I've been pretty busy at my day job since Black Friday (and especially Cyber Monday) and it doesn't look like overtime is going to be slowing down much this holiday season. So it's not very likely that I'll not be posting a lot for a bit, but here are a few updates.
GTP: Macbeth is cast! Rehearsals have started and Anna is excited about the actors from CHS, Albemarle High, PVCC and all around. Many old and many more new. It's looking to be a great show. I'll try to post some score samples once things are more finalized as to what is being used.
Life: I am starting to look into programming to advance my career options. While more web and data systems skills will have to be focused on for likely jobs, it is exciting to play around with gaming design as a means to learn some of the basics. I've always wanted to program a text adventure game, feeling that the medium has so much more potential than has ever been fully embraced, but I also have some less anachronistic ambitions. I'm getting very interested in expanding my commission work beyond GTP. I
had a blast recently cranking out a score for a friend's student film,
and can't help day dreaming of providing a score to some small (or
big... I mean, I'm dreaming here!) company's release. I'm looking at
next year pretty openly, hoping to get a few passion projects done but
also hoping things will fall into my lap.
Blog: Slowly updating profile stuff to express more current interests. I think the blog is going to expand. As a resume blog, I've already fumbled out of focus with theater updates even when my fingerprints are barely on projects... so it doesn't seem that radical to change things up a little bit.
The big thing I want to start including are pieces called Things That Should Totally Happen. Like most geeks, I daydream about things beyond my means. 'Wouldn't it be cool if there was an Evil Dead 4, or a film adaptation of Doom that drew from the original games, and was good' - that sort of thing. Cool actors working together, books adapted to film, games adapted from films and so on (and not just adaptations, but that's all I can think of at the moment without blowing this up into a full-blown article on one of the real ones). Things I'd love to do, but don't have the budget or connections or rights and will likely never have them. I figure I could hoard them all in my head, or share them, the projects I can't do or facilitate but I wish someone would.
I think here and there I might have other blog entries about theories and critiques, but hopefully few and far between. I want this to still focus on displaying my actual work, not what I think of other people's stuff. Still, it would be nice to be a little more active here.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
GTP Macbeth Auditions and Concept Trailer!
Pippi was a fun and silly blast, and now that it's wrapped up Anna's hitting the ground running with her next project, the bard's infamous "Scottish Play," Macbeth.
I've been working on music for the show on and off with other projects for almost two months and it is now my main focus. Saturday, before Sunday's last show for Pippi Longstocking, we started going to work on a concept trailer for Anna's primal urban take on the classic. After shooting, recording voice overs, setting a few things on fire, editing, and sound mixing I uploaded this promo a couple nights ago to YouTube.
It was a collaborative effort. She gave me a list of shots she wanted and a basic structure and then we set out to shoot it. We were up until 3:30AM shooting the thing like madmen.
I think what I like most about this video over any other we've done together for GTP or otherwise is how much of a complete merging of our styles it shows. Some shots didn't work, so I added some footage and tweaked the original concept to be a bit more trippy. Some of my images didn't work at first either, then she did voice overs and I mixed them and with each exchange and layer everything started coming together as an effective whole where individual elements hadn't.
Needless to say, if you are interested in auditioning and being a part of this madness, head on over to Gorilla Theater Productions and check it out!
I've been working on music for the show on and off with other projects for almost two months and it is now my main focus. Saturday, before Sunday's last show for Pippi Longstocking, we started going to work on a concept trailer for Anna's primal urban take on the classic. After shooting, recording voice overs, setting a few things on fire, editing, and sound mixing I uploaded this promo a couple nights ago to YouTube.
It was a collaborative effort. She gave me a list of shots she wanted and a basic structure and then we set out to shoot it. We were up until 3:30AM shooting the thing like madmen.
I think what I like most about this video over any other we've done together for GTP or otherwise is how much of a complete merging of our styles it shows. Some shots didn't work, so I added some footage and tweaked the original concept to be a bit more trippy. Some of my images didn't work at first either, then she did voice overs and I mixed them and with each exchange and layer everything started coming together as an effective whole where individual elements hadn't.
