Dickson Experimental Sound Film

★★★★★ · Sound and Image! · momgoose · 2006-05-10

What can you say? This is history. It's very short, but played three times in a row. There are a few titles to explain how the movie was made and restored, but they were a little blurry. The film strips, though, were beautifully clear, particularly considering their age. A little crinkled and crumpled, but eh. What do you want from a 105 year old? There's not much to this film. A man plays violin into a large cone (which was focusing the sound), two guys looking horribly self conscious dance, and finally, someone walks up apparantly to check the equipment. But it's fascinating, all the same.…

★★★★★ · Text of Titles · Mosquito · 2013-02-15

If you're having trouble reading the titles from low-res versions, here they are in text. -- The Dickson Experimental Sound Film -- The film you are about to see (and hear!) was shot sometime in late 1894 or early 1895 at Thomas Edison's laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson. It was a test for Edison's "Kinetophone" project, the first attempt in history to record sound and moving image in synchronization. The was cylinder soundtrack, however, was believed lost for many years. Tantalizingly, a broken cylinder labelled "Violin by WKL Dickson with Kineto was…