History of Movies & Technology

According to film historian Donald Cook, ômovies were intended to talk from their inception, so that in some sense the silent cinema represents a thirty-year aberration from the mediumÆs natural tendency toward a total representation of realityö (Cook 6). It is a misnomer to describe the silent film era as silent since live music accompanied the showing of each film, and the actors ôspokeö on screen even though they could not be heard (hence subtitles). It would be more accurate to state that films were silent because the technology or know-how did not exist regarding synchronizing recorded sound with the recorded image. Out of this lack of technology, however, a unique language was created that is known as silent film. This paper will examine the history and evolution of American silent film through 1920, focusing on changes during World War I in terms of technology, uses

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he music came from the concert stage; original film scores were a later development (except perhaps for some of Charles ChaplinÆs films). An article published in 1918, ôHow Music is Made to Fit the Film,ö discusses how music is ôsetö to a movie. Setting a movie to music was dependent on silent film era projection speeds. Before a film was shown to the public, a private screening was held for the musical director to do his work. The movie ôis projected at the same speed at which it will be shown to the publicàthree or four of the leading characters are selected as vital to the action. Varying themes may be given them, character themes, in fact; or the basic principle of the play may be themed, theme of ideaö (How Music is Made). At the time of a performance, a speedometer was used for synchronizing the music with the film. The actual projecting time often varied and the projectionist would sometimes have to change the tempo of the film in order to preserve the musical setting, so that the speed of projection was changed to fit the occasion (How Music is Made 58). Several years later, Hugo Risenfeld, a former managing director of the Rivoli, Rialto and Criterion Theatres in New York, credited the motion picture theatre with dev
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Approximate Word count = 3860
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)