Hollywood Soundscapes

The technical crafts of sound in classical Hollywood cinema have, until recently, remained largely unsung by histories of the studio era. Yet film sound voice, music and sound effects is a crucial aspect of film style and has been key to engaging and holding audiences since the transition to sound by Hollywoods major studios in 1929. This innovative new text restores sound technicians to Hollywoods creative history. Exploring a range of films from the early sound period (1931) through to the late studio period (1948), and drawing on a wide range of archival sources, the book reveals how Hollywoods sound designers worked and why they worked in the ways that they did. The book demonstrates how sound technicians developed conventions designed to tell stories through sound, placing them within the production cultures of studio era filmmaking, and uncovering a history of collective and collaborative creativity. In doing so, it traces the emergence of a body of highly skilled sound personnel, able to apply expert technical knowledge in the science of sound to the creation of cinematic soundscapes that are alive with mood and sensation.