Beyond Dolby (Stereo): Cinema in the Digital Sound Age

Notes

335 Introduction The epigraph is from Sergi, Dolby Era, 3–4. 1. Grainge, “Selling Spectacular Sound,” 266–267. 2. Sergi, Dolby Era, 31. 3. Beck and Grajeda, “Introduction ,” 2. 4. Lastra, Sound Technology, 181. 5. Sergi, Dolby Era, 3. 6. Sobchack, “When the Ear Dreams,” 1. 7. Sergi, Dolby Era, 31–32. 8. Marti Humphrey, personal interview by author, 5 August 2006. 9. Richard King, personal interview by author, 28 July 2006; Tomlinson Holman, personal interview by author, 15 July 2004. 10. Though a number of DVDs and Blu-Rays are now available with 6.1and 7.1-channel content available, for consistency all the films discussed in this book were analyzed on a standard 5.1-channel setup. 1. Cinema’s Hidden Multichannel History and the Origins of Digital Surround The epigraph is from Holman, interview , 2004. Notes 1. Readers desiring a more complete history of multi-channel sound technologies should see Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” or Holman, 5.1. 2. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 60. 3. Ibid., 64. 4. Ibid., 65. 5. Holman, 5.1, 12; Kellogg, “Final Installment,” 212–213. 6. Holman, 5.1, 12. 7. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 67. 8. Kellogg, “Final Installment,” 212–213. 9. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 68–69. 10. Altman, “Sound Space,” 48. 11. Ibid., 49. This setup obviously only works when dialogue and music do not appear at the same time, but until 1933 this was essentially the case due to the difficulty of mixing together multiple tracks of audio that had been recorded separately. See Altman, “Introduction ,” 6. 12. Kellogg, “Final Installment,” 212. 13. Carr and Hayes, Wide Screen Movies, 239. 14. Bernard, “All About Surround Sound,” 52; Holman, 5.1, 12. 15. Handzo, “Appendix,” 419. See also Holman, interview, 2004, and Kellogg , “Final Installment,” 213. 336 · Notes to pages 24–34 16. Kellogg, “Final Installment,” 213. Emphasis added. 17. Holman, 5.1, 12. 18. Handzo, “Appendix,” 419. 19.Ibid., 418–419; Kellogg, “Final Installment,” 213. 20. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 69–70. 21. Holman, 5.1, 13. 22. Kellogg, “Final Installment,” 215–216. 23. Hull, “Surround Sound.” 24. Handzo, “Appendix,” 419. 25. Carr and Hayes, Wide Screen Movies, 178–180. 26. Belton, “Magnetic Sound,” 156; Beck, “Quite Revolution,” 72. Beck also notes that this was not a cheap obligation to meet; the sound system upgrades required to outfit a monophonic theater for CinemaScope cost about $25,000. 27. Belton, “Magnetic Sound,” 156. 28. Handzo, “Appendix,” 420; Hull, “Surround Sound,” 1; Holman, LoBrutto interview, Sound-on-Film, 206. 29. Bernard, “All About Surround Sound,” 51. This led to the name “effects channel”—see Hull, “Surround Sound,” 1. 30. Belton, “Magnetic Sound,” 163. 31. Ibid., 165. 32. Handzo, “Appendix,” 420. 33. Belton, “Magnetic Sound,” 157. 34. Ibid. 35. While CinemaScope’s attempts to standardize stereophonic audio was a qualified failure, the format’s visual technology was much more successful —the anamorphic 35mm image process it introduced is still used today. 36. Handzo, “Appendix,” 421. 37. Thompson and Bordwell, Film History, 374–376; Carr and Hayes, Wide Screen Movies, 165. 38. Belton, “Magnetic Sound,” 157. 39. Ibid., 158. 40. Holman, 5.1, 16; Hull, “Surround Sound,” 1. 41. Hull, “Surround Sound,” 1. 42. Mitchell, “Surround Sound,” 48. 43. Bernard, “All About Surround Sound,” 56. 44. Handzo, “Appendix,” 421. 45. Sergi, “Sonic Playground,” 5–6. 46. Beaupre, “Lang, Robson,” 174. 47. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 177. 48. Ibid., 128–129. 49. Ibid., 151. 50. Hull, “Surround Sound,” 2–3; Homan, 5.1, 15. 51. Ranada, “Inside Dolby Digital,” 81; Holman, Sound for Film, 7; Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 131. 52. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 132. Emphasis in original. 53. Mitchell, “Surround Sound,” 48; Ranada, “Inside Dolby Digital,” 81. 54. Bernard, “All About Surround Sound,” 56. 55. Beck, “The Sounds of ‘Silence,’” 70–75. 56. Holman, 5.1, 15. 57. Mitchell, “Surround Sound,” 47. 58. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 171. 59. Holman, 5.1, 16. This adaptation helped spell the demise of Sensurround , as 70mm Dolby Stereo could now offer the low-frequency rumbles that were Sensurround’s primary selling point. 60. Beck, “Quiet Revolution,” 135. 61. Holman, 5.1, 16. 62. Except where the difference is relevant, hereafter “Dolby Stereo” will refer both to Dolby’s original system and to the SR update. 63. Holman, 5.1, 15. 64. Ibid., 18. 65. David Bondelevitch, personal interview by author, 28 July 2006. 66. King, interview, 2006. 67. Murch, LoBrutto interview, Sound-on-Film, 91. Notes to pages 35–45 · 337...