The trick that made Mickey Mouse famous

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  • Опубликовано: 6 янв 2024
  • Check out the BTS of how I made Steamboat Willie's optical sound - free! This is where I have links to the programs I used.
    / 95929929
    More info and sources at bottom.
    Find me elsewhere:
    Instagram: / philedwardsinc
    Twitter: / philedwardsinc
    Patreon: / philedwardsinc
    Where I get my music (Free trial affiliate link):
    share.epidemicsound.com/olkrqv
    My camera, as of February 2022 (affiliate link):
    amzn.to/3HDcWVz
    My main lens: amzn.to/3IteXEK
    My main light: amzn.to/3pjO0M8
    My main light accessory: amzn.to/3M6eL0j
    Okie dokie - first some credits.
    Check out Not An Animation Historian who gave me scans!
    / @notananimationhistorian
    / posts
    The Steamboat Willie model is Creative Commons via Adrian Cojocaru. What a genius!
    sketchfab.com/3d-models/steam...
    creativecommons.org/licenses/...
    Nice similar vid over at Technology Connections you can watch if you wanna nerd out more.
    • Movies made sound with...
    Finding His Voice - Fleischer Bros. explainer of optical sound
    archive.org/details/FindingH1929
    Sound Recording - Encyclopedia Britannica. Very helpful breakdown.
    archive.org/details/SoundRec1943
    Disney's World: amzn.to/3tEl3jF
    Source of a lot of the orchestra narrative and the India Ink fact.
    Working With Walt: amzn.to/3TOBK6E
    Source of the Wilfred Jackson quote (that whole thing is a quote) and some other factoids.
    A Mickey Mouse Reader: amzn.to/3vqeUrQ
    Source of other Steamboat Willie anecdotes.

Комментарии • 424

  • @lifeonthemark8210
    @lifeonthemark8210 5 месяцев назад +1131

    Another fun fact about Steamboat Willy: if you’re watching a version provided by Disney, chances are you’re watching a censored version. Apparently having your brand mascot play music through animal abuse is “inappropriate”. So, a good deal of that usually gets chopped out.

    • @ALegitPooperVideos
      @ALegitPooperVideos 5 месяцев назад +113

      Disney Plus has the uncensored version

    • @jonathanree4524
      @jonathanree4524 5 месяцев назад +110

      Plane Crazy is also basically Mickey sexually assaulting Minnie in a DIY airplane, might be part of the reason it hasn't stuck around like Steamboat Willie lol

    • @billybollockhead5628
      @billybollockhead5628 5 месяцев назад +65

      @@jonathanree4524well in steamboat Willie, her skirt gets lifted and she’s lifted up by her underwear.

    • @GuyMcPherson69
      @GuyMcPherson69 5 месяцев назад +14

      ​@@ALegitPooperVideosAin't that a surprise

    • @Attmay
      @Attmay 5 месяцев назад +34

      That was true until they restored the uncut version sometime in the 90s.

  • @jaymogrified
    @jaymogrified 5 месяцев назад +399

    It’s fascinating how often the specific historical context is key to a piece of media/art becoming iconic. It now makes much more sense that Steamboat Willie was a catalyst for Disney’s success.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +41

      yes this definitely happens a lot!

    • @Turb0Yoda
      @Turb0Yoda 5 месяцев назад +2

      Heh- great timing- I just came back from the Walt Disney museum in San Fran. They did cover this at some point in the displays

    • @screetchycello
      @screetchycello 5 месяцев назад +12

      Right? The Mona Lisa is as famous as it is because it got stolen in 1911 and there was a ton of publicity for years about about it and it just entered the cultural memory as "the most famous painting".

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +9

      self plug ruclips.net/video/d2wy7Fp2fqw/видео.html@@screetchycello

  • @fireaza
    @fireaza 5 месяцев назад +362

    Media history is insane. You'd have to be some kinda mad genius to have "light" be the solution to a sound problem. This is sorta the first steps towards laser-based storage, when you think about it!

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +40

      totally! makes sense yet blows my mind still

    • @geckoo9190
      @geckoo9190 5 месяцев назад +10

      About that, light is always the final solution, it has microscopical precision and its easy to handle, the hard part is to adapt whatever you want to make to use light.

    • @CallMeRabbitzUSVI
      @CallMeRabbitzUSVI 5 месяцев назад +2

      ​​@@geckoo9190 Not final solution, quantum entanglement and such will make ftl (faster than light) transfers and interations a thing in the near future

    • @Bacopa68
      @Bacopa68 5 месяцев назад

      What I wonder is why did this tech not end up with other applications. Why weren't the State of the Union or the King's Speech recorded this way? Why was wire recording a thing when this already existed?

