Impact of Sound on Movie Making

The assignment analyzes the significance of sound in movie production, distribution, and exhibition. It highlights how the introduction of sound in the early 20th century revolutionized the film industry, making it a crucial aspect of storytelling. The document also touches upon the impact of sound on different levels of movie production, including production houses, distributors, and exhibitors.

Hollywood Film, the
Introduction to Sound

In the starting era of Hollywood industry, it was developing themselves in picture quality
and sound. Most of the movies were sound less in beginning of 19th century. This essay is based
on two movies of Hollywood which are “The Jazz Singer” and “The Wizard of OZ”. These two
were the starting musical movies. This essay will provide discussion on the influence of sound
on various levels of film industry. Further, the essay will highlight significance of sound on
different levels of film industry along with making analysis of both movies and assessing the
reasons behind this innovative change.
Hollywood film industry is the largest movie maker in world and they are producing 600
cinemas per year on an average. Most of the films in beginning did not have sound and
background music. A film industry can be divided into three major parts which are production,
distribution and exhibition. Production is a process of film making which involves several
stages. Story writing, dialogue writing, casting of actors, shoot, sound, editing and screening are
the main elements which are involved in this process (Crane, 2014). All these works are having a
huge importance in the success of a film so it is essential for the film maker to use an appropriate
film production house. Production also contains three main stages which are development, pre-
production, production and post-production. First stage of development is related to central
theme of a movie, screenplay writing and financing of whole project. Shoot related all work is
done in the pre-production phase, casting, crew members, set designing and locations determine
in this section. Production is phase in which all recordings are aligned one after one and directors
are having huge responsibility in this part because they have to select shots and they have to
make a perfect editing without making a negative impact on story telling. Post production the last
stage in which in which audio visual effects are mixed in the recorded videos to improve the
quality and present it like a movie. Production phases was had too much challenges for the
producers in this changing environment of Hollywood. New technologies and hopes of people
are increasing day by day so it is essential for the producers to make effective changes in their
production houses in the aspect of technology.
Distribution, it is related to public release of the movie, it is final stage and results of
movie gathered in it. Production house determines that from which way they will release their
movie in the market like; releasing in cinemas, online release etc. This stage is also including
budget for promotions which can be the main element of success of movie. Premiers, press
release and interviews of castings are organised by the distributors which help in public
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promotions of movie (Monk, 2015). Most of the movies released on public cinema houses so in
this part of the film industry they have to determine number of screen to release movie.
Exhibitors are people which works with distributors to make a record of collections and it also
track the success of the movie in a particular area. Exhibitors are having a responsibility to
promote movie by an appropriate medium in a particular reason.
'The Jazz Singer' was released in 1927 and this was the first film which has a
synchronised music with the lip singing of actors on song (The Jazz Singer, 2017). Most of the
movies at that time were without songs so this movie has created enthusiasm in the public
domain. It was produced by the Warner Brothers and directed by Alan Crossland. This movie
was released with six songs which was the major key feature of it that has created a huge impact
on audience. Al Jolson is the leading actor of this movie and all songs were shot on him. Music
was given by Louis Silvers and this movie has collected more than $7 Million. This movie was
based on a person's (Jess Robin) dream to become professional music composer and at the end of
the movie, he got a chance to work with a famous singer by the help of his friends. So, this was
totally based on the musical background. Thus, it is having high need of lip sing of songs which
can connect to viewers with the character. So, this movie was having a need of songs which was
recognised by directors and producers. In the starting era of the movie production it was a tough
task for the producers and directors to mix song in the movie because they are not having sound
mixing technology. Lip-sing on the songs was difficult task because in that time a movie was
shoot with single camera and it is not possible to take more retakes. Reel camera was used in that
time so more cuts can be risk on the quality of shots. They have implemented first time this
technique to provide a better feel to viewers.
Another movie is 'The Wizard of OZ' which was released in the year of 1939; it was a
musical fantasy movie. Victor Flemming was the director of this movie and Mervin LeRoy was
producer the movie. Judy Garland, Frank Morgan were key stars of this film and Herbert Stothart
was music director (WIZARD OF OZ, 2017). This movie collected $23 million in that time
