1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,880 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:17,760 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette and 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: I'm an editor at how stuff works dot Com. Sitting 6 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: across from me, as usual, is senior writer Jonathan. I 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:32,479 Speaker 1: can't stand them. That actually ties into our topic today, 8 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 1: well as it usually does. Yeah, often sometimes I don't 9 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: have time and I just pick a quote at random, 10 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:40,640 Speaker 1: But this time that actually has to do with what 11 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:43,159 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about today. It's going back to 12 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:46,279 Speaker 1: our movie making series, which we we've kind of you know, 13 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:48,319 Speaker 1: we slacked off on for a while. But we've got 14 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:50,280 Speaker 1: a lot of topics that we cover here at tech Stuff, 15 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:53,840 Speaker 1: not just movie making. So we decided we revisit the 16 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 1: whole movie making series and look at how they put 17 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: sound on film. Right. Yeah, before before any of this happened, 18 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:05,400 Speaker 1: if we would introduce that podcast, it would have sounded 19 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 1: like So it's a good thing that we are recording 20 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: a podcast. It's it's nice that we have a way 21 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:15,479 Speaker 1: of plate of of keeping sound in some sort of 22 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: fashion where we can replay it at a later date. Actually, um, 23 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: I was I was looking back in preparation for this podcast. 24 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,119 Speaker 1: I was looking back at one of my movie books 25 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:30,040 Speaker 1: from one of my classes in college. Uh, that would 26 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: be Understanding Movies by Lewis Giannetti, a very old version. 27 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 1: This book has come out in many, many incarnations. Now 28 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: they're in the double digits. But you know an interesting point. 29 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: Movies have always had sound. It's just that they didn't 30 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: always have sound on film. I mean the earliest movies 31 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,360 Speaker 1: were just visuals, and they would hire someone to play 32 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: along with it in in the uh, in the theater, 33 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, on an organ. I mean 34 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: you see that. I think back to us the Three Amigos. Actually, right, 35 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: it's either an organ or it's an old clanky honky 36 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: tonk piano. And uh and yeah, that's that's sort of 37 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: the general image we have those early films. But some 38 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: of them, like some of the really big movie houses, 39 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: would have a full orchestra player and uh and and 40 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: in fact, that actually played a large part in why 41 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: there's sound on film, or why sound on film arrived 42 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 1: when it did. Um. In some places, of course, they 43 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: couldn't have a full orchestra. They just didn't have the 44 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 1: space for it, or they didn't have the people, and 45 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 1: you might have just a single musician playing on guitar 46 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:40,919 Speaker 1: along with the film, in order to provide a soundscape 47 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: that goes along with the things that the audience are seeing. Yeah, yeah, 48 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: and um, you know, at the time, of course, dialogue 49 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: was you'd see them mouthing words, but you wouldn't hear 50 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:55,399 Speaker 1: the actors actually speak. You, you know, see the important 51 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 1: stuff on cards. That the more occasionally you would have 52 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: a narrator. Yeah, once in a while you would have 53 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 1: someone who would provide narration and provide dialogue, but they'd 54 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: be doing it live on stage while you're watching the film. Uh. 55 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: But yeah. Eventually, the silent films got to a point 56 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: where the art of the silent film was so well 57 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: developed that if you were a really good silent filmmaker, 58 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:23,720 Speaker 1: you could keep those little cards to a minimum because 59 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 1: you were able to express everything you needed to in 60 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: the scenes just through the visuals, and so you would 61 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: have them pop up every now and then to provide 62 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: important information, like if a character suddenly reveals a secret, well, clearly, 63 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: it's hard to reveal a secret without any dialogue and 64 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 1: so that might be important, but for other scenes where 65 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: you see two people having a loving conversation with one 66 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: another or a fight, you might not have a card 67 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: pop up at all, because really they just want to 68 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: get across that emotion that moment. There wasn't the words 69 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: were not important. And uh even apparently some of the 70 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: early filmmakers who were around at the time of the 71 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: transition to sound on film uh actually didn't want to 72 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: do it. They said that the idea of synchronous sound 73 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 1: with the film would actually hamper their ability to edit 74 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:18,720 Speaker 1: the film the way they wanted it to. That it 75 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 1: wouldn't that it might actually slow them down, or or 76 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:24,479 Speaker 1: they would be anchored to the soundtrack of the film, 77 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:26,880 Speaker 1: and they didn't want to be constrained. One one notable 78 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:31,400 Speaker 1: was the Russian filmmaker Eisenstein. Sergeie Eisenstein said, you know, 79 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: I remember watching Battleship p Tempkin in my in the 80 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,720 Speaker 1: aforementioned movie class, and yeah, I can't imagine actually having 81 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 1: sound in some pieces of that because of the montages 82 00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: he put together. But uh, other movie makers realized that 83 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:47,840 Speaker 1: they could use the actual actors voices and you could 84 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: hear uh dialogue without having to you know, do stage 85 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: whispers as you might see on you know, in a play. Uh, 86 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: and you could you could add the subtleties of actual 87 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: verbal lang wage And there are things that you do, 88 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: those things you couldn't do with a narrator or with 89 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:07,800 