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Movietone Sound System
The Movietone sound system is an optical sound, optical sound-on-film method of recording sound for motion pictures, ensuring synchronization between sound and picture. It achieves this by recording the sound as a variable-density optical track on the same strip of film that records the pictures. The initial version of this system was capable of reproducing sounds up to 8500 Hz. Although modern sound films use variable-area tracks instead, modern motion picture theaters (excluding those that have transitioned to digital cinema) can play a Movietone film without modification to the projector (though if the projector's sound unit has been fitted with red LED or laser light sources, the reproduction quality from a variable density track will be significantly impaired). Movietone was one of four motion picture sound systems under development in the U.S. during the 1920s. The others were DeForest's Phonofilm, Warner Brothers' Vitaphone, and RCA Photophone. However, Phonofilm was p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optical Sound
Optical sound is a means of storing sound recordings on transparent film. Originally developed for military purposes, the technology first saw widespread use in the 1920s as a sound-on-film format for motion pictures. Optical sound eventually superseded all other sound film technologies until the advent of digital sound became the standard in cinema projection booths. Optical sound has also been used for multitrack recording and for creating effects in some musical synthesizers. 1914-1921: Naval and military use Building on the principle first demonstrated by the Photophone of Alexander Graham Bell in 1880, optical sound was developed by several inventors with an interest in wireless communication through transmission of light, primarily for nautical, ship-to-ship use. The idea was that sound pulses could be converted into light pulses, beamed out from one ship and picked up by another, where the light pulses would then be reconverted into sound. A pioneer in this technology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitchell Camera
Mitchell Camera Corporation was an American motion picture camera manufacturing company established in Los Angeles in 1919. It was a primary supplier of newsreel and movie cameras for decades, until its closure in 1979. Unpublished products by Mitchell Camera was the high-speed 70mm camera which was used on the SR71 plane which was manufactured in Glendale and Sun Valley California. History The Mitchell Camera Corporation was founded in 1919 by Henry Boeger and George Alfred Mitchell as the National Motion Picture Repair Co. Its first camera was designed and patented by John E. Leonard in 1917, and from 1920 on, was known as the Mitchell Standard Studio Camera. Features included a planetary gear-driven variable shutter and a unique rack-over design . George Mitchell perfected and upgraded Leonard's original design, and went on to produce the most beloved and most universally used motion picture cameras of the Golden Age of Hollywood under the name of The Mitchell Camera Company ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Movietone News
Movietone News was a newsreel that ran from December 1927 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Spain in the early 1930s as Noticiario Fox Movietone before being replaced by No-Do, in Australia and New Zealand until 1970, and Germany as Fox Tönende Wochenschau from 1930 to 1940 and from 1950 to 1978. An Indian version called Indian Movietone News ran in 1942 and 1943 before getting replaced by Indian News Parade. History Movietone News evolved from an earlier newsreel established by Fox Films called Fox News (1919 – 1930), Fox News which was founded in 1919. It produced silent newsreels. When Fox entered talkies in 1928 with ''Mother Knows Best (film), Mother Knows Best'', the name Fox Movietone was applied to Fox's sound productions. In the U.S. as Fox Movietone News it produced cinema sound newsreels from December 1927 to 1963, and from 1929 to 1986 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Electric
Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for all telephone equipment for the Bell System from 1881 until 1984, when Breakup of the Bell System, the Bell System was dismantled. Because the Bell System had a near-total monopoly over telephone service in the United States for much of the 20th century, Western Electric's equipment was widespread across the country. The company was responsible for many technological innovations, as well as developments in industrial management. History 19th century In 1856, George Shawk, a craftsman and telegraph maker, purchased an electrical engineering business in Cleveland, Ohio. In January 1869, Shawk had partnered with Enos M. Barton in the former Western Union repair shop of Cleveland, to manufacture burglar alarms, fire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mother Knows Best (1928 Film)
''Mother Knows Best'' is a lost film, lost 1928 American sound part-talkie film directed by John G. Blystone, based on a novel by Edna Ferber, fictionalizing the life of vaudevillian Elsie Janis. The film was Fox's first part talkie, using the Movietone sound system which had primarily been used for synchronised music scores and effects tracks in Fox features beforehand, although as early as ''Mother Machree'' (1928), a single synchronous singing sequence was included in the film. The talking sequences in ''Mother Knows Best'' were directed by actor Charles Judels, while the synchronized sequences were directed by John G. Blystone. The film starred Madge Bellamy, with Louise Dresser as her domineering mother, Barry Norton, and Albert Gran.Michael G. Ankerich ''Broken silence: conversations with 23 silent film stars'' 1993 p.52 "After her contract was up in 1924, she was immediately signed to a four-year contract with Fox Pictures, ... Madge made her talkie debut as the star of Fox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Song Of Two Humans
