"When Love is Not Enough" - by Arshia Sazi

During Week 5, Professor Kapuściński and the class explored the combination of sounds and images, mainly through the concept of synchresis, which Michael Chion describes in Audiovision: Sound on the Screen as "the spontaneous and irresistible mental fusion, completely free of any logic, that happens between a sound or image." In my project, "When Love is Not Enough," I used the lullaby from "Rosemary's Baby" as the musical component to juxtapose images conveying the consequences of drug abuse. The song's melancholic melody reminds the reader of the frightening, dangerous allure which drugs has on an individual despite the inevitable consequences of dependence on drugs. The dejected nature of the singer causes the songs key to hover around Eb minor, which many musicians believe to be the most somber and mysterious key. Therefore, I used the most somber parts of the song to portray the hopelessness of drug abuse, matching the music with pictures of babies crying, earthquakes, and societal collapse. Although these images logically do not coincide with the music, the reader can associate with synchresis of the somber music and chaotic images that these images are related to the loss of control one feels on drugs. 

However, in order to make these seemingly jarring ideas flow seamlessly, I had to use a variety of different cuts in my film. I found that when I wanted the audience to use synchresis to establish a connection between two jarring images (i.e a baby crying and alcohol consumption to highlight infantilization of the individual), I used hard cuts. However, when I wanted to describe the progression of alcoholism or associate two ideas with each other (i.e. wideshots of an earthquake's destruction with a cemetery), I used dissolve transitions. Finally, much of my intermedia correspondence was communicated through both structural and semantic means; the expressions of children and earthquake being emotional and cultural correspondence, and the ascension/descension on the Eb scale being structural correspondence. Altogether, these components of sounds and images combine to communicate the idea that alcohol leads to heavier drug abuse and ruins one's life.