Soundscaping New Zealand: An Aural Perspective of a Cinematic Geography Bernard Madill A thesis submitted for the degree of Masters of Arts At the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. 2012 ii Abstract This study is an inquiry into how New Zealand’s national cinema represents the local aural geography on-screen. It concerns itself with the cinematic geography rather than actuality. The investigation proceeds in a manner that treats soundscape analysis as an activity equal to standard textual analysis of image. It is a broad view of the terrain, that ‘listens’ to a large number of films in order to establish probable, rather than possible, patterns. The material chosen is a diverse range of films from the feature, documentary, short, art, and experimental film categories. This study surveys the current literature on New Zealand cinema and outlines a brief history of sound in this national context. This finds that there is a dearth of material of an academic nature on local film sound. It therefore establishes that the study of a national soundscape is a worthwhile undertaking. An exploration of the wider areas of sonic studies is undertaken in order to bring new ideas, concepts, and theoretical perspectives to the research, and form a foundation to the analysis. The areas considered are (a) early film sound concepts, (b) sound and society, and (c) the manner and context in which audiences listen. A methodology is formed from the varied directions of the topic. Firstly, it is an inquiry into the local soundscape and what it sounds like in the national cinema. Secondly, the existing literature on local film sound indicates that there is a gap in the knowledge of our local soundscape, rather than a lack of a soundscape. A hypothesis is formed to make a possible continuum from generic to idiomatic categories of soundscape, in terms of their ability to represent the New Zealand aural environment and culture. Thirdly, issues that arise iii from the wider field of sonic studies provide a basis in existing scholarship for many aspects of the analysis. The model employed to analyze the filmography in this study considers as wide a range of approaches to the national aural cinematic geography as possible. Music is one of those approaches. However, this is not a purely musical analysis. Music, voice, and other sounds are treated as equally interesting components of film soundscapes. The interdependence of these film elements is regarded as axiomatic to the basic premise, that soundscapes can be segmented and interpreted as evidence of how New Zealand’s film culture represents its aural geography on-screen. This study formalizes the popular affiliation with the local soundscape and geography, as it is exhibited on-screen. It finds that a few sounds are uniquely idiomatic but that it is the way sounds behave collectively, in cinematic geography, that form soundscapes evocative of place and culture. This study should be viewed as the commencement of continuing research into a new field of inquiry with ramifications beyond cinema. iv Acknowledgements I have been privileged to have the opportunity to explore, deeply, the many facets of New Zealand soundscapes in film and the wider aural geography. This has proven to be a thoroughly engrossing topic that draws on my background in music and sound as well as an interest in film. By bringing together these areas of experience with a focus on issues of local sonic interest I have been able to shape the topic into this study of environmental and popular aural geography as represented in New Zealand’s cinema. In the pursuit of this I have received invaluable guidance, patience, and support from my primary supervisor Dr. Davinia Thornley. Davinia encouraged me to explore in unusual directions yet provided an anchor for my many fanciful ideas. Davinia’s wide experience and knowledge of New Zealand cinema was also a valuable reference for much film material that would not commonly be known. My thanks also go to Dr. Erika Pearson for her equally supportive and challenging supervision particularly when Davinia was on leave but also whenever the need arose. These acknowledgements would not be complete without mention of my fellow postgraduate students. Many moments of research and writers block are solved as a result of the seriously searching yet often-comedic conversation that takes place in the postgraduate suites. For this I wish to thank them all. I wish also to thank the many other staff members of the Film and Media department at Otago University. Even when not intimate with my project they never fail to enquire as to “how it’s going”. This is a department in which no one needs to feel alone. v The staff at Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua: The New Zealand Film Archives deserves my thanks for their helpfulness on my visits to the Wellington facility and for the valuable online catalogue. Thanks also to the many anonymous