Добірка наукової літератури з теми "Early sound film"

In the early years of synchronized sound film, cinema’s relationship to live theatre was a topic of debate. Many stars from the Parisian stage successfully transitioned to the screen, becoming important figures in establishing a French national sound film style at a time when the medium’s future remained uncertain. Not only did French audiences take pleasure in hearing French stars speak on-screen, but the French singing voice also had an equally influential, if less examined, effect. Songs performed on-screen by stars from the French stage bridged theatrical traditions and sound cinema’s emerging audio-visual aesthetics. This article examines the singing star in early French sound cinema. Drawing on scholarly approaches to stardom in France and abroad by Richard Dyer and Ginette Vincendeau, I focus on musical numbers in early French sound films that feature three singers already famous on the Parisian stage: Fernandel, Henri Garat and Josephine Baker. I consider how these songs are visually structured around the singing star’s stage presence, and how the soundtrack was likewise constructed around their voices familiar to audiences from recordings and stage performances. Through my analysis, I show how the singing star contributed to a broader acceptance of sound cinema in France.

The German cinematographer Theodor Sparkuhl worked at Elstree from 1929 to 1930. Accounts of this period in Britain have often emphasised the detrimental effects of the arrival of the sound film in 1928, how it sounded the death knell of film as an international medium and how the film industry struggled to adapt (economically, technically, aesthetically). However, this article shows that the international dimension of the film industry did not disappear with the coming of sound and British International Pictures (BIP) was an exception to what Robert Murphy has called the ‘catalogue of failure’ during this turbulent period in British film history. Sparkuhl indisputably contributed to this achievement, working as he did on eight feature films in just two years from around July 1928 to April 1930, as well as directing several BIP shorts. Sparkuhl's career embodies the international nature of the film industry in the 1920s and 1930s. In Germany he moved within very different production contexts, from newsreels to Ufa and the Großfilme; in Britain from big-budget films aimed at the international market to low-scale inexpensive films at BIP. As what Thomas Elsaesser has called an ‘international adventurer’, Sparkuhl cannot be contained within any single national cinema history. The ease with which he slipped in and out of different production contexts demonstrates not just his ability to adapt but also the fluidity between the different national industries during this period. In this transitional phase in Britain, Sparkuhl worked on silent, part sound and wholly sound films, on films aimed at both the international and the indigenous market, and in genres such as the musical, the war film and comedy. The example of Sparkuhl shows that German cameramen were employed not only for their aesthetic prowess but also for their efficiency and adaptability.

Although the film musical as a genre came into its own with the sound film technologies of the late 1920s and early 1930s, several characteristic features did not originate solely with the sound film. The ‘musical number’ as the epitome of the genre, can already be found in different forms and shapes in silent films. This article looks at two Austrian silent films, Sonnige Träume (1921) and Seine Hoheit, der Eintänzer (1926), as case studies for how music is represented without a fixed sound source, highlighting the differences and similarities of musical numbers in silent and sound films. The chosen films are analysed in the contexts of their historical exhibition and accompaniment practices, Austria’s film industry as well as the country’s cultural-political situation after the end of the monarchy. These two examples demonstrate that several characteristics of the film musical are based on the creative endeavours made by filmmakers during the silent era, who struggled, failed and succeeded in ‘visualizing’ music and musical performances in the so-called ‘silent’ films. In reconstructing their problems and analysing their solutions, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of musical numbers during the silent era and on a more general level.

This essay suggests that the postrevolutionary Mexican presence in Los Angeles profoundly influenced the emergence and consolidation of film and other media there. In the 1930s, Anglo Americans and Mexicans were in conflict and competition over how to use new forms of audio mass media such as radio and sound films. Mexican movie programmers and audiences in Los Angeles appropriated early sound films in ways that addressed immigrant concerns and contradicted emergent Hollywood norms of exhibition and spectatorship. Mainstream responses to such practices suggest that dominant uses of sound in film exercised an ideological police power that was ultimately aimed at symbolically containing Mexican dissent.

This article examines how sound was used as an effective tool of formal resistance in the work of influential feminist filmmakers, Carolee Schneemann (United States), Gunvor Nelson (Sweden), and Joyce Wieland (Canada). While their work differs in both aesthetic approach and thematics, their strategic use of sound as a point of disruption within their early films set an important standard for future feminist experimental film practice. The article outlines how each filmmaker constructed a dialectical relationship between image and sound that often challenged viewers. Each produced defamiliarized landscapes out of domestic spaces commonly overcoded by gendered systems of representation, including the kitchen, the home, and the garden. Furthermore, each film offered alternative forms for articulating women's subjectivity that challenged the roles made available to them during the 1960s. Through close readings of Wieland's film Water Sark (1965), Schneemann's film Plumb Line (1968–71), and Nelson's film My Name Is Oona (1969), the article demonstrates how each artist advanced a critical politics through sound-image dissonance.

