When film sound concepts were uncharted territory. On Lamprecht's 1931 film Emil und die Detektive
Authors: Helmers, M.
Conference: School of Sound
Dates: 3-6 April 2013
Abstract:Cinema of the late Weimar Republic and the transition into sound film: A succession of coalition governments were engaged in an ongoing struggle setting domestic political reform against a backdrop of global economic pressures. Germany’s growing political tensions were tactically exploited by the reactionary parties of the right, and culminated in victory for Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party in January 1933. The new government introduced rigorous state censorship almost immediately; the Nazis clamped down on the relative artistic diversity of the more permissive framework the Weimar Republic had afforded by comparison. However, the sound films made in Germany during that brief period after the arrival of commercially viable sound technology at the turn of the 1930s but prior to the rise of Hitler's state-controlled propaganda machine are worthy of further discussion.
This period of change, of transition, of an adaptation into a new form of film is the focus of this paper, using the film version of Emil und die Detektive as a case study.
We can look at this era purely from the technological perspective and attempt to establish a chronological narrative, which will enable an observation of how technological advances became established practice. However, as mentioned earlier, the transformation from the silent era to the era of sync sound did not happen overnight. Films were being made continually/continuously against a backdrop of technological change. Vitaphone’s gramophone based film sound system was superseded by the optical sound technology pioneered by the Tri-Ergon team. Shooting methods had to be adjusted to accommodate the arrival of new microphone types on the film set.
Different directors adapted to these technological changes in their own way. In addition, the subject matter of each film could affect how sound could be used. This then was a gradual shift in practice, accompanied by a lively debate amongst critics and theorists over how this new technology would affect, for better or for worse, the art form of film.
Source: Manual