Final answer:
Before timecode, filmmakers synchronized picture and sound through manual methods, including using phonograph recordings with still images and leveraging the photoelectric effect with variable-width filmstrips in projection to create synchronized sounds.
Step-by-step explanation:
Before the advent of timecode, synchronization of picture and sound in filmmaking was done using various non-digital methods. With the introduction of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877, recordings of sound could be made on rotating discs or cylinders, which then were often synchronized manually with projected still or motion photographic images to create a rudimentary audiovisual experience. As motion picture technology evolved, including the invention of photographic film by George Eastman and the motion-picture camera by Louis Le Prince, picture and sound synchronization methods became more refined.
In traditional film projection, audio synchronization relied heavily on the photoelectric effect, where the audiotape, a transparent piece of film with variable width, was placed between a photocell and a bright light. As the film passed through, the amount of light hitting the photocell varied and caused fluctuations in the current, which were then transformed into the variable frequencies of sound that matched the moving images.
Before timecoded digital systems existed, these methods required precise manual alignment and were key to the development of early cinema, paving the way for what we now know as timecode synchronization.