Sonic Space and Echoes of the Flesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-139
Author(s):  
ALISON WALKER
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
Alfonso Cuaron ◽  
Cinematic Experience ◽  
Film Sound

This essay argues that the cinematic experience for audiences be reconsidered as a cinesomatic experience. Theorists such as Vivian Sobchack (1992; 2000; 2005) and Jennifer Barker (2009) have done much to conceptualise and theorise a sensory, embodied experience of cinema. These scholars, mainly drawing from either a Merleau-Pontian phenomenology or a Spinozist/Deleuzian theory of affect, have led the wave of new writings probing the ways in which audience engagement with film is corporeal. Their work explores cinema in terms of visual and haptic engagements, congruous with a broader move in scholarship towards the sensorial. However, despite the growth of embodied film theory in recent years, there is an even greater need to take the sensorial model of cinema spectatorship to film sound. This essay addresses cinema sound in specifically corporeal terms, demonstrating how audience experiences of film sound can be reconsidered as cinesomatic. By drawing a textual and phenomenological reading of the sound design in Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013), this essay aims to reveal new insights into the materially rich experience of a film’s soundtrack and demonstrate how a multiplicity of ‘narratives’ converge during and beyond the cinema encounter.

The Immersive Continuity of Roma

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-193
Author(s):  
RENÉ IDROVO
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Extensive Analysis ◽  
Alfonso Cuaron ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
Cinematic Experience ◽  
Sound Objects ◽  
At Home

In Gravity (2013), Alfonso Cuarón introduced a fully three-dimensional sound design approach that was originally termed by Idrovo and Pauletto (2019) as ‘immersive point-of-audition’. More recently, in Netflix’s Roma (2018), Cuarón not only perfected such treatment of sound, but consolidated an audio-visual style that stands out for its capacity to enhance our sensation of ‘presence’ in the narrative world, a style that is referred here to as immersive continuity. Grounded on the spatiotemporal continuity of the long take, Cuarón’s immersive continuity allows sound objects to flow all around the 3-D space, and hence opens a giant window of opportunity for the exploitation of Dolby Atmos. Through an extensive analysis of Roma, this article describes the aesthetics of such audio-visual style, and beyond, it explores the methods and workflows that permitted Cuarón’s sound team to fully exploit sound three-dimensionality. Finally, I discuss the growing adoption of Netflix as one of the major challenges that the theatrical cinema industry has to face; and argue that embracing immersive continuity may be a powerful weapon for attracting audiences to a cinematic experience that cannot be found at home.

scholarly journals A Pragmatic Framework for the Cognitive Study of Documentary

Projections ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalin Brylla ◽  
Mette Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
The Future ◽  
Documentary Studies ◽  
Cognitive Study ◽  
Areas Of Interest

Traditionally, there has been little intersection between cognitive film theory and documentary studies. This article initially outlines the main reasons for this lacuna, but it also highlights the few existing exceptions. While these remain too embryonic to initiate a large, overarching, and evolving discourse, they constitute seminal landmarks and stepping stones for the future of cognitive documentary studies, which, as we argue, needs to be a pragmatic endeavor. Based on this premise, we propose a research framework consisting of four areas of interest: the mediation of realities; character engagement; emotion and embodied experience; and documentary practice. This framework takes into account intratextual and extratextual aspects in relation to documentary production and reception, as well as potential social impacts.

scholarly journals The Influence of Cultural Traditions on Sound Design Techniques in Japanese Cinema. Sound Effects and Music

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-105
Author(s):  
Elena A Rusinova ◽  
Elizaveta M Habchuk
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Japanese Cinema ◽  
Musical Tradition ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Russian Cinema ◽  
Artistic Image

For a long time, Japanese cinema has been developing separately, mastering the specifics of the new art, which came from the West, and at the same time trying to solve within its framework the problem of "national identity". However, since the 1950s, Japanese cinema has become widely known abroad and is gaining recognition in the West. The present day no one doubts the huge contribution of Japanese filmmakers to the history of world cinema. Nevertheless, the study of Japanese cinema in Russian cinema theory still remains the prerogative of a few professionals who know the Japanese language and are closely acquainted with the Japanese mentality, culture and art, which exert a great influence on the artistic features of Japanese screen art. But in order to even more imbued with the originality of the approach to creating an artistic image in Japanese cinema, it is necessary to draw attention to one of the most important components of its structure, namely, the sound aspect, insufficiently studied in film theory. The novelty of the article is that it analyzes and classifies the sound features of some Japanese movies created in the second half of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries, in which the influence of traditional culture manifests itself quite clearly, but at the same time the presence of elements of the Western musical tradition is also noticeable, which reflects to a certain extent the process of transculturalism in cinema that is actual nowadays.

