“… sounds and voices that wander the surface of the screen, awaiting a place to attach to, belong to the cinema and to it alone.”
Michel Chion Audio Vision/Sound on screen
Dir: John Holloway
Graduate from Leeds Metropolitan University
Synopsis
This is a music video by John Holloway for a tune by Amon Tobin called “Nightlife” (Ninjatune).
It is a music video where each different sound you hear, whether a drum beat or a melody played by a flute, is represented by an action on screen.
The actions on screen range from literal representation of the sound to more abstract ideas.
It also has a playful side as a lot of the visual connections become humorous.
Comment
I think that John Holloway tries to explore the audio-visual territory with an interesting result, but he prefers not be innovative choosing always the most obvious link between sound and image.
Michel Chion explores in The Voice in Cinema the relationship between the sonic and visual expression. He talks about synchronic and diachronic action on the screen, this video does not have a sequencial timeline and is therefore synchronic, it is a practical result of Chions study.
With modern day audio and soundtracks technology we can create more complex audio
environments, then at the time Chion created his theory. But this is not an obstacle in reading Animusic as an example of a video where the dialogue between sound and image create a perfect package. Watching the video without audio you can guess the sounds and the other way around, because the images are just a repetition of what we hear.
To shoot and edit synchronous sound is more straightforward than to structure films around voices and bodies that are not necessarily connected.
The video would have benefited from a more experimental approach using sound and visuals as it stands it is more an illustration than an expression.
