Saturday, October 25, 2008

Acoustic Image: Brief 1: Research

Synchromy
Norman McLaren,1971
"Here are pyrotechnics of the keyboard, but with only a camera to "play the tune." To make this film, Norman McLaren employed novel optical techniques to compose the piano rhythms of the sound track. These he then moved, in multicolor, onto the picture area of the screen so that, in effect, you see what you hear. It is synchronization of image and sound in the truest sense of the word." NFB Canada



Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock, 1960
"Hitchcock wanted only the noise of the shower and, by the way, Marion's scream. Bernard Herrmann convinced Hitchcock to use shrieking violins to increase the frightening side of the scene."
The "Psycho" home page



Intervals
Peter Greenaway,1969
"A short examination of structure and sound, this film shot in black and white in the location of Venice presents three sections of similar film to us over its duration of six minutes. In the first section a metronome is used to count events in the film. People walk across the frame, sometimes in the foreground, which is accompanied precisely by a different sound. In the second section a male Italian voice can be heard counting through the alphabet. Music by Vivaldi is heard in the third." Peter Greenaway website



Metropolis
Fritz Lang, 1927
Music: Fadi Gaziri
The film contains cinematic and thematic links to German Expressionism, though the architecture as portrayed in the film appears based on contemporary Modernism and Art Deco. The latter, a brand-new style in Europe at the time, had not reached mass production yet and was considered an emblem of the bourgeois class, and similarly associated with the ruling class in the film.
Metropolis had an original musical score meant to be performed by large orchestras accompanying the film in major theatres. The music was composed by Gottfried Huppertz



Drawing Restraint 9 - trailer, 2005
Matthew Barney



Another Brick in the Wall, 1979
Pink Floyd





True Faith, 1987
New Order



Road to Nowhere, 1985
Talking Heads