people who create other valuable online sources such as NZ On Screen, Digitalnz Ā-Tihi O Aotearoa and the Department of Conservation: Te Papa Atawhai (doc.govt.nz). Collectively, these, and many others, are a rich resource for anyone interested in anything to do with New Zealand. Most importantly, I wish to thank my wife, Helen Gilmore, for undying patience, support and proof reading throughout the project. Helen has had to accommodate the strange and obscure visual material I have often insisted on watching, as well as maintain a semblance of normal home life. Now to her great relief she has returned to a diet of romantic comedies. vi It seems entirely appropriate that this thesis should be dedicated to my parents Rod and Joan Madill For them, education is both paramount and continuing If only I had listened sooner vii CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Chapter One Introduction 1 Introduction to the Topic and Wider Context 3 Focusing the Question 5 Limits 6 Outline and Methodological Approach 8 PART I The Groundwork: Introduction 11 Chapter Two New Zealand Film Sound 13 The Literature 14 New Zealand Film Sound: Brief Overview 18 Conclusion 26 Chapter Three Theoretical perspectives: Soundscape as Object, Text, and Experience 28 The Wider Field: Early Film Sound 29 Object and Text 34 Audience Experience and Participation 39 Conclusion 44 Chapter Four Methodology 46 PART II The Case Studies: Introduction 63 Chapter Five Documentary Films Introduction 66 Exposition 71 viii Interdependent Relationships Functional and Constructed 74 Actual and Commentative 77 Mise-en-bande: The Orchestration of Aural Objects 81 Time and Space 83 Audience Participation and Experience 85 Conclusion 88 Chapter Six Feature Film ` Introduction 90 Exposition 91 Intedependent Relationships Functional and Constructed 95 Actual and Commentative 100 Mise-en-bande: The Orchestration of Aural Objects 102 Time and Space 105 Audience Participation and Experience 108 Conclusion 110 Chapter Seven Short Film Introduction 112 Exposition 113 Interdependent Relationships Functional and Constructed 116 Actual and Commentative 119 Mise-en-bande: The Orchestration of Aural Objects 123 Time and Space 125 Audience Participation and Experience 127 Conclusion 130 ix Chapter Eight Conclusion 131 Review of Chapters 132 The Filmography and Analysis 135 Summary of Results 137 Filmography 141 Bibliography 147 Appendix Example of Analysis 153 A Train for Christmas 154 1 Chapter One: Introduction [Philip] Skelton, for valid reasons of experimentation, wanted to make the film entirely silent – annoyed at the often invasive and leading (or misleading) presence of music scores. He wanted to see if a tale could be told by visuals alone, without the audience being told when and how to feel. The experiment was successful but made the film ultimately unmarketable and it was not picked up for distribution by the NZFC [New Zealand Film Commission]. In retrospect, I am not surprised; at each screening I attended, I had to make an announcement that it was a silent film – something I learnt after the first screening when people started yelling at the projectionist. (Cole-Baker 57) This anecdote, told by Alex Cole-Baker about a New Zealand short film she produced, Iosua (Philip Skelton 1995), shows the expectation audiences have for sound as part of the cinematic experience. This is despite the widespread belief, referred to by Claudia Gorbman, that film sound, and especially music, goes unheard (1-7). Cole-Baker’s story shows that audiences notice the absence of sound. My work accepts that sound is a fixture in cinema and is directed towards connecting film soundscapes to their meaning, symbolism, and wider social aspects.1 This project originated in the writing of an essay (“In What Manner, and to What Extent, is Indigeneity Represented in Particular Soundscapes” Madill 2009) and a subsequent dissertation (“Mise-en-bande, Voice, Music, and Sounds as Method and Terminology in Film Soundscape Analysis” Madill 2010). In the former work, the exploration of soundscapes, and how they might represent indigeneity, led to the realization that soundscapes were important to the makeup of cultures. Consequently, in that essay, I set out to explore the possibility of 1 In this thesis the term soundscape is used as a unitary noun referring to all sound (music, voice, and sounds) as one construction. This and other terms are further discussed in chapter four. 2 reading cultural difference and attributes into the sound of many films. Closer analysis of soundscapes, and their social meaning, was a worthy subject for further research, and required a mechanism for better analysis. The purpose of the dissertation was, therefore, to create such a methodology. The stipulation for that method was that it would demonstrate its usefulness in connecting sound to wider issues of cinema, audience, and society. Such a method should also be expandable and adaptable.