320 pages.
This is Robert Nulph's doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of Theatre and Film and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Submitted: September 9, 2002
Abstract from the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database:
Since the early 1980's, there has been an increased interest in the analysis of all audiovisual relationships in multimedia. This interest was prompted by an effort to diminish the distinct lack of a cross-media vocabulary and the film community's predisposition to subordinate audio to the image. Slowly, scholars from each side of the audiovisual aisle have begun creating methodologies that attempt to analyze the film/music relationship. More recently, they have begun to intensively explore the complete audiovisual experience. It is this recent emphasis in forging new methodologies in audiovisual analysis that has prompted this study.
The study is divided into six chapters. Following the introductory chapter, Chapter's II, III and IV feature a detailed analysis, application, and evaluation of the methodologies used by film scholar Claudia Gorbman, filmmaker and French scholar Michel Chion and British musicologist Nicholas Cook respectively. For each chapter, the First Act of the feature film Titanic is used as a case study. The subsequent analysis is then evaluated for effectiveness and ease of use. Chapter V consists of the synthesis of the most effective elements of Gorbman, Chion and Cook as well as new elements provided by the author. The result of this synthesis is Nulph's Model for Audiovisual Analysis. This new model is then analyzed and applied to the First Act of Titanic ; an evaluation of this new analytic method concludes the chapter. Chapter VI concludes the study with an overall evaluation and speculation on the future of multimedia analysis.
Using this new model, a scholar, filmmaker or musician possessing a moderate understanding of music, sound, and film theory can examine interrelationships between the audio and the visual components of a feature film or other forms of audiovisual media.
