How Sound Revolutionized Comedy Films: A Detailed Examination

This essay explores the development of the film industry, focusing on the impact of sound on film comedy. It traces the evolution from the silent era, where films relied on visual gags and live commentary, to the sound era, which revolutionized comedy with recorded sound effects, music, and dialogue. The essay highlights the significance of the Marx Brothers and their transition from vaudeville to sound films, demonstrating how sound amplified their comedic performances. It also discusses the audience's adaptation to sound films and the challenges faced by those with hearing impairments. Furthermore, the essay examines the various types of comedies that emerged with the advent of sound, including affirmative and anarchistic comedies, and the role of sound effects in enhancing comedic storytelling. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of sound in creating a convincing atmosphere, underlining psychological refinement, and building continuity in comedy films. Desklib provides access to this and many other assignments.

Comedy in Film

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Impact of sound on the nature of film comedy ..........................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The film or cinema industry has been developed to a large extent, there are various
changes that are been included in films made or produced by the film-makers. Films are being
produced and created since a long period but it was lacking many elements which can is seen
now. The innovation and changes in film industry has also increased the number of customers as
well as interest of people to watch films. This essay will provide a brief history with respect to
development of films and cinema. The main topic of the essay is to identify the impact of sound
on film comedy or humour. The essay will identify how sound in film has influenced the nature
and quality of comedy in cinema industry.
Impact of sound on the nature of film comedy
A film can be described as a story that is communicated or presented with animated
images or videos. It is produced by recording photographic pictures with cameras or by
developing images with the use of animation methods as ell as visual effects. The procedure of
film-making has created into an industry and an art form. The stories, skills, contents have been
formed or changed along with the historical, economical, political, ideological and social
conditions that affected the films and cinema industry. The French Lumi brothers, Auguste and
Louis presented their first show of projected film pictures to audience on December 28, 1895.
This historical presentation included ten short films, they were very popular first films which
converted simple innovator into a commercial product. There were many changes in the world of
cinema or film industry -
1. The silent era – This was a starting phase or part of the film industry, during this period
combining the images with sound was not possible for producers and inventors as that
time no practical technique was invented. The films were produced without any sound or
silent for the first 30 years, the substitutes were used such as live musicians and
commentaries by projectionist or showman.
2. The sound era – The Warner Bro. Hollywood studio presented an innovative system
known as Vitaphone in 1926. It develops short films of live entertainment public figures
and acts. Orchestral scores and recorder sound effects were successfully combined to
various key areas where needed (MCNAMARA and Sheldon, 2017).
The most essential elements of films produced and developed was known to be comedy
or gags. People were attracted towards spending their time watching a drama without any sound
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but a story making them laugh. The Films developed earlier did include any kind of music or
sound but had an ability to make audience laugh. Later on this silent era added a new method of
making films or drama more effective. These techniques included commentary or dictation as
well as live musicians. The only drawback of this concept was that the voice of commentators
were not much impressive as the actors or actresses. After some years a new era of film industry
was developed or introduced, known as the sound era. The Film-makers introduced sound in
their film by adding recorded sounds in it that brought a new boost or interest among the
audience. The use of sound effects were enjoyed by the audience in drama or film of Charlie
Chaplin, one of the most hilarious actor.
