From Silents to Studios

Part 1: Explore how the inclusion of sound in the movie pictures impacted the Movie Industry. Detail how it happened, who was effected, what was lost. 

Large studios at first completely opposed the idea of including sounds to film. Many criticized it was too large of a leap and feared the public wouldn’t accept it. Many had grown accustomed to merely seeing visual sequences and analyzing characters simply off of their looks and/or actions. With the introduction to sound the requirements of an actor would increase as some were born in other countries and had thick accents. Often times many actors had voices that did not match the roles they were portraying and the use of dialogue in movies had never been attempted. Not to forget during filming directors would direct the actors in where to go and what to do, but with the invention of sound the actors would now be forced to memorize their lines as well as how to position themselves. As far as actors go including sound meant purchasing technology able to do so as well as creating studios able to capture sound. Studios were already successful as is and felt using sound was a daring risk no company was willing to take themselves. However there was one studio willing to take the risk and that was Warner Brothers who in 1927 created the first film to incorporate spoken dialogue into the text, and this created huge amounts of capital for the small studio. Many studios felt threatened by their success and decided to focus on “talkies” and within a year sound had spread through to all films.  

Part 2: The 20 years between 1930 and 1950 are generally recognized as the studio years. Describe what the pros and cons were of this factory system.

There were limitations during he early years of sound as since so many jumped with this new concept the films themselves became boring and done whimsically. Many actors would have to act only within range to the microphone and often there would be a conversation dragging on and on and on…..zzzz. Also since the recording technology was so intricate it had to be stored in a closed off space far from the actors. This also meant long static shots of the talents speaking, which in many ways lead to a lack of imagination for the audience. However the incorporation of being able to hear was a positive value for audiences. Studios had taken part in creating sets filled with props and colors and a sort of factor system was created: studios creating films by dividing the work into sections (production, distribution, and exhibition.) Many starts were assigned to the film and being under contract they basically devoted their entire body and social life to the studio. In this time Warner Brothers, MGG, and 20^th Century FOX were able to thrive and become powerful studio in the Holywood scene.