Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Networked/Narrativized Images
NARRATIVIZED
I wasn't listening to music.
I wasn't watching a movie.
I was staying in tune with my surroundings, and it was eery.
So many repetitive sounds, so many loops...
The dripping water at the sink, the wind blowing my blinds back and forth, a VHS being rewound in my CRT TV...
It was as if I was playing multiple "songs" at the same time; the world's worst mashup.
Too much aural exposure... I need earplugs.
I wasn't watching a movie.
I was staying in tune with my surroundings, and it was eery.
So many repetitive sounds, so many loops...
The dripping water at the sink, the wind blowing my blinds back and forth, a VHS being rewound in my CRT TV...
It was as if I was playing multiple "songs" at the same time; the world's worst mashup.
Too much aural exposure... I need earplugs.
"The ear favors no particular 'point of view.'"
In film, this statement applies tenfold. Whether diegetic (within the film, e.g. - dialogue) or nondiegetic (outside of the film, e.g. - narration), sound can tell a story from various perspectives, regardless of what the camera is doing.
Let's examine Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM (1960):
In the infamous dance sequence with Moira Shearer, the music takes a different turn. We are presented with a radio (diegetic) blasting music. While this scene seems to suggest little more than a ruse to get Shearer’s character on her own, the sound structure of the scene tells of much more going on psychologically within Mark’s world. As he starts to enact his rather twisted plan, this diegetic music inexplicably fades out. There’s no explanation given within the visuals of the film; the sound simply zones out. It is however replaced with the piano melody that has gradually become a leitmotif for an impending murder which proceeds to get louder and louder. This music's existence suggests that Mark is actually scoring his snuff films in his own head, making a number of sections within the score come under that ever complex description of meta-diegetic. If his past is haunting him with voices that the viewers can hear, surely the viewer can also hear his cinematic autuerism deciding on his own musical scoring?
Let's examine Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM (1960):
In the infamous dance sequence with Moira Shearer, the music takes a different turn. We are presented with a radio (diegetic) blasting music. While this scene seems to suggest little more than a ruse to get Shearer’s character on her own, the sound structure of the scene tells of much more going on psychologically within Mark’s world. As he starts to enact his rather twisted plan, this diegetic music inexplicably fades out. There’s no explanation given within the visuals of the film; the sound simply zones out. It is however replaced with the piano melody that has gradually become a leitmotif for an impending murder which proceeds to get louder and louder. This music's existence suggests that Mark is actually scoring his snuff films in his own head, making a number of sections within the score come under that ever complex description of meta-diegetic. If his past is haunting him with voices that the viewers can hear, surely the viewer can also hear his cinematic autuerism deciding on his own musical scoring?
Medium is the Massage: 5 things
All media are extensions of some human
faculty – psychic of physical.
The ear favors no particular “point
of view.”
Television demands participation and
involvement in depth of the whole being.
Propaganda ends where dialogue begins.
The phrase “God is dead” applies
aptly, correctly, validly to the Newtonian universe which is dead.
What A Chore
If only the dishes did themselves, then
there'd be no one to dilly dally regarding the dishes, I mean, we'd
live in a perfect society, a perfect world, a perfect dish; garnished
with duck sauce, soy sauce, white sauce, even peppercorn, cracked
(sauce), a better dressing to compliment the already over-tossed
salad that is the United Nations, the disgruntled doctor's stations,
measly meandering mason jars of mushrooms, instilling illusions of
grandeur for the patients waving blindly at those doctor's stations,
ringing a bell or buzzing a buzzer, alerting the half-asleep guard of
their melancholic mishap once again, one minute to midnight.
FUTURE COCKTAIL
If you're using lump sugar, muddle it
with the water before adding the spirits. “Oh,” she shrugged,
walking aimlessly away, her hands in the pockets of her heavy, rather
old-fashioned skirt. Her bottom bobbed in a glossy black shimmer.
Without seeing him, Ender knew it would bring his face closer, almost
in Ender's hair; so instead of kicking, he lunged upward off the
floor, with the powerful lunge of the soldier bounding from the wall,
and jammed his head into Bonzo's face. Ambassador Minton did a lot of
ambassadorial, gourmand saluting with his coconut, pretending to love
all men and all the beverages that sustained them.
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