Page 49 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

38 • Sport, Media and Society

Montage editing involves a quickly changing set of different shots whose mean-
ing emerges within the combination of shots (Hayward 2006). The spectator supplies
the third meaning that connects the shots that are positioned together. Montage often

disrupts a film’s sense of realism by drawing attention to the editing process. It
can effectively speed through time. In Raging Bull (1980), a home movie sequence,
which combines title cards documenting fights, stills from the fights and home mov-

ies depicting scenes of marital harmony, condenses more than three years of the

boxer’s personal and professional life into two minutes thirty-five seconds (Phillips
2002). Phillips (2002) suggested that the montage of shots at the end of Breaking
Away (1979) has the effect of altering the metanarrative of the film. The fi lm depicts

four working-class young men taking on university students in an annual team bi-
cycle race. The last few scenes of the film indicate that the characters have changed

personal direction by depicting them pursuing different life choices such as going

to university or getting married. Despite the film’s engagement with the politics
of class and sport, Phillips (2002: 133) argued that the scenes ‘quickly shift empha-
sis from social class to individual psychology’ in keeping with ‘so many American
movies’.

Sound

Film is not just a visual phenomenon. A fi lm’s soundtrack can bring a scene to life,
a capacity further enhanced by developments in sound technology. Chion (1994)
drew attention to the importance of Dolby stereo for increases in clarity and detail
in sounds and noises used in contemporary films. He explained that ‘Dolby offers

a gain in resources on the level of sound space and sound dynamics’ (Chion 1994:
153). Dolby stereo and multitrack recording gave directors and sound designers the
ability to broaden the way that scenes are constructed. Chion called this the ‘super-

field’: ‘the space created, in multitrack films, by ambient natural sounds, city noises,

music, and all sorts of rustlings that surround the visual space’ (Chion 1994: 150).
This technology enables individual sounds to be heard and placed with much more

definition, so that contemporary soundscapes are less dominated by what is seen on

the screen. Increased definition of sounds has also provided sound designers with the
means to extract greater depth to the portrayal of feelings and emotions that are not
only in the present, but also the past and the future. Chion called this ‘rendering’:
‘the use of sounds to convey the feelings and effects associated with the situation
on screen—often in opposition to faithful reproduction of the sounds that might be
heard in the situation in reality’ (Chion 1994: 224).
Sound also has a narrative function. It can move the plot forward, help defi ne
characters, indicate mood, locate the film historically and highlight particular actors,

objects and actions. Soundtracks may be used to situate movies in particular histori-
cal times, such as the 1960s soundtrack that plays throughout Remember the Titans.