Speaker 1: the Q cards. That's true. And UH. The idea of 90 00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: actually putting sound to film goes all the way back 91 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:15,240 Speaker 1: to the earliest days of film itself, because Edison struggled 92 00:05:15,279 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: with ways of creating a sound and film device that 93 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:25,159 Speaker 1: would let you to watch moving pictures and hear prerecorded 94 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: sound at the same time. He worked on that starting 95 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,360 Speaker 1: in the mid eighteen eighties. Yeah, so this is nineteenth 96 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: century technology. Yeah, and so by he came up with 97 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:40,000 Speaker 1: a Kineta phone. Now, the Kineta phone combined two earlier 98 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: UH inventions, the Kineta scope, which if you've ever seen 99 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 1: one of those, it's it's the circular device that has 100 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,039 Speaker 1: slits cut in it, and it has a series of 101 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:51,719 Speaker 1: images on the inside. And when you spend the device 102 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,680 Speaker 1: and you look through the slits, you see those different 103 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:59,280 Speaker 1: images appearing before your eyes in a very a quick succession, 104 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:03,600 Speaker 1: and it provides the the illusion of animation, illusion illusion 105 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 1: and a Kineto phone or the connect. The phone part 106 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:10,440 Speaker 1: was from the phonograph. Of course, we all probably know 107 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:12,919 Speaker 1: what a phonograph is. You know, records sound on a 108 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:15,520 Speaker 1: cylinder or a disk, and then it uses a stylist 109 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:21,000 Speaker 1: to create vibrations which are then uh turned into sound 110 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 1: waves through some sort of amplifier, yes, often just a horn. Well, 111 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: he created the Kineta phone, which combined these two things. 112 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 1: You had to use rubber ear tubes to listen to 113 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: the sound. Yeah, you don't want to hit the Kineta 114 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:37,799 Speaker 1: phone at the end of a hard day's work because 115 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,239 Speaker 1: who knows who's been there before you, Yeah, just saying, 116 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: And they were the picture and the sound were somewhat synchronized. 117 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: They used a belt system to link the two so 118 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 1: that as the Kineta scope turned, the phonograph as turned 119 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,599 Speaker 1: as well. It wasn't perfect, obviously, It was one of 120 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: those early kind of prototype sort of almost a curiosity 121 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:12,400 Speaker 1: really that presaged the whole sound on film movement. What's 122 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: interesting is that we have one of these films we do. 123 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 1: One of them exists that we can actually people can 124 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:23,040 Speaker 1: go and look at if they want to. Um. It's 125 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:27,840 Speaker 1: called the Dixon Experimental Sound Film, and it was filmed 126 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: sometime around what's it about. It's about seventeen seconds long. 127 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:39,120 Speaker 1: It's uh, it's the fellow Dixon actually um he was 128 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 1: uh playing a violin a fiddle in front of aum 129 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: recording phonograph. And there's two men, um, two of Edison's 130 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: lab assistants who are dancing to the music that Dixon's 131 00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: playing on the fiddle. And um. What's interesting is that 132 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: the film and the phonograph were separated the cylinder, So 133 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:07,920 Speaker 1: you had the film and the cylinder existing in two 134 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: different places. The film was with the Library of Congress. 135 00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:16,400 Speaker 1: The cylinder was with the National Park Service because it 136 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:21,640 Speaker 1: was part of the Right Museum. So you've got and 137 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:23,240 Speaker 1: and for a long time, no one knew that these 138 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:26,000 Speaker 1: two things were actually connected, that they were a part 139 00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 1: of the same event. And then it was discovered that 140 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:33,439 Speaker 1: that was indeed the case. And uh and so ah, 141 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 1: a fellow by Walter Merch was given the task to 142 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: resynchronize these two different medium right, and so he took 143 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:46,880 Speaker 1: the film, which was seventeen seconds long, he took the cylinder, 144 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: which had a recording that was about two minutes long, 145 00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:51,640 Speaker 1: and he had to find out where they seek up 146 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: and so You can actually see that on YouTube now 147 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:56,520 Speaker 1: if you go to YouTube and you search for Dixon 148 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: Experimental Sound Film, it's on their Grant's a guy playing 149 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:04,800 Speaker 1: a fiddle and two other guys dancing with each other. 150 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:09,840 Speaker 1: It's but it's interesting. It's the very first uh surviving 151 00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:13,679 Speaker 1: sound on film experiment that we can see. And granted, now, 152 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:16,720 Speaker 1: technically the sound is not on the film itself, right, 153 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: there are two different devices that coexist. And that was 154 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,680 Speaker 1: kind of the case for the earliest sound on film, 155 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:27,920 Speaker 1: uh the or the earliest films that incorporate sound in 156 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,800 Speaker 1: the pre record sound The first the first one really 157 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:38,000 Speaker 1: was Don Juan Um or Don Juan for our friends 158 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:41,160 Speaker 1: over in the UK. Yes, but that one is a 159 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,000 Speaker 1: Warner Brothers film, and it was using something called the 160 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:50,280 Speaker 1: vita phone. Yes, which remarkably enough, is not a phone 161 00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:53,319 Speaker 1: packed with all the nutrients that you need for the day. 162 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:55,480 Speaker 1: I was very disappointed to learn that you can have 163 00:09:55,520 --> 00:10:00,440 Speaker 1: a vitaphone and still get scurvy. Yes you can. I 164 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:03,840 Speaker 1: like that, so at any rate, Yes, that's a vitamin 165 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: C joke. YEA. The vitaphone was again, it was a 166 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: phonograph system and it was hooked up to a projector 167 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:13,480 Speaker 1: with a with a Pulley system of Pulley in belt 168 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:18,079 Speaker 1: system and it would synchronize the music with with whatever 169 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:21,280 Speaker 1: was being projected on screen. Now, don Juan, this was 170 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:23,959 Speaker 1: just music. It was not dialogue. Yeah. And it was 171 