    • @SeanTBarrett
      @SeanTBarrett 5 месяцев назад +6

      Optical has had a long-standing role in audio ever since. I took apart an old guitar volume pedal from the 90s and inside it had a tiny light bulb, and the pedal moved a barrier between the light bulb and an optical sensor. The obvious solution of directly controlling a potentiometer has problems, like introducing noise into the system. So I think it's not so much genius as that engineers have long-standing training at thinking about these things fluidly (see also hydraulics).

  • @AlexanderGee
    @AlexanderGee 5 месяцев назад +93

    I worked on the companion app for Despicable Me called "Minionator" which provided subtitles for the Minion characters. Since we didn't have long to build it we watched the movie's audio on an FFT and looked for patterns of simple tones we could detect and derive time information from. Whistles, and a section of Pharrell Williams autotuned voice were two I remember we picked. We also got them to redo the buttons sounds when the Minions are interacting with equipment in the movie to make them clearer for our software. So we were using the descendant of this audio sync trick to sync a third stream of information to the movie. This kind of not world leading but very well executed marketing of which we were a small part is what made Minions a thing.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +19

      wow! that's crazy. very cool. i need to find the minionator now

    • @zlobzor
      @zlobzor 5 месяцев назад +4

      Interesting that you manage to get them to change the sound design!
      Is this an app that was supposed to go with the cinima release, or home viewing?

    • @tortysoft
      @tortysoft 5 месяцев назад +2

      Most impressive . Sadly no longer available - unless you know better :-)

    • @OfficialOacus
      @OfficialOacus 4 месяца назад

      YOU WORKED ON THAT!? NEAT!

  • @geckoo9190
    @geckoo9190 5 месяцев назад +93

    Well this explains a lot, I always found odd that the short was just mickey using different objects and animals as musical instruments, turns out the whole film was a technological stun. This also explains why other cartoons started to rely so much on music, steam boat willie basically was the starting point of a trend.

  • @RabbitEarsCh
    @RabbitEarsCh 5 месяцев назад +136

    I've known about all this tech forever since my dad worked in TV for decades, but I had no idea about *why* Steamboat Willie seemed to break things wide open. I had watched the cartoon as a kid and it was pretty good, but it didn't hit me why it was such a smash.
    Your explanation is great, by the way. Analog sound recording is basically magic, and analog video recording for television and magnetic tape is *also* basically magic in how complex and multifaceted it is. I think you nailed it pretty good.

    • @RolandHutchinson
      @RolandHutchinson 5 месяцев назад +2

      Respectfully disagree. Digital audio recording is magic. Analog audio recording (especially on film) is alchemy.

    • @sion8
      @sion8 5 месяцев назад +2

      ​@@RolandHutchinson
      Forgive me, but how are you rank alchemy vs magic?

    • @RolandHutchinson
      @RolandHutchinson 5 месяцев назад +2

      @@sion8 To answer that would be to divulge secret knowledge that is only available to initiates.

    • @kaitlyn__L
      @kaitlyn__L 4 месяца назад

      @@sion8I would personally say magic involves the use of forces and realms we can’t directly access but must instead carefully influence; while alchemy is careful direct manipulation and study of the real physical world.
      To put it more simply by analogy: magic is summoning a demon wholesale, alchemy is painstakingly building a homunculus.
      Conversion to and from digital is the demon saying “trust me”, we must simply trust that the conversion is accurate and the bitstream arrives correctly. But with analogue audio we can intuitively understand that a wave is a wave is a wave, merely being transformed by various apparatuses. It never leaves the “physical”, is never quantised, and can be traced down the path step-by-step with no “dude, trust me” stage.
      Though I would say the alchemical analogy is the most obviously visible when it comes to analogue photography. Given the various chemicals, and the numerous stages of photo-sensitive papers and gels bouncing negative and positive images back and forth. It’s tedious, but it’s all still clearly “real”.

    • @tortysoft
      @tortysoft 4 месяца назад

      Very silly conversation :-) I've watched digital from its birth and used analogue magnetic professionally, I saw magnetic first, it's understandable magic. Digital is also understandable, but only to initiates. Basically Arthur C Clark is still right :-) It depends on your depth of understanding. @@RolandHutchinson

  • @JoeContext
    @JoeContext 5 месяцев назад +33

    A lot of Mickey trivia tends to be a bit "Mario 2 was Doki Doki Panic" obvious (or more recently, just reciting the legal limitations to him being public domain) so it's pretty cool to see some stuff I actually never knew before

    • @Attmay
      @Attmay 5 месяцев назад

      Yeah, they are basically recycling and regurgitating the same content Disney has been putting out themselves for years, just with more buffoonish mispronunciations.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +8

      yeah it's nice my local college library had a pretty good animation section - really was necessary to go into non-digitized stuff to get some answers. i think you wouldn't necessarily even know that mickey was variable density if you didn't get into books! i also chatted with an animation historian ray pointer a little bit, and he was helpful to get me in the right direction - i didn't bring him up here because i wanted to make sure any errors were mine alone.

