| 词条 | Draft:Tonbilder Biophon |
| 释义 |
The Tonbilder biophon was the name with which Oskar Messter baptized and patented its electromechanical synchronization mechanism, which consisted of an electrical system that operated at the same speed the motors of a film projector and a gramophone. In these films the sound was reproduced in parallel with the image, used to last three to four minutes and are considered preforms of the sound films. They were very well received by the audience during the German film production from 1903 to 1910. TechnicalitiesThe principle of "sound images" was based on playing with a film strip and a disc with the associated sound recording and playing it in parallel, where the illusion of "living, speaking and singing images" was created. The imaging devices and the gramophone were kept synchronized thanks to different electro-magnetic methods, where a film projector and a gramophone were connected through a crackshaft and an electric motor. Then, a mark in the record indicated the point at which they should start playing the gramophone and the projector simultaneously. The only drawback was that they had to capture the image and sound separately, and at the same time play them on different devices. Since the audio recording technology was not very advanced at the time, an artist had to be recorded singing in real time in a reception hopper or speaking directly into a microphone. Therefore, for the first time it was discussed in the recording studio that the actors recorded their scenes in silence and made as if they spoke by moving their mouths in tune with the scene, in order to later reproduce the sound to the gramophone. However, the capacity of the old records of the gramophones was also limited, since the maximum possible length of a film should be three or four minutes long. On the other hand, it allowed the reproduction of individual songs or variety numbers, but not long action scenes. RecognitionThe pioneer of the German film Oskar Messter, for the first time premiered his biophon at the Apollo theater in Berlin as part of a variety program on August 29, 1903, where his sound projection was a great success among the public and among the audience and the press. In 1904, Messter showed his biophon with films spoken in English in the World-wide Fair of Saint Louis, Missouri, EE.UU, where it also obtained a great recognition. He made sound recordings especially in English including the former Music Hall or The Whistling Bowery Boy by T. W. Thurban. Beginning in 1905, Tonbilders special theaters made German opera available to middle-class audiences who could not afford to enjoy their live performances. Until 1907, the Tonbilder sector of the German film industry was dominated by Oskar Messter. For the recordings of his sonorous films, Messter was dedicated almost exclusively to popular opera singers, such as the tenor Siegmund Liébana, who sang the prologue of the opera Bajazzo, or singers such as Henry Bender, Alexander Girardi, Otto Reutter, Gustav Schönwald and the sisters Rosa or Henny Carry. He also ensured the early participation of artists from the cabaret scene and the music halls of Berlin with comedians from theaters, including the fact that he was able to dedicate international dance stars such as Cléo de Merode, Otero and Saharet. The success was such that by 1913 a total of 500 theaters had installed Messter's apparatus in Germany, but also the main theaters abroad. Later developmentMesster had considered other considerations to solve the problem of the limited duration of sound recordings. Then, to be able to achieve a coincidence between the image and the sound, Messter used synchronous-electric motors in the projector and the gramophone, and built a double disc player, in which a rotating platform was alternately set up, a box of sound and a funnel, with which you could record longer sequences playing with the discs. Thus, it is said that the second act of the Johann Strauss operetta, Die Fledermaus, was performed with a duration of 20 minutes. Messter also considered a funnel system that allowed recording the sound by recording the scene with a camera through a glass wall, which reflected the sound of the recording voices. An expensive solution was to operate the biophon with compressed air. Messter prepared the Auxethophone between 1906 and 1918, in which the gramophone needle led a valve that modulated the air flow of a compressor. This modification produced a higher sound pressure, but also the noise was greater. Relationship with Léon GaumontThe mechanism of the Tonbilder biophon was very similar to the one that Léon Gaumont devised in 1901, when inspired by kinetoscope of Thomas Alva Edison and with the help of the engineer Léopold Decaux, it constructed his prototype of Chronophone. On November 7, 1902, Gaumont presented three films to the Societé Française de Photographie through his Chronophone, which he named Phonoscènes. In the first one he showed himself talking about a photographic system and the other two represented dances accompanied by music. However, according to the testimony of Gaumont himself, almost no one could distinguish the words he had pronounced in his film, due to the poor quality of the reproduction of his Chronophone. This technical difficulty determined that Gaumont made very few Phonoscènes between 1903 and 1905. In any case, in France, the sound images were produced by Léon Gaumont, in Germany by Oskar Messter and in America by Thomas Alva Edison. And because it was difficult to market French Phonoscènes in Germany and in the same way, the German films of Tonbilder in France, Messter and Gaumont reached an agreement, where Messter did not market in France if Gaumont, on the other hand, did not do so either. Germany. Later, the machines were sold by both manufacturers and were also offered together under a combined trademark called Gaumont-Messter Chronophone-Biophon. CompetitionFor a few years, Messter put all his resources to the boffer Tonbilder, which in 1907 represented 83% of the production of his company and 90% in 1908. But, other German film producers began their own production of "Tonbilders" and grouped machines to record and reproduce these films, comparable to those of Messter and Gaumont. Alfred Dusko produced a Cinephon, Karl Geeyr built Ton-Biograph for the company Deutcshe Mutoskop und Biograph GmbH, Guido Seeber developed the Seeberophon. Soon, a dozen machines competed in Germany, providing comparable results with very similar technical solutions. The strong competition caused drastic price drops for the Tonbilder. Many vendors produced cheaper films than Messter, taking advantage of the essential reproduction system of the Tonbilder biophon recording; They used albums by well-known singers, but they left the song synchronized for lesser-known actors. Messter, who obtained more than 35 patents for the Tonbilder biophon between 1903 and 1908, fought a strong publicity campaign against imitations and sued Alfred Dusk, Deutcshe Mutoskop und Biograph GmbH and other competitors. Thus, it was ruled that owners who use machines other than Messter would be threatened with legal action. However, this strategy was abandoned quickly, as it was counterproductive to sue the theater owners, who were potential consumers of their Tonbilder biophon. That being the case, Tonbilder's bonanza was over. In 1908, Messter produced 40 films with the bipod Tonbilder and 8 silent films. In 1909, only 3 more with the Tonbilder and 10 silent movies. The limited duration on the part of the gramophone, the problem of synchronization and the outbreak of the World War I, meant that the interest of the public diminished and the "sound films" gradually disappeared again. Remaining filesIn the German archives there are very few sound images. According to Oskar Messter, about 1,500 sound images were produced in Germany, of which there are only a few examples available today. Film historian Martin Loiperdinger assumes a 99 percent loss rate. The reasons for this loss are stated in the combination of recording images in the film roll and recording the sound recording separately. Some examples that have been preserved and restored include the following:
References[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] |
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