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Sound and Sound Effects in the Early Animated Films

Experiments in sound and the sound track

As early as 1888, Dickson, in Edison's laboratory linked an early peepshow machine with one of
the newly invented phonographs. These machines were produced commercially, but they did not
last. Other experiments, at this time, were coupling the phonograph with the Kinetoscope.

Eugene Luste was the first inventor to patent, the Talkie Film Machine. It was the result of
combining the projection equipment, developed by Frieze-Green, with sound equipment. By 1906
he was exhibiting films with a sound track that operated a photoelectric cell in a projector.
Other experiments with a link between film and recorded sound was the Chronophone
(it was called a Chronomegaphone in large halls) made in 1907 by Harry Lauden. His voice was
reproduced in connection with the film. The Cinephone and the Vitaphone are similar types of
systems used for sound and film synchronization. In Barker's Cinephone, each scene was acted
in front of a recording phonograph and then re-enacted in front of the camera to match the
recording. A projector was adjusted so that it ran at the same fixed speed as the phonograph.
Visual dials as indicators adjusted the speed. Hepworth's Vivaphone was simpler than the
Cinephone, where the synchronization of sound and visuals, was adjusted by using a single
indicator in combination with colored glass. The indicator, powered by an electro-magnet,
showed either green or red lights to the operator for adjusting the speed.

The Warner Brothers started to produce sound-on-disc movies in 1925. The first film was the
silent film Don Juan, with a recorded musical accompaniment. In 1927 the Jazz Singer was
made. The sound system they used for this film, developed by the Western Electric Company, was
the Vitaphone. It consisted of 16-inch gramophone records; each synchronized with separate
reels of film. The Warner Brothers later used the Vitaphone in animated films like "Porky's
Romance" in the Looney Tunes series, 1937 and "Hare-um Scare-um", 1939 in the Merry Melodies
series. The Vitaphone is refered to as "Western Electric Noiseless Recording" in the credits
in Max Fleischer's film, "Popeye the Sailor", 1933.

Sound recorded directly on film were introduced by Fox-Case. The trade name for this sound
system was Movietone. One method for using sound at this time was the variable density, used
mostly by British Talking Pictures. This method used various shades of gray from light to
dark. The other method used was called the variable area. This looks like a symmetrical black
line with "sawteeth". These kind of optical sound tracks are recorded on an instrument named
a Light Valve. A beam of light behind the valve exposes the sound track along the film's
length, the pulsation of the valve giving the track the "jagged line" appearance. The faster
the valve fluctuates the closer the symmetrical teeth become. The sound editor can read
certain words by their distinctive shape on the sound track. The variable area soundtrack is
easy to copy in pen and ink. In the 1940s both the Fleischer and Disney studios experimented
with hand-drawn sound tracks. The crew in the Fleischer studio drew this kind of sound tracks
on long strips of white cardboard. Only one side of the track was drawn and blackened in.
Symmetry was achieved by a mirror arrangement hooked under the camera lens. Dave Fleischer
slightly modified the camera's aperture window vertically to prevent frame lines, which would
destroy the continuity of the track. The track was recorded by the camera down the center of
the film, not the edge. The Fleischers' could produce, according to them, "anything from a
flea snoring to Pop goes the weasel played on a calliope".

Sound Effects

To match the sound with the image, the sound track must be timed. The mathematician Fourier
stated that all sounds, musical or simple, orchestral or vocal, can be expressed completely in
mathematical terms. All sound is broken down into mathematical language for accurate
synchronization. A cue sheet brakes the action, in the film, down to beats per second, or down
to frames. By this cue sheet, the composer and sound-effects man, knows which frames of the
film require special musical emphasis, where dialogue occurs and where sound effects will
later be added.

To achieve different sound effects in animated films, the special effects department has many
different ways of producing and changing the recorded sound. In Disney's sound effects
laboratory, during production of the sounds for "Steamboat Willie", 1928, the sound crew used
twanged bedsprings, Halloween noisemakers and whistles. In productions after this film, when
the sound crew needed a special effect, they built special apparatus for the making of a
special effect, as when they needed a voomp-sound for Donald's motorcycle. It was achieved by
filling a large vat with water and soapsuds and plunging a paddle with two concentric discs
into the foam. The sound this produced was recorded several times. Sound effects from radio
shows were often used in cartoons, and also sound effects developed in the world of theatre.
Slowly dropping birdseed or rice through a box with cellophane achieved rain.
Building a replica door, about one foot, complete with hinges, handle and lock, produced the
sound of a door opening or closing. Rubbing two blocks of wood with glued-on sandpaper, in a
rhythm produced the sound of a train. The boi-ing-g-ggg sound of a Twanging Zeither was achieved,
by building a square guitar-like box, with a hole cut in the top, fitted with a long neck,
about two and a half feet. A metal bracket on the far end of the neck holds a single wire,
which stretches over the hole in the resonance box and is secured to the front of the box. A
wood screw, the slot turned to accommodate the wire, makes a bridge to elevate the wire
slightly. A turnbuckle or bolt is placed on the far end of the wire to tighten it. It is
tightened so the neck bows. The string is plucked and the box is shaken rapidly to sustain
the twang effect.

Varying the speed of the original recording was another way of achieving special sound effects.
This gives a different personality to a recorded voice. Woody Woodpecker¹s high-pitched voice
and laugh were exaggerated by playing them at nearly double speed, as were the sound of many
of Paul Terry's characters. Disney rarely used variable recording speeds, one of the few
exceptions being the mice in "Cinderella", 1950. Other ways of manipulating the existing sound
track could create other kinds of sound effects. To record, or re-record from an existing
sound track, the film must be held tight with a catch, as it passes over the optical sound
drum of the recording machine. If the film is not hold tight, and is instead lifted during
recording, the film will form a slight loop in this area and the sound will flutter. The
Disney crew used this trick, during the production of "Pinocchio", 1940. When Pinocchio is
calling out for his father, when he is going down to the bottom of the sea, they needed a
special sound effect for his scream. The sound effects people inserted a wire yoke, called a
Butterfly, into the reproducer to hold the catch open in the recording machine. As the voice
of Pinocchio called out, the fluttering gave a realistic underwater gurgle to the sound.

By using different kinds of microphones, the sound effects crew could capture and vary the
quality of the sound. Using special contact microphones made unusual sounds. The contact-
microphone records by actual contact with the noise source and can amplify and intensify,
for example a cracking hinge, by touching the the hinge.

Another way of producing or altering the existing sound was by using the echo chamber. A room
devided in two with a partition in the middle. The partition does not go exactly wall to wall,
but is slightly open at the far end. A speaker is placed on one side of the partition and a
microphone on the other. The sound from the speaker reverberates to the far wall, around the
partition to the microphone and back again repeatedly giving an echo. A machine, invented
during the early days for producing sound effects, was Gilbert Wright's Sonovox, from the late
1930s. The device used any sound, such as a train, or an engine, and the operator pressing
two special microphones to his throat formed that same sound into actual words. The mouth
forms the words silently, but out of the instrument comes an eerie, vocal sound. The operator
does the speaking. This device is used in Disney's "Dumbo", where the train is yelling
"All aboard!", "Let's Go!".

copyright 1999 Eva Sjuve

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