I have a question about silent period of movies? (filming, history, motion picture)
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I think my grandfather still had a Vitasound turntable in his workshop when I was growing up. The problems with the record/film system came when the inevitable damage to the film happened. That threw off the timing and either blank film had to be inserted to replace the damaged film, or a purposeful scratch made in the track of the record. (My grandfather showed pictures in the town hall of the small town where my father was raised.)
I don't have any cites on this, but I also heard once that RKO attempted a radio broadcast that synched to the silent movies being played in theatres in an area. Whether or not it actually happened is in question.
Sound recording existed. Video recording existed. But they were unable to record it in one device.
But could not they make a sound movie recording sound and video in 2 separete devices and played them together, therefore the movie would be in sound?
Another problem was maintaining synchronization. Two different motors will never move at precisely the same speed. Over time, the camera and the sound recorder will lose synchronization to a noticeable degree. That is, in fact, still a basic problem--it will happen with modern video cameras and audio recorders. There is a technical solution...but without applying the solution, de-synchronization will still occur.
Video means montion pictures. Photographes are being recorded fast. That is where frames per second comes from.
In general industry parlance, "filming" refers to shooting motion pictures on film, and the product was called din those days a "motion picture." The term "video" didn't come into use until the industry began recording images electronically to magnetic tape.
Another problem was maintaining synchronization. Two different motors will never move at precisely the same speed. Over time, the camera and the sound recorder will lose synchronization to a noticeable degree. That is, in fact, still a basic problem--it will happen with modern video cameras and audio recorders. There is a technical solution...but without applying the solution, de-synchronization will still occur.
Actually, that is functionally incorrect. The issue was addressed in the early days of 3-D, when two projectors were precisely synchronized to form the right and left images required for stereoscopic vision. You are absolutely correct that the technique wasn't in use during the pre-sound era, as early cameras and projectors were hand-cranked or slip-clutched and often used at different speeds for effect. The 24 frames/sec standard required SMPTE to develop and enforce it.
The motors that run in lockstep are selsyn motors. Without getting too technical, 60 hertz AC in the U.S. is stunningly accurate, for various reasons. Loads on distribution lines increase and decrease, meaning generators are added to the power company circuits to add additional available wattage. If the waveform was mismatched, generators might actually DECREASE the power available by working against the existing AC. The story is that in the early days of AC, free clocks that relied on accurate 60 hertz waveforms were given to power companies. That might or might not be true, but the requirement for any large system is there anyway.
Selsyn motors have circuitry that locks them together. (Turn the shaft on one and the others linked to it will turn the exact same amount.) I used that feature once at a theatre in Miami that had seven auditoriums. There was a film that was going to be an absolute sellout, and with more customers than any one or two screens could hold. I threaded the film daisy chain from one platter, to the first projector, then the second, then all the way to the seventh projector. The film had only enough slack for some small "accumulators" in case of drift at startup from a couple projectors that were only synched to each other. Film runs at about 18 inches per second, and the average film is between ninety minutes and two hours and ten minutes. You can figure out how long that works out to.
Anyway, showtime came, I hit the proper buttons, and all the theatres were showing the same film print, one after the other, giving a total seating capacity of well over a thousand people. At the finishing minutes of the show, there was no difference in the slack in the accumulators from what there was at the beginning. Technically, it was easy to do.
We only did it for the one show, and reverted back to the normal variety of films at the multiplex the next show, changing the directional signs back as soon as the audiences were seated in the various auditoriums and the linked feature started.
What was an unexpected benefit for all the staff was being able to watch in the lobby as the usual jerks who liked to swap auditoriums to see different films left the auditorium they had been assigned - into the Twilight Zone! They walked down the hall, looked at the signage for the different films, opened doors and entered, then went from one auditorium to the next, more and more confused each time, because when they went in any door the same film was playing that they had just walked out of. We didn't even bother to try to stop them, and the giggles and smiles from the staff at their confusion and frustration were as rewarding to me as the technical feat.
Actually, that is functionally incorrect. The issue was addressed in the early days of 3-D, when two projectors were precisely synchronized to form the right and left images required for stereoscopic vision. You are absolutely correct that the technique wasn't in use during the pre-sound era, as early cameras and projectors were hand-cranked or slip-clutched and often used at different speeds for effect. The 24 frames/sec standard required SMPTE to develop and enforce it.
I explicitly said that the problem had a solution.
Video means montion pictures. Photographes are being recorded fast. That is where frames per second comes from.
This was answered after my post, but video as a format did not exist until the 1950s. Film was the pre-existing format for movies. Film and video are two entirely different things from a technical standpoint.
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