Instigator / Pro
0
1644
rating
64
debates
65.63%
won
Topic
#3021

Audio vs Visual Effects for Movies

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Winner
0
2

After 2 votes and with 2 points ahead, the winner is...

fauxlaw
Tags
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
4
Time for argument
Two days
Max argument characters
5,000
Voting period
Two months
Point system
Winner selection
Voting system
Open
Contender / Con
2
1702
rating
77
debates
70.13%
won
Description

Audio effects: music, generated sounds, voice acting, etc

Visual effects: CGI, animation, camera angle, etc

Burden of proof is shared

Pro: audio is more crucial to master in a movie than visual

Con: Visual is more crucial to master in a movie than audio

Framework: for entertainment, keeping audience engaged, establishing mood/themes, etc.

Criterion
Pro
Tie
Con
Points
Winner
1 point(s)
Reason:

R1 - Pro starts out disappointingly apologising for having no time, but there is no reason for anyone to take this in to consideration. He does however put forth a good short argument for why visual effects are more important, and it mostly resonates.

Con - Con responds with a history lesson in to how a motion picture was developed first. And then provides an explanation in to why visual effects are more important and after reading his argument I am left with an idea in my head that you can have a film without music, but can't so well have a film without visuals. For me Con may have edged ahead at this point. Con also produces copious amounts of sources which suggest Con has pledged a lot of time and effort in to research, whilst Pro was too busy doing other things.

R2 - Pro opens up round 2 in much more determined fashion than round 1 and accuses Con of offering a red herring, and Pro continues to give a history lesson of his own, complete with research and sources. Pro continues to accuse Con of producing a fallacious argument and offering no support for his opinion, but so far all we have really is the opinion of Pro versus the opinion of Con. Pro does make a very good point though which I hope Con picks up on "However, realize that landscapes and settings cannot give expressions, and the sound is still important for establishing the theme and mood.". I personally am looking for Con to point out that before you can have music to describe the mood in a scene when no-one is present, you do still first require the visual effects of the countryside scenery.

Con - Con opens up the next round making a statement which I believe to be true. "III.a The “movies,” by name and definition, are primarily a visual experience, in spite of adding a synchronized audio track. To emphasize the crucial importance of vision, as opposed to hearing, the scientific application of our typical human five senses has determined that of all five senses, when all five senses are functional, vision conveys 80% of our total sensory perception,[1]. leaving merely 20% to be shared by hearing, and the other three.". Due to some research I done recently I did find from just a simple google search that it is believed that we remember visual effects most. Con then goes on to criticise and accuse Pro of shifting goalposts. But Pros argument is there in black and white for all to read and voters can see whether or not he is shifting goalposts or not, and it would appear Pro is simply expanding upon what he has already written. One cannot expect him to simply repeat over and over his round 1 argument. Having said all this, I think Con wins a key argument here by pointing out that Pro is wrong about a crucial fact, and perhaps even wrong about what his own source says " the source, itself, declares visual effects, as Pro re-defines them, to have begun in 1895, not the 1920s.". I will have to keep an eye on what Pro responds with in later rounds. I am not actually going to read the source as a debate has a certain amount of characters and what is written in the source is outside of the debate. Con really should have brought the quote to the table so that everything is on the debate table and not relying on external sources. But certainly, if this is not adequately challenged by Pro then this is a key argument.. Con then does go on to challenge Pros landscape example, and does not respond with the response I was looking for, he instead responds with the someone elses opinion, which is neither here nor there.

R3 - Pro opens round 3 with an admission that he has slightly misinterpreted con's argument, and at this point it seems to be slipping away ever so slightly. Though he does still insist that his argument holds. He does not rebute Cons accusations of getting crucial facts wrong, and for me, this is crucial. Instead he offers a lot of conjecture and then announces once again "Anyways, sorry about short round, little time little time.".

Con - Con opens round 3 pretty much repeating his earlier round 2 opening. "when all five senses are functional, vision conveys 80% of our total sensory perception.[2]"... Con then continues to just be going through the motions, and gives some examples regarding apes and I am left wondering exactly what type of movie we are referring to here "the scene is the first ape hurling his weapon, the bone, into the air, twisting and turning up, and up, then down,", but seriously, he gives an overall good analysis in to the importance of visual effects. I am suspecting this debate is now fizzling out, and Pro has still yet to respond to the "fact" he was accused of being wrong about.

