“In
Wild Sync the words come out of the characters’
mouths but rarely are they in sync. Another example of the “home
movie” exploring a 1929 V.I. Pudovkin statement: “One
must never show a man and reproduce his words exactly synchronized
with the movements of his lips. This is cheap imitation, an ingenious
trick that is useless to anyone.” (Cathy Jonasson, “Recent
Canadian Experimental Films,” Catalogue published by Canada
House, 1990)
“An impulse
which manifests itself in much of Hancox’s work, and notably
in Wild Sync, is the maker’s intentional de-mystification
of the filmmaking process. As a student at Ohio University, Hancox
first began to react against a type of filmmaking which based
its standards of quality upon a film’s degree of professional
veneer. He observed there, among certain filmmakers, an intoxication
with “high technology” as an end in itself. He also
strongly reacted against the peculiar pretense of that type of
filmmaking that an audience participate in the filmic illusion
to the degree that it entirely ignores the film’s artifice,
that is, ignore the fact that it is watching a film at all!
In Wild
Sync, Hancox pointedly subverts such mystification by letting
the filmmaking process itself be the subject of the film. At the
same time Hancox reveals his love of two filmic forms-the autobiographical
form and home movies. According to the filmmaker, Wild Sync,
which features Hancox himself with friends, is “a combination
Christmas home movie/instructional film on how to make lip-sync
sound films with only your average wind-up camera and wild tape
recorder.” (The Frontier, WNED TV Channel 17, Program Notes.
Air Date: Oct 3, 1981)
A combination
Christmas home movie/instructional film on how to make lip-sync
sound films with only a wind-up camera and wild tape recorder.
Inspired by V. I. Pudovkin's 1929 statement, "One must never
show on the screen a man and reproduce his words exactly synchronized
with the movements of his lips. This is cheap imitation, an ingenious
trick that is useless to anyone.
“The flamenco
dance sequence, with Hancox yelling out his ‘wild sync’
technique, is the most absurd piece of cinema I’ve ever
participated in.” (Lorne Marin)
“...after
Hancox announces near the end that the main action here is lip
sync, there is no technical connection between the visuals and
the soundtrack: a piano is heard, for instance, but its player
is up and dancing. It is technique.” Michael Wade, Ontario
Film Series, Cinema Parallel
“...enthusiasts
will find the instructional part of this film very helpful...
(but) be less entranced with the.. buffoonery that is used as
illustration.” Chris Wornop, A Newsletter Called Fred, January,
1980
“A home
movie about the making of a home movie, Wild Sync is
Hancox’s restless instructional film, teaching his audience
about impromptu sound synchronization, the use of cutaway shots
and the total destruction of the clapper board. The film begins
with the traditional film techniques: the sound is synchronized,
cutaway shots create continuity and the Christmas presents, which
are unwrapped and revealed, represent the filmed object given
significance in time. However, after Hancox explains his Wild
Sync technique he, in a dramatic context, is suddenly capsizing
these coding systems. The sound goes out of sync. The timing of
the cutaway shot of the tape recorder completely obliterates any
continuity that the shot is purported to have. And finally, after
Hancox announces near the end that the main action here is the
lip sync, there is no technical connection between the visuals
and the soundtrack: A piano is heard, for instance, but its player
is up and dancing. It is Hancox’s celebration (complete
with musical duets and a flamenco dancer), of his compulsion to
break all the roles and subvert traditional film technique. Hancox
is home for Christmas again, so the characters are his family,
again, as well as his friend Lorne Marin (who madly strums a very
excitable guitar).” Michael Wade
Wild
Sync was selected to participate in the Ann Arbor Film Festival
Tour of 1974.
Available
from:
Canadian
Filmmakers' Distribution Centre
37 Hanna Ave. #220
Toronto, Ontario Canada M6K 1W8
telephone: 416-588-0725, e-mail: bookings@cfmdc.org
web: www.cfmdc.org
(printable
version of description)
Reviews,
Articles, Text & Notes:
Narration
Script for Wild Sync, by Rick Hancox, 1973
Films
on the Art and Practice of Filmmaking, by Chris M. Worsnop,
A Newsletter Called Fred, published by the Ontario Film Association,
January 1980
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