Making Stereo Fit: The History of a Disquieting Film TechnologySurround sound is often mistaken as a relatively new phenomenon in cinemas, one that emerged in the 1970s with the arrival of Dolby. Making Stereo Fit reveals that, in fact, filmmakers have been creating stereo and surround-sound effects for nearly a century, since the advent of talking pictures, and argues that their endurance owes primarily to the longstanding battles between stereo and mono technologies. Throughout the book, Eric Dienstfrey analyzes newly discovered archival materials and myriad stereo releases, from Hell’s Angels (1930) to Get Out (2017), to show how Hollywood’s financial dependence on mono prevented filmmakers from seeing surround sound’s full aesthetic potential. Though studios initially explored stereo’s unique capabilities, Dienstfrey details how filmmakers eventually codified a conservative set of surround-sound techniques that prevail today, despite the arrival of more immersive formats. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Film Stereos Identity Crisis | 26 |
2 Fantasia and Failure on a Theme by Bell Telephone | 52 |
3 The Cinerama Experience | 83 |
4 The TripleTrack Disruption and the CinemaScope Solution | 109 |
5 Perspecta ToddAO and the Emergence of Monocentrism | 139 |
The End of an Era | 176 |
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Making Stereo Fit: The History of a Disquieting Film Technology Eric Dienstfrey Limited preview - 2024 |
Making Stereo Fit: The History of a Disquieting Film Technology Eric Dienstfrey Limited preview - 2024 |
Common terms and phrases
Abel Gance acoustical aesthetic April audiences Audio auditory perspective Blumlein BoxOffice center channel Cinema CinemaScope Cinerama Cinerama Holiday concert decibel developed dialogue Dolby Laboratories Dolby Stereo Dolby’s engineers equipment exhibitors Fantasia Fantasound Film Sound film's filmgoers filmmakers Fletcher folder four four-track Fox’s frequency front speakers Gance Harvey Fletcher Hollywood House of Wax Image by author industry industry’s innovations installed invented Journal loudspeakers magnetic stereo microphones mixers mixing mono monocentric Motion Picture Daily movie noise optical orchestra Panaphonic Patent Perspecta play playback postproduction premiere prints production Progress Committee Report rear speakers recording Reeves release reproduce rerecording Scheiber screen signal SMPE SMPTE sound design sound effects sound system soundscapes soundtrack spatial Sponable Sponable Papers standard stereo design stereo effects stereo formats stereo system Stereophonic Sound studio surround sound technicians theaters tion Todd Todd-AO triple-track University Press Variety venues voice Waller Walter Murch Warners widescreen York