Needless to say, if you are interested in auditioning and being a part of this madness, head on over to Gorilla Theater Productions and check it out!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
GTP Pippi Longstocking Trailer and Upcoming Show!
Last weekend I joined Anna and the gang to shoot the trailer for Gorilla Theater Productions' latest children's play, Pippi Longstocking. Of the trailers I've shot for GTP, this was the easiest overall. Learning from past mistakes, I found myself with a shooting script by Anna and a separate room to shoot everything in with just the actors needed, greatly reducing the background noise. Lighting was not ideal, but we made it work, and I'm quite pleased with the old-newspaper like texture I was able to get fiddling with the contrast and saturation during editing.
The music track in the background is called "Piddlyday." I cranked it out over a couple hours while editing the footage. Again, I'm fairly happy with it. It might show up in house music if that doesn't complicate things technically. We'll see.
The kids on this production are a blast, I haven't been too involved until recently, but many of them were off book (memorized their lines) by the second rehearsal. That's unreal. They've put our teen and adult actors to shame through that accomplishment alone, and as the trailer only hints at, they are hilarious. I'm also quite excited by the horse Anna has constructed. I provided some materials but the actual sculpting is all her. It's going to be awesome. I'll try to get her to post some photos when she can.
So... spread the word! Come on out! People should come see this beyond the actors' parents and firends. The kids are doing a great job, with a nice blend of returning vets (several from Secret Garden) and first timers with GTP (including the wonderful Pippi). We're returning to Sojourner's Church, where we staged Secret Garden after having such a positive experience working with them last time. It's lovely safe environment for children's productions like this. It's also got a lot of seating capacity so, again, the more the merrier!
The music track in the background is called "Piddlyday." I cranked it out over a couple hours while editing the footage. Again, I'm fairly happy with it. It might show up in house music if that doesn't complicate things technically. We'll see.
The kids on this production are a blast, I haven't been too involved until recently, but many of them were off book (memorized their lines) by the second rehearsal. That's unreal. They've put our teen and adult actors to shame through that accomplishment alone, and as the trailer only hints at, they are hilarious. I'm also quite excited by the horse Anna has constructed. I provided some materials but the actual sculpting is all her. It's going to be awesome. I'll try to get her to post some photos when she can.
So... spread the word! Come on out! People should come see this beyond the actors' parents and firends. The kids are doing a great job, with a nice blend of returning vets (several from Secret Garden) and first timers with GTP (including the wonderful Pippi). We're returning to Sojourner's Church, where we staged Secret Garden after having such a positive experience working with them last time. It's lovely safe environment for children's productions like this. It's also got a lot of seating capacity so, again, the more the merrier!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Recent Music: "Saucer Sauce" and "Station Sprawl"
Here's a couple songs I've composed recently not attached to any projects.
Saucer Sauce
This one was my first experiment messing around with a 6/8 signature. 6/8 time came to my attention due to it being a frequent signature used by my all-time favorite composer, Charles Mingus. With that in mind, imagine my surprise when my dabbling in jazz produced an almost raver dancer tune. I'm quite pleased with the finished piece which evokes many Cartoon themes with a retro 50s sci-fi twist.
Station Sprawl
This one was a bit more layered and challenging. The base beat was added last and really gave a shape to what was initially a little too repetitive a tune. It's also my first foray into 7/4 time. I don't know, I've just been on a weird time signature kick lately.
Saucer Sauce
This one was my first experiment messing around with a 6/8 signature. 6/8 time came to my attention due to it being a frequent signature used by my all-time favorite composer, Charles Mingus. With that in mind, imagine my surprise when my dabbling in jazz produced an almost raver dancer tune. I'm quite pleased with the finished piece which evokes many Cartoon themes with a retro 50s sci-fi twist.
Station Sprawl
This one was a bit more layered and challenging. The base beat was added last and really gave a shape to what was initially a little too repetitive a tune. It's also my first foray into 7/4 time. I don't know, I've just been on a weird time signature kick lately.
Films, Scoring and GTP Activities
Films and Scoring
For the last couple of weeks, mostly while recovering from a minor back injury, I scored a short film based on the script, for a friend of mine. I'm quite pleased with the outcome, as it was done at rather breakneck speed with a total of 7 tracks in about 12 to 15 hours accumulated. As the film is to be shot next week ideally, the finished product may require tweaks to the music and additional tracks. Admittedly I suspect one track will need slight remixing and another slowing down a couple BPSs. When it's all officially finished, I'll post them.