Later on the sound films were produced which consisted music and songs composed and
recorded in studios. The most famous producers in the 1930's were the Marx Brothers, sound
films were been developing since the introduction of motion pictures and later on the idea of
putting sound effects in the films finally attained success. By this period of tine, Marx brothers
were collectively and individually working on Broadway and Vaudeville stages for more than 20
years. Grucho who was known as Julius at that time appeared for the first time in 1905 ( Dixon,
2017). His mother Minnie, was soon to become a legendary stage mother, was very impressed
by her son's great success. Adolph and Milton later called as Harpo and Gumma also joined
Julius in 1907 and 1908. This family act became more impressive when the eldest brother
Leonard also known s Chico also mingled in the year 1912. Leonard was a good piano player
and was also working as an artist in small acts within vaudeville. In few years the Four Marx
brother became the most success and popular acts in Vaudeville. The Marx Brother's first two
films were hits on the box office, The Cocoanuts and Animal cracker. They further got in
contract with Paramount on December 24, 1930, these films would be produced in Hollywood
which was the reason for relocation of the Marx Brothers in 1931. Later on they developed their
third film known as Monkey Business. There were a dispute that raised between Paramount and
Marx Brothers related to participation of profit in Horse feathers and Monkey Business. The
Four brothers developed their own production house and the next film they were going to make
was the Duck Soup. The film changed Marx Brothers screen characters and it was apparent and
immediate, in Duck Soup it felt very natural for Harpo to be cleaning his feet at Edgar Kennedy's
lemonade stand. The films produced by these four brothers were very entertaining and made
them popular all around the world. Duck soup was one of the most successful performance by
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the four brothers in their entire career till now. Talkies came of age just in time for the Marx
Brothers. In our first look at them in The Cocoanuts, Groucho is nearly forty and Harpo and
Chico, a couple of years elder. The Four Marx Brothers may have been new to the screen, but
they were show business veterans when they first went before the cameras. Audience links the
act in progress, two decades into their insanity. We can only conceived them in their teens and
twenties, but the Marx Brothers at Paramount are faraway from missing energy. Those five films
are one of the last links to the era when vaudeville was the original kind of entertainment in
America – and the Four Marx Brothers were stuffed vaudeville theatres all round the country
(Costanzo, 2017).
The sound films were rapidly growing in film or cinema industry, which also increased
profitability of the film-makers. The elements that developed this popularity was comedy or gags
in the film. The people are highly interest and attracted towards comedy acts, at the time of silent
era there were only acts and drams that were entertaining people, but still it was gaining attention
of a huge audience. The development of technology and environment gave rise to new form of
films and converted the silent era into sound era. The sound era attained much success due to the
various significances as described below -
 The Marx Brothers created their individual comic character on the Vaudeville stage with
the help of sound acts and films.
 Popular for adapting performance and improvisation to match the specialness of the
audience
 It helped in developing better understanding of the story or the film.
Earlier the sound comedies were sloppy, shapeless, scattered, absurd, noisy and thrown
together without any reason or rhyme. The comedy was critically responded by people these
responses included Disunity, Heterogeneity, Fragmentation and Excessive concentration of
comic performance and gags. The Early sound comedy often seen as return to the cinema of
attraction as understood by Tom Gunning: reclamation of the type of aesthetic that evolved in the
vaudeville, circus and various kinds of entertainment. There are various kinds of comedies which
are seen in the Affirmative and Anarchistic comedy
Affirmative comedies – Films with a central comic performer who has personality attributes that
suggest he is conventional and unfit society. Excessive persona attributes are those which make a
performer or artist comic (Schrader, 2018).
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Anarchistic - Comedies that have opposing stylish driving forces: to be specific the development
of account and the pulverization of it in independent execution arrangements. Character
consistency is additionally burst by presentations of execution virtuosity. The comic troublesome
behaviour communicated by different personae isn't subordinate to the account and to the goals
of regulating society however permitted to prosper. Story data is compacted into tight units of
meddling article at the beginnings and finishes of arrangements. Singular scenes are imagined as
set pieces instead of chances to create account. Stars are not characters got in situations that they
should discover out as comedians with collections of vaudeville tricks and traps that are
reassembled in an extremely feeble account structure. Entertainers have minimal expressive
lucidness. Better to discuss their behaviour as anarchic. There is no rationale or confinement to
the thoughts that they exemplify (Foot and Chapman, 2017).
Audience too, had to adapt and change to sound films, they had to sit without making any
noise so that they can clearly hear the sound or voices of the actors on the screen. And people
who have hearing issues or are deaf now face problem in understanding the stories in the film.
There are various theatres that uses headphones that makes recording a little louder to audience
who can not hear well. But there are many theatres which are not offering any devices that
develops a major issues for the people who have hearing issues. The sound era increased and
develop film industry as well as entertainment elements such as music, songs etc (Stam, 2017).
