The Mill.
A 26-minute documentary film, which aims to capture a sense of place through intricate sound and image design. The film could be loosely termed, an industrial symphony.
- Submitting institution
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Liverpool John Moores University
- Unit of assessment
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output identifier
- MARLEY2
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2021
- URL
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https://vimeo.com/433446196
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- Yes
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- When lockdown was announced in March 2020, The Mill, was close to completion, however the soundtrack had not yet been fully constructed. The researcher was unable to work in person with the sound designer in the studio located in Huddersfield and remote working proved challenging and time consuming, therefore completion was delayed until February 2021.
A final cut has now been made available via Vimeo and the film is now ready for submission to festivals and journals. The researcher is currently working on a submission of the film for Screenworks and Open Screens.
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Whereas in Mill Study (2017), the general focus was on rhythmic editing, both in terms of image and diegetic sound, The Mill (Cox and Marley 2020) is more focused on the relationship between musical score and diegetic audio composition, which is used in order to encourage audiences to engage with documentary film on a sensorial level.
The significance of the film is to be found in the audio-visual celebration of the remnants of a hitherto thriving textile industry in Yorkshire. The film offers hope in the context of the negative impact of globalization on some of the UK’s traditional industries. This film follows very much in the tradition poetic industrial films such as Coalface (Cavalcanti 1935), and Nightmail (Watt and Wright 1936), as well as the industrial symphonies, Philips Radio (Ivens 1931), Glas (Haanstra 1959) and Stone Into Steel (Dickson 1960). However, this film aims to build on the creative strategies in these films through the execution of technical rigour and innovation in the design of the soundtrack.
The use of small, high quality microphones allows the mill to be heard in detail in a unique way. The overall sound of the mill was a formless din, however these microphones enabled the filmmakers to record sounds that were imperceptible to the human ear, thus producing a re-hearing of the mill environment. It is within the recording and subsequent sequencing where a real sense of originality is created.
The conceptual framework of the film is informed by Chion’s concept of reduced listening, whereby sounds are listened to not for their referential quality but as sound objects in themselves, independent of their cause and meaning. Here the filmmakers are using sound as a way of engaging with the mill space in a more significant way.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