    • @MaxOakland
      @MaxOakland 4 месяца назад +1

      Haha Doki Doki Panic is something I come across all the time nice to see it in this different context

  • @felipeamdd
    @felipeamdd 5 месяцев назад +16

    Because the projector lens and the audio equipment are usually a little far away, the physical distance needs to be compensated by printing the sound about 22 frames ahead of the picture, so you can't perceive the delay. That's why if you watch a RAW scan of the film, the soundwaves on the screen won't match the audio you're hearing but matches the image somehow.

  • @ferociousfries3563
    @ferociousfries3563 5 месяцев назад +146

    Hippedity Hoppity, Mickey Mouse is now my property

    • @sergiorestrepo6657
      @sergiorestrepo6657 5 месяцев назад +38

      _Our_ property

    • @_Sur22_
      @_Sur22_ 5 месяцев назад

      ​@@sergiorestrepo6657 СОЮЮЮЮЗ НЕЕЕРУШИИИМЫЙ

    • @WoodmanTK
      @WoodmanTK 5 месяцев назад

      @@sergiorestrepo6657🫡

    • @Grim-death
      @Grim-death 5 месяцев назад +1

      ⁠🤓

    • @GraciousGoldy
      @GraciousGoldy 5 месяцев назад +1

      Umm Public Domain- Homer Simpson

  • @FleischerToons
    @FleischerToons 5 месяцев назад +20

    Big thanks to Max Fleischer and Lee De Forest for bringing sound to animated cartoons!

    • @Bacopa68
      @Bacopa68 5 месяцев назад +4

      And for putting Cab Calloway as the singing voice of Koko in Betty Boop. Best version of "St James Infirmary Blues" is in Fleischer's Betty Boop version of Snow White.

    • @mspysu79
      @mspysu79 5 месяцев назад

      The "Powers CinePhone" system used by Disney for his early sound cartoons, is an almost direct copy of the DeForest system that was left after DeForest and Case parted ways (Because DeForest treated Case like crap) Case took his inventions that made the DeForest system better over to Fox to create the "Fox Movietone" sound film system. If you listen to other film sound systems of the time such as Vitaphone sound on Disc, Western Electric sound on film, Fox Movietone, or RCA Photophone sound on film, they all sound better than Powers CinePhone. But because Pat Powers really did not have to invest a lot into getting the system up and running it was a lot cheaper than using other systems.
      Disney would switch to the RCA Phonofilm sound system in November 1932, in 1935 Disney would move over to RCA co-owned RKO for distribution until 1956. Disney would continue to use RCA Photophone until RCA got out of the film sound business in the early 80's.

  • @mfaizsyahmi
    @mfaizsyahmi 5 месяцев назад +21

    Alec from Technology Collections made a video about sound on film before.
    A caveat for you when recreating it is that the sound part of the film always lag ahead of or behind (I can't recall) the frame it represents because the part of the projector that reads the waveforms are ahead of/behind (again, can't recall) the part that projects the frames, because the part that reads the waveforms feed the film at a steady rate but the part that projects the frame does a advance-stop-hold motion on the physical film 24 times a second, and so in between the two parts the film needs some slack.

  • @GlenAndFriendsCooking
    @GlenAndFriendsCooking 5 месяцев назад +7

    When I was a young lad... I saw a film (actually was film back then) by Norman McLaren, where he painted rando shapes in the soundtrack area and also in the projected area. The sounds were random and amazing. Inspired me to pursue a life in the film business.
    Now I'm a RUclipsr - so.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +2

      madness! if anyone else is curious, i'd never seen! ruclips.net/video/TxZe4hL73m8/видео.html

    • @Dstinct
      @Dstinct 3 месяца назад

      NFB gave us so many great films. Also gave me lifelong Log Driver nightmares.

  • @matthewvillage
    @matthewvillage 5 месяцев назад +34

    i studied this and the impact that sound had on the popularity of animation for my dissertation!! amazing rabbit hole of a subject

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +9

      that's awesome. sorry if it seems like I gave the Fleischers short shrift. They have my heart.

  • @sergiorestrepo6657
    @sergiorestrepo6657 5 месяцев назад +49

    It also blew my mind when I found out how sound was embedded in the film. Thank you Phil

  • @The_Sofa_King
    @The_Sofa_King 5 месяцев назад +29

    It must feel so good that new copyright works are in the public domain! I can’t wait to see more stuff become free to use now!

