My first Medium Post
Singing in the Rain: A history of sound in cinema
Directed by Stanley Bonen and Gene Kelly, Singin’ in the Rain demonstrates a delightfully escapist use of sound in the film while also being about the relationship of sound to image, the history of film sound technologies, and the process of recording and reproducing sound.
The film showcases different techniques of sound that are used in the film even today. When the movie that is supposed to be released turns out to be a disaster because of the inadequate synchronization, Donald, played by Gene Kelly, suggests that they make the film into a musical after hearing Kathy played by Debbie Reynolds. This leads to the depiction of dubbing, where Lina, played by Jean Hagen, has to lip-sync the singing while Kathy does the actual singing. It is interesting to note that there was dubbing within the film there was dubbing outside the film as well.
The sequence with the song “Would You?” is supposed to show how Lina lip-syncs while Kathy’s voice is dubbed for hers. Yet it was Reynolds who was lip-synching. Her singing was dubbed by Betty Noyes, while Hagen actually uttered her spoken dialog. So you’re watching Hagen dub Reynolds dubbing Hagen.
The 1941 film Citizen Kane uses sound very well to convey ideas to the audience and characterization. In the film, after Kane’s death, there is a montage news story about his life. This montage conveys the mood and the characters’ states of mind (e.g., the sound is frantic and loud and gains momentum until it almost runs out of control, underscoring the idea that these men, Kane, and reporters alike, are being blinded and intoxicated by their own success). It also creates rhythm beyond that provided by the music (within the changing dramatic arc that starts with a celebration involving all the men and ends with one man’s colossal display of ego).
Despite being lauded as an all-time classic, the production of the film was the opposite. Reynolds bloodied her feet, tap dancing for 15 hours to film the “Good Morning” number, and had to be carried off the set. Even after it was filmed to Kelly’s satisfaction, he felt the tap sounds were insufficient, so he danced the number again in a dubbing room — both his own part and Reynolds’.
The first film with sound was The Jazz Singer in 1927. The movie was recorded in Vitaphone, a sound-on-disc that involved the painstaking process of recording all audio onto a single phonographic record, then syncing that up in real-time with the projection. During the production of Star Wars, George Lucas helped pioneer Dolby sound. Lucas teamed up with the sound dudes at Dolby, and together they engineered what would be the first in a line of significant collaborations: Dolby Stereo.