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,120 Speaker 1: a wax record too, was it not? I believe so, 172 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:28,559 Speaker 1: yes it was. It was a wax record for the 173 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:31,320 Speaker 1: earliest one. So they really did put it down on wax, 174 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: Yes they did. Yes, it's that was That's not just 175 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:38,800 Speaker 1: a saying, um. And so sound on disc not sound 176 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:41,360 Speaker 1: on film. And the disc was a thirty three and 177 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: a third RPM disc. It was developed by Bell Telephone 178 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:51,439 Speaker 1: Laboratories and Western Electric and it actually used several discs 179 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:53,679 Speaker 1: clearly because you can't you know that the disc does 180 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:56,160 Speaker 1: not have enough space on it to record an entire 181 00:10:56,280 --> 00:11:00,400 Speaker 1: film's worth of soundtrack. And I understand typically to the 182 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:04,960 Speaker 1: sound for sound on disc films was recorded after the fact. Yeah, 183 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:07,160 Speaker 1: more than anything else. It wasn't it was SYNCD up, 184 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:08,959 Speaker 1: I guess to the to the movie as it was, 185 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: So it wasn't done simultaneous right well, and in this 186 00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:13,839 Speaker 1: case again it was it was a soundtrack. It was 187 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: the music. It wasn't dialogue. So you could record it 188 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:19,319 Speaker 1: anytime you wanted, well, right, right, But as as the 189 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:22,679 Speaker 1: as they continued to make sound on disc because the 190 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,480 Speaker 1: jazz singer uh you know the year after uh Don 191 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: Juan slashed you and came out. Um yes, I remember 192 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:35,200 Speaker 1: that from my college English classes as well. Um, yeah, 193 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:37,679 Speaker 1: that it was. It was out and it had it 194 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:42,120 Speaker 1: had additional material, including sound effects and dialogue, if I'm 195 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:45,680 Speaker 1: not mistaken. There was some resistance to putting sound on film. Early. 196 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:48,600 Speaker 1: Part of it was that the silent film art had 197 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:51,240 Speaker 1: really progressed to a point where people felt comfortable with it. 198 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:54,800 Speaker 1: As you pointed out, the editing issue was there. Um, 199 00:11:55,040 --> 00:11:57,559 Speaker 1: some people just thought that audiences wouldn't really care for 200 00:11:57,679 --> 00:11:59,880 Speaker 1: sound on film. There was also a real problem of 201 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:02,880 Speaker 1: how how do you create the right volume so that 202 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,160 Speaker 1: everyone in the theater can hear this sound because the 203 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:09,520 Speaker 1: speakers weren't great this early on. It's my opinion that 204 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,160 Speaker 1: they are still wrestling with how much volume is enough 205 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,200 Speaker 1: of a well, now, it's the other way around, right, 206 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,840 Speaker 1: It's it's at what point do we start dialing it back? 207 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 1: When audiences complained that they can no longer hear anything 208 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 1: else once the movie's over, I'm looking at you, Michael 209 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: Bay and uh the but yeah, the the earliest, the 210 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:36,199 Speaker 1: reason why Don Juan was even attempted was that you 211 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:42,079 Speaker 1: had the Warner brothers, uh see a demonstration of this system, 212 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:47,199 Speaker 1: and um, Sam Warner was totally buying into it, right. 213 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: Jack Warner was not as impressed until Jack Warner saw 214 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:55,160 Speaker 1: one film that included an orchestra playing and it played 215 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:58,079 Speaker 1: the music as well, and then he thought, this is 216 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:00,160 Speaker 1: what we should use this for, not for dial dog, 217 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,120 Speaker 1: but just for the music, because there are so many 218 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,080 Speaker 1: movie theaters out there that don't have a full orchestra, 219 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:10,040 Speaker 1: and now they can benefit from that. This is brilliant. Well, 220 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:12,040 Speaker 1: then you had the Jazz Singer come out, which was 221 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:14,360 Speaker 1: just going to be singing right. There was not any 222 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:17,480 Speaker 1: dialogue in that except Al Jolson decided to add lib 223 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,679 Speaker 1: a little and they kept it in the film and 224 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:25,079 Speaker 1: it ended up being a big commercial success. So then 225 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: a little bit later in you had another sound film 226 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:34,960 Speaker 1: come out, Short film, very short film, famous one cartoon. 227 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:38,920 Speaker 1: It was a certain a certain mouse made appearance in it. 228 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: You know what I'm getting at, right, Steamboat Willie. Yeah, 229 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie, and uh, the mouse sure 230 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 1: can drive a riverboat, pilot a riverboat. I should say 231 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: it was the first film that really truly synchronized sound 232 00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:59,600 Speaker 1: two images and made it part of a story. Yeah, 233 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:04,480 Speaker 1: so from there there was no turning back. Uh. But 234 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:08,000 Speaker 1: the vital phone system really limited you quite a bit. 235 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:11,839 Speaker 1: For one thing, it had two points of failure, right, 236 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:16,040 Speaker 1: because I mean if the Vito phone breaks, then suddenly 237 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: you've got no sound whatsoever. Right, So how do you 238 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,960 Speaker 1: simplify the system so you no longer have two devices 239 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:29,360 Speaker 1: to depend upon? M m. Let's see, you could put 240 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:33,440 Speaker 1: this sound on the film brilliant? But how do you 241 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:38,440 Speaker 1: do that? I mean because superglue? Yeah, nail that note 242 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:42,400 Speaker 1: to the film buster. Um no, Actually it was really 243 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:49,320 Speaker 1: an ingenious design. Yes, it's creating an optical uh track 244 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: on the film that doesn't show up on the screen, 245 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: but it allows light to pass through it, and depending 246 00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:00,280 Speaker 1: on how much light passes through, that's what Jenn rates 247 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:02,920 Speaker 1: the sound you hear. There are actually photo cells that 248 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: receive light and then depending upon how much light they 249 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:09,880 Speaker 1: do or do not receive, they send electric current to 250 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:14,600 Speaker 1: another device which will create the actual sound. So in 251 00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:17,280 Speaker 1: a way, you're looking at the physical you're like, you're 252 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,840 Speaker 1: really an optical representation of what sound is. Right, You've 253 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:24,280 Speaker 1: re recorded the sound, you print it on the film 254 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:28,240 Speaker 1: so that it only allows specific amounts of light through. 