Dickson Experimental Sound Film
About Dickson Experimental Sound Film
William K. L. Dickson plays a violin into a recording horn. Two men dance beside him. A fourth man steps in at the end. The picture runs about 17 seconds. The tune is the barcarolle Song of the Cabin Boy from Robert Planquette's Les Cloches de Corneville.
Cast & crew
More about Dickson Experimental Sound Film
Dickson made it in late 1894 or early 1895 as a Kinetophone test, a Kinetoscope paired with a cylinder phonograph, and Wikidata names William Heise as cameraman. The Library of Congress print measures 39 feet and 14 frames. The wax cylinder was repaired in 1998, and Walter Murch synced it to the picture.
Themes
In film history
It is the earliest surviving film with a live-recorded performance, made for Edison's Kinetophone.
Look
William Heise filmed Dickson and the dancers in the Black Maria, with the recording horn in frame.
Technique
Picture and sound were recorded at the same time, the film in the camera and the violin on a phonograph cylinder, then matched decades later.
Music
Dickson plays Planquette's Song of the Cabin Boy into a wax cylinder. The 1998 restoration put that cylinder back with the picture.
Preservation
The Library of Congress holds the nitrate picture. The Edison National Historic Site held the cylinder, restored with the film in 1998.
Notes
- Patrick Loughney and Edison site curator Jerry Fabris identified the cylinder. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound transferred it.
- Rick Schmidlin brought Murch onto the sync. Industrial Light & Magic also took part.
- The Kinetophone did not lock film and sound on one strip. This test played them together.
- The catalog year is 1895. The shooting window cited by historians runs from autumn 1894 to 2 April 1895.
Scenes
- Dickson bows into the horn while the two men dance.
- A fourth figure walks into the shot.
Also available
- Internet Archive (dicksonfilmtwo)
- Wikimedia Commons (DicksonFilm High.ogv)
