Abstract
‘The Elephant Man’s Sound, Tracked’ sets out to investigate the clean-up of a line of dialogue, “I am not an animal, I am a human being, a man, a man”, in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980), and explores the possibility of an alternate soundtrack or even picture edit being cut for the film. Through archival research, interviews, close textual analysis, and videographic criticism, I propose that The Elephant Man offers a significant case study in critical post-production studies. This Audiovisual Essay concludes with a reflection on a moment in 1980 when the role and term sound designer was just coming in to use - prior to The Elephant Man it had been used on Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) - and posits that there were significant tensions during post-production on The Elephant Man due to the workflow encompassing both unionised and non-unionised personnel.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