Film Sound Design

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Film Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Sound Effects ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Classical Hollywood ◽  
Film Sound

Sound design is a relatively recent term, first used to credit Walter Murch’s work on Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979). Murch has frequently drawn an analogy between how he perceived his role as decorating the three-dimensional film theater with sound and the work of an interior designer who decorates an architectural space (LoBrutto 1994, p. 92, cited under Key Practitioners: Compilations). Sound design is also a topic of increasing interest within film music scholarship, particularly its history and how it might be analyzed. The history of sound design is inextricably bound up with the history of technology, notably the emergence of Dolby in the 1970s. In his Oxford Bibliographies article “Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood,” David Neumeyer noted in the introduction that the end of the Classical Hollywood era could be situated c. 1972 when the “contemporary era of sound design began in earnest,” and this particular period is indeed crucial. Yet, this is not to suggest that the history of film sound design is brief; in fact, it has a long history of antecedents that have shaped the role of the sound designer into a somewhat fluid concept. As of the early 21st century, no consensus has been reached on the definition of “sound design” in current research; however, the distinction between sound design as the work of one individual as opposed to a mode of practice is apparent. Furthermore, “sound designer” also has a professional meaning; in the United States the labor union defines the sound designer as a person who designs the sound effects. Some scholars expound this relatively narrow definition of sound design as akin to sound effects editing in the post-production process, whereas others see it as a broad undertaking, concerned with every aspect of the sonic environment. Murch encourages a broader definition of the sound designer as “someone who plans, creates the sound effects and mixes the final soundtrack, and thereby takes responsibility for the sound of a film the way a director of photography takes responsibility for the image” (Murch 1995, p. 246, cited under Key Practitioners: Articles). Sound design can encapsulate all components of film sound, including music, dialogue, sound effects, and voiceovers. This holistic understanding of the term is reflected in a significant interdisciplinary edition that takes the concept of the integrated soundtrack as a central theme (Greene and Kulezic-Wilson 2016, cited under Analyzing Film Sound Design). Sound design can involve conceptualization and practical efforts as well as cooperation with the director, producer, composer, editors, and other creative personnel. Sound designer Randy Thom has highlighted the importance of developing opportunities for the creative use of sound when making a film and has appealed for filmmakers to design their films for sound (Thom 1999, cited under Key Practitioners: Articles). The combination of creativity, technical expertise, and the ability to conceptualize innovative interactions between sound and image inherent in the concept is reflected in the very title of “sound designer,” a label that is not officially recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards. With the growing popularity of the term among some industry professionals, it is becoming common for sound artists to claim the credit “sound designer” in addition to those for recognized roles such as “sound editor” or “re-recording engineer” (Whittington 2007, p. 26, cited under Histories and Definitions of Sound Design). Within film music studies, the concept of sound design is increasingly used as a filter for analysis of a film’s soundscape, and thus publications now address how to analyze more complex film soundtracks. The focus of this article is divided into three broad strands: textbooks that give practical and technical direction for film sound design or aspects of it, literature on the history of sound design and the purview of the sound designer, and publications about and interviews with key practitioners.

scholarly journals The Emotional Impact of Sound: A Short Theory of Film Sound Design

10.29007/jk8h ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Görne
Keyword(s):  
Human Perception ◽  
Effective Medium ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Mood Management ◽  
Film Sound

Following Zillmann’s Mood Management Theory, a main reason why people are watch- ing films is the drive to modify and regulate one’s mood by means of media entertainment [1]. And film is in this sense an effective medium: Narration, acting, visual design and sound design altogether contribute to its emotional impact. Accordingly, a main objective of film sound design is the communication and triggering of emotion or mood.The paper investigates film sound design from the viewpoints of human perception, psychology and communication science. A special focus is set on the semantics of sound, communicated by means of crossmodal metaphors and symbols, on attention guiding and inattentional deafness, on the diegesis and on image / sound relationships.

scholarly journals Carceral soundscapes. Sonic violence and embodied experience in film about imprisonment

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Philippa Lovatt
Keyword(s):  
Rock Music ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Guantanamo Bay ◽  
Politics Of Aesthetics ◽  
Penal Institutions ◽  
Potential Mode ◽  
The Spectator

