During the silent film era, live music accompanied screenings to provide emotional context and enhance the overall experience. Music played a vital role in setting the mood, narrating the story, and keeping the audience engaged.
How did the first films add music to their movies?
Before the advent of viable sound technology, silent films were accompanied by live music. In even the humblest American and European movie theaters, there would have been a pianist employed to provide a soundtrack for the films, while the more opulent theaters could afford to house organs or employ full orchestras.
The first musical film, The Jazz Singer (1927), starring Al Jolson, introduced the sound era of motion pictures. It was followed by a series of musicals hastily made to capitalize on the novelty of sound.
It can immerse an audience in a unique world, help tell the story and move the storyline along. Sound can also help create emotion and set the tone of the film. A film's sound is just as important as the visuals on screen.
MMusic plays a big role in movies. It stirs up emotions and connects you to characters, to their personalities and their struggles. It draws you into the movie, making you feel as if you're a part of it.
Most of the time, music is used to underscore the action on screen, enhance the mood of a scene, foreshadow action that is about to take place or even convey the interior emotion of a character.
Music can help establish the setting of your movie, giving a tangible feeling to the location of a scene and the emotions at play. Horror movies are especially good at this trick, playing soft, creepy music as the protagonist stumbles into a graveyard or enters a haunted house.
Films are produced using three types of sounds: human voices, music and sound effects. These three types of sounds are crucial for a film to feel realistic for the audience. Sounds and dialogue must perfectly sync with the actions in a film without delay and must sound the way they look.
The original function of music in silent film was to drown out the noise of the projector as well as talkative audiences. Music for silent films was usually played live in the cinema, but the musical contact varied from country to country and culture to culture.
The new era of sound in film brought many changes to the movie industry. Studios had to cope with recording problems. Writers had to learn how to write successful dialogue. Actors and actresses had to adapt their voices and styles.
During the silent era, films music is provided by each individual theater, either by phonograph or as performed live by flesh-and-blood musicians. In the later case, either a pianist improvises to the film or a small ensemble of musicians performs a classical piece, in the background, as the film plays.
The primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid-to-late 1920s. At first, the sound films which included synchronized dialogue, known as "talking pictures", or "talkies", were exclusively shorts. The earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects.
Music in film achieves a number of things: it establishes setting; it creates atmosphere; it calls attention to elements; it reinforces or foreshadows narrative developments; it gives meaning to a character's actions or translates their thoughts; and it creates emotion.
Scores are written by one or more composers under the guidance of or in collaboration with the film's director or producer and are then most often performed by an ensemble of musicians – usually including an orchestra (most likely a symphony orchestra) or band, instrumental soloists, and choir or vocalists – known as ...
The first film with recorded sound was The Dickson Experimental Sound Film released around 1894. Lee de Forest and Theodore Case invented phonofilm, and recordings of singing and talking that predate The Jazz Singer have been discovered.
The Normal Theater, Chicago, in 1909, piano and drums to the left of the screen. Silent films were always accompanied by at least one instrument—originally to cover the sound of the projector and to overcome the “ghostliness” of the images.
Silent films did not have the technology to record dialogue, as sound recording was not developed until the late 1920s. When you watch silent films on TV or DVD then the soundtracks were recorded some time later. In the early days of cinema movies had live/instrumental accompaniment (piano, or even an orchestra etc.).
Musical scores for early silent films were either improvised or compiled of classical or theatrical repertory music. Once full features became commonplace, however, music was compiled from photoplay music by the pianist, organist, orchestra conductor or the movie studio itself, which included a cue sheet with the film.
In old films from the 1930's to 1950's, why do the characters seem to talk so fast? Movie makers encouraged diction, more along the lines of British speech which was more clipped, with less drawl. (drawl was allowed in Western movies), but Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn had very clipped accents.
What were the three 3 disadvantages of using synchronized sound for movies?
These had substantial drawbacks in that they could only hold about four minutes of sound, the sound itself was difficult to amplify for a large audience, and synchronization with the action on the screen was almost impossible.
The Wilhelm Scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in over 400 films and television shows (and counting). It originated in 1951 in the film Distant Drums. The Wilhelm Scream sound effect is most commonly used when someone is falling from a great height, shot, or thrown from an explosion.
Film music helps to establish tone, enhance atmosphere, amplify emotions and change audience perceptions. Many of the sames rules and opportunities that apply when scoring a feature film can be translated to low or medium budget social media video.
Film music can provide certain descriptive cues that improve our understanding of the narrative within the film. We can rely on these cues to boost our emotional response to the visuals on screen and therefore interpret the specific emotions that are being inferred.
Music plays a fundamental role in triggering fear and anguish. This goes for every genre, not just horror films. For example, in action movies, it acts like an impulse that makes our heart race and drowns us in suspense during some scenes. In mystery films, it can invite us to reflect on what's going on.
