Connor's Film Blog

Star Wars made movies focus more on sound. At first, movies would try to convey emotion through mostly visuals, but the George Lucas production changed that, with the intense use of sound effects. It affected the audience because they never heard of something like this before, and it implemented Dolby sound in theaters around the U.S.  Movies would continue to use sound effects to capture the audiences' attention. 

Hollywood was threatened by television, because television was quickly gaining popularity, and movie studios were not able to get a piece of the pie. Television started becoming a threat, because after the war, people moved to suburbs and didn't want to go all the way to the city for a movie, television was free, and movie studios were not able to move into TV because the government denied them access through federal law.

The end of the golden age of Hollywood was set off by the Supreme Court ruling that movie studios could not own movie theaters. This was so significant because it ended the monopoly that the studios had on the industry. They could no longer control all of the movies being played and couldn't control ticket prices. The studios now had to cooperate with theaters on what movies were put out and what profits were given to the studios.

Hollywood switched to talkies so fast, because after The Jazz Singer , all of the production studios began in a race to produce movies with sound. The Jazz Singer proved that movie-viewing audiences wanted sound, and to make more money, studios needed to produce movies with sound. 1928 was the first year where "talkies" were more widely produced, and marked the pivoting point from silent to sound film.

I think The Artist  was so successful when it was released in 2011, because it was very experimental, compared to other modern movies. The movie was in nearly complete silence, which made it a more story focused movie with very little distractions. The audience has to imagine what is going on around the characters, without actually hearing anything. I think that this film won the best picture oscar because it told a story very well. Without being able to say what is going on and displaying a story through title cards and acting, The Artist  was able to convey what was going on very well.

Some technological issues that arose when the film was implemented, were that there were two different ways to record audio at the time, and the way that was used (the Vitaphone) required twice the amount of reels to play the audio. If one of the reels went out of sync, then the whole movie would be ruined. The significance of The Jazz Singer is that it was the first movie with synchronized dialog and music. Many movies shortly after would take after The Jazz Singer  and implemented synchronized audio with the visuals.

These technological advances affected filmmaking because it allowed for new ways of implementing audio into movies, and the quality of sound in movies. I think the most important advances for video and film were: the phonograph, audio manipulation, and digitally recording audio. The phonograph was monumental because it showed that recording audio and playing it back was possible. Audio manipulation was so important because we still use it today, to be able to get music the way we want it to, and in foley work. Digitally recording audio was so big, because it showed an easy, efficient way to be able to record, playback, and edit audio, letting more people experiment and find new techniques with it.

When was the first format that combined both sound and video introduced (such as the mp4 and h.264 codecs today)? How long did it take for sound to become a normal for a movie, and how did cost and work affect this process. I want to know how expensive the process was and how long it took, before it made it a normal thing to see in movies and was expected.

The biggest difference with the bit rate change is that the higher bit rate songs have more depth to them than the lower bit rate songs. They high tones are higher and the low tones are lower, separating them more. They each sound different because they all have a different amount of information stored in them, which determines how it will sound. You can have a wider range of frequencies and tones, making the audio a lot clearer.

I find interesting that it is possible to be able to physically see sound using mirrors and a barrier. This visualization helps show that sound is just air waves moving into the human ear.

2 things that I notice in Hollywood movies are that the music is engrossing into the film, and the sound effects are generally very realistic. I think the first film that made me think about the sound of a film was either The Dark Knight  or Inception , Christopher Nolan does great work when it comes to his sound design. All of the music was made to keep the viewer extremely engaged and at the edge of their seat to make the impact of the movie more intense. The use of the Shepard tone in his work is great because it gives the illusion of a forever rising tone in the music to make the audience feel the suspense.

I noticed that in the evolution of filmmaking, even though many techniques of story telling, visuals, and audio have changed throughout the years, the basic fundamentals from the start of filmmaking are still here. It all began with the invention of photography and the first picture taken by Niepce. We have come a very far way, to the point where anyone with the motivation can make a movie. I believe that we are only going to be able to make better films than ever before, but there are definitely going to be some garbage films being made due to the accessibility of filmmaking. We just need to make sure we can sort through all of the horrible films and recognize the great future films.

Micheaux was so important in film history because he was a pioneer for African American filmmaking. He was the first African American to direct a film, direct a talkie, and was the first director at all to make a film that wasn't based off of racial stereotypes. His achievements were so significant because he was breaking racial barriers by making his films, and was also paving the way for future minority filmmakers. He was also demonstrating that characters did not have to be different because of their race, and would be just like any other character.

Asian actors and characters were portrayed with stereotypes in American films. They were also often portrayed as the villains and were rarely, if ever, given the main role. I can't say I relate to much of the stories of the actors. I find their achievements to be so significant because they were able to overcome racism that was considered "normal" at the time and were able to do what they dreamed of doing since they were a kid, and were able to do their jobs than the a lot of the white actors at the time.

The weather in Hollywood is ideal for year round shooting, and has a diverse environment. Also, aspiring filmmakers wanted to get far away from New Jersey to avoid Thomas Edison and his patents. Thomas Edison had patents on equipment not only to make movies, but also on the equipment to display movies. With the move to California, filmmakers could get by with using equipment that Edison had a patent on, and could then make as many films as they wanted. Nickleodeons became a staple in many cities shortly after they were introduced, and the widespread of their success meant that more would become inspired to make movies, prompting the move to Hollywood.