 The Warner Brothers Vitaphone logo. Vitaphone was a sound film process used on features and nearly 2,000 short subjects produced by Warner Brothers and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Many early talkies, such as The Jazz Singer (1927), used the Vitaphone process. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the so-called sound-on-disc processes. With improvements in competing sound-on-film processes, Vitaphone's technical imperfections led to its retirement early in the sound era. (The name "Vitaphone" derives from the Latin and Greek words, respectively, for "living" and "sound.") Image File history File linksMetadata Vitaphone. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Vitaphone. ...
1902 poster advertising Gaumonts sound films, depicting an optimistically vast auditorium A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. ...
Early American actor William Garwood starred in many short films many of which were only 20 minutes in length Short subject is a format description originally coined in the North American film industry in the early period of cinema. ...
Warner Bros. ...
The First National Exhibitors Circuit was founded 1917 by the merger of 26 of the biggest First Run cinema chains in the United States of America, controlling more than 600 cinemas, more than 200 of them were First Run cinemas. ...
A sound film (or talkie) is a motion picture with synchronized sound, as opposed to a silent movie. ...
The Jazz Singer (1927) is a U.S. movie musical and the first feature-length motion picture with talking sequences. ...
The term Sound-on-disc refers to a class of sound film processes utilizing a phonograph or other disc to record or playback sound in sync with a motion picture. ...
Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same film strip of film carrying the picture. ...
The business was established in the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, New York, and acquired by Warners Bros. in 1925. Warner Bros. introduced Vitaphone on August 6, 1926, with the release of the silent feature Don Juan starring John Barrymore with music score and sound effects only (no dialogue), accompanied by several short subjects featuring comedians and singers, and a greeting from motion picture industry spokesman Will Hays. American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 and bought by Warner Brothers in 1925. ...
For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ...
August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ...
Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Don Juan is a 1926s Warner Bros silent film, directed by Alan Crosland. ...
John Barrymore (aged 40) on the set of the silent film Sherlock Holmes (1922) John Sidney Blyth Barrymore (born: February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – died :May 29, 1942 in Los Angeles, California), was an American actor. ...
William Harrison Hays (November 5, 1879–March 7, 1954) was the namesake of the Hays Code, chairman of Republican National Committee and U.S. Postmaster General. ...
A Vitaphone-equipped theater used special projectors, an amplifier, and speakers. The projectors operated as normal motorized silent projectors would, but also provided a mechanical interlock with an attached phonograph turntable. When the projector was threaded, the projectionist would align a start mark on the film with the picture gate, and would at the same time place a phonograph record on the turntable, being careful to align the phonograph needle with an arrow scribed on the record's label. Projectors are used for displaying an image on a projection screen or similar surface for the view of an audience. ...
Generally, an amplifier is any device that uses a small amount of energy to control a larger amount of energy. ...
Closeup of a loudspeaker driver. ...
An interlock is a device used to help prevent a machine from harming its operator or damaging itself by stopping the machine when tripped. ...
Edison cylinder phonograph ca. ...
When the projector rolled, the phonograph turned at a fixed rate, and (theoretically) played sound in sync with the film passing the picture gate simultaneously. Unlike the prevailing speed of 78 revolutions per minute for phonograph discs, Vitaphone discs were played at 33-1/3 r.p.m. to increase the playing time to match the 11-minute running time of a reel of film. Also unlike most phonograph discs, the needle on Vitaphone records moved from the inside of the disc to the outside. Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, r/min, or min-1) is a unit of frequency, commonly used to measure rotational speed, in particular in the case of rotation around a fixed axis. ...
The Vitaphone process made several improvements over previous systems:
- Amplification - The Vitaphone system was one of the first to use electronic amplification, using Lee De Forest's Audion tube. This allowed the sound of the phonograph to be played to a large audience at a comfortable volume.
- Fidelity - In the early days, Vitaphone had superior fidelity to sound-on-film processes, particularly at low frequencies. Phonographs also had superior dynamic range, on the first few playings.
These innovations notwithstanding, the Vitaphone process lost the early format war with sound-on-film processes for many reasons: Lee De Forest patented a three-electrode version of the Audion. ...