This article deals with the cinematic representations of warfare violence and with its aestheticization in early films. It argues, in particular, that the patterns and narrative structures of (anti-)war movies were laid out during the First World War. Among the first films establishing those patterns and rules were D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, a film on the American Civil War, and Hearts of the World, showing the war on the western front, produced in 1918. Films such as these offered the main elements that would mark, henceforth, how anti-war movies would portray violence. With the up-coming of sound, moviegoers would be able not only to see, but also to hear what a war sounded like. Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), one of the first sound films, exposed the audiences to a series of (calculated) audio/visual distortions, including explosions, screams, and the monotone sound of machinegun fire.

Self-reflexivity is a significant characteristic of Austro-German cinema during the early sound film period, particular in films that revolve around musical topics. Many examples of self-reflexive cinematic instances are connected to music in one way or another. The various ways in which music is integrated in films can produce instances of intertextuality, inter- and transmediality, and self-referentiality. However, instead of relying solely on the analysis of the films in order to interrogate the conception of such scenes, this article examines several screenplays. They include musical instructions and motivations for diegetic musical performances. However, not only music itself, but also music as a subject matter can be found in these screenplays, as part of the dialogue or instructions for the mis-en-scène. The work of Austrian screenwriter and director Walter Reisch (1903–1983) will serve as a case study to discuss various forms of self-reflexivity in the context of genre studies, screenwriting studies and the early sound film. Different forms and categories of self-referential uses of music in Reisch’s work will be examined and contextualized within early sound cinema in Austria and Germany in the 1930s. The results of this investigation suggest that Reisch’s early screenplays demonstrate that the amount of self-reflexivity in early Austro-German music films is closely connected to music. Self-referential devices were closely connected to generic conventions during the formative years and particularly highlight characteristics of Reisch’s writing style. The relatively early emergence of self-reflexive and “self-conscious” moments of music in film already during the silent period provides a perfect starting point to advance discussions about the musical discourse in film, as well as the role and functions of screenplays and screenwriters in this context.

AbstractLate in his career, John Cage often recalled his brief interaction with German abstract animator Oskar Fischinger in 1937 as the primary impetus for his early percussion works. Further examination of this connection reveals an important technological foundation to Cage's call for the expansion of musical resources. Fischinger's experiments with film phonography (the manipulation of the optical portion of sound film to synthesize sounds) mirrored contemporaneous refinements in recording and synthesis technology of electron beam tubes for film and television. New documentation on Cage's early career in Los Angeles, including research Cage conducted for his father John Cage, Sr.'s patents, explain his interest in these technologies. Finally, an examination of the sources of Cage's 1940 essay “The Future of Music: Credo” reveals the extent of Cage's knowledge of early sound synthesis and recording technologies and presents a more nuanced understanding of the historical relevance and origins of this document.

Abstract The coming of sound in the late 1920s ended the standard practice of continuous live musical accompaniment of the silent era, as the human voice soon came to dominate the soundtrack. In the case of the music, there was a period of transition that lasted for several years during which different practices existed side by side. By the early 1930s, the conventions of film music as we understand them today were beginning to find their form. One of the trademarks of classical narrative cinema is its transparent style: the audience is not supposed to notice the fact that the movie is narrated. For the documentaries of the 1930s, however, this was not always the case. On the contrary, it was a conspicuous, nontransparent narrative style that distinguished many of these movies, which was also true for their music, which in many instances seems to have been conceived precisely to be heard. There are several reasons why this happened, and this article will examine the major causes in detail, using documentary film music by the composers Hanns Eisler, Benjamin Britten, and Virgil Thomson as examples.

