Overview

Surround sound is often mistaken as a relatively new phenomenon in cinemas, one that emerged in the 1970s with the arrival of Dolby. Making Stereo Fit shows how Hollywood studios have instead been implementing surround-sound techniques for the past century and argues that their endurance owes primarily to the long-standing economic tension between stereophonic and monophonic sound. Throughout the book, Eric Dienstfrey analyzes newly discovered archival materials, as well as a myriad of stereo releases from Hell's Angels (1930) to Get Out (2017), to examine how Hollywood’s dependence on single-channel sound left filmmakers unable to fully realize the aesthetic potential of surround sound. Though studios initially experimented with stereo's unique affordances, Dienstfrey details how film sound designers eventually codified a conservative set of surround-sound conventions that prevail today, despite the arrival of more immersive technologies.

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9780520379558

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Reviews

""Making Stereo Fit provides important clarifications to the scholarly understanding of stereo technology, and – with the key idea of monocentrism – introduces a crucial concept to the study of film style."" * Music Sound and the Moving Image * ""Illustrating how technical and aesthetic changes need to resonate with their surrounding industrial context before they can become part of the apparatus, the book’s model should prove generative to media historians."" * Film Quarterly *

"""Making Stereo Fit provides important clarifications to the scholarly understanding of stereo technology, and – with the key idea of monocentrism – introduces a crucial concept to the study of film style."" * Music Sound and the Moving Image *"

Author Information

Eric Dienstfrey is Visiting Assistant Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Ursinus College.

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