Aural auteur : sound in the films of Rolf de Heer

An interpretative methodology for understanding meaning in cinema since the 1950s, auteur analysis is an approach to film studies in which an individual, usually the director, is studied as the author of her or his films. The principal argument of this thesis is that proponents of auteurism have privileged examination of the visual components in a film-maker’s body of work, neglecting the potentially significant role played by sound. The thesis seeks to address this problematic imbalance by interrogating the creative use of sound in the films written and directed by Rolf de Heer, asking the question, “Does his use of sound make Rolf de Heer an aural auteur?” In so far as the term ‘aural’ encompasses everything in the film that is heard by the audience, the analysis seeks to discover if de Heer has, as Peter Wollen suggests of the auteur and her or his directing of the visual components (1968, 1972 and 1998), unconsciously left a detectable aural signature on his films. The thesis delivers an innovative outcome by demonstrating that auteur analysis that goes beyond the mise-en-scène (i.e. visuals) is productive and worthwhile as an interpretive response to film. De Heer’s use of the aural point of view and binaural sound recording, his interest in providing a ‘voice’ for marginalised people, his self-penned song lyrics, his close and early collaboration with composer Graham Tardif and sound designer Jim Currie, his ‘hands-on’ approach to sound recording and sound editing and his predilection for making films about sound are all shown to be examples of de Heer’s aural auteurism. As well as the three published (or accepted for publication) interviews with de Heer, Tardif and Currie, the dissertation consists of seven papers refereed and published (or accepted for publication) in journals and international conference proceedings, a literature review and a unifying essay. The papers presented are close textual analyses of de Heer’s films which, when considered as a whole, support the thesis’ overall argument and serve as a comprehensive auteur analysis, the first such sustained study of his work, and the first with an emphasis on the aural.

Sound in the Aboriginal Australian Films of Rolf de Heer

Anna Hickey-Mody and Melissa Iocca invented a new name for the cinema-goer at "Bad Boy Bubby" (1993) when they wrote: "In de Heer's film, the viewer is primarily a listener, or aurator, and secondly a spectator" and I have argued the label 'aurator' can also be used for the person experiencing "Ten Canoes" (2006). This Aboriginal Australian Dreamtime fable features dialogue recorded entirely in the Ganalbingu language of the Indigenous people it stars, and is a prime example of what I would suggest can be labeled 'The Aboriginal Australian Films of Rolf de Heer'. "The Tracker" (2002) and "Dr. Plonk" (2007) have also included depictions of Aboriginal Australians and each of the trio utilizes Cat Hope's "innovative sound ideas" to present what I argue is an aural auteur's signature revealing a post-colonial Australian world-view that privileges the justice system and eco-spirituality of Aboriginal Australians.

Dutch tilt, Aussie auteur : the films of Rolf de Heer. 2nd ed.

Dutch-born Australian director, Rolf de Heer, is Australia's most successful and unpredictable film-maker, with thirteen feature films of widely varying style and genre to his name. Arising from the author's 2006 - 2009 PhD research at the Queensland University of Technology (which focussed on the psychoanalytic use of sound in his films), and a fixed term Research Fellowship at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, Australia, "Dutch Tilt, Aussie Auteur: The Films of Rolf de Heer" was first published in 2009 by VDM in Saarbrucken, Germany. This second edition addresses de Heer's additional film-making since 2009, and as with the first edition, is an auteur analysis of the thirteen feature films he has directed (and mostly written and produced). The book explores the theoretical instability of the concept of auteurism and concludes that there is a signature world view to be detected in his oeuvre, and that de Heer (quite possibly unconsciously) promotes unlikely protagonists who are non-hyper masculine, child-like and nurturing, as opposed to the typical Hollywood hero who is macho, exploitative and hyper masculine. Rolf de Heer was born in Heemskerk, Holland, in 1951 and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959. He spent seven years working for the ABC before gaining entry to Australia's Film, Television and Radio School, where he studied Producing and Directing. From his debut feature film after graduating, the children's story about the restoration of a Tiger Moth biplane, "Tail of a Tiger" (1984) to his breakout cult sensation "Bad Boy Bubby" (1993) which "tore Venice [Film Festival] apart" to the first Aboriginal Australian language film "Ten Canoes" (2006) which scooped the pool at the Australian Film Institute awards, de Heer has consistently proven himself unpredictable. This analysis of his widely disparate films, however, suggests that Australia's most innovative film-maker has a signature pre-occupation with giving a voice to marginalised, non-hyper masculine protagonists. Demonstrating a propensity to write and direct in a European-like style, his 'Dutch tilt' is very much not Hollywood, but is nevertheless representative of a typically Aussie world-view.