Die Dissertation ist eine medienhistorische Studie über die Einführung des Tons im sowjetischen Kino, die ästhetische und technologische Veränderungen in einem weiter gefassten politischen und kulturellen Kontext interpretiert. In historischen Untersuchungen des frühen Tonfilms der letzten zehn Jahre wurde der sowjetischen Methode des asynchronen Tons häufig die verbreitetere Methode der möglichst genauen Synchronisation gegenübergestellt, wie sie von der Filmindustrie in Hollywood in den späten 1920er und frühen 1930er Jahren entwickelt wurde. Die Arbeit geht über diese zum Standard gewordene Erzählung hinaus. In einer Reihe von Fallstudien wird die Arbeit sowjetischer Filmemacher, Drehbuchautoren, Filmtheoretiker und Toningenieure analysiert, um zu demonstrieren, dass in der Sowjetunion in der Frühphase des Filmtons sehr unterschiedliche Haltungen zum Ton existierten. Die Dissertation konzentriert sich sowohl auf die Theorien des Filmtons als auch auf die Praktiken, wobei es sich unter anderem auf Dziga Vertov, Nikolai Ekk, Michail Cechanovskij und Pavel Tager bezieht. Die Begriffe „Asynchronizität“ und „Synchronizität“ haben in den Debatten über die Einführung des Tonfilms in der Sowjetunion eine zentrale Rolle gespielt. Die vorliegende Dissertation bietet die erste grundlegende Untersuchung dieser Begriffe innerhalb des Kontextes der komplexen Ursprünge des frühen sowjetischen Tonfilms.
The dissertation is a media-historical study of the emergence of sound in Soviet cinema, which links aesthetic and technological changes to the broader political and cultural context. Over the last decade, histories of early sound film have usually contrasted the Soviet method of asynchronous sound to the prevalent method of tight synchronization as it was popularized by the Hollywood film industry in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The dissertation looks beyond this standardized narrative. In a series of case studies, it analyzes the work of Soviet filmmakers, screenwriters, film theoreticians and acoustical engineers to demonstrate that many diverse approaches to sound were actually in play at the onset of film sound in the Soviet Union. The dissertation focuses on both film sound theory and practice mainly in the works of Dziga Vertov, Nikolai Ekk, Pavel Tager and Mikhail Tsekhanovsky. The terms “asynchronicity” and “synchronicity” were central in the debates about the emergence of sound film in the Soviet Union. This study provides the first thorough examination of these terms within the context of the complex origins of early Soviet sound cinema.

This dissertation traces the history of the early Hollywood sound score for feature films between the years 1926 and 1934. In the growing literature on film sound, no topic has enjoyed more attention than film music. Yet film music scholars have almost uniformly written off film music in the early sound era (1926-1932). Believing the use of "nondiegetic" music (music without a source in the image) in the early sound era to be minimal, scholars have posited a striking narrative in which King Kong, released in 1933, burst onto the scene featuring a score that single-handedly revolutionized film music practices and paved the way for the heavily studied Golden Age of film music (1935-1950). In fact, a host of film scores preceded King Kong, scores which with rare exceptions have received no attention. Due to this inattention, scholars have mischaracterized the nature of late 1920s and early 1930s sound film, overlooked important and unusual early sound film music strategies and failed to offer any satisfactory account for the rise of the Golden Age of film music. Based on screenings of hundreds of early sound films, I demonstrate that the early sound era featured a wide array of musical approaches rather than a single-minded avoidance of nondiegetic music. Drawing upon musical techniques from opera, melodrama, musicals, phonography, radio, and silent films, the early sound era featured an eclectic mix of accompaniment practices. Though early synchronized sound films largely adhered to a silent film music model, the advent of synchronized dialogue encouraged the use of several other conflicting musical accompaniment models. The late 1920s featured a substantial reduction in musical accompaniment, but the period still contained a diverse array of film score experiments rather than a total avoidance of nondiegetic music. By the early 1930s, a more consistent musical approach emerged, in which music was tied to unfamiliar settings or heightened internal mental states. This tactic exerted a considerable influence on King Kong's score and continued to be influential on musical accompaniment practices in the classical era. The first chapter surveys a range of musical influences available to film music practitioners in the years leading up to the transition to sound. Chapter two then analyzes the film score in early synchronized films and part-talkies from 1926-1929, while chapter three examines the use of music in "100% talkies" from 1928-1931. After chapter four discusses the special case of the film score in the early musical from 1929-1932, chapter five examines the score for non-musicals from 1931 to just before the release of King Kong in April of 1933. In light of the plethora of pre-King Kong scores discussed in this study, chapter six offers a radical revision of King Kong's contribution to film music history. Finally, the Conclusion examines the early sound score's legacy in the Golden Age of film music.

This dissertation examines music's role in cinema in the early years of synchronized sound film in the United States and France. Working against the historical and technological determinism that often plagues narratives of the transition to sound, I investigate the myriad ways in which directors, producers, and composers approached the new technology. Films acted as artistic manifestoes on the new technology and its aesthetic potential as filmmakers experimented with the musical soundtrack. Through multi-site archival research and close analyses of films and their music, I point to the heterogeneity of film music practices during synchronized sound's nascent years, considering early sound films as sites of aesthetic contestation and negotiation.
Music