255 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:31,520 Speaker 1: It gets matched up to the two frames of the 256 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:34,600 Speaker 1: film so that everything is synchronized because it's all in 257 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:37,080 Speaker 1: one place. You've got the images on the film and 258 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,000 Speaker 1: you've got the sound on the film, usually to the 259 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,800 Speaker 1: right of the images. So if you were looking at 260 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:44,720 Speaker 1: a strip of film, you would see the images in 261 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: in the middle of it, and just on the very 262 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 1: far right edge of the image you would see this 263 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: weird line or sometimes two lines, and that was the 264 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:57,600 Speaker 1: optical track for the soundtrack. Yes, and you use an 265 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:01,360 Speaker 1: audio pickup or an audio a reader to to see that. 266 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,920 Speaker 1: And uh, from from our article on on movie sound, 267 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,680 Speaker 1: I did read that, Uh, you the analog pickups are 268 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:15,760 Speaker 1: often blow the lens while the digital pickups are above it. Right, Yeah, 269 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:17,880 Speaker 1: because of course now we do have digital sound. In 270 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:21,000 Speaker 1: the earliest days it was all absolutely and in fact 271 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:25,240 Speaker 1: most well we'll get into this, but most most films, 272 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: even the ones that have digital sounds, still have the 273 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 1: analog track on it. And we'll explain why when we 274 00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: get to that point. Yeah, there's there's usually an exciter 275 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:38,040 Speaker 1: lamp inside the the actual not that kind, but it's 276 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: a lamp that provides a particularly bright and pinpointed light 277 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 1: through the the optical tracks. So it's specific for that 278 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: within a projector. And um, yeah, it goes all the 279 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,320 Speaker 1: way through the pre amplifier, the pre amplifier, since the 280 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:57,920 Speaker 1: amplifier which creates you know, increases the the What Chris 281 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:00,560 Speaker 1: is looking at me and laughing, I'm just wishing I 282 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: hadn't done that. Oh the yes, the excited part. Yes, 283 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: that's okay. I'm sure that I'll get plenty of mail 284 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:10,159 Speaker 1: about it, don't you worry. Alright anyway, So yeah, the 285 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:12,679 Speaker 1: pre ampsence sends the signals to the amplifier, which then 286 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:15,000 Speaker 1: sends the signal to the speakers, and then you get sound. 287 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: And uh, there were some a lot of movies early 288 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:22,399 Speaker 1: on in the in the forties started using this system, 289 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,040 Speaker 1: not the digital as I said before, just the endim 290 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:30,840 Speaker 1: um and one in particular really went overboard. Yes, Fantasia. 291 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:34,920 Speaker 1: Once again, we go back to Disney Fantasia. If you're 292 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:38,040 Speaker 1: not familiar with Fantasia, it's a film that presents several 293 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: different classical music pieces set to animation done by Disney. Uh. 294 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:47,480 Speaker 1: Some of the animation, actually, much of the animation is 295 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: completely original. It doesn't have any or it doesn't rely 296 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:55,080 Speaker 1: upon their their stock characters. There's a couple of pieces 297 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:57,640 Speaker 1: that do, depending on which version of Fantasia you see. 298 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 1: And um, yeah, I'm Disney liked to experiment with new technologies. 299 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,199 Speaker 1: He was. He was very into pushing the envelope. And uh, 300 00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:09,680 Speaker 1: I mean even when they the studio released snow White, 301 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,120 Speaker 1: a lot of people told him it couldn't be done, 302 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,880 Speaker 1: that creating a creating an animated feature that long would 303 00:18:16,920 --> 00:18:19,840 Speaker 1: be very difficult, it wouldn't go over well with the audience. 304 00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:22,040 Speaker 1: And I think every time people told him, you know, 305 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,280 Speaker 1: it couldn't be done or he was crazy to try it, 306 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 1: he I think it just pushed him more to try 307 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:31,800 Speaker 1: to develop new technologies. So Fantasia was certainly an ambitious project. 308 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:36,960 Speaker 1: Ambitious project, I'm sure it was. Um the it it 309 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,480 Speaker 1: had multiple tracks of sound, so it wasn't just mono 310 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 1: sound coming from behind the screen. That was the Other 311 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:46,879 Speaker 1: thing is that early early movies with sound, they had 312 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:49,320 Speaker 1: the speakers were actually mounted just behind the screen. That 313 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:51,720 Speaker 1: was it. And it was just blasting the sound through 314 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,439 Speaker 1: the screen at the audience. Fantasia was more sophist, kid. 315 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:58,680 Speaker 1: It was using a fantas sound is what they called it, 316 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:01,800 Speaker 1: and not there's no big surprise there. We mentioned that 317 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:04,359 Speaker 1: on our Surround Sound podcast a little bit. And they 318 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:09,520 Speaker 1: used actually used four mono optical soundtracks. And the problem 319 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:13,720 Speaker 1: here with four mono optical soundtracks is that's too many 320 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:18,680 Speaker 1: to fit on the actual film of the images that 321 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:20,920 Speaker 1: you're watching on the screen. If you were to fit 322 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 1: four optical tracks side by side, it would creep into 323 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:27,000 Speaker 1: the frame of the movie and you would see that 324 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:29,840 Speaker 1: on the right side. Would be really weird, right, Yeah, 325 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 1: there there's a physical limitation to the amount of space 326 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:35,440 Speaker 1: available on the celluloid. In this case, you would have 327 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:40,800 Speaker 1: to otherwise create new projectors that could handle much wider film, 328 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,440 Speaker 1: and that's a little expensive. Yeah, this was already a 329 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,560 Speaker 1: little expensive. But what they ended up doing was instead 330 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:51,440 Speaker 1: of having the optical tracks appear on the same film 331 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 1: as the actual