Technology thumb|right|upright=1.15|alt=Movie poster featuring a large illustration of a young woman wearing a short orange-red dance outfit, high heels, and headdress. Her head is surrounded by shooting stars and sparkles. At her feet, much smaller-scaled, are two men—one is shouting through a megaphone, the other is operating a movie camera. The accompanying text is dominated by the name of star Alice White.|Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), one of the first sound films about sound filmmaking, depicts microphones dangling from the rafters and multiple cameras shooting simultaneously from soundproofed booths. The poster shows a camera unboothed and unblimped, as it might be when shooting a musical number with a prerecorded soundtrack. In the short term, the introduction of live sound recording caused major difficulties in production. Cameras were noisy, so a soundproofed cabinet was used in many of the earliest talkies to isolate the loud equipment from the actors, at the expense of a drastic reduction in the ability to move the camera. For a time, multiple-camera shooting was used to compensate for the loss of mobility and innovative studio technicians could often find ways to liberate the camera for particular shots. The necessity of staying within range of still microphones meant that actors also often had to limit their movements unnaturally. Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), from First National Pictures (which Warner Bros. had taken control of thanks to its profitable adventure into sound), gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the techniques involved in shooting early talkies. Several of the fundamental problems caused by the transition to sound were soon solved with new camera casings, known as "blimps", designed to suppress noise and boom microphones that could be held just out of frame and moved with the actors. In 1931, a major improvement in playback fidelity was introduced: three-way speaker systems in which sound was separated into low, medium, and high frequencies and sent respectively to a large bass "woofer", a midrange driver, and a treble "tweeter."Millard (2005), p. 189.
Technology thumb|right|upright=115|alt=Movie poster featuring a large illustration of a young woman wearing a short orange-red dance outfit high heels and headdress Her head is surrounded by shooting stars and sparkles At her feet much smaller-scaled are two men—one is shouting through a megaphone the other is operating a movie camera The accompanying text is dominated by the name of star Alice White|Show Girl in Hollywood (1930) one of the first sound films about sound filmmaking depicts microphones dangling from the rafters and multiple cameras shooting simultaneously from soundproofed booths The poster shows a camera unboothed and unblimped as it might be when shooting a musical number with a prerecorded soundtrack In the short term the introduction of live sound recording caused major difficulties in production Cameras were noisy so a soundproofed cabinet was used in many of the earliest talkies to isolate the loud equipment from the actors at the expense of a drastic reduction in the ability to move the camera For a time multiple-camera shooting was used to compensate for the loss of mobility and innovative studio technicians could often find ways to liberate the camera for particular shots The necessity of staying within range of still microphones meant that actors also often had to limit their movements unnaturally Show Girl in Hollywood (1930) from First National Pictures (which Warner Bros had taken control of thanks to its profitable adventure into sound) gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the techniques involved in shooting early talkies Several of the fundamental problems caused by the transition to sound were soon solved with new camera casings known as "blimps" designed to suppress noise and boom microphones that could be held just out of frame and moved with the actors In 1931 a major improvement in playback fidelity was introduced three-way speaker systems in which sound was separated into low medium and high frequencies and sent respectively to a large bass "woofer" a midrange driver and a treble "tweeter"Millard (2005) p 189