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey and single-storey . The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English, '' a'' is the indefinite article, with the alternative form ''an''. Name In English, the name of the letter is the ''long A'' sound, pronounced . Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. History The earliest known ancestor of A is ''aleph''—the first letter of the Phoenician ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earl I
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used. The title originates in the Old English word , meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl''. After the Norman Conquest, it became the equivalent of the continental count. In Scotland, it assimilated the concept of mormaer. Since the 1960s, earldoms have typically been created only for members of the royal family. The last non-royal earldom, Earl of Stockton, was created in 1984 for Harold Macmillan, prime minister from 1957 to 1963. Alternative names for the rank equivalent to "earl" or "count" in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as the ''hakushaku'' (伯爵) of the post-restoration Japanese Imperial era. Etymology In the 7th century, the common Old English terms for no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tri-Ergon
The Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system was developed from around 1919 by three German inventors, Josef Engl (1893–1942), Joseph Massolle (1889–1957), and Hans Vogt (1890–1979). The system used a photoelectric recording method and a non-standard film size (42mm) which incorporated the sound track with stock 35mm film. With a Swiss backer, the inventors formed Tri-Ergon AG in Zurich, and tried to interest the market with their invention. Ufa acquired the German sound film rights for the Tri-Ergon process in 1925, but dropped the system when the public showing of their first sound film suffered technical failures. The Tri-Ergon system appeared at a time when a number of other sound film processes were arriving on the market, and the company soon merged with a number of competitors to form the Tobis syndicate in 1928, joined by the Klangfilm AG syndicate in 1929 and renamed as Tobis-Klangfilm by 1930. While Tri-Ergon became the dominant sound film process in Germany and much of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freeman Harrison Owens
Freeman Harrison Owens (July 20, 1890 – December 9, 1979) was an early American filmmaker and aerial photographer. Biography was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the only child of Charles H. Owens and Christabel Harrison. He attended Pine Bluff High School in Pine Bluff, but quit in his senior year to work at a local movie theatre as a projectionist. Owens constructed his own 35mm movie camera at the age of 16. He filmed early newsreels, such as the Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire in December 1910 and the Charleston, South Carolina, hurricane and flood in August 1911. He served during World War I as a photographer, helping progress the art of aerial photography for combat purposes. He filmed the famous Joe Stecher vs. Earl Caddock wrestling match at Madison Square Garden on January 30, 1920. His last credit as cinematographer was ''Love's Old Sweet Song'' (1923), filmed in the Lee DeForest Phonofilm process, and starring Donald Gallaher, Louis Wolheim, and Una Merkel. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American independent company that produced motion pictures and was formed in 1914 by the theater "chain" pioneer William Fox (producer), William Fox. It was the corporate successor to his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attraction Company (founded 1913). The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, but in 1917, William Fox sent Sol M. Wurtzel to Hollywood, California to oversee the studio's new West Coast of the United States, West Coast production facilities, where the climate was more hospitable for filmmaking. On July 23, 1926, Fox Studios bought the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, William Fox lost control of the company in 1930, during a hostile takeover. Under new president Sidney R. Kent, the new owners merged the company with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century Studios, Twent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Fox (producer)
Wilhelm Fried Fuchs (; January 1, 1879 – May 8, 1952), commonly known as William Fox, was a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American film industry executive who founded the Fox Film, Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox Theatres, Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s. Although he lost control of his film businesses in 1930, his name was used by 20th Century Fox (now part of the Walt Disney Company) and continues to be used in the trademarks of the present-day Fox Corporation, including the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News, Fox Sports and Foxtel. Early life Wilhelm Fried Fuchs (later William Fox) was born in Tolcsva, Hungary. His parents, Michael Fuchs and Anna Fried, were both Hungarian Jews. The family immigrated to the United States when William was nine months old and settled in New York City, where they had twelve more children, of whom only six survived. To help the family financially William found a job selling candy and newspapers in Central Park. At the ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AMPAS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a board of governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches. As of April 2020, the organization was estimated to consist of around 9,921 motion picture professionals. The Academy is an international organization and membership is open to qualified filmmakers around the world. The Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, both officially and popularly known as "The Oscars". In addition, the Academy holds the Governors Awards annually for lifetime achievement in film; presents Scientific and Technical Awards annually; gives Student Academy Awards annually to filmmakers at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