movie, they had two separate reels of film. Really, yes, 332 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:01,400 Speaker 1: one reel of film had the images and the other 333 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:03,200 Speaker 1: reel of film had the optical tracks on. So you 334 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:05,359 Speaker 1: had to have two projectors to show this movie the 335 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:09,280 Speaker 1: way that Disney intended it to be screened. The second 336 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: projector would just be handling the soundtrack, which is crazy 337 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:14,200 Speaker 1: to me, but each of those tracks would be sent 338 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: to specific groups of speakers, and that way you could 339 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 1: get the the sensation that you're sitting in the middle 340 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: of an orchestra, right, which is really what they were 341 00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:25,680 Speaker 1: going for there. They wanted to They wanted to sort 342 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:27,800 Speaker 1: of transport you as if you were actually sitting in 343 00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:31,680 Speaker 1: a symphony hall, not watching a movie screen. This was 344 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,880 Speaker 1: a very manual way of doing it because they would 345 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,359 Speaker 1: fade the sound in one speaker and turn it up 346 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:43,080 Speaker 1: in the other two produce that audio illusion of depth. 347 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,399 Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean people who are using the more 348 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,560 Speaker 1: modern tools where you can play with different tracks and 349 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:52,240 Speaker 1: add all kinds of different tracks in their computers, and 350 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,679 Speaker 1: this was this is a more hands on approach, if 351 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:57,000 Speaker 1: you will. So, do you know how many of these 352 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: fantas sound systems actually got sold? No, but I'll take 353 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:06,159 Speaker 1: a guess. I want to say four you are twice 354 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:10,679 Speaker 1: as optimistic or four. Yeah. One was sold to New 355 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:13,439 Speaker 1: York's Broadway Theater and the other one to Carthe Circle 356 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,800 Speaker 1: theater in Los Angeles, and you bet the one in 357 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 1: n l A. But I thought they were five thousand 358 00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:22,560 Speaker 1: dollars to install this thing. That's only slightly expensive. Keeping 359 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:27,600 Speaker 1: in mind this is that's incredibly expensive, and it needed 360 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:31,800 Speaker 1: fifty four speakers in the in the audience in order 361 00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:35,040 Speaker 1: to do this properly. So yeah, it's obviously this is 362 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:37,280 Speaker 1: not the kind of sound system that's gonna work for 363 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 1: every theater, clearly and not, and it's not necessary for 364 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:45,119 Speaker 1: most movies. So really, the fantas sound was one of 365 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,400 Speaker 1: those things where it really kind of showed you where 366 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,040 Speaker 1: movie sound could could go to, but it wasn't practical 367 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 1: for moving forward, so most most of the film studios 368 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:01,280 Speaker 1: stuck with the optical tracks. Um. And that was pretty 369 00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:05,399 Speaker 1: much the case until sometime in the fifties when they 370 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:09,920 Speaker 1: started to experiment with a new kind of soundtrack on film, 371 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:15,280 Speaker 1: which was magnetic. Yes, now that magnetic, Uh you know, 372 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 1: I would assume, based on on what I know of 373 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 1: these things that uh, we're talking the same type of 374 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: technology that you would see in say a floppy disk 375 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:29,800 Speaker 1: or cassette tape exactly. So uh, yeah, that that was 376 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: certainly an innovation, but you know, they and it it 377 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:39,360 Speaker 1: did have better sound quality. Yeah, supposedly the magnetic approach 378 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,840 Speaker 1: was superior to the optical tracks at the time, uh, 379 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:46,280 Speaker 1: in sound quality if you leged to see the movie early, 380 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:50,440 Speaker 1: because unfortunately, one of the by products was that the 381 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:54,640 Speaker 1: magnetic tape or the magnetic coding rather, would wear down 382 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,880 Speaker 1: over time, and of course as you showed the film, 383 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:00,760 Speaker 1: it would wear down faster. And so if you were 384 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: to catch a movie three or four days after it 385 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:05,840 Speaker 1: had started playing in a movie house, especially if it 386 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,680 Speaker 1: had a lot of shows during the day, the sound 387 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:15,119 Speaker 1: quality would be it would be noticeably less pristine, right, 388 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: it would not be pristine compared to if you had 389 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:20,680 Speaker 1: seen it the first time. They screamed the film. So 390 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:24,159 Speaker 1: that's not the case with the optical tracks. I mean, 391 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:25,959 Speaker 1: as long as the films in good shape, the optical 392 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:30,040 Speaker 1: tracks are just fine. And uh, there are most of 393 00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:32,000 Speaker 1: the movies that were made with this magnetic or some 394 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:34,359 Speaker 1: of them anyway, were they were made with this magnetic approach, 395 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,159 Speaker 1: did not have the optical tracks as a failsafe. Some 396 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:41,160 Speaker 1: did because people were saying, hey, you know what if 397 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,200 Speaker 1: the system fails for this, do we have a backup plan? 398 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:46,320 Speaker 1: And the idea is, well, we already know how to 399 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,240 Speaker 1: do the optical track, let's do that too, And that 400 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,040 Speaker 1: ended up being the rule of thumb for most audio 401 00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:54,919 Speaker 1: systems moving forward. And even when we get into digital 402 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,440 Speaker 1: and all all the different ways of doing digital sound, 403 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:02,679 Speaker 1: most films still keep the optical track because if something fails, 404 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:05,240 Speaker 1: you can always go back to the analog soundtrack. It's 405 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:09,320 Speaker 1: not gonna be as good as an experience necessarily, but 406 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:12,639 Speaker 1: you'll at least have sound with your movie, right. And 407 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:16,800 Speaker 1: of course, with the the financial outlay of movie theaters, 408 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:20,120 Speaker 1: they don't want to turn people away because they can't 409 00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,080 Speaker 1: show the film. They pay a lot of money to 410 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:26,119 Speaker 1: be able to show these films, so they want something 411 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:28,280 Speaker 1: that they can they can continue to make money off 412 00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:30,960 Speaker 1: of and try to recoup their investment. Um. So they 413 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:36,400 Speaker 1: definitely want some kind of plan as a backup. Um Yeah, 414 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,040 Speaker 1: and that's the thing too, met the magnetic the magnetic 415 00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:44,560 Speaker 1: readers that that technology was more expensive as well. Um, 416 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,919 Speaker 1: So that that makes it even that much more important, 417 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,440 Speaker 1: or at least I would imagine it would. Yeah, that would. 