  • @tessiepinkman
    @tessiepinkman 5 месяцев назад +30

    Fantastic video, Phil! I realized now that you've already answered the question with this video, that I always wondered what made Mickey stand out and what made him the ginormous phenomenon he became. This isn't the first time you've answered questions I didn't know I had, and I thank you dearly for that! You are awesome. Have a great week! :)

  • @alexareguti
    @alexareguti 5 месяцев назад +28

    As per usual, Phil comes in with an amazing video answering a question I didn’t know I had through a super cool story angle.
    Forever in awe with your storytelling abilities, Phil. Every video you make is so uniquely yours, it’s inspiring.
    Also…thank you for giving us more content to nerd out about in patreon! 💫

  • @I_WANT_MY_SLAW
    @I_WANT_MY_SLAW 5 месяцев назад +6

    Fun fact: There is a very popular sports broadcaster named Al Michaels, who used to work for Disney/ESPN. And Disney actually traded away Al Michaels contract for the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit back. And if you ever run into Al Michaels, he will gladly tell you the story of how he was traded away for a cartoon rabbit.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +3

      this is hilarious!! for anybody else curious...www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/12750497/how-espn-traded-al-michaels-oswald-rabbit

  • @robotortoise
    @robotortoise 5 месяцев назад +11

    This makes a ton more sense. I never got why Mickey Mouse was (initially) such a big deal, and this explains it succinctly by someone who had the same question I did. This also explains, to me, why cartoons hadn't been full-length movies before Disney started doing it this way, either - it simply wouldn't have been feasible!

  • @Bacopa68
    @Bacopa68 5 месяцев назад +9

    Alec at Technology Connections has a very good video about film projectors and sound. It's more in depth about some things left out here.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +6

      yes, linked in description! i think it's a good companion!

  • @darwiniandude
    @darwiniandude 2 месяца назад +1

    First time here - really appreciate you referencing your sources of other clips. Many 'creators' fail to do this. Thanks :) And great video!

  • @aiocafea
    @aiocafea 5 месяцев назад +15

    i am actually glad and hoped you did the recreation for the sound tapes, i think it's best for people to see the real-time sinchronisation to internalise how transforming signals feels
    great and very wonderful video, especially considering the short length!!!

  • @tomsko863
    @tomsko863 5 месяцев назад +4

    8:50 - This is your edge right here. You giving credit to creators, and showing the community of talent you're working with. It will return to you in spades.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +1

      excited so many creative people are out there!

  • @lynx850
    @lynx850 5 месяцев назад

    Phil, keep up the good work. Its been great to watch your subs grow. I congratulate you on your bravery on leaving Vox, finding your own voice, and shooting it on your own. You are an inspiration.

  • @moondoor9031
    @moondoor9031 5 месяцев назад +5

    The quality of this video is incredible! Congratulations Phil 🎉

  • @briannakadlecik4304
    @briannakadlecik4304 5 месяцев назад +4

    I wish that I would have had this video during my Film as History class in college. Trying to understand the technology for color and sound in film nearly broke my brain.
    Great video! I had always wondered what it was about Steemboat Willie that made Mickey Mouse so iconic.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +2

      you might like those old informational films i linked in the description - they did a pretty amazingly good job

  • @robertoluque
    @robertoluque 5 месяцев назад +1

    Awesome video, my son loves watching Steamboat Willie and it’s grown on me since I have watched it so many times.

    • @cheeserslol
      @cheeserslol 5 месяцев назад

      is your son me?, cause i love steamboat willie

  • @perrybarton
    @perrybarton 5 месяцев назад

    Good work, Phil. And you're right, it doesn't seem to be a question that anyone else is asking. Happy New Year! 😎

  • @HomeAutoBuddy
    @HomeAutoBuddy 5 месяцев назад

    That, i didn't know! Thanks for publishing that thought you had, sometimes people need to stop, asking obvious questions and learn something.

  • @bryanchung2023
    @bryanchung2023 5 месяцев назад +4

    I'd say Super Mario Bros. was much more than just innovative for side scrollers. It was one of the earliest games where the focus wasn't arcade style short challenges that drove you to keep playing for a high score, but instead drove you to keep playing through a (relatively) long set of new levels with a set ending. So, a video game about simply experiencing the game, like most single player games today, instead of comparing scores with friends. And just like Mickey, Mario was not the first to do this but the first to be broadly received and acclaimed.

  • @BenjamintheTortoise
    @BenjamintheTortoise 5 месяцев назад +1

    That's crazy stuff!! Totally blew my mind as well... Great video!

