ABSTRACT
The productional ingredients discussed in the previous chapter—music and talent— are experienced by the audience only after they have been filtered through microphone, camera, or computer rendering. These technical instruments are the shapers of the audio/visual stage. What the computer creates, the camera sees, and the microphone hears determines the width, height, and depth of the electronic proscenium (active stage area) apprehended by the listener or viewer. Therefore, incisive criticism needs to understand and take these productional factors into consideration in order to accurately and fairly judge the total creation to which they contribute. The effective critic need not be a “techie”—but should have a fundamental grasp of the tools that are available to electronic media producers and these tools’ inherent properties and limitations.