R4 - And, on top of not responding to his alleged factual error, and two rounds of apologising for bad time keeping, Pro forfeits

Con - The only way now that Con can lose this debate is if he poops in his pie. And he plays safe not offering any new arguments and simply presenting why he thinks he has won. - Con

Criterion
Pro
Tie
Con
Points
Winner
1 point(s)
Reason:

R1:
Pro concisely states that audio allows movies to evoke emotion, and calls for his side to claim all music, spoken words, and even silence (a bit of a stretch, as predictably con brings up silent films which were that way not by choice and therefore not as an act of mastery). He attacks one aspect of visual effects that of CGI for only being able to create scenery not characters. He provides a source showing how music can reshape scenes. And declares that music composers are more famous than anyone on the visual side of movies.

Con gives a history lesson, but makes a good point within it about the value in storytelling the visual side gives, and that silent films came before synchronized soundtracks. He does an appeal to the very name of movies (implicitly pointing out they are named for and draw an audience from the visuals, as opposed to soundies, or feelies if you've read Brave New World).
Con rebuts pro's evidence, as the visuals remain the primary focus in the altered scenes; before attacking the scenes for not being masterfully done on the visual side so as to allow quick changes to soundtracks to redefine them. He points out that non-verbal communication accounts for most communication, and masterful actors convey meaning even without words.

R2:
Pro calls cons argument just a red herring, and that since visual effects include CGI we should dismiss any visual effects innovated from before the 1980s (I could be misreading that, but I still don't care for the history lesson argument, particularly not this strange attempt at moving of the goalposts). He does however make a good point against con's appeal to tradition of first equalling more important (which I never bought anyways). And more talk of computer animation as if that was the only visual effect, when at this point con has already used facial expressions from actors which pre-refutes this idea that the only visual effects are computer generated. He then defends his previous evidence, while admitting they were badly acted, because "landscapes and settings cannot give expressions."
He finally ends with evidence of a Star Wars scene without music, but without the evidence of it with music I am left to wonder as to the desired impact.

Con repeats his appeal to the name movies, and repeats his data on sight being by far our primary sense.
Con defends his history lesson, and specifically points out pro's attempt to move the goalposts to all visual effects as CGI. He points to the agreed definitions, and source steals from pro's own Jack Pierce video that CGI was not used but primarily visual effects from the actors themselves (with everything being fixed between repetitions).
Con goes a little far with semantics by  calling the very act of rapid pictures as visual effects (https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hes-out-of-line-but-hes-right). This is built upon earlier things, which I took to be opening rhetoric rather than intended as sound arguments. He also shows CGI characters, disproving pro's claim that CGI cannot give expressions.

At this point the debate could easily be called as a con victory. We need a reason that the audio portion triumphs over the visual portion, rather than being a slave to it.

R3:
Pro restates that sound mastery is harder (which does nothing to prove it's the more important one), and outright insists "the Visual merely adds extra eye candy" and further that it's not "truly necessary." Oh songs have won awards, unlike movies. He does point out a couple movies that the audio was more important than the visuals. And mentions that CGI movies still include sound. And he closes by insisting he only meant to argue CGI effects as opposed to things like "camera angle, etc." from the description.

Con digs into that movies are primarily a visual experience (I seem to have missed any challenge to this from pro). Brings up the Oscars, instantly disproving the implicit claim from pro that movies only win awards for the audio (to be fair, there's a few of those awards for the sound side). And cites Stanley Kubrick to show the visual mastery as more important, via having us watch a clip muted and further describing choreography (as opposed to just saying a certain movie exists and was better by X standard).

R4:
Pro offers a wholly silent argument, perhaps to show the importance of words? Sadly it drops everything, especially the clearly presented visual proof of the greater importance of visuals over audio, and visuals being our primary sense.

Con extends.

Additional details may be round at:
https://www.debateart.com/debates/3021-audio-vs-visual-effects-for-movies?open_tab=comments&comments_page=1&comment_number=13
https://www.debateart.com/debates/3021-audio-vs-visual-effects-for-movies?open_tab=comments&comments_page=1&comment_number=11