  • @sarayusarayu832
    @sarayusarayu832 5 месяцев назад

    Oh my gosh!! Thank you so much for this! This has been my forever question too! It’s so good to finally have an answer 😌

  • @kenneth_romero
    @kenneth_romero 5 месяцев назад +3

    Idk if people care or not. This one other youtuber called Technology Connections did a great video on sound quality throughout the late 50s to now. Might be worth a watch if you're more interested in sound technology and how far we came from physical to digital sound.

  • @bandana_girl6507
    @bandana_girl6507 5 месяцев назад +2

    So, the reason that the optical sound that you found "didn't fit" is because the film had to be stationary while the soundtrack had to be moving continuously. Which meant that the audio data had to be in a different type of mechanism and so physically separate visual frames it played along with. So the proper audio was probably on the film, just at a different point, and the audio you saw was proper audio, just for a different frame

  • @driaan_louw
    @driaan_louw 5 месяцев назад +5

    This is rad - did not make the connection that it was the synced sound that made Mickey blow up!
    Also love the content plaque 🤠

  • @Xanderall
    @Xanderall 5 месяцев назад

    Phil you keep blowing my mind with every video.
    Getting hats to fit is getting more and more difficult with every time!

  • @robowenmikels
    @robowenmikels 5 месяцев назад

    I had known about the fact that Mickey, essentially, the first cartoon with synchronized sound and dialogue...but I've never seen it all wrapped up in well made and edited, clip, under 10 mins. Well done, Phil!

  • @cpucat
    @cpucat 5 месяцев назад +3

    The technology connections video about sound on film goes into more detail about how it works

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +3

      yes! linked in description! though they are more waveform than density

    • @cpucat
      @cpucat 5 месяцев назад +1

      @@PhilEdwardsInc Nice, I missed that

  • @shaider1982
    @shaider1982 5 месяцев назад

    That Technology connections video he referenced is quite informative regarding this topic. From the video, the sound corresponding to a frame isn’t actually on that frame but offset some frames below since the photocell reading the sound is after the projector. this is why the first few frames on a film are for reference and a beep tells the projector tech if the film and sound is in-sync.

  • @charliemacsart
    @charliemacsart 5 месяцев назад +1

    Great video! It’s really interesting how most people KNOW Steamboat Willie is iconic, but not WHY. Mickey is cute and all, but watching Steamboat without the historical context just makes it seem like a quaint little cartoon, especially when you compare it to the sound versions of Plane Crazy/Galloping Gaucho and the later early Mickey cartoons. It’s kinda like how nowadays people recognize Super Mario Bros. as iconic but don’t realize how revolutionary it was.

  • @mmixo
    @mmixo 5 месяцев назад

    Great! Love your work

  • @houstonmuseum
    @houstonmuseum 4 месяца назад

    What's also wild is that very similar tech was used by journalists to transmit images across the continent over phone lines for print in newspapers.
    Basically converting light and dark portions into voltages that were then converted from voltages back to light/dark print.
    Truly INCREDIBLE tech. This is why I adore vintage tech.
    Apple Vision Pro? Neat!
    1940s cell phone!? AMAZING!

    • @codetech5598
      @codetech5598 2 месяца назад +1

      Exactly. Some people claim that the invention of the transistor in 1947 enabled modern electronic inventions but the real game changer was the earlier invention of the vacuum tube.

  • @timothytikker1147
    @timothytikker1147 5 месяцев назад +1

    At the Disney Museum in San Francisco, there's an exhibit about Steamboat Willy, and how innovative its synchronized sound was. They quoted the famous orchestral conductor Arturo Toscanini calling it "a musical miracle."

  • @VAM_Physics_and_Engineering
    @VAM_Physics_and_Engineering 5 месяцев назад +1

    Never gave it any thought before. Great explanation and cool tech!

  • @readingthepsalms7513
    @readingthepsalms7513 5 месяцев назад +1

    Thank you! I always wondered why Mickey was a big hit - this is great! 🙏🏼

  • @yanikkunitsin1466
    @yanikkunitsin1466 5 месяцев назад

    Hi Phil! Thank you for that wonderfull excurse in history. I'm a subscriber and had to manually check your page, because it was not on my main. Do you need to pay for this? As allways, beautifull story beautifully told. Thank you.

  • @ggoedert
    @ggoedert 5 месяцев назад +7

    Great take, I think you are right that that innovation made a huge impact and was essential for the success. But to be fair the character was also different and maybe more relatable then the other typical characters at the time... He is a little more naive, more compassionate to other characters while still maintaining smart attitude... I think that made him more relatable then the other popular characters stereotypes of the time.

  • @sparky_murph
    @sparky_murph 5 месяцев назад +1

    Another great video, thank you.

  • @backyardr.c.6280
    @backyardr.c.6280 5 месяцев назад +1

    THIS video is a great example of how to use the version of Micky that just entered the PD.