This dissertation is a historical and theoretical study of a number of discourses examining colour and cinema during the period 1909 to 1935 (trade press, film reviews, publications on film technology, manuals, catalogues and theoretical texts from the era). In this study, colour in cinema is considered as producing a number of aesthetic and representational questions which are contextualised historically; problems and qualities specifically associated with colour film are examined in terms of an interrelationship between historical, technical, industrial, and stylistic factors, as well as specific contemporary conceptions of cinema. The first chapter examines notions concerning the technical, material, as well as perceptual, origins of colour in cinema, and questions concerning indexicality, iconicity, and colour reproduction, through focusing on the relationship between the photographic colour process Kinemacolor, as well as other similar processes, and the established non-photographic colour methods during the early 1910s, with an in-depth analysis of the Catalogue of Kinemacolor Film Subjects, published in 1912. The second chapter examines notions concerning the stylistic, formal and narrative functions of colour in cinema, featuring a survey of the recurring comparisons between colour and sound, found in the writing of film history, in discourses concerning early Technicolor sound films, film technology, experimental films and experiments on synaesthesia during the 1920s, as well as Eisenstein’s notions of the functions of colour in sound film montage. The third chapter examines the question of colour and meaning in cinema through considering the relationship between colours and objects in colour film images (polychrome and monochrome, photographic and non-photographic) during the time frame of this study.

This thesis investigates the persistence of blackface in Hollywood's early sound era 1927-1953. It establishes the extensive and complex nature of this persistence against previous historical accounts of its decline after the introduction of sound. Specifically this thesis considers the overlooked phenomenon of co-presence where blackface was juxtaposed with the increased visibility of African-Americans in Hollywood film. It argues that the primary historical significance of the persistence of blackface lies in its involvement in, and exposure of, the formal stereotyping of African Americans in film. The thesis is founded on research which identified 124 blackface films and on viewings of 75 of these films. Primarily the argument is advanced on the basis of close textual analysis. In addition to its theoretical engagement with key positions on blackface and related areas the thesis also makes use of secondary sources in order to establish the historical context behind its persistence in film. Principle areas discussed include the formal practices used to racially mark African Americans in film, co-presence in the films of Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, and blackface and the racial containment of African-American vernacular dance and music. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the place of blackface in Hollywood history by setting down what is, to the best of its author's knowledge, the most extensive account to date of its persistence in the early sound era. In doing so it brings new material to the debates on the 'nature' of blackface and argues that current attempts to revise understandings of its racial bias may be misguided. In conclusion this thesis finds that the case study of co-presence indicates that one explanation for the longevity of Hollywood's African-American stereotypes lies in the sheer density of their textual construction.

Cette recherche est une étude sur les débuts de l'histoire du cinéma en Corée des premières projections de films dans ce pays jusqu'en 1935, année pendant laquelle les Coréens ont commencé à produire des films parlants. Dans la première partie, nous avons étudié l’arrivée du cinéma en Corée, quand et par qui il a été introduit dans ce pays. Puis, quels films ont été vus par le public coréen et quels effets ils ont produits sur ce public.Dès les premiers temps du cinéma, chaque région du monde a essayé de surmonter les manques du film muet. Aussi, la deuxième partie s’intéresse à la particularité de la projection des premiers films muets en Corée. Le mot « spectacle cinématographique » se réfère, d’abord, à la représentation de films dans les premiers temps des débuts du cinéma. Le spectacle cinématographique sous-entend la possibilité d’un accompagnement supplémentaire, surtout sonore. En effet, les premiers films étaient « muets » et le moyen de mettre du son sur la pellicule n’avait pas encore été trouvé. De plus, souvent, il y avait aussi un concert ou un court spectacle secondaire (clown, bonimenteur, etc.) pendant, avant ou même après la projection des films. Cet ensemble autour de la projection de films représentait un véritable « spectacle cinématographique ». Nous avons étudié ce spectacle mixte présenté depuis 1919 à Séoul en Corée, et qui combine concert, projections de films, théâtre occidental moderne et boniment appelé Chosŏn Sinp'a Hwaltong Yŏnswaegŭk ou Chosŏn Kino-drama.Dans la troisième partie, nous avons présenté et analysé les données sur les films muets coréens dont nous avons pu retrouver les traces
This research is a study of the history of cinema in Korea from the first motion pictures screenings until 1935, the year in which Koreans began making their talking films.In the first part, we study the arrival of cinema in Korea, when and by whom was the motion picture introduced in this country. Then, what films were seen by the Korean public and what effects they had on this audience. From the early times of cinema, the diverse regions of the world have tried to overcome the lack of the silent motion picture. The second part is focused on the specificity of the first silent motion pictures screenings in Korea. The Spectacle cinématographique can refer to the form of the representation of the motion pictures in the early days of cinema. The word Spectacle cinématographique implies the possibility of an additional accompaniment, especially the sound. The first films were "silent" and the way of putting sound on films had not been found yet. At that time, there was a concert or a short secondary show (clown, pitch, etc.) during, before or even after the screening of the films. We study the Spectacle cinématographique called Chosŏn Sinp'a Hwaltong Yŏnswaegŭk or Chosŏn Kino-drama which was presented since 1919 in Korea that combines the pitch, the concert, the modern western theater and the motion pictures screenings.In the third part, we report all the data concerning silent Korean films of which we still found the traces