418 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,040 Speaker 1: I'm sure that factored into decisions as they went further 419 00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:55,520 Speaker 1: down the road. So when we get to the sixties. 420 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:57,680 Speaker 1: That's when we finally get into Oh, did you have 421 00:24:57,760 --> 00:24:59,600 Speaker 1: something to add before that? Oh, I just noticed in 422 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,920 Speaker 1: my that magnetic also did did you point out that 423 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,560 Speaker 1: you could have up to six tracks? No? I did not, um, 424 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,520 Speaker 1: so that's something else. That another advantage that magnetic cats. 425 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:12,440 Speaker 1: So we're sort of in the more modern era of sound. Yeah, 426 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:14,040 Speaker 1: we all started getting to the point where they were 427 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,720 Speaker 1: starting to figure out how to matrix sound, which is 428 00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:18,720 Speaker 1: pretty complicated. I don't know that we can really get 429 00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 1: into it, but it's essentially it's it's taking multiple tracks 430 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:26,639 Speaker 1: and combining them in such a way so that you 431 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:31,120 Speaker 1: can represent them as one one strip of optical track. 432 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:36,359 Speaker 1: So it's the one yes, and you you really have 433 00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,320 Speaker 1: the left, you have a left side of right side, 434 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,440 Speaker 1: and then you have the center. And the way it 435 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 1: works is everything that's coded for the left side just 436 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:44,960 Speaker 1: plays for the left side. Everything that's coded just for 437 00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: the right side plays just for the right side. Everything 438 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,879 Speaker 1: that's coded for both plays also in the center, but 439 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:52,960 Speaker 1: at a few decibels lower than on the left and 440 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,359 Speaker 1: right right. That's that's the easy way of explaining it, 441 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:58,680 Speaker 1: but it gets way more complex than that. So but 442 00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:03,000 Speaker 1: in the sixties. That's when we see Dolby start to 443 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: enter into the movie sound market, and they had the 444 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 1: Dolby A type noise reduction introduced in and UH. And 445 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: this was this was a pretty big development as well. 446 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:22,640 Speaker 1: It's another interesting approach. UM. They will be of course 447 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,480 Speaker 1: played or continues to play a really important part in 448 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,920 Speaker 1: in movie sound today. So but yeah, that was that 449 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 1: was when they were hitting the scene. UM. And we 450 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,000 Speaker 1: started getting to the point where we're approaching, when we're 451 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:38,320 Speaker 1: getting to digital sound. That that really starts up in 452 00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:43,679 Speaker 1: the seventies UM, or at least the first attempts at 453 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,040 Speaker 1: it UH. And then in the eighties we actually see 454 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,920 Speaker 1: even more of that. Now with digital you start using 455 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:55,160 Speaker 1: pixels instead of an optical track to UH to give 456 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:57,440 Speaker 1: the signal to the photocells in order to play back. 457 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,520 Speaker 1: At least that's one way of doing it, UM and UH. 458 00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,239 Speaker 1: A couple of systems didn't use the optical track as 459 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:10,239 Speaker 1: a back backup UM, which became a problem. The one 460 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:14,640 Speaker 1: I'm thinking of specifically was the Cinema Digital Sound System CDs, 461 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:18,280 Speaker 1: which this this is all the way up into it 462 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:23,080 Speaker 1: was used with the film Dick Tracy And Yeah, one 463 00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:24,840 Speaker 1: of the problems with this was that they did not 464 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:29,160 Speaker 1: use the optical track as a backup, the analog track 465 00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,960 Speaker 1: as a backup, and so if your digital system failed, 466 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,639 Speaker 1: there was no backup to go with. And actually that 467 00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:37,680 Speaker 1: did happen at a couple of theaters, and that it 468 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,080 Speaker 1: hurt the film Dick Tracy a little bit more so 469 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:46,200 Speaker 1: than the actual content of that terrible movie. Um, I 470 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: was wondering if you were going to take a shot 471 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,359 Speaker 1: at that. Yeah, Now, what's interesting, also interesting about the 472 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,399 Speaker 1: the digital pixels, the little pixels that provide the uh, 473 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:59,359 Speaker 1: the information needed to transmit sound through film. All right, 474 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,280 Speaker 1: these little pixel they have to be somewhere, right Where 475 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,840 Speaker 1: do you store them if you've already taken up space 476 00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:08,280 Speaker 1: on one side with the optical tracks. I don't know. 477 00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:10,639 Speaker 1: In a box under the bed. No, that's where the 478 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:14,240 Speaker 1: ambiguity is. It's over there in a box. Uh No, 479 00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:19,680 Speaker 1: the it depends on the system. But one of them. 480 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:25,639 Speaker 1: They wouldn't put the dots in between the holes in 481 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:27,560 Speaker 1: the film, right, you know where the holes are where 482 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:30,280 Speaker 1: it would fit on the rockets, right right, Okay, so 483 00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:32,520 Speaker 1: you've got those little strips of film between the holes. 484 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: That's where the dots would be stored for digital sound. Yeah, 485 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 1: and then so it's not continuous. It would be with 486 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,760 Speaker 1: the traditional but with the with it being digital, you 487 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,400 Speaker 1: didn't have it have to have it be continuous as 488 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: with the optical strip. It's kind of neat. It was 489 00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:57,640 Speaker 1: the Dolby Digital track that's that's for the double digital track. 