Sound Research WIKINDX
Sound Research WIKINDX |
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 Parameters |
| Altman, R. (1992). Introduction: Four and a half film fallacies. In R. Altman (Ed), Sound Theory Sound Practice. (pp. 35–45). New York: Routledge. |
 
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| Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 23/04/2007, 21:17 | |
| Curtis, S. (1992). The sound of the early Warner Bros. cartoons. In R. Altman (Ed), Sound Theory Sound Practice. (pp. 191–203). New York: Routledge. |
 
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| Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 13/02/2020, 12:23 | |
| Live-action films tend to use indexical sound where there is a direct, causal relationship between the sign and the signifier, the sound and the object. Cartoons only use iconic sound "... indexicality is impossible in a cartoon." | |
| In terms of film [sound], Curtiss defines the term 'diegetic' as "that which is accessible to the characters of a film". | |
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Rather than use diegetic/non-diegetic, Scott uses isomorphic and iconic for music/effects in cartoons -- the former particularly in cartoons which have been animated to a pre-determined musical beat (hence difficulties with former terminology). "If isomorphic relations refer to those governed by rhythm and movement, then iconic relations pertain to analogous relationships between visual events and the timbre, volume, pitch and tone of the accompanying sound." Here, 'isomorphism' means same-shape whereas 'iconic' is used in a semiotic sense (C.S. Peirce) -- as an anology between the sound and the object. |
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Although distinctions (certainly in practice) are clear between dialogue/music/effects in feature films, the distinction is less clear in animations (particularly early cartoons) and sometimes not there at all. This is particularly noticeable where the music is used for sound effects (he discusses this later as isomorphic and iconic sound) as played by the orchestra. Although owing a debt to the musical accompaniment of silent film, this was often a function of the difficulties in post-production mixing (loss of music quality) or of using a single microphone to record all sound simultaneously. By 1933, technological advances enabled dialogue and music (+ FX) to be recorded separately and mixed/dubbed later (hence cartoons of this period now have (clear) dialogue over the music. |
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| Talking of early Looney Tunes production technique: although much of the music was composed and dubbed on after the animation, a musical beat was usually decided upon before artwork began. A reversal of the usual (film production) sound/image hierarchy. | |
| Lastra, J. (2000). Sound technology and the American cinema: Perception, representation, modernity. New York: Columbia University Press. |
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| Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 13/03/2006, 09:16 | |
| "Rather than records of perceptually specific events, sounds here are signifiers of an absent, but inferred, narrative." | |
| Discussing Hollywood sound technician George Lewin writing in 1931, technicians recorded characteristic effects for stock sound to be used for dubbing purposes. For Lastra, this is symptomatic of the move from the fidelity of the original to a constucted representation of reality. "Sound space, no longer theoretically defined by the passive perceptions of a securely located (and physically real observer), is now shot through with the hierarchies of "dramatic" relationships." | |
| "Decades of tin-sheet thunder and coconut shell hooves prove ... that fidelity to source is not a property of film sound, but an effect of synchronization." | |
| In a section discussing the idea of sound representation, the 'original sound' and the theories of Williams, Leven and Altman as opposed to those of Baudry, Metz et. al., Lastra states: "...given a particular "original," [sic] it is impossible to predict what any copy will sound like..." and uses this as a justification for the theoretical worthlessness of the "original". Lastra takes Edison's view on the function of the original: it's not meant to be heard by anyone, it is "one stage of a multistage representational process." p.128 | |
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"...not only are technological form and development intimately related to reigning aesthetic norms, they are at times in conflict with them as well." Discussing a dialectic between technology and aesthetic and/or practical context. This chapter is about "the heterogeneous nature of technology and the local and contingent nature of ideological determination." -- they are symbiotic. |
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| "Vision and hearing are the senses that, as a consequence of nineteenth century innovations, have been most fully penetrated by technology and that have, reciprocally, shaped sensory technologies to the greatest degree." | |
| Semiotic signs (indexical signs apparently) can be used to trick and hoax people. | |
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As an example of the heterogeneous nature of, or the dialectic relationship between, technology and aesthetics, Thomas Edison's choice of recording artists is presented. Where other companies chose artists of public reknown (e.g. Victor had Caruso), Edison chose unknown singers whom, he claimed, had voices better suited to (the characteristics of) his phonograph. This meant no tremolo, enunciative clarity, pure unadulterated tone. Performers wishing to be recorded came to realize that, in some cases, they must adapt to the technology. Lastra decries the equation of the microphone's passive listening to the notion of the camera's click -- an absolute duplication -- and argues for the term 'representation' rather than 'recording' when dealing with both image and sound. It is impossible to separate process from performance -- hence the dialectic between technology and aesthetics. See notions of phonogeny (Chion 1994, pp.101–104) |
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| A digression into the "illustrated song" popular from the 1880's (still images - slideshow) to the 1890's/1900's (still + moving images) where the image was subordinate to the sound yet audiences still expected a good match (Lastra refers to this as a form of synchronization) between image and sound. Also, "travelogues"/lectures with spoken voice over scenic images. | |
| Points out that many early attempts at synchronizing image + sound required the image/performance to be fit to a pre-recorded soundtrack. | |
| Discussing trends in sonic accompaniment to 'silent' films: instead of picking out every single visual cue and rendering it as a sound effect (as some did), performers were increasingly encouraged to foreground just one or two visual cues within a hierarchical visual space that itself was dominated by a conception of narrative. Thus, in cinema, did sound become subjugated to image through the teens and 1920's. | |
| Discussing the development of sound recording in Hollywood 1926-34, describes the notion of the 'invisible auditor' with an experience similar to that of a listener in a concert hall (able to discriminate every nuance of sound) -- hence close boom miking (to provide this discrimination but seemingly incompatible with the concert goer in the middle of the audience). | |
| With the development of talkies, sound engineers were forced to discard their goal of duplication sound on a shot by shot basis in favour of narrative continuity over several shots/scenes (e.g. unchanging background noise) and adopt a role as representors or constructors of sound/reality. Very different to music recording (at the time). | |
| As sound engineers adapted to the aesthetic demands of Hollywood, the concept of 'invisible auditor' (based on a concert hall listener) gave way to the 'ideal auditor' and a jettisoning of any attempt to faithfully capture the original sound. |