L’expression historique “canned” vaudeville désigne la « mise en conserve » du vaudeville américain (un spectacle de variétés dépendant de numéros diversifiés) par des moyens filmiques ou phonographiques. En croisant l’analyse des discours et l’analyse technique et formelle, cette thèse propose une archéologie de la mise en conserve médiatique à partir du vaudeville filmique et du vaudeville phonographique. Les courts métrages Vitaphone de la Warner Bros. au format son-sur-disque occupent une place centrale dans l’articulation de cette problématique sur une période allant des débuts de la phonographie et de l’institutionnalisation du vaudeville à la fin du 19ème siècle jusqu’à la généralisation de la technologie électro-acoustique dans le cinéma et les médias sonores dans la seconde moitié des années 1920. Suite à l’investigation du vaudeville sous le double angle de média de masse et de médium sensible, la place négligée du terme “canned” dans l’histoire des médias est revisitée à partir du cas de la phonographie acoustique et des discours corporatifs sur la “canned” music et le “canned” vaudeville. Il est ensuite question du contexte intermédiatique du vaudeville filmique à la généralisation du parlant et de la production, distribution et réception des courts métrages Vitaphone. Une analyse des possibilités matérielles du procédé son-sur-disque et de la mise en œuvre de son dispositif multi-caméra permet de mener une étude approfondie des stratégies d’adresse et de diégétisation dans les courts métrages restaurés de 1926-1930 et de les mettre en perspective pour la première fois avec des pratiques du vaudeville phonographique remontant au tournant du 20ème siècle
This dissertation reads the discourses, practices, and materialities of filmic and phonographic vaudeville through the broader history of “canned” media. Warner Bros.’ short films produced with the sound-on-disc Vitaphone process play a central role in this study which covers a period ranging from the beginnings of the phonograph industry and the institutionalization of vaudeville in the late 19th century to the introduction of electroacoustic technology in film and sound media during the second half of the 1920s. After studying vaudeville’s infrastructure as a mass media institution and its aesthetic capacities as a medium, the neglected role of the term “canned” in media history is reconsidered through practices of early phonography and trade press discourses on “canned” music and “canned” vaudeville. This leads to a contextualization of filmic vaudeville within the media landscape of the 1920s—the decline of big-time vaudeville and the rise of stage presentations in movie theatres—and an analysis of Vitaphone shorts’ production, distribution, and reception. The material possibilities afforded by the Vitaphone sound-on-disc technology and multi-camera set-up are then outlined and examined in relation to debates regarding sound and image scale. These technical considerations lay the groundwork for an in-depth investigation of approaches to address and diegetisation in the restored Vitaphone shorts from 1926-1930. The films’ means of addressing the spectator and of representing both the audience and the space of performance are put in perspective through examples of phonographic vaudeville dating back to the turn of the 20th century

Cette recherche est une étude sur les débuts de l'histoire du cinéma en Corée des premières projections de films dans ce pays jusqu'en 1935, année pendant laquelle les Coréens ont commencé à produire des films parlants. Dans la première partie, nous avons étudié l’arrivée du cinéma en Corée, quand et par qui il a été introduit dans ce pays. Puis, quels films ont été vus par le public coréen et quels effets ils ont produits sur ce public.Dès les premiers temps du cinéma, chaque région du monde a essayé de surmonter les manques du film muet. Aussi, la deuxième partie s’intéresse à la particularité de la projection des premiers films muets en Corée. Le mot « spectacle cinématographique » se réfère, d’abord, à la représentation de films dans les premiers temps des débuts du cinéma. Le spectacle cinématographique sous-entend la possibilité d’un accompagnement supplémentaire, surtout sonore. En effet, les premiers films étaient « muets » et le moyen de mettre du son sur la pellicule n’avait pas encore été trouvé. De plus, souvent, il y avait aussi un concert ou un court spectacle secondaire (clown, bonimenteur, etc.) pendant, avant ou même après la projection des films. Cet ensemble autour de la projection de films représentait un véritable « spectacle cinématographique ». Nous avons étudié ce spectacle mixte présenté depuis 1919 à Séoul en Corée, et qui combine concert, projections de films, théâtre occidental moderne et boniment appelé Chosŏn Sinp'a Hwaltong Yŏnswaegŭk ou Chosŏn Kino-drama.Dans la troisième partie, nous avons présenté et analysé les données sur les films muets coréens dont nous avons pu retrouver les traces
This research is a study of the history of cinema in Korea from the first motion pictures screenings until 1935, the year in which Koreans began making their talking films.In the first part, we study the arrival of cinema in Korea, when and by whom was the motion picture introduced in this country. Then, what films were seen by the Korean public and what effects they had on this audience. From the early times of cinema, the diverse regions of the world have tried to overcome the lack of the silent motion picture. The second part is focused on the specificity of the first silent motion pictures screenings in Korea. The Spectacle cinématographique can refer to the form of the representation of the motion pictures in the early days of cinema. The word Spectacle cinématographique implies the possibility of an additional accompaniment, especially the sound. The first films were "silent" and the way of putting sound on films had not been found yet. At that time, there was a concert or a short secondary show (clown, pitch, etc.) during, before or even after the screening of the films. We study the Spectacle cinématographique called Chosŏn Sinp'a Hwaltong Yŏnswaegŭk or Chosŏn Kino-drama which was presented since 1919 in Korea that combines the pitch, the concert, the modern western theater and the motion pictures screenings.In the third part, we report all the data concerning silent Korean films of which we still found the traces

