The Jazz Singer

The first big complication with sound was having everything be synchronized with the image on screen. If either the record on the vitaphone skipped a groove or the film lagged a few frames, the whole show would completely fall apart. Another issue with the vitaphone was how hard it was to transfer into the next film reel. The projectionist would have to replace reels in perfect sync in order for the show to keep rolling. With feature films like The Jazz Singer, this had to be done 15 times for the whole movie to be properly shown. The significance of The Jazz Singer was that it was the first film to feature synced audio. It wasn't the first to have synchronized music and sound effects, but only 2 improvised dialogue scenes started a revolution in the world of cinema. The Jazz Singer was the film that kickstarted the next big era of films, the talkies.