period which proved that it was a hit movie of that time. As it is a fantasy movie, it was required
to make a proper connection with audience for which producer has implemented these innovative
creation by putting songs in it which helped them a lot to connect audience with the character in
cinema hall. Dubbing was the tough task for the producers and all songs were shotted with live
music.
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Alan Crossland has done in-depth research in his field to make a better product which can
help to provide a better feel to targeted audience. 'The Jazz Singer” was totally emotional and
musical movie so it was essential for them to take it on high relevancy with a real character. This
is the reason; they have used music and songs. Also, they took shots which were mostly relevant
to a singer and with his emotions. “The Wizard of OZ” was also a fantasy movie which was
based on the few people that have reached into a dreamland. So, this was essential for the
producer and director to share character’s views and feelings with audience and most of the
dramatic and fantasy sequences are having the need of songs and background sound which can
help to create a better impact on the audience. So, this was the first issue that production house
wants to connect with viewers by using songs and background score in the movie (Taylor, 2014).
“The Jazz Singer” is based on singing and music. So, this was the need of story that songs has to
be included to create a huge impact on audience. Same case is in “The Wizard of OZ” characters
which was reached in a hypothetical world which was their dreamland. So, now this was the
need of story to use songs and music to express their feelings and to connect audience with
character's emotions. Both directors and producers wanted to produce something new to their
viewers and also, they want to attract viewer’s focus on their movie. Therefore, they have used
background sound and songs to attract more public and entertain them more (Monk, 2015). So,
they have created something new for their targeted people. Thus, these were some basic issues
behind these innovative changes in the film industry.
Introduction of sound has created a huge impact on the several stages of film industry,
mainly in production because sound mixing is an important part of a movie. As both of these
movies were using sound in the starting era of Hollywood, it had made a huge impact on team
which was working in movie making. Post production stage was totally based on this and so, it
had created high pressure on the team to make a better change in film industry (Gross, 2015). So,
this has created a huge impact on the production level. Warner Brothers and LeRoyMerv were
working in production line so it has provided them experience of mixing and lip synchronising
against song. It helped them in developing some new technologies which can help them in
creating a better audio visual effect in the movie. It has also put high impact on the distribution.
Production houses were preferring to those distributors which were having a higher quality of
sound system in their cinema theatres (Crane, 2014). So, it became a compulsion for distributors
to install a better music system in their shows by which they can provide high quality of services
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to viewers. At the exhibitor level, they were having responsibility to promote movie in their area.
This creativity of adding music in movies had put a huge impact on them that they have to use
songs to advertise as music creates a direct impact on people (Cutting, 2014). Thus, it can be said
that introduction of sound has created high impact on the exhibitors and now, they have to use
new methods of advertising like radio in promoting movie.
At the end, it can be concluded that sound is the need of life and especially in movie. It
has high significance and so, it is essential for the movie makers to use a better background
music and lyrics in movies. Introduction of sound in film industry changed the way it was
perceived by people. It has created a huge impact on different levels of movie production. It has
been assessed that in the beginning of 20th century, production houses were not having advanced
technologies. Songs and sound was the need of story to make it effective. So, directors and
producers started integrating them in movies for making the film more influential. Production,
distribution and exhibitors are main three phased of movie making as well as sound mixing was
the toughest challenge for production team in that scenario. Overall, it can be said that regular
changes made the movies even better and presently, sound has become an important part of
films.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Crane, D., 2014. Cultural globalization and the dominance of the American film industry:
cultural policies, national film industries, and transnational film. International journal of
cultural policy. 20(4). pp.365-382.
Cutting, J. E., 2014. Event segmentation and seven types of narrative discontinuity in popular
movies. Acta psychologica. 149. pp.69-77.
Gross, R., 2015. Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour 7th edition. Hodder Education.
Monk, C., 2015. The British heritage-film debate revisited. British historical cinema. p.176.
Taylor, T. D., 2014. Strange sounds: Music, technology and culture. Routledge.
Online
The Jazz Singer. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080948/soundtrack>. [Accessed on 4th September 2017].
WIZARD OF OZ. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.metrolyrics.com/wizard-of-
oz-lyrics.html>. [Accessed on 4th September 2017].
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