Sound in Movies

American inventor Lee De Forest was awarded several patents that would lead to the first optical sound-on-film technology with commercial application. In De Forest's system, the sound track was photographically recorded on to the side of the strip of motion picture film to create a composite, or "married", print. If proper synchronization of sound and picture was achieved in recording. What did they do before this? Well good question. For the longest time, they just used motion pictures and no sound, the pictures told the whole story. Then many companies began to add sound in the theaters, so you would have workers actually adding in music or sounds in real time. But then the fancy new technology came in, and allowed sound and video to be synced together. Even though this had been found in 1919, it was not really utilized until a few years later. Some pictures later used this to add sound post production.

Here is a silent film clip, a Charlie Chaplin Film. See how long you can watch without getting tired of no sound!