This volume takes a fresh look at the various aesthetics emerging globally in the early sound film era, with a focus on the films’ fundamentally experimental and inventive character. By considering films and production contexts often neglected in film studies, it strives to counter the still dominant view of the transitional period as a time of yet-to-be-perfected forerunners of ‘classical’ sound film. Instead, authors highlight the sense of ‘fruitful uncertainty’ in this period of media change and transformation. Subjects covered include visual and auditory style; the uses of speech, music, and noises; aesthetic conceptions in sound film theory; and intermedial aesthetics. The volume’s scope is decidedly international, covering production and reception contexts in the Soviet Union, Japan, the USA, Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland.

Chapter 2 examines several major theories that emerged during the transition to sound film, when even the definition of the sound film was contested. The theories of sound film that arose during the transitional decade from 1926 to 1935 focused on the closely related forms of recorded theater and silent film and worked to articulate how sound film differed from them. They also gave considerable attention to asynchronous sound in part because it was a figure specific to sound film (or in any event more difficult to produce in other art forms) and in part because asynchronous sound had affinities with montage. The chapter focuses on five important theorists who wrote prolifically during the transition years: Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Béla Balázs, Rudolf Arnheim, and Harry Potamkin.

Attention to safety and health are of ever-increasing priority to industrial organizations. Good Safety is demanded by stockholders, employees, and the community while increasing injury costs provide additional motivation for safety and health excellence. Safety has always been a strong corporate value of DuPont and a vital part of its culture. As a result, DuPont has become a benchmark in safety and health performance. Since 1990, DuPont has re-engineered itself to meet global competition and address future vision. In the new re-engineered organizational structures, DuPont has also had to re-engineer its safety management systems. A special Discovery Team was chartered by DuPont senior management to determine the “best practices’ for safety and health being used in DuPont best-performing sites. A summary of the findings is presented, and five of the practices are discussed. Excellence in safety and health management is more important today than ever. Public awareness, federal and state regulations, and enlightened management have resulted in a widespread conviction that all employees have the right to work in an environment that will not adversely affect their safety and health. In DuPont, we believe that excellence in safety and health is necessary to achieve global competitiveness, maintain employee loyalty, and be an accepted member of the communities in which we make, handle, use, and transport products. Safety can also be the “catalyst” to achieving excellence in other important business parameters. The organizational and communication skills developed by management, individuals, and teams in safety can be directly applied to other company initiatives. As we look into the 21st Century, we must also recognize that new organizational structures (flatter with empowered teams) will require new safety management techniques and systems in order to maintain continuous improvement in safety performance. Injury costs, which have risen dramatically in the past twenty years, provide another incentive for safety and health excellence. Shown in the Figure 1, injury costs have increased even after correcting for inflation. Many companies have found these costs to be an “invisible drain” on earnings and profitability. In some organizations, significant initiatives have been launched to better manage the workers’ compensation systems. We have found that the ultimate solution is to prevent injuries and incidents before they occur. A globally-respected company, DuPont is regarded as a well-managed, extremely ethical firm that is the benchmark in industrial safety performance. Like many other companies, DuPont has re-engineered itself and downsized its operations since 1985. Through these changes, we have maintained dedication to our principles and developed new techniques to manage in these organizational environments. As a diversified company, our operations involve chemical process facilities, production line operations, field activities, and sales and distribution of materials. Our customer base is almost entirely industrial and yet we still maintain a high level of consumer awareness and positive perception. The DuPont concern for safety dates back to the early 1800s and the first days of the company. In 1802 E.I. DuPont, a Frenchman, began manufacturing quality grade explosives to fill America’s growing need to build roads, clear fields, increase mining output, and protect its recently won independence. Because explosives production is such a hazardous industry, DuPont recognized and accepted the need for an effective safety effort. The building walls of the first powder mill near Wilmington, Delaware, were built three stones thick on three sides. The back remained open to the Brandywine River to direct any explosive forces away from other buildings and employees. To set the safety example, DuPont also built his home and the homes of his managers next to the powder yard. An effective safety program was a necessity. It represented the first defense against instant corporate liquidation. Safety needs more than a well-designed plant, however. In 1811, work rules were posted in the mill to guide employee work habits. Though not nearly as sophisticated as the safety standards of today, they did introduce an important basic concept — that safety must be a line management