2.3 Method

Ten movies were viewed, and selected or discarded on the basis of how well they fulfilled the following criteria:

• The movie had to make use of pre-existing music.
• The movie had to have a main character or several important characters.
• The movie had to have scenes where the focus was on one person (or the person's point of view) in a very clear manner.
• The movie had to have instances of audiation identifiable by the findings of the pilot study, and determined by the parameters for audiation (refer to Table 2, and section 2.5 Parameters for Audiation)

Movies viewed were the Matrix (1999), Mission Impossible 2 (2000), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), City of Angels (1998), Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Road Trip (2000), Scary Movie (2000), The Full Monty (1997), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and The Cell (2001). Several of these movies displayed potential audiation occurrences (Matrix, Mission Impossible 2, The Cell, 10 Things I Hate About You, A Clockwork Orange, Road Trip). The movies which best fulfilled the above criteria were A Clockwork Orange and 10 Things I Hate About You. The former makes use of pre-existing classical music; the latter, pre-existing popular song (music with lyrics). The former is told through the narration of Alex, and is clearly a movie about him; the latter is concerned with the stories of a few, with the emphasis on one character in particular, Kat. In A Clockwork Orange, only Alex can be said to be audiating; while in 10 Things I Hate About You Kat, Patrick, Cameron, and Ms. Perky all audiate.

Cue sheets were prepared for each movie (see Appendix 6 for these cue sheets). A breakdown of each musical cue and a preliminary analysis of the relationship of the cue to the scene and character appears in the cue sheets.

After completing the cue sheets, the case study was designed. With the constructivist framework in mind, questions (section 2.3 of this chapter) were formulated to assess each musical cue, and the movies were viewed again with these questions in mind. The case studies very clearly positioned the cue within the film and the status of the cue (diegetic, non-diegetic, quasi-diegetic, metadiegetic). From the case studies, potential audiation cues were identified. (See Appendix 7 - potential audiation cues are marked with an asterisk).

The data analysis (Appendix 8) was conducted to assess whether the potential audiation cues conformed to the parameters for audiation established by the pilot study and outlined below, and the more detailed discussion of music, memory and recall outlined in Chapter 1 of this thesis.

The interview with the TV/theatre composer was conducted to gain a professional opinion on the topic and involved seven main questions. The interviewee had never used the technique knowingly, nor had he thought it through. However, he had used the technique inadvertently through using pre-existing music in dream sequences and having a character-related point of reference. He grasped the concept immediately and could see how the technique would be possible and that it is utilised. The interview is discussed in detail in Chapter 3 - Discussion. (See Appendix 9 for the interview transcription.)