Looking and listening

It could be argued that the relationship between sound and image in film is hierarchical in that sound is often seen as subordinate to image. Cider Makers (a documentary by Keith Marley and Geoffrey Cox) attempts to redress this imbalance through the creative treatment of diegetic sound. In doing so it draws on the techniques of musique concrète where connections are made between the morphologies of different sounds, linked only by their role as signifiers in the film. The use of non-narrative montage editing in Cider Makers is structured so as to dislocate the viewer from a traditional mode of viewing, allowing the viewer to concentrate more on the audio elements of the documentary. The combined efforts of image-maker and sound composer to encourage a specific way of experiencing the text, will also be discussed.