  • @moi5219
    @moi5219 5 месяцев назад

    So cool! Love you went the nerdy extra miles.

  • @noahcochran3442
    @noahcochran3442 5 месяцев назад

    Having a sort of "credits" at the end of the video instead of just saying "check the link in the description" in the middle is one of my favorite ways I've ever seen this done

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад

      yeah my inner nerd wanted to blurt out everything in the video, but i didn't wanna slow the story.

  • @UnanimousDelivers
    @UnanimousDelivers 5 месяцев назад +1

    I thought your Steve Jobs analogy was going to be how Xerox Parc and a few others used mice, mouse pointers, and graphical user interfaces long before Apple "invented" that whole concept for the Macintosh.

  • @MeinDeutschkurs
    @MeinDeutschkurs 5 месяцев назад

    Wow, thx for the illustration! 🎉

  • @FavioWinehouse
    @FavioWinehouse 4 месяца назад

    A wizardry investigation [ thourough and easy to digest as usual mate 🙌🏽 ] regards...

  • @kaitlyn__L
    @kaitlyn__L 4 месяца назад

    Apologies for taking a little while to get to this one, but I already knew a fair bit about sound on film. However, I love your sociological comparison to the buzz generated around Toy Story. I knew Mickey wasn’t the first sound on film, but had no idea why it had such buzz. And that comparison was so apt, it all clicked.

  • @BlokeOnAMotorbike
    @BlokeOnAMotorbike 4 месяца назад

    Quite a few years ago I experimented with sonic bitmapping. Turning an analogue signal into a many-colours bitmap such as a GIF, and playing it back, using an application I wrote in Visual Basic and C++. It worked pretty well, I was almost to the point of embedding the bitmaps into random images, then using value subtraction to extract the sonic bitmap using un-doctored copies of the original image and playing it back. Didn't quite get that far and the code is lost to an EMP. I never bothered to revive the project. There is a HAM project around that uses AD conversion to transmit still images over an analogue radio carrier and convert them back to images using an Android app, which is a fun thing to try.

  • @BobMori
    @BobMori 5 месяцев назад +2

    I never understood the success & fascination with Mickey. This helped. Thanks. 🎬

  • @herzogsbuick
    @herzogsbuick 5 месяцев назад

    This is how Leon Theremin's Great Seal Bug worked, too: sound vibrations caused two membranes to get closer and far apart, and an external radio source (which is still a form of light!) would be aimed at it through the walls of the US Embassy in Moscow. The membranes were hidden in a decoration hung on the wall, and when the radio waves had bounced back they'd be changed by the vibrations -- just like the play back of the audio on the film. The difference between what was sent and received back represented the sound.
    I had a feeling you were going to do something unique and interesting about Steamboat Willy. Which means you made me feel smarter since I was right. And for that, I'm even more grateful.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +1

      wow! never heard that theremin story!

    • @herzogsbuick
      @herzogsbuick 5 месяцев назад

      @@PhilEdwardsInc it's fascinating. he returned to the USSR in the late 30's (conflicting conclusions as to why), was thrown in a gulag with a secret lab and developed the underlying ideas. he's like the Nikola Tesla of electricity [ducks] heh, but really neat story, his whole life is ridiculous.

  • @flatfingertuning727
    @flatfingertuning727 5 месяцев назад

    An interesting trait of variable density recording is that it is almost impossible to reproduce accurately via photographic means. When making a print of a film, it would be necessary for the printing equipment to add the sound to the film using aparatus such as shown. This makes it more expensive to produce prints of a film, but also makes it much more difficult for anyone to use those prints to produce unauthorized reproductions.

  • @biggles258
    @biggles258 4 месяца назад

    Loved it. Subscribed.

  • @matthiaspfisterer2066
    @matthiaspfisterer2066 4 месяца назад

    Great video! New subscriber.
    Did you ever check out Evgeny Sholpo´s "Variophone" and the history of optical sound synthesis in the early USSR? Coming from the field of avantgarde art, they worked at around the same time on problems (and solutions) there that were in part stunningly similar to those addressed in the fascinating piece of history you tell here, but with a markedly different edge - a definitely too little-known media history rabbit hole absolutely worth the jump into it.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  4 месяца назад

      i'll check it out! i would love to learn about the soviet parallel development world

  • @richardwarnock2789
    @richardwarnock2789 4 месяца назад +1

    Actually was a french video of Lincoln with sound similar the reels were horizontal!

  • @SpacedAug
    @SpacedAug 5 месяцев назад +1

    I love that you kept your name plate :')

  • @geneard639
    @geneard639 4 месяца назад +1

    I got to see an original print and record of Al Jolson's 'The Jazz Singer' (1927). By the end of the film? It was almost 2 minutes out of sync. When Mickey Mouse's 'Steam Boat Willy' (1928) came out, MM was still ill known, Felix the Cat (1925-), KoKo the Clown was created by Max Fleischer and his brothers (look at Merry Melodies and Warner Bros. Cartoons), and Betty Boop was years away in the 1930s, The early days of Animation is really amazing.