Post 9/11 the ‘invisibility’ of political prisoners as part of the ‘war on terror’ has had a direct correlation with the concealment of abusive treatment of detainees in the detention camps at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Details of these abuse scandals have indicated that there has been a notable shift away from the optical towards the sonic as a form of punishment and torture, with accounts of detainees being subjected to rock music played for prolonged periods at excruciating volumes (Smith, 2008). Addressing a number of key concerns – sound and phe- nomenology, sound and the ethics of spectatorship, sound and the experience/intensification of confinement, sound as a (potential) mode of resistance/control – this paper will investigate the use of sound in cinematic depictions of imprisonment including A Man Escaped (Bresson, 1956), Hunger (McQueen, 2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012). The aim is to explore how an auditory perspective might complicate previously held ocularcentric conceptions of power in penal institutions (Foucault, 1977) and to examine how this experience of sound is represented on screen. The essay also considers how sound design can bridge the distance between self and other, and align the spectator emotionally, ethically and politically with a film’s characters. The essay thus proposes that an ethical spectatorship may require cinematic auditors to listen more critically, and it claims that a better understanding of the fundamental role that sound and listening play in the articulation and recognition – or indeed, disavowal – of the subjectivity of prisoners within these narratives may lead to an increased awareness of the politics of aesthetics of individual films. The essay concludes by suggesting that the field of sound studies creates further opportunities for research that explores these important questions about representation, spectatorship and ethics from a range of disciplinary perspectives. 

New Wine in New Skins

2010 ◽  
pp. 384-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hug
Keyword(s):  
Computer Game ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Technological Constraints ◽  
Interactive Medium ◽  
Film Sound

With the disappearance of technological constraints and their often predetermining impact upon design, computer game sound has the opportunity to develop into many innovative and unique aesthetic directions. This article reflects upon related discourse and design practice, which seems strongly influenced by mainstream Hollywood film and by a striving for naturalism and the simulation of “reality.” It is proposed that this constitutes an unnecessary limitation to the development and maturation of game sound. Interestingly, a closer understanding of aesthetic innovations of film sound, in particular in relation to what can be termed “liberation of the soundtrack,” can indicate thus far unexploited potential for game sound. Combined with recent innovations in creative practice and technology, they serve as inspiration to propose new directions for game sound design, taking into account the inherent qualities of the interactive medium and the technological and aesthetic possibilities associated with it.

Voicing the Cinema

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Singing Voice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrow Concept ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Voice

The introduction sets up the scope and framework of the volume as a whole. Over the past three decades, the study of the film soundtrack has developed into a rich scholarly discipline, characterized by diverse approaches and methodologies. As an object of theoretical focus, the voice has helped correct the long-standing ocularcentrism of film theory discourse. Yet, the voice as a narrow concept is itself problematic in that it limits our understanding of how it functions among the various components of the soundtrack. Understood as part of an integrated soundtrack—that is, a soundtrack where the various components have a sense of being planned or composed and where sound design and music are blended into a kind of conceptual unity—the voice assumes a somewhat different role and allows for a more complex and interpretively richer conceptual framework. This volume aims to reconsider and broaden our notion of what the voice as a concept can do for studies of film music and sound. The introduction explores theoretical concerns relating to film dialogue, vococentrism, the spectacle of the singing voice, film music’s commentative function as voice, as well as the voice of various cinematic authorship and production. It concludes with a brief summary of each chapter in the volume. Considering these many different conceptions of “voice” can provide new perspectives on how we consider the relationship between voice and cinema, broadly defined.

Soundscapes of Istanbul in Turkish Film Soundtracks

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meri Kytö
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Turkish Cinema ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Film Sound

This article appears in theOxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aestheticsedited by John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman, and Carol Vernallis. This chapter examines the changing relationships of sounds, places, and their cultural meanings in Turkish films located in Istanbul. Starting with a brief review of the historical context of Turkish film sound and sonic representations of Istanbul, the chapter then analyzes two recent films set in middle-class apartment homes,11’e 10 kalaandUzak, which represent the auteur vein of new Turkish cinema. Both feature subtle and delicate sound design and evidence a form of heightened realism that contrasts with traditional approaches, shifting the focus of Istanbul’s soundscapes from public to private. Although the locations and characters of both these films are remarkably similar, their soundtracks differ in rendering the experience of urbanity and strategies of acoustic privacy by the transcoding of soundmarks and the use of transphonia in scenes.

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