1 COM 320, History of Film Issues Raised with the Introduction Of

Home , Alfred Newman (composer), Avalon (soundtrack), David Raksin

COM 320, History of Film Issues Raised with the Introduction of Sound

Generally negative

1. Loss of visual artistry--with sound, the camera immediately became less mobile (according to cinematographers in Vision of Light: The Art of Cinematography (U.S./Japan, 1992))

2. Added costs--production and exhibition

3. Poor initial quality

4. New variables, new constraints--inc. ruined careers due to heavy accents, “bad” voices, bad acting (e.g., Rudolph Valentino(?), John Gilbert, Buster Keaton)

5. Some loss of freedom to utilize “international style” in an international marketplace

Generally positive

1. Attractive to audiences, helping film compete with radio

2. Expanded options for narrative form--drama, comedy, everything (e.g., Charlie Chaplin vs. the Marx Bros.)

3. Possibility of filmed operas, musicals

4. Greater auteur control/choices for sound recording--e.g., SOF (sound-on-film; also called production sound) recorded live, vs. post-production mixing, which can include Foleying, looping/ADR

5. Greater auteur control over music (remember, films always were accompanied by music, but in the silent era the director often had little control as to what a given audience might hear): - choice of composer--the Hollywood Studio Era as the time of the Great Screen Composer? (see list below) - the role of diegetic and non-diegetic music (e.g., simple accompaniment, motifs/leitmotifs, pacing the film, culminating theme at end)

-NOTES from The Hollywood Soundtrack Story (1995) (Host: Randy Newman):

1. Music for silent movies—There were never “silent” movies * Three types--Compilation scores, improvised scores, and original scores * The Wagnerian leitmotif * “Fake books” 2. 1927—The Jazz Singer changed it all 3. Importance of musicals in early sound films 4. Music used in non-musicals (to “set the mood, comment on the drama”)…film score as nondiegetic music 5. Songs in movies 6. Influences from European composers (many moved to Hollywood and became some of the great screen composers) 7. Influences from American jazz music 8. The DeMille lesson (as told by Elmer Bernstein)

9. The Great Classical Hollywood Screen Composers, e.g.: * Maurice Jarre (e.g., Lawrence of Arabia) * Alfred Newman (foremost member of a Hollywood dynasty; e.g., Our Daily Bread, The Robe, How the West Was Won) * Max Steiner (e.g., King Kong, Now, Voyager, The Searchers, A Summer Place) * Eric Korngold (e.g., The Adventures of Robin Hood) * Miklos Rozsa (e.g., Lost Weekend, Spellbound, Ben Hur) * Dmitri Tiomkin (e.g., Friendly Persuasion, Strangers on a Train) * David Raksin (e.g., Laura) ** Bernard Herrmann (e.g., Vertigo, Psycho, Citizen Kane, Cape Fear, Jason and the Argonauts, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Taxi Driver) 10. Composers appearing in the documentary * Randy Newman (e.g., Avalon, Toy Story, Monsters, Inc.) * David Raksin (e.g., Laura, Pat and Mike, The Bad and the Beautiful) * John Williams (e.g., Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List) * Gaylord Carter (silent film organist) * Stanley Donen (D: Singin’ in the Rain, Funny Face, Charade) * Jerry Goldsmith (e.g., Rio Lobo, Chinatown, Alien) * Elmer Bernstein (e.g., The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape) * Henry Mancini (e.g., Touch of Evil, The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

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