  • @GoingtoHecq
    @GoingtoHecq 5 месяцев назад

    Thanks for making a good video. Also, that little clip where I guy is stealing and eating bones out of a picnic basket. Imagine the actual sound for that.

  • @willychilton
    @willychilton 5 месяцев назад

    If you showed me a frame from 4:33 I would have thought it was a Casio ad. handsome! and damn, that golden backlight

  • @HunterHogan
    @HunterHogan 5 месяцев назад +1

    This is my first time here. Is this a personal channel? ;) Congrats, Phil!

  • @lachlanlau
    @lachlanlau 5 месяцев назад

    I watched that sound on film video already but great summary and animations!

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +1

      it's amazing how good those vintage videos are. it was rather laborious for me to create animations that are inferior, yet i had the benefit of 2024 technology! geniuses.

    • @lachlanlau
      @lachlanlau 5 месяцев назад

      @@PhilEdwardsInc I love watching those old military/vehicle manufacturer videos from channels like @USAutoIndustry and Periscope film, there's just a beauty in the accent of the voiceover and the method of presentation, the soft fade transitions.. its a whole vibe.

  • @zakelijkemail4149
    @zakelijkemail4149 5 месяцев назад +3

    love it!

  • @BOABModels
    @BOABModels 5 месяцев назад +1

    Thank you for actually making an original and interesting video about Steamboat Willie, rather than just putting the film on RUclips and hoping to get clicks.
    I agree with you that I never 'got' Mickey Mouse - of the Disney characters, I much prefered the flawed Donald Duck and found him to be far funnier.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад +1

      +1! self-promoting: ruclips.net/video/uYY7eY8TZvI/видео.html

  • @readwrecks
    @readwrecks 5 месяцев назад +1

    As a former projectionist for both 35mm film and IMAX film, I gotta say Dolby Digital kinda sucks. I mean it’s good in the digital age but it had a huge problem on film. You see where it’s printed? In between the sprocket holes. That’s the only section of film where the emulsion side touches every single part of the projector. The sprockets that pull the film through the projector are slightly raised right where the teeth are so that the film doesn’t touch them where the picture or the soundtrack are.
    So, the Dolby Digital code was always getting scratched or warped, and then it would glitch out during the show.

  • @klaxxor
    @klaxxor 5 месяцев назад +1

    I hope your thumb heals up okay. Great video Phil!

  • @SeanPat1001
    @SeanPat1001 4 месяца назад

    I’m not sure about cinematic film, but the films that were shown in schools had the sound strip displaced from the image by about eight frames. The consequence was that if the film broke, the brake in the sound occurred at a different time than the break in the image.

  • @joseybryant7577
    @joseybryant7577 5 месяцев назад

    A great companion to your rotoscoping vid on Vox

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад

      Thank you! Now I just need to do a multiplane video to make it a trilogy!

  • @bff2109
    @bff2109 5 месяцев назад +1

    Happy new year

  • @alienrobotcommando
    @alienrobotcommando 4 месяца назад

    Awesome! Thanks!

  • @gilkruger
    @gilkruger 5 месяцев назад

    I love this look inside the Mouse House. IMO, sound is at least 50% of the audiovisual experience.

  • @TooTRUEtoBeG00D
    @TooTRUEtoBeG00D 4 месяца назад

    Pushing the EDGE of cineacoustics seems like a SOUND idea.

  • @ivan.flrs2
    @ivan.flrs2 5 месяцев назад

    Really excellent video as alway. Would it be worth doing an investigation in early sound-sync in film? You mentioned the method used by Disney wasn't the first.
    It's my understanding that Mexican engineer José Rodríguez Ruelas was one of the early pioneers in the technology and took his "Rodriguez Sound Recording System" from Mexico to Hollywood which led to a shift of power between the countries and their film production output.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад

      there's definitely a lot in that era. i downloaded a really cool scrapbook of early phonofilm stuff too.

  • @Stealth_Pilot
    @Stealth_Pilot 5 месяцев назад +5

    i sold a copy of the film for 1 dollar at new year.

  •  5 месяцев назад

    You should check the work of an amazing animator/filmmaker called Norman McLaren. He was part of The National Film Board of Canada, and he developed a method of creating music and sound effects by painting them in the optical track of the film. Watch "Neighbours", a 1952 Oscar winning short film where he not only animated the people in it, but also created the soundtrack optically.

