Imagine a film without music. As Iron Man is about to save the world, all the background music disappears. Are the effects the same? Film composer Bernard Herrmann commented: “I feel that music on screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, mirth, or misery… push [a] narrative rapidly forward, or slow it down… [and] it is the communicative link between the screen and the audience, reaching and enveloping everything in one experience” (qtd. in Fischoff). A film is created from the sounds used. At the beginning of the creation of the film there was no sound. The role of music and sound in films changes radically and completely transforms the film. You can understand the impact of sound in films through music and the history of cinema, how music influences emotions and how silence can influence film. The history of sound in films is very particular. It is difficult to say when the first film was made due to discussions to determine which was made first. The films were created between the late 1870s and the 1890s. Drawing the line when determining the definition of a film can be difficult. To define a film as a series of moving images, the first film would be The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878. However, there are other ways to determine the first film such as the first amateur film, Roundhay Garden Scene in 1888; the first film ever made using running film, Monkeyshines No. 1 in 1889 or 1890; the first film ever copyrighted, Fred Ott's Sneeze in 1894; the first film ever shown, Workers Leaving Lumiere Factory in 1895; or even the first film shown to the public, the Berlin Wintergarten Novelty Program in 1895 (Wright). D......middle of paper......Gale Virtual Library. October 14, 2013.Nappi, Rebecca. “A place for the healing powers of music.” Student Research Center. EBSCO, 2013. October 14, 2013. Stamets, Bill. “Early silent films highlighted the images of Alfred Hitchcock.” Chicago Sun Times. Sun-Times Media, 2013. Web. November 21, 2013. “The Power of Music.” Light bridge music. Light Bridge Music and Web. 2 Oct 2013“The 100 best films of the silent era”. It was silent. Silent Era Company, 1999-2013. Network. November 21, 2013.Weber, Tom. “Local silent movies this weekend in Lansboro.” Student Research Center. EBSCO, 2013. Web. October 14, 2013.Whedon, Joss, dir. The Avengers. Marvel Studios, 2012. Film. November 20, 2013. Winokur, Mark and Holsinger, Bruce. “Films and films”. Information, please. Pearson Education, 2000-2013. Network. November 19, 2013.Wright, Will. “The First Film Ever Made: A History of Cinematic Firsts.” Yahoo Rumors. Yahoo Inc., 2013. Web. 19 November. 2013.