Surround sound is often mistaken as a relatively new phenomenon in cinemas, one that emerged in the 1970s with the arrival of Dolby. Making Stereo Fit reveals that, in fact, filmmakers have been creating stereo and surround-sound effects for nearly a century, since the advent of talking pictures, and argues that their endurance owes primarily to the longstanding battles between stereo and mono technologies. Throughout the book, Eric Dienstfrey analyzes newly discovered archival materials and myriad stereo releases, from Hell’s Angels (1930) to Get Out (2017), to show how Hollywood’s financial dependence on mono prevented filmmakers from seeing surround sound’s full aesthetic potential. Though studios initially explored stereo’s unique capabilities, Dienstfrey details how filmmakers eventually codified a conservative set of surround-sound techniques that prevail today, despite the arrival of more immersive formats.

"Making Stereo Fit provides important clarifications to the scholarly understanding of stereo technology, and – with the key idea of monocentrism – introduces a crucial concept to the study of film style." - Music Sound and the Moving Image

"Illustrating how technical and aesthetic changes need to resonate with their surrounding industrial context before they can become part of the apparatus, the book’s model should prove generative to media historians." - Film Quarterly