  • @jonnyeh
    @jonnyeh 5 месяцев назад

    I need to know more about how the decoding of the waveforms worked! How were light vibrations turned into audio?

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад

      yeah it's crazy - some of the links in my description get into it. i think the videos are pretty helpful.

  • @infographie
    @infographie 4 месяца назад

    Excellent.

  • @PurpleHippoCinema
    @PurpleHippoCinema 5 месяцев назад +2

    If anyone is interested more about Ub Iwerks, I have a video about him and his history with Disney on my channel!

  • @midiwall
    @midiwall 5 месяцев назад

    @1:27 - and, THAT recognition got you a subscription! lol

  • @SauloBenigno
    @SauloBenigno 5 месяцев назад +1

    Amazing story 😮

  • @JordanAnastasio
    @JordanAnastasio 4 месяца назад

    I only watched to the end for the mustache.. very nice. Authoritative.

  • @TrainedSniper12
    @TrainedSniper12 5 месяцев назад

    Yeah, I’ve been splicing different wav formats for some of my videos and various projects I’ve done over 40 years. I have about three videos that I made back in the day. The matrix and resident evil are two of my best projects I’ve done.

  • @robfut9954
    @robfut9954 4 месяца назад

    Entire video’s explanation in one word: innovation. 👍

  • @silasholloway8860
    @silasholloway8860 4 месяца назад

    I love having my right ear blasted out by music only coming from there

  • @cardinalhamneggs5253
    @cardinalhamneggs5253 5 месяцев назад +1

    There’s a small television screen at the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum that plays a digital copy of _Plane Crazy_ on a loop. I’ve seen it myself.

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад

      i'm gonna look for this next time i'm there!

  • @jwillisbarrie
    @jwillisbarrie 5 месяцев назад

    Thanks for adding actual captions for the Deaf

  • @DangerAngelous
    @DangerAngelous 5 месяцев назад

    Of course you were going to make a Steamboat Willie video :D

  • @sirjman
    @sirjman 5 месяцев назад

    Was not expecting a Beat Saber call out in a video about Mickey Mouse.

  • @spingleboygle
    @spingleboygle 5 месяцев назад

    i’m glad this is now legal to show

  • @edryba4867
    @edryba4867 5 месяцев назад

    You left important stuff out! Like the fact that the Vitaphone System’s record was played on a turntable mounted on the film projector, and was turned IN SYNC with picture by the equivalent of an analog speedometer cable for cars. If there were no frames missing, IT STAYED IN SYNC TO THE END OF THE REEL.
    Also, in the war between Variable Density and Variable area sound, among the plethora of companies trying each, Western Electric won the Variable Density war, and RCA won the Variable Area war. Incidentally, Variable Area sound tends to sound MUCH better than Variable Density sound. That’s because RCA was able to make their equipment record 5,000Hz higher than Western Electric could. I can tell you how, but we’d be here a while.
    - From A Lifetime Member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

    • @jeremymathews3077
      @jeremymathews3077 2 месяца назад

      Came hear to say this. There were indeed sync problems when frames were lost in the print and or the disc wasn't cued properly, but screenings of The Jazz Singer with a proper projector would not have gone out of sync, and the process certainly wasn't starting a record at the same time as the movie, as the video implies. In fact, both sound-on-film and sound-on-disc techniques existed for some time (we're talking 1900), and Vitagraph's disc system was favored because the sound quality was initially better, but sound-on-film's real advantage was limiting the possibility for projectionist error, so when the sound quality got close to that of the disc systems, it was the obvious choice.
      All this to say that Walt Disney and Steamboat had less to do with the synchronized sound system technique and everything to do with Walt Disney's attention to detail in capturing a quality sound recording with synchronized music and sound. In other words, craft.

  • @what-uc
    @what-uc 4 месяца назад

    The obvious question is how does the sound track move smoothly when the picture is jumping frame by frame. And the answer's obvious if you know - the sound is offset by about a second from the image it syncs with, so the sound "reader" is away from the projector mechanism.

  • @Vidgmchtr
    @Vidgmchtr 5 месяцев назад

    Was keeping much of the music on the right speaker intentional in this video? Since the sound on the film was on the right side of the film?

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад

      lol if only. i have decided to blame my children for the error

  • @paulfeldem
    @paulfeldem 5 месяцев назад

    Literally bout to leave for IKEA to buy that table lamp on the right hand side of the frame 8:11, when I spotted it in the frame. Man’s got good taste

    • @PhilEdwardsInc
      @PhilEdwardsInc  5 месяцев назад

      haha it is ok! needs its own tiny light bulbs though.

  • @td3993
    @td3993 4 месяца назад

    Same method is used for transmitting your internet signal, except that the light is modulated purely electronically, and not with a ribbon light gate.