The image of the Hungarian and UK building industries : a comparative analysis

Concern that poor image of UK construction industry is restricting recruitment has lead to call for action. This paper gives the results of a recent comparative analysis of the image of both UK and Hungarian industries which indicates the UK image to be relatively good. The perceived cause of Hungarian problems is the poor level of organisation and management.

Nangkha Nangdrik in the land of the thunder dragon

- The Kingdom of Bhutan is a country on the move - In July 2008, Bhutan transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy - The Constitution and a number of pieces of national legislation make specific reference to alternative dispute resolution. - An alternative dispute resolution Bill will come before the Bhutanese parliament in early 2012.

Directory of World Cinema : Australia and New Zealand 2

Building on and bringing up to date the material presented in the first installment of Directory of World Cinema : Australia and New Zealand, this volume continues the exploration of the cinema produced in Australia and New Zealand since the beginning of the twentieth century. Among the additions to this volume are in-depth treatments of the locations that feature prominently in the countries' cinema. Essays by leading critics and film scholars consider the significance in films of the outback and the beach, which is evoked as a liminal space in Long Weekend and a symbol of death in Heaven's Burning, among other films. Other contributions turn the spotlight on previously unexplored genres and key filmmakers, including Jane Campion, Rolf de Heer, Charles Chauvel, and Gillian Armstrong.

Australian animated feature films

Building on and bringing up to date the material presented in the first installment of Directory of World Cinema : Australia and New Zealand, this volume continues the exploration of the cinema produced in Australia and New Zealand since the beginning of the twentieth century. Among the additions to this volume are in-depth treatments of the locations that feature prominently in the countries' cinema. Essays by leading critics and film scholars consider the significance in films of the outback and the beach, which is evoked as a liminal space in Long Weekend and a symbol of death in Heaven's Burning, among other films. Other contributions turn the spotlight on previously unexplored genres and key filmmakers, including Jane Campion, Rolf de Heer, Charles Chauvel, and Gillian Armstrong.

ÉLET [LIFE]

Élet [pronounced air-let] is the Hungarian word for Life. The work is informed by the lyrics of six songs performed by French cover band Nouvelle Vague. Whilst Élet [Life] is created to be absorbed and interpreted openly by each individual, at the core of the choreography lies a desire to move forwards, to communicate – to be seen and heard. The work embraces aspects such as loneliness, joy and tension that we experience in our lives and relationships. As the movement opens out from these ideas, the physical shapes of our personal moments are infused with the elements of sound, colour and rhythm. A rich translation of personal movements through life.

Human Fly

Human Fly, originally choreographed as a trio existed as one section of a larger work titled Élet [the Hungarian word for Life). Informed by the lyrics of six songs performed by French cover band Nouvelle Vague, Élet [Life] was created to be absorbed and interpreted openly by each individual. In the reworking of Human Fly I have endeavored to keep to the original intent; embracing aspects of promiscuity and seduction.

Profiling : an application assignment approach for green data centers

In the past few years, there has been a steady increase in the attention, importance and focus of green initiatives related to data centers. While various energy aware measures have been developed for data centers, the requirement of improving the performance efficiency of application assignment at the same time has yet to be fulfilled. For instance, many energy aware measures applied to data centers maintain a trade-off between energy consumption and Quality of Service (QoS). To address this problem, this paper presents a novel concept of profiling to facilitate offline optimization for a deterministic application assignment to virtual machines. Then, a profile-based model is established for obtaining near-optimal allocations of applications to virtual machines with consideration of three major objectives: energy cost, CPU utilization efficiency and application completion time. From this model, a profile-based and scalable matching algorithm is developed to solve the profile-based model. The assignment efficiency of our algorithm is then compared with that of the Hungarian algorithm, which does not scale well though giving the optimal solution.