CALL FOR PAPERS
CFP: Sound is Golden: Case Studies of Industry Practices
An area of multiple panels for the 2014 Film & History Conference:
Golden Ages: Styles and Personalities, Genres and Histories
October 29-November 2, 2014
The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club
Madison, WI (USA)
DEADLINE for abstracts: June 1, 2014

AREA: Sound is Golden: Case Studies of Industry Practices

Histories of Classical Hollywood sound often privilege the technological stability and aesthetic uniformity of recording, editing, and dubbing practices between the 1930s and 1950s.  While there is no doubt that Hollywood's "golden age" did involve a great deal of stability and uniformity, this area seeks specific case studies that continue to nuance or challenge this particular characterization of Classical Hollywood sound practices. We are also interested in papers that offer new contexts for understanding the sound technologies and aesthetics of Hollywood's "golden age," contexts that might include case studies of the radio, television, and music industries, as well as case studies of other national cinemas.

In what ways did advances in sound technologies help to create Hollywood’s “golden age”? How might case studies of industry sound practices dismantle our conception of this age? How did sound technologies affect the golden ages of individual genres and the careers of individual artists?

Potential topics might include studies of:

- contracts, patents, copyrights, and related legal issues
- economic and industrial constraints on poverty row sound
- cue sheets, recording studios, and post-production facilities
- sheet music, soundtrack albums, and other ancillary markets
- operettas, musicals, and sound-specific genres
- vocal performance and styles of singing for a recording
- noise, distortion, stereo, and other acoustical concerns
- archival limitations of sound recording and sound technology
- the history of sound manuals and trade journals
- technological designs, standards and 'best practice' techniques
- overlooked stylistic experiments both in and out of Hollywood

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.filmandhistory.org).

Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by 1 June 2014, to the area chairs:

Eric Dienstfrey
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Katherine Quanz
Wilfrid-Laurier University

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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.ScreenSite.org