What is Audiovisual?
Hello!
Is time passing fast for you too, dear reader?
For us at Prospecto, it feels like half of 2022 has passed in the blink of an eye and so much has happened in that time! And in the midst of this rush, we come to another #MondayBlog and the break is mandatory to have a coffee, or tea and get information here with us.
In today's topic we decided to go back to basics, and explain to you about Audiovisual. After all, according to Google, about two thousand people a day ask the following question on the platform: “What is Audiovisual?”, and we are going to take this opportunity to not only answer this question, but also show you the whole fascinating universe in which audiovisual is inserted.
Audiovisual – What is it?
This is the question of the moment and the answer is both simple and complex. Simple because the word itself gives us a hint of what it means, and complex because it transcends its meaning in practice.
The term Audiovisual is a combination of two Latin words “audire” and “videre”, which mean, respectively, to hear and to see. So, in a simplistic way, we can tell you that audiovisual is a means of communication where two human senses are engaged, vision and hearing.
In other words, it is a means of communication in which visual and sound elements are used together.
However, if you were to talk to someone in the mid-1970s, and ask the title question of this post, they would give you a slightly different answer. This is due to the fact that at that time audiovisual was the way in which institutional advertising videos were known. In other words, in the 1970s, “audiovisual” was what the advertising market called non-profit advertising videos that were not intended to be shown on television, which established a favorable image for brands, companies or institutions.
A decade later, in the 1980s, audiovisual was the word that designated a very specific type of public presentation, the slideshow, which consisted of the sequential projection of slides with synchronized sound.
Now that you know how audiovisual was seen in the past, let's tell you what it represents today. In fact, the audiovisual is a great umbrella under which various forms of cultural expression are sheltered.
This expression is based on our reality. Have you ever heard that life imitates art, or vice versa?
When we stop to think about it, this sentence makes much more sense when we put together the meaning of the word audiovisual. Do you know why? What is our reality made of? Of images and sounds!
So, in fact, the audiovisual is proof that both in life and in art, audiovisual language (visual + sound + verbal) is part of our daily lives, and that without picking up a camera or sound equipment.
Even more so when we expand this range and start to look at all the forms of media in which this junction is manifest.
Therefore, audiovisual is the combination of sound and image to communicate something to someone.
What is the scope of the audiovisual?
Do you remember the first image that touched you? The first movie you watched? Due to the enormous amount of consumption of our era of audiovisual content, you may not remember it anymore, but that doesn't matter. Because in fact, your first contact with a film, drawing or photo, left an impression on your unconscious, moved you in some way, informed you. This is a natural, automatic process and this is the power of the audiovisual medium.
When we talk about the scope of the audiovisual, we are referring to the means by which this junction is perceived, such as television, cinema, the internet, games, among others. But when we delve deeper, we realize that the radio, the newspaper, the magazines are also part of this universe.
What do you mean?! Magazine has no sound and radio has no image!
Remember that we said that audiovisual is simple and complex? This is the complexity of the term.
Since the audiovisual is the junction of audio and video, both one and the other, even if they continue to belong to this medium in isolation.
Therefore, the audiovisual, today started to characterize the set of all forms of communication, technologies and sound and image products, united or separately, encompassing fictional or documentary cinema, open or closed television and all its genres, analog or digital video, high or low definition, video art and experimental cinema, traditional or computer animation, as well as more or less autonomous formats such as commercials, music videos, political propaganda programs, video games, closed circuit live broadcasts, videos made for viewing on the internet or on mobile phones, photographs, magazines, print newspapers, internet, metaverse and much more.
Some interesting curiosities are that, in the insurance sector, the audiovisual is seen in its most comprehensive form in the insurance of audiovisual productions, with the inclusion of a photo session as part covered in the product.
In the academic environment, most of the courses that were once training in cinema have been transformed in recent years into audiovisual courses, recognizing and educationally reinforcing the strength and reach of the audiovisual.
At festivals, audiovisual works continue to be specifically cinema and video content, either alone or in combination.
What is the role of the audiovisual?
Now that we've clarified what audiovisual is, and its scope, it's time to ask ourselves what role it plays in our lives.
Audiovisual language is the result, in its most expressive form, of the combination of three types of language: verbal language, sound language and visual language. Together these languages convey a specific message.
And it is in the message that the power of the audiovisual lies. By simultaneously engaging the eyes and ears, audiovisual media enables the involvement of those who watch it, where the spectator does not need to recreate an imagined reality. The audiovisual then infects the public, takes them to different emotions and reflections. Intentionally or not, the audiovisual makes us see reality through the eyes of others, and this implies the care to carry out a distanced and critical analysis, so that we are not led to ideas and visions of the world previously elaborated and that can be technically constructed to manipulate people.
The role of the audiovisual, dear reader, can be summarized as being an important tool for education, culture, information, entertainment and social mobilization.
Did you know all this about audiovisual?
And don't forget it, are you going to produce an audiovisual?
Prospecto Seguros specializes in insurance for audiovisual productions!
See you in an upcoming #MondayBlog!
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