John Smith - Associations

Today I had a tutorial with one of the tutors and shared with them all the research and experiments I had to show. The feedback I received was extremely helpful, I can now take my idea in different directions and research a lot more into different concepts.

John Smith's Associations is where I started my new research.
"The film Sets language against itself by using the ambiguities inherent in the English language. Images from magazines and color supplements accompany a voiceover reading from the book Word Associations and Linguistic Theory by academic linguistic Herbert H. Clark. Combining a wry sense of humor with word/visual games and puns, Smith explores the boundaries of cinematic montage by combining elements together and against each other in order to destroy and create multiple meanings at the same time." 
The reason why my tutor told me to look at the work of John Smith is that if language can be manipulated and used to create different meaning and associations and so can sound.



Ben Burtt took sound to a next level when creating the sound effects for Star Wars. Science fiction create things that have not been invented and Ben Burtt created sounds that did not exist. He believed that the sounds he created would associate to weapons and other items invented in the world of Star Wars. If they were not listened to with the accompanying imagery, would we still believe they were laser guns or lightsabers? Probably not.

'Shattering chicken carcasses with baseball bats, cracking walnuts inside them, smacking around slabs of meat with pigs' feet, and then processing them... We've done it all, and as a result of this project our 'punch' library has become quite extensive. - Ren Klyce, Fight Club (Sound Designer) 
In order to create a realistic sound it is not always necessary for the sound to be literal. In order to enhance a sound then it is often beneficial to use a different sound and through the use of association we believe it. 

The way this could relate to my film is if I were to try and associate sounds with imagery. Potentially I could try and trick audiences, like John Smith's film the ambiguity of the sound would not matter as long as the imagery could associate in some way.