What is sound? What gives us the ability to listen to our favorite songs in the first place? The low tones that surround our ears and give songs that feeling of emotion, the high tones that seem to pierce our souls during the most emotional parts of the saddest songs. What is it and how does it contribute to the making of a film? And how were we able to capture this invisible phenomenon and put it into a film? Sound is created by a range of vibrations of air molecules. We can detect and perceive sounds thanks to our tympanic membrane located inside our ears. This tympanic membrane (commonly known as the eardrum) vibrates when air vibrations strike it, and through a complex series of nerve endings connected to our brain from the tympanic membrane, we are able to represent a wide variety of sounds. In the silent film era, a pianist would simply play a catchy ragtime theme along with the film. While watching the film, it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether or not the weather is the pianist playing according to the mood of the film or simply playing to fill the void of silence. When the sound was finally recorded, it changed the very course of cinema for as long as cinema has existed. This added the heir of realism to the film, it helped the audience feel the emotion of the film and become more invested in what was happening, as if they were part of the film themselves. So now we know what sound is, and how it is created and represented, but how on earth were we able to capture and record sound? I mean sound exists in a continuum, right? You can't pause live audio or hold it still so you can record it. Sound is a physical phenomenon and can literally be felt if you pay attention. Have you ever dr... middle of paper ......Jazz Singer Plot Summary." IMDb. IMDb.com, nd Web. May 20, 2014." Kinetoscope." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, nd Web. May 20, 2014. “Lee De Forest.” PBS, nd Web May 20, 2014. Mack, Stan “What is Analog Audio?”, June 17, 2009. Web “What is it. than analog audio? » Wikimedia Foundation, December 5, 2014. Web. May 20, 2014. “Sound-on-film.” Wikimedia Foundation, May 18, 2014. Web, May 20, 2014. “Wikimedia Vinyl Record, November 5. 2014. Web. May 20, 2014. “Vitaphone.” Wikimedia Foundation, July 5, 2014. Web, May 20, 2014. « William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, Wikimedia Foundation, September 5, 2014. Web. 2014.