responsibility. Later, DuPont introduced an employee health program and hired a company doctor. An early step taken in 1912 was the keeping of safety statistics, approximately 60 years before the federal requirement to do so. We had a visible measure of our safety performance and were determined that we were going to improve it. When the nation entered World War I, the DuPont Company supplied 40 percent of the explosives used by the Allied Forces, more than 1.5 billion pounds. To accomplish this task, over 30,000 new employees were hired and trained to build and operate many plants. Among these facilities was the largest smokeless powder plant the world had ever seen. The new plant was producing granulated powder in a record 116 days after ground breaking. The trends on the safety performance chart reflect the problems that a large new work force can pose until the employees fully accept the company’s safety philosophy. The first arrow reflects the World War I scale-up, and the second arrow represents rapid diversification into new businesses during the 1920s. These instances of significant deterioration in safety performance reinforced DuPont’s commitment to reduce the unsafe acts that were causing 96 percent of our injuries. Only 4 percent of injuries result from unsafe conditions or equipment — the remainder result from the unsafe acts of people. This is an important concept if we are to focus our attention on reducing injuries and incidents within the work environment. World War II brought on a similar set of demands. The story was similar to World War I but the numbers were even more astonishing: one billion dollars in capital expenditures, 54 new plants, 75,000 additional employees, and 4.5 billion pounds of explosives produced — 20 percent of the volume used by the Allied Forces. Yet, the performance during the war years showed no significant deviation from the pre-war years. In 1941, the DuPont Company was 10 times safer than all industry and 9 times safer than the Chemical Industry. Management and the line organization were finally working as they should to control the real causes of injuries. Today, DuPont is about 50 times safer than US industrial safety performance averages. Comparing performance to other industries, it is interesting to note that seemingly “hazard-free” industries seem to have extraordinarily high injury rates. This is because, as DuPont has found out, performance is a function of injury prevention and safety management systems, not hazard exposure. Our success in safety results from a sound safety management philosophy. Each of the 125 DuPont facilities is responsible for its own safety program, progress, and performance. However, management at each of these facilities approaches safety from the same fundamental and sound philosophy. This philosophy can be expressed in eleven straightforward principles. The first principle is that all injuries can be prevented. That statement may seem a bit optimistic. In fact, we believe that this is a realistic goal and not just a theoretical objective. Our safety performance proves that the objective is achievable. We have plants with over 2,000 employees that have operated for over 10 years without a lost time injury. As injuries and incidents are investigated, we can always identify actions that could have prevented that incident. If we manage safety in a proactive — rather than reactive — manner, we will eliminate injuries by reducing the acts and conditions that cause them. The second principle is that management, which includes all levels through first-line supervisors, is responsible and accountable for preventing injuries. Only when senior management exerts sustained and consistent leadership in establishing safety goals, demanding accountability for safety performance and providing the necessary resources, can a safety program be effective in an industrial environment. The third principle states that, while recognizing management responsibility, it takes the combined energy of the entire organization to reach sustained, continuous improvement in safety and health performance. Creating an environment in which employees feel ownership for the safety effort and make significant contributions is an essential task for management, and one that needs deliberate and ongoing attention. The fourth principle is a corollary to the first principle that all injuries are preventable. It holds that all operating exposures that may result in injuries or illnesses can be controlled. No matter what the exposure, an effective safeguard can be provided. It is preferable, of course, to eliminate sources of danger, but when this is not reasonable or practical, supervision must specify measures such as special training, safety devices, and protective clothing. Our fifth safety principle states that safety is a condition of employment. Conscientious assumption of safety responsibility is required from all employees from their first day on the job. Each employee must be convinced that he or she has a responsibility for working safely. The sixth safety principle: Employees must be trained to work safely. We have found that an awareness for safety does not come naturally and that people have to be trained to work safely. With effective training programs to teach, motivate, and sustain safety knowledge, all injuries and illnesses can be eliminated. Our seventh principle holds that management must audit performance on the workplace to assess safety program success. Comprehensive inspections of both facilities and programs not only confirm their effectiveness in achieving the desired performance, but also detect specific problems and help to identify weaknesses in the safety effort. The Company’s eighth principle states that all deficiencies must be corrected promptly. Without prompt action, risk of injuries will increase and, even more important, the credibility of management’s safety efforts will suffer. Our ninth principle is a statement that off-the-job safety is an