490 00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:59,440 Speaker 1: That's the one that will be between the little holes 491 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,080 Speaker 1: and the the film, so where the sprockets would go. 492 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:04,600 Speaker 1: And you can actually see a picture of that in 493 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,720 Speaker 1: the movie Sound article on the Dolby Digital page. You 494 00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,720 Speaker 1: can actually see what Jonathan's talking about there. It's a 495 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:13,680 Speaker 1: little odd to think about, though, how they could do 496 00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: that and have it not be continuous. Yeah. I I 497 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:19,960 Speaker 1: assume that it's because of the digital nature of it. 498 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:23,120 Speaker 1: We're talking, you know a little. It's different than analog 499 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:26,440 Speaker 1: where you have to follow along in real time with 500 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:30,680 Speaker 1: the picture. But there's also the Sony Dynamic digital sound 501 00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,800 Speaker 1: system s d d S. Yes, SDDS. Now, if you 502 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:36,840 Speaker 1: were looking at a piece of film, uh, the s 503 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,440 Speaker 1: dds would be on the outer outer edge of that film. Yea, 504 00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,720 Speaker 1: so on the outside of the sprockets, right on the 505 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,800 Speaker 1: outside of the sprockets, you would find the um, the 506 00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:50,000 Speaker 1: the the little digital dots for the sdd S system, 507 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:52,600 Speaker 1: and then in between the sprockets you find the Delby 508 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: digital and then you find the optical tracks. And of 509 00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: course with the Adobe system, which I believe uses an 510 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: l e ED, the Sony system uses something else to 511 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,720 Speaker 1: read the sound. Are you talking about the laser. I 512 00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:08,840 Speaker 1: was trying to give you the opportunity to lasers. I 513 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:10,360 Speaker 1: was hoping that was the one. I was like, you 514 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,239 Speaker 1: know what, I've gotten to the point. The reason why 515 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:14,800 Speaker 1: I'm I'm hemming and hawing a little bit is because 516 00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:17,840 Speaker 1: my notes crashed, so I'm going a lot from memory. 517 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:19,160 Speaker 1: But yeah, I was like, yeah, I think that is 518 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:23,160 Speaker 1: the laser system that. Yes, the light apparently goes through 519 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:28,160 Speaker 1: UH is magnified um and passes and you know, goes 520 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,960 Speaker 1: through the film and it's magnified and an array of 521 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:33,000 Speaker 1: photo cells picks it up and it's able to read 522 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:35,560 Speaker 1: it that way. So yes, it is running with a laser, 523 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 1: which I won't try to say, like you, The cool 524 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,920 Speaker 1: thing about this is going back to, you know, the 525 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:46,720 Speaker 1: whole idea of combining the sound and the images into 526 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,960 Speaker 1: one UH format so that you you don't have to 527 00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:54,120 Speaker 1: depend on multiple devices and you don't have to synchronize them. 528 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: Like if you do have two different devices, you have 529 00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:00,000 Speaker 1: to worry that they both are working properly and imperfect 530 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:02,320 Speaker 1: sync with one another, or else you know, your sound 531 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,480 Speaker 1: is not going to match up with the the what 532 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,320 Speaker 1: you're seeing. A video, of course, has a totally different 533 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:10,880 Speaker 1: set up. Video is not the same as film. Uh, 534 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,520 Speaker 1: And so you can find like especially if you watch 535 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,600 Speaker 1: streaming video online, you will occasionally see streaming video where 536 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 1: the the sound and the video are not synchronized properly, 537 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:22,800 Speaker 1: and it it gets looks like it's a really poorly 538 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:27,240 Speaker 1: dubbed foreign film. But film does not have that issue 539 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:30,080 Speaker 1: because of course it's all there. I'm assuming that your 540 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 1: your projectors working properly. It's all right there together. So 541 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:38,880 Speaker 1: it's really an ingenious approach to matching that sound up 542 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:40,760 Speaker 1: with the movies. I mean, if we had not come 543 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 1: up with that optical approach analog and digital both, uh, 544 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: we would probably not have as many talkies out there, 545 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:50,600 Speaker 1: I mean, just because it'd be such a pain in 546 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:52,560 Speaker 1: the butt to have to match the sound up to 547 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,760 Speaker 1: the the picture. Well, it is fascinating to think about 548 00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: how these things go, and I think, uh back, I 549 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,320 Speaker 1: think we actually are seeing a uh, sort of an 550 00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:08,200 Speaker 1: analog pardon the term an analog today in the three 551 00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:11,160 Speaker 1: D boom because I have the feeling based on what 552 00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 1: I've read about the jazz singer and how it it 553 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:17,120 Speaker 1: really you know, took the audiences by storm and the 554 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 1: I think it caught the movie industry off guard a 555 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,480 Speaker 1: little bit about how popular it really was. And I 556 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:25,280 Speaker 1: think three D movies are another situation like that, where 557 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:27,440 Speaker 1: they're going, Wow, people really want to do this, let's 558 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:30,160 Speaker 1: go one, so they're you know, in some cases, rushing 559 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:32,000 Speaker 1: them out the dwarf, as we mentioned on our three 560 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:37,520 Speaker 1: D Movies podcast, when they're trying to capitalize convert films 561 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:39,760 Speaker 1: that were not shot in three D to become three 562 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:45,520 Speaker 1: D right right, So it's stop doing that. So yeah, 563 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,520 Speaker 1: I think it's sort of a similar situation um to that. 564 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:54,480 Speaker 1: But it's it's amazing how simple the solution was to 565 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,120 Speaker 1: to add that to the film, how advanced it has 566 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,440 Speaker 1: become in their variations on the it's pretty original. Agree, 567 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,760 Speaker 1: I agree it, agree entirely. So let's wrap this up 568 00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 1: one little aside. I'm gonna point out one other thing 569 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:13,400 Speaker 1: that really made movies sound possible. The boom mike. Yes, 570 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,400 Speaker 1: that's true. We didn't talk about that, Yeah, because because 571 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,280 