The place of voiceover in academic audiovisual film and television criticism

No abstract available

Vinyl noise and narrative in CD-era indiewood

No abstract available

Lost in non-translation? Analysing film voices from a position of linguistic incompetence

This article identifies a widespread ‘deaf-spot’ in English-language criticism of the foreign-language film, namely the lack of attention given to the foreign-language voice. It points to the key driver behind this omission: an anxiety about the ability of the critic to capture sound through writing that is exacerbated when that sound carries language beyond the critic’s comprehension. The article proposes a style of criticism that acknowledges the limitations caused by linguistic incompetence, but that also finds a ‘way in’ to the vocal soundtrack, through attention to certain non-semantic qualities of voice. This interpretative practice is tested through an analysis of the vocal soundtrack of Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997), which is followed by a critical reflection on the relevance of this reading strategy to wider debates about foreign spectatorship, world cinema and the role of subjectivity within film criticism

From ‘video essay’ to ‘video monograph’? Indy Vinyl as academic book

Sarah Barrow argues that the video essay provides a ‘viable alternative to the academic book’. This article explores that claim, considering how a video essay-based project can pursue a single topic in the man-ner of a monograph. The case study is Indy Vinyl, my collection of video essays and writing about vinyl records in American Independ-ent Cinema. I argue that an approach informed by traditional schol-arly values should be augmented by more exploratory thinking, when moving from written to practice-based forms of film criticism

Pop music and characterisation in narrative film

This thesis discusses the use of pop songs in narrative films, with particular attention paid to their role in characterisation. My argument concerns the potential for pop to retain its specificity as a certain type of music whilst it carries out functions normally attributed to a composed score. Many commentators have assumed that, because a song may be known before it is used in a film, its narrative meanings are "pre-packaged". I combine an appreciation of pop music's propensity to come to a film already 'known' with an attempt to demonstrate how individual narratives ask songs to perform different affective roles. It is my contention that pop music's quality of 'knownness' is fundamental to its narrative affect in films, without, however, pre-determining that affect. I argue my case through close textual analysis, discussing the relationship between real-life pop stars' musical personas and the film characters they are asked to play, as well as offering numerous examples of songs without an on-screen performer becoming involved in processes of filmic narration

16-O-methylcafestol is present in ground roast Arabica coffees: Implications for authenticity testing

High-field and low-field proton NMR spectroscopy were used to analyse lipophilic extracts from ground roast coffees. Using a sample preparation method that produced concentrated extracts, a small marker peak at 3.16 ppm was observed in 30 Arabica coffees of assured origin. This signal has previously been believed absent from Arabicas, and has been used as a marker for detecting adulteration with robusta. Via 2D 600 MHz NMR and LC-MS, 16-O-methylcafestol and 16-O-methylkahweol were detected for the first time in Arabica roast coffee and shown to be responsible for the marker peak. Using low-field NMR, robusta in Arabica could be detected at levels of the order of 1-2% w/w. A surveillance study of retail purchased "100% Arabica" coffees found that 6 out of 60 samples displayed the 3.16 ppm marker signal to a degree commensurate with adulteration at levels of 3-30% w/w

Ghosts - Videographic Essay Voiceover Exercise (video essay)

No abstract available

Harold Becker

No abstract available

Mr Grant's Dream House

Cary Grant walks through his dream house, but will he ever get out? WARNING: features images of trains and submarines. Made in October 2020 for the Cary Grant Comes Home For the Weekend Festival

TV Dictionary - Heimat (Mist Opportunities) (video essay)

Heimat cloaked in three words. Part of the TV Dictionary showcase: TV Dictionary The process: this video is a spin-off from the original 'TV Dictionary - Heimat', which you can watch and read about here: vimeo.com/user18948906/ This alternative version takes the definitions, at the point they were placed in the original version, and subsumes them, in adapted form, into the subtitles of the scene playing out from 'Heimat'. The photos laid over the scene in the original TV Dictionary entry are taken away so that the subtitles accompany the original visual action (though, as you will see, the image is still tampered with). I think I prefer this version to the first one: I like the idea of the definitions being so integrated into the material of the show that they cease to be visible, taking part in an uncanny, sometimes absurdist, rescripting of the subtitles