important part of the overall safety effort. We do not expect nor want employees to “turn safety on” as they come to work and “turn it off” when they go home. The company safety culture truly becomes of the individual employee’s way of thinking. The tenth principle recognizes that it’s good business to prevent injuries. Injuries cost money. However, hidden or indirect costs usually exceed the direct cost. Our last principle is the most important. Safety must be integrated as core business and personal value. There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve learned from almost 200 years of experience that 96 percent of safety incidents are directly caused by the action of people, not by faulty equipment or inadequate safety standards. But conversely, it is our people who provide the solutions to our safety problems. They are the one essential ingredient in the recipe for a safe workplace. Intelligent, trained, and motivated employees are any company’s greatest resource. Our success in safety depends upon the men and women in our plants following procedures, participating actively in training, and identifying and alerting each other and management to potential hazards. By demonstrating a real concern for each employee, management helps establish a mutual respect, and the foundation is laid for a solid safety program. This, of course, is also the foundation for good employee relations. An important lesson learned in DuPont is that the majority of injuries are caused by unsafe acts and at-risk behaviors rather than unsafe equipment or conditions. In fact, in several DuPont studies it was estimated that 96 percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts. This was particularly revealing when considering safety audits — if audits were only focused on conditions, at best we could only prevent four percent of our injuries. By establishing management systems for safety auditing that focus on people, including audit training, techniques, and plans, all incidents are preventable. Of course, employee contribution and involvement in auditing leads to sustainability through stakeholdership in the system. Management safety audits help to make manage the “behavioral balance.” Every job and task performed at a site can do be done at-risk or safely. The essence of a good safety system ensures that safe behavior is the accepted norm amongst employees, and that it is the expected and respected way of doing things. Shifting employees norms contributes mightily to changing culture. The management safety audit provides a way to quantify these norms. DuPont safety performance has continued to improve since we began keeping records in 1911 until about 1990. In the 1990–1994 time frame, performance deteriorated as shown in the chart that follows: This increase in injuries caused great concern to senior DuPont management as well as employees. It occurred while the corporation was undergoing changes in organization. In order to sustain our technological, competitive, and business leadership positions, DuPont began re-engineering itself beginning in about 1990. New streamlined organizational structures and collaborative work processes eliminated many positions and levels of management and supervision. The total employment of the company was reduced about 25 percent during these four years. In our traditional hierarchical organization structures, every level of supervision and management knew exactly what they were expected to do with safety, and all had important roles. As many of these levels were eliminated, new systems needed to be identified for these new organizations. In early 1995, Edgar S. Woolard, DuPont Chairman, chartered a Corporate Discovery Team to look for processes that will put DuPont on a consistent path toward a goal of zero injuries and occupational illnesses. The cross-functional team used a mode of “discovery through learning” from as many DuPont employees and sites around the world. The Discovery Team fostered the rapid sharing and leveraging of “best practices” and innovative approaches being pursued at DuPont’s plants, field sites, laboratories, and office locations. In short, the team examined the company’s current state, described the future state, identified barriers between the two, and recommended key ways to overcome these barriers. After reporting back to executive management in April, 1995, the Discovery Team was realigned to help organizations implement their recommendations. The Discovery Team reconfirmed key values in DuPont — in short, that all injuries, incidents, and occupational illnesses are preventable and that safety is a source of competitive advantage. As such, the steps taken to improve safety performance also improve overall competitiveness. Senior management made this belief clear: “We will strengthen our business by making safety excellence an integral part of all business activities.” One of the key findings of the Discovery Team was the identification of the best practices used within the company, which are listed below: ▪ Felt Leadership – Management Commitment ▪ Business Integration ▪ Responsibility and Accountability ▪ Individual/Team Involvement and Influence ▪ Contractor Safety ▪ Metrics and Measurements ▪ Communications ▪ Rewards and Recognition ▪ Caring Interdependent Culture; Team-Based Work Process and Systems ▪ Performance Standards and Operating Discipline ▪ Training/Capability ▪ Technology ▪ Safety and Health Resources ▪ Management and Team Audits ▪ Deviation Investigation ▪ Risk Management and Emergency Response ▪ Process Safety ▪ Off-the-Job Safety and Health Education Attention to each of these best practices is essential to achieve sustained improvements in safety and health. The Discovery Implementation in conjunction with DuPont Safety and Environmental Management Services has developed a Safety Self-Assessment around these systems. In this presentation, we will discuss a few of these practices and learn what they mean. Paper published with permission.