Labourers in the execution concentrates moreover anticipated that would re-take in their
occupations. Projectionists worked in a subtle back off far up high at the back of theatre, running
the films through the projection machines that resuscitated the films on screen. These men
eventually anticipated that would work phonographs and moreover projectors, so their
development wound up being twice as troublesome (Dussel, 2017). Occasionally when a record
was played, the needle would skip, or bounce around, arranged and the synchronization between
the sound and the photo would be lost. On the off chance that the sound never again sorted out
the photo, social events of people would angrily boo and stamp their feet until the point that the
projectionist settled the issue. Notwithstanding, if the projectionist's development wound up
being through and through harder, in any event regardless he had work. A sound effect is very
essential aspect in the nature of comedy film making which generates the attention of audience
and entertain them in more effective It is the process applied to the recording without necessarily
referring to the recording itself. If in the comedy fie, there is an effective and attractive sound the
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Impact of sound on the nature of film comedy (Decker, 2017). It makes customer entertain and
more enjoyed. The objective of the comedy file is to entertain the large numbers of audience by
provide beautiful message. In the comedy film, sound convey the exact message and information
regarding the subject to audience through which they can acknowledge the actual meaning of
film. It assists to file maker in ways that is creating a more convincing atmosphere of time and
place, underlining psychological refinement, serving as a kind of neutral background filler,
building a sense of continuity and underpinning the theatrical build up of a scene and rounding it
off with a sense of finality (Robinson, 2017).In the motion picture and television production, a
sound effect is a sound recorded and presented to make a specific storytelling or a creative point
without the use of dialogue or music. Hard sound effects are common sound that appear on
screen such as door alarms, weapons firing and cars driving. Foley sound effects are sound that
synchronize on screen and require the expertise of a Foley artist to record properly. As per the
research it has been assessed that in the comedy file, sound affect the mind of audience as they
can understand the objective and purpose of the film an actual message. In the absence of sound
it becomes tough to understand the meaning and message of the film. Theatre performers were
not very fortunate. Right when a scene displayed a sound film framework, it never again required
the live authorities to perform from the pit every night, so each one of those people lost their
occupations. A few favoured pros in Hollywood, who performed in the studios where the records
were made, were correct currently heard by movie-goers the country over. The distinctive
performers anticipated that would discover another approach to manage bring home the bacon
(Reimer and Zachau, 2017).
Conclusion
The report concluded that comedy is a most effective element in a film or act, there are
various changes occurred since a long time. Effect of sound on the film- sound effects are
artificially created and it used as to put the consideration and express an action. It is very
effective as it changes the mood and feeling of the person. In this order, primary sound effects
are used in the things as radio, dramas but it can be observed more with the theatre, film and
podcast. It is very helpful in terms to gather the attraction of audience as it creates the
atmosphere. With the help of music the emotion in the heart can be defined to the audience. The
special quality qualities in the music will be assertive to standardised the quality of the music.
The report included a brief
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Reimer, R.C. and Zachau, R., 2017. German culture through film: an introduction to German
cinema. Hackett Publishing.
Decker, T., 2017. Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound After Vietnam. Univ of
California Press.
Stam, R., 2017. Film theory: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Schrader, P., 2018. Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer. Univ of California
Press.
Costanzo, W.V., 2017. Reading and Teaching Films. Critical Reading Across the Curriculum:
Humanities, 1.
MCNAMARA, M. and Sheldon, K. eds., 2017. Amateur Movie Making: Aesthetics of the
Everyday in New England Film, 1915–1960. Indiana University Press.
Foot, H.C. and Chapman, A.J., 2017. The Social Responsiveness of Young. Humor and
Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications, p.187.
Dussel, I., 2017. Iconoclastic images in the history of education: another look at children in
revolt in two children’s films from the 1930s. Paedagogica Historica, 53(6), pp.668-682.
Robinson, G., 2017. All Bad Little Movies When They Die Go to Ralph Spence: The Silent Era's
Most Famous Title Writer. Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 47(2), pp.28-
40.
Dixon, B., 2017. 100 silent films. Bloomsbury Publishing.
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