Editing The Broadway Melody (section)

==Production==
Because this movie was one of the early sound features made, and one of the early sound musicals, the production learned how to record sound properly by trial-and-error. After the rushes were seen, the sets were changed to improve the recording qualities, and scenes were re-shot, resulting in long days for the actors and an overall long shooting schedule.<ref name="csm" /> It took over three hours to film Bessie Love's brief ukulele-playing scene.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926–1931|first=Donald|last=Crafton|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|date=1990|isbn=978-0-684-19585-8|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFB_oT-jupQC&q=%22bessie+love%22+ukulele&pg=PA294|page=294|chapter=Three Seasons: The Films of 1928–1931}}</ref> For earlier takes, a full orchestra was off-camera, but for later takes, the actors sang and danced to prerecorded music.<ref name="csm">{{cite news|title=A Broadway Melody Remembered|author-link=Bessie Love|first=Bessie|last=Love|date=June 27, 1969|newspaper=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|page=8}}</ref> A [[silent film|silent]] version of the film was produced,{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} as there were still many motion picture theaters without sound equipment at the time.

John Arnold shot with spherical [[lenses]] on 35mm black-and-white film, with one sequence in color. The film was presented in an [[aspect ratio]] of 1.37:1 (sound on disc version) and 1.20:1 (sound on film version).<ref>{{cite web|title=BROADWAY MELODY, THE (1929) (BLU-RAY REVIEW)|url=https://thedigitalbits.com/item/broadway-melody-29-wac-2023-bd}}</ref>

The film featured a musical sequence for "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" that was presented in early two-color [[Technicolor]] (red and green filters). Color quickly became associated with the musical genre, and numerous features were released in 1929 and 1930 that either featured color sequences or were filmed entirely in color, like ''[[On with the Show (1929 film)|On with the Show]]'' (1929), ''[[Gold Diggers of Broadway (film)|Gold Diggers of Broadway]]'' (1929), ''[[Sally (1929 film)|Sally]]'' (1929), ''[[The Life of the Party (1930 film)|The Life of the Party]]'' (1930), and others. The color footage is not extant,<ref name=afi /> although a few frames still survive.