“Commutation Tricks” and “Forced Marriages.” Videographic Manipulation as a Tool for the Analysis of Music in Films

Abstract

The audiovisual object is like a product of visuals and sound, not a summation. Film analysis should track back to the separate factors and show how they multiply each other when combined. Music, in particular, can be an elusive element, especially for non specialists. But music can crucially perform a variety of functions in films, and its agency should therefore be taken in proper consideration during film analysis. After a preliminary discussion of some recent theory of how visuals and sound fuse into an audiovisual whole, the article presents the manipulations made possible by the videographic approach as a helpful analytical tool to draw attention to the music. As an example, I provide my own videographic manipulations: an annotated audiovisual clip of the opening sequence of The Shining, and the same clip with the original music replaced with John Williams’s ‘Main Theme’ from Jurassic Park