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Sounds of the projection box : liner notes for a phonographic method
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Pigott, Michael (2018) Sounds of the projection box : liner notes for a phonographic method. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 15 (1). pp. 27-45. doi:10.3366/jbctv.2018.0400
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2018.0400
Abstract
In order to document, investigate and analyse the soundscape of the analogue projection box before it passes into history, a series of audio recordings was made within functioning boxes, a selection of which have been released as an ‘album’. The recordings, made in UK boxes that maintain both 35mm film projection and digital projection, also capture the shifting sonic texture of this environment as it changes from primarily analogue to primarily digital operation. This article explores the role of phonographic field recording as a practical methodology within a film historical research project that investigates the role of the film projectionist and cinematic projection throughout the history of cinema exhibition in the UK. It proposes a set of systematic principles for approaching the use of phonographic field recording in this context, and shows how they may be applied. Through an analysis of both the recordings themselves and the experience of making the recordings, it extracts some observations regarding the character, history and culture of the projection box as a lived environment and workplace. Just as cinema-goers seldom get to see inside this hidden room at the back of the auditorium, these sound recordings also reveal it to be a soundproofed box, a noisy environment in which the interface between operator and machine takes audible form, in which noise of one sort indicates smooth operation, while another sort indicates faults that need to be addressed. The article considers the legibility of noise and proposes that the relationship between projectionist and machine is significantly aural as well as visual and tactile.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > Film and Television Studies | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Motion picture projection -- History -- Great Britain -- 20th century, Motion picture projectionists -- History -- Great Britain -- 20th century | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of British Cinema and Television | ||||||
| Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1743-4521 | ||||||
| Official Date: | January 2018 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Date of first compliant deposit: | 6 December 2017 | ||||||
| Volume: | 15 | ||||||
| Number: | 1 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 27-45 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.3366/jbctv.2018.0400 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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