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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Sound formats
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-26-2003 01:08 PM
Michael wrote:
quote:
Analogue optical sound was introduced in 1927 (the first demonstration was in Berlin BTW, in 1922 or 23).
Michael,
Optical sound goes back a lot longer than 1922. Have a look at the work of the Frenchman, Eugene Lauste at:
http://www.amps.net/newsletters/issue22/22_lauste.htm
I can't say for sure that he was the first person to record optical sound, like most inventions it is difficult to find a single person, but he was certainly one of the first, but his name is now largely unknown.
I think the Tri-ergon system on 42mm film, the extra 7mm outside the perforations on one side carrying the track was about 1922.
Lee De Forest demonstrated optical sound films, using a V.D. track at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembly, in 1924. This used a track on normal 35mm film, in more or less the position still used today.
There were many other demonstrations of optical sound in the early '20s. do you know anything about the Berlin demonstrations, who gave them, the details of the system they used, etc.
Alex,
if you are including old systems, Perspecta was used on quite a large number of films between 1954 and 1957, there are still some prints around, and the Loew's Jersey has an original integrator installed; and used it to play 'Forbidden Planet' last year.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-26-2003 02:37 PM
Michael wrote:
quote:
Stephen, interesting link. I had never heard about Lauste. But that is why we visit film-tech.
There is a house in Berlin with a plaquette that says "The first demonstration of sound film was given here in 192??" or something like that. A friend explained the details to me and I have read some more about it, but I can`t seem to remember any valuable details right now. I think the film was "Das Maedchen mit den Streichhoelzern" ("The Girl with the Matches"). I will have to research that.
The fact that the film had a title suggests that this may have been more than just a demonstration, or at least more than a technical one, unless they took an existing film, and added sound to it. Was this actually in the house, or in some other building which was previously on that site?
Then he wrote:
quote:
There are many interesting and unknown details in the history of technology. I found out only recently that there was a guy called Max Kladanowsky who showed films publicly in a varieté theater in Berlin a few months before the Lumières. But his system failed, and he was forgotten until the 1930s. Then he was "rediscovered". He was running a newspaper stand in Berlin, and his story was blown up to epic proportions by the Nazi propaganda.
Which ensured that he was completely forgotten later because everybody could say "him, no he was just a bit of Nazi propaganda."
But he may have been the first one to project movies publicly - we will probably never know.
The now-closed Museum of the Moving Image in London used to hold special events on Wednesday evenings. At one time they were arranged by Brian Coe, by that time retired from Kodak, and later by Stephen Herbert. There was a series of lectures under the title 'Countdown to Cinema', given in the year or so leading up to the centenary. You will be glad to know that Max Kladanowsky was included in these lectures. Maybe Leo remembers this, I don't know if he was there at that time.
Everyone always seems to ask 'Who invented cinema', or television, or the motor car, or whatever, and there really isn't an answer in most cases, many people made a contribution. In the case of cinema, it is usually Edison and the Lumières who are remembered, and possibly Dickson, but there were many pioneers, working in many countries, and I think they deserve to be remembered as well.
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I'd have to check with the boss to be sure..
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