routerdge.1994. Print Maltby, Richard & Vasey, Ruth. Film Europe and Film America: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange 1920-1939.University of Exerter. 1999. Soussloff, Catherine M. & Nichols. Bill. "Leni Riefenstahl: The Power of the Image." Discourse 18.3 (1996): 20,44,145-146. 10 Feb. 2015. Spring, Katherine. "Pop Go The Warner Bros., Et Al.: Marketing Film Songs During The Coming Of Sound." Cinema Journal 48.1 (2008): 68-89. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. Read More