Theories of the Soundtrack

04/15/19

I uncovered the most fascinating film studies literature as I was browsing the library for additional sources for my analysis paper on the film Holes. In his book Theories of the Soundtrack, James Buhler dissects the relationship of sound to film.

Starting with the groundbreaking evolution of film from silent film to talking picture, Buhler incorporates epistemology to ask how the experience of the viewer is impacted by these changes. He asks,

“Can we still have cinema without the medium of physical film? The digital image no longer relates indexically to the profilmic object; the world screened by the digital image is virtual rather than real.”
Buhler highlights the importance of understanding medium of film as an interactive art form. This brings to mind the questions that guided our viewing of the film Blade Runner, such as, how does the culture impact technology? And visa versa.

As the technology advances, the viewing experience is altered. He notes that we still refer to cinema as “film” despite the fact that the process is completely digitized. By using this word, the culture has yet to detach from the “real,” rejecting the “virtual.” I think that people prefer the word “film” because it is tangible. In the Digital Age, people still rely on art as a form of escapism, but at the end of the day, they want to relate to and find groundedness through the medium in which they experience that “escape.”

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