Speaker 1: they used to blimp for a while, right, Yeah, the 572 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:23,240 Speaker 1: earliest Yeah, the blimp was essentially a soundproofed chamber that 573 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:27,240 Speaker 1: you had to put your your camera and sound equipment 574 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,840 Speaker 1: and when you were filming these early early uh sound films, 575 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,400 Speaker 1: because the equipment made so much noise that it would 576 00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: drown out the sounds you were trying to capture. Yeah, initially, 577 00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:40,000 Speaker 1: in the very very early movies where they tried to 578 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:44,000 Speaker 1: do this, they the cameras were stationary anyway, and so 579 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,480 Speaker 1: were the mics. So it's almost like it's almost like 580 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,240 Speaker 1: sitting in front of a stage, Yes, exactly. You weren't 581 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of you weren't gonna have any 582 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,560 Speaker 1: panning or or anything like that. You might have a 583 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:56,840 Speaker 1: little bit of a zoom, but Sorkin would have been 584 00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:58,800 Speaker 1: so out of his element. He had no walk and talk. 585 00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:03,400 Speaker 1: Let I'll tell you that. So, so the microphones often 586 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,840 Speaker 1: were stationary for the early films as well, which meant 587 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,440 Speaker 1: that you had that even further limited the movement the 588 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:11,040 Speaker 1: actors could make, because if they moved too far away 589 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:14,359 Speaker 1: from the microphone. You couldn't hear them anymore. Yeah, I'm 590 00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:18,080 Speaker 1: totally reliving Singing in the Rain in my head conversation 591 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,279 Speaker 1: exactly because there's there. It was satirized in Singing in 592 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,399 Speaker 1: the Rain. If you watch that film, they have entire 593 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,920 Speaker 1: scenes where they're showing the problems that they have as 594 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 1: they try to find places to put microphones and pick 595 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,600 Speaker 1: up the sound without picking up unwanted sound. And it 596 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,600 Speaker 1: was a problem. The boom mic was a brilliant Uh, 597 00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:41,400 Speaker 1: thank you for illustrating. That's not that's not unprofessional at all. 598 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:46,160 Speaker 1: But let you're fired of the the can't fire that's true, 599 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:50,000 Speaker 1: the I don't have that authority, the no. But the 600 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,759 Speaker 1: boom mic really allowed actors to move around within a 601 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:55,520 Speaker 1: scene and you just kept the microphone out of frame 602 00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:57,839 Speaker 1: and it solved a lot of problems. But it took 603 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: a while to come up with that solution. Really, we 604 00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:04,160 Speaker 1: don't truly know who invented it. There's some kind of 605 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,800 Speaker 1: guesswork about it being um there was a female director 606 00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:14,279 Speaker 1: who was given that that kind of um uh, she's 607 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:16,759 Speaker 1: she's credited with creating it, But we don't truly know, 608 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: so I can't really say who it was that came 609 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,120 Speaker 1: up with that idea, but it was a brilliant one. 610 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 1: Good job whoever you are. Anyway, that wraps up this 611 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:31,879 Speaker 1: discussion about sound on film, and we'll probably do more 612 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,800 Speaker 1: movie making technology podcast in the future. We still have 613 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 1: to talk about special effects and digital effects and the 614 00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:42,799 Speaker 1: difference between the two. Maybe we'll do an entire show 615 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:46,080 Speaker 1: about Foley because we didn't get into that either, which 616 00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:49,200 Speaker 1: is another element of sound. It's creating the proper sound 617 00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:52,080 Speaker 1: effects for a film when and sometimes you have to 618 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:55,440 Speaker 1: use stuff that you wouldn't you wouldn't imagine would sound 619 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,360 Speaker 1: like what you're actually trying to make it sound like. Again, 620 00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,879 Speaker 1: my mind is drawn to Ben vert Ah. There you go, yes, 621 00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:05,880 Speaker 1: master sound effect technician. We are going to wrap this 622 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:08,960 Speaker 1: one up. If you guys would like to know specific 623 00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:11,640 Speaker 1: information about specific topics of movie making, you can let 624 00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:14,719 Speaker 1: us know on Facebook and Twitter are handle there is 625 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:19,440 Speaker 1: tech Stuff hs W. You can email us. That address 626 00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:22,200 Speaker 1: is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and 627 00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:24,919 Speaker 1: Chris and I what talk to you again really soon, 628 00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:33,480 Speaker 1: Jonathan Um. Actually this was just handed to me. It 629 00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:35,560 Speaker 1: looks like how stuff works dot Com now has an 630 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:39,440 Speaker 1: iPhone app, Sweet and that's awesome. Yeah. Actually, um, I 631 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: got to to take a look at this earlier, and guys, 632 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:45,160 Speaker 1: this is pretty cool. The iPhone app is a sort 633 00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,120 Speaker 1: of a way to integrate all the cool stuff we 634 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,319 Speaker 1: do at how stuff Works dot com. So you guys 635 00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:50,880 Speaker 1: may have listened to one of our podcasts and we 636 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:53,000 Speaker 1: talked about there's this great article on the site, but 637 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: you're not at your computer, so you can't really check it. Well. 638 00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:59,600 Speaker 1: The iPhone app actually lets you browse articles and blog 639 00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:01,960 Speaker 1: post so even lets you interact on Facebook and Twitter, 640 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,919 Speaker 1: and you can listen to podcasts at the same time. 641 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:06,239 Speaker 1: And it has all the house stuff Works dot com 642 00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 1: podcasts on it, not just ours, but you know good 643 00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:10,799 Speaker 1: ones too, so you can listen to those and look 644 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,280 Speaker 1: at the articles and and go on Facebook and Twitter, 645 00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:18,640 Speaker 1: and it should work perfectly with your iPhones and iPod touches. Awesome. 646 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:21,440 Speaker 1: What's it looks like. It's now available on the iTunes store, 647 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:23,360 Speaker 1: so that's good to know. How much does it cost? 648 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:40,319 Speaker 1: It's freeze sweet Ah, brought to you by the reinvented 649 00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 1: two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you