The Audion is an electronic amplifier device invented by Lee De Forest in 1906, the forerunner of what is generally known as a triode today, in which the flow of current from the filament to the plate was controlled by a third element, the grid. ...
Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same film strip of film carrying the picture. ...
Sine waves of various frequencies; the bottom waves have higher frequencies than those above. ...
A format war describes competition between competing, and typically mutually incompatible, media formats, usually very costly to the format-owning parties involved. ...
- Distribution Issues - Vitaphone records had to be distributed along with film prints, and shipping records required a whole infrastructure apart from the already-existing film distribution system. Additionally, records would wear out after an estimated 20 screenings (a checkbox system on the record indicated the number of plays), and had to be replaced. This consumed even more distribution overhead.
- Synchronization - Vitaphone had severe and notorious synchronization problems. If a record skipped, it would fall out of sync with the picture, and the projectionist would have to manually restore sync. Additionally, if the film print became damaged and was not precisely repaired, the length relationship between the record and the print could be lost, also causing a loss of sync. The Vitaphone projectors had special levers and linkages to advance and retard sync, but it required the continual attention of the operator, and this was impractical. The system for aligning start marks on film and start marks on records was far from exact.
- Editing - A phonograph record cannot be edited directly, and this significantly limited the creative potential of Vitaphone films. Warner Brothers went to great expense to develop a highly complex phonograph-based dubbing system, using synchronization phonographs and Strowger switch-triggered playback phonographs (working very much like a modern sampler.)
- Fidelity versus Sound-on-Film - The fidelity of sound-on-film processes improved considerably after the early work by Lee DeForest on his Phonofilm process, and the introduction by the Fox Film Corporation of Fox Movietone in 1927. The DeForest and Fox systems were variable-density, but were superseded by RCA's variable-area sound-on-film process RCA Photophone, introduced in 1928.
Around March 1930, Warner Bros. and First National stopped recording directly to disc, and switched to sound-on-film recording. To make new film titles backward-compatible with Vitaphone equipped theaters, films produced with sound-on-film processes were released by Warner Bros. and the other Hollywood studios simultaneously in Vitaphone versions as late as 1937. Warner Bros. kept the "Vitaphone" name alive as the name of its short subjects division, The Vitaphone Corporation, most famous for releasing Leon Schlesinger's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, later produced by Warners in-house from 1944 on. Almon Brown Strowger (1839 - May 26, 1902) gave his name to the electromechanical telephone exchange technology that his invention and patent inspired. ...
A sampler can be any of the following things: In general, a sampler is any broadly representative cross-section of some collection; for instance, food products are sometimes packaged in samplers containing a variety of chocolates or beers. ...
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. ...
The Fox Film Corporation was an American company which produced motion pictures, formed in 1915 when founder William Fox merged two companies he had established in 1913: Greater New York Film Rental, a distribution firm, which was part of the Independents; and Fox (or Box, depending on the source) Office...
The Movietone sound system is method of recording sound for moving pictures which guarantees synchronisation between the sound and the picture. ...
RCAs logo as seen today on many products. ...
The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Leon Schlesinger (1884 - December 25, 1949) was a producer at the Warner Bros. ...
Looney Tunes opening title Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. ...
Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...
Though operating on principles so different as to make it unrecognizable to a Vitaphone engineer, Digital Theater Sound is a sound-on-disc system, the first to gain wide adoption since the abandonment of Vitaphone. Digital Theatre System (DTS) is a multi-channel surround sound format used for both commercial and consumer grade applications (with slight technical differences between home and commercial variants). ...
Further reading - Bradley, Edwin M. (2005). The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926-1931, McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1030-2
- Crafton, Donald (1997). The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931, Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-19585-2
- Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts, McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1279-8
See Also In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. ...
The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...
The Movietone sound system is method of recording sound for moving pictures which guarantees synchronisation between the sound and the picture. ...
Phono-Kinema (some sources say Photo-Kinema) was a sound-on-disc system for motion pictures invented by Orlando Kellum. ...
1902 poster advertising Gaumonts sound films, depicting an optimistically vast auditorium A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. ...
Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same film strip of film carrying the picture. ...
This is a list of film formats known to have been developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures since the development of such photographic technology towards the end of the 19th century. ...
External Links |
Feeds |
Contact