Incidentally, I'm very interested in doing more of this kind of thing.
The film is written and being directed by the same friend I'd previously mentioned GTP helping make a film last March. The reason for that film's silence is that it fell into a series of shooting cancellations and schedule juggling hell with its fairly large cast. With half the film shot and sitting on my hard drive, we're all hoping that perhaps next year we can pick it back up, get all the actors together and finish what we started.
I am also hoping to start work on a long talked about film project of my own next year, though that is still a very wait-and-see prospect at this point.
Gorilla Theater Productions
GTP is going strong. I haven't been posting much as I'm not too involved these days. In my last post I had mentioned the line up for the rest of the season would include a children's fantasy adventure, a Scandinavian classic, and something from the Bard. Instead of the of the fantasy play, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Anna opted for Pippy Long Stockings (which has been cast and is currently rehearsing) having fallen for its script. She also decided that it would allow more production energy to be focused on the last play, which will be Macbeth. The fact that we're talking about it and already starting to plan for it when their are two plays to put on before it should give some indication that Macbeth is going to be big. At least, big by Gorilla standards. I'm very excited about it. Expect to see promotions in the near future as we head into November.
I've already started working on the score for Macbeth and have a few tracks finished that will likely make the final cut. I did get a little ways on the fantasy score, with one track finished that I'll share down the road. I'm planning to do trailers for all of these plays as of now, but as the season picks up at work we'll just have to see.
As for the Scandinavian play, it is still in the works but I'll let Anna announce that when she's ready. I will say that it is minimalistic in nature, so their isn't a great deal of advanced preparation necessary like with Mac'ers.
For the last couple of weeks, mostly while recovering from a minor back injury, I scored a short film based on the script, for a friend of mine. I'm quite pleased with the outcome, as it was done at rather breakneck speed with a total of 7 tracks in about 12 to 15 hours accumulated. As the film is to be shot next week ideally, the finished product may require tweaks to the music and additional tracks. Admittedly I suspect one track will need slight remixing and another slowing down a couple BPSs. When it's all officially finished, I'll post them.
Incidentally, I'm very interested in doing more of this kind of thing.
The film is written and being directed by the same friend I'd previously mentioned GTP helping make a film last March. The reason for that film's silence is that it fell into a series of shooting cancellations and schedule juggling hell with its fairly large cast. With half the film shot and sitting on my hard drive, we're all hoping that perhaps next year we can pick it back up, get all the actors together and finish what we started.
I am also hoping to start work on a long talked about film project of my own next year, though that is still a very wait-and-see prospect at this point.
Gorilla Theater Productions
GTP is going strong. I haven't been posting much as I'm not too involved these days. In my last post I had mentioned the line up for the rest of the season would include a children's fantasy adventure, a Scandinavian classic, and something from the Bard. Instead of the of the fantasy play, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Anna opted for Pippy Long Stockings (which has been cast and is currently rehearsing) having fallen for its script. She also decided that it would allow more production energy to be focused on the last play, which will be Macbeth. The fact that we're talking about it and already starting to plan for it when their are two plays to put on before it should give some indication that Macbeth is going to be big. At least, big by Gorilla standards. I'm very excited about it. Expect to see promotions in the near future as we head into November.
I've already started working on the score for Macbeth and have a few tracks finished that will likely make the final cut. I did get a little ways on the fantasy score, with one track finished that I'll share down the road. I'm planning to do trailers for all of these plays as of now, but as the season picks up at work we'll just have to see.
As for the Scandinavian play, it is still in the works but I'll let Anna announce that when she's ready. I will say that it is minimalistic in nature, so their isn't a great deal of advanced preparation necessary like with Mac'ers.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Current and Upcoming Projects
As I've said before, silence on this blog usually means I'm too busy doing to talk about it, and for the most part that's true.
The blog activity slowed down considerably after Secret Garden due to my leaving the unemployment club. I now work 6am to 3pm at a warehouse, mostly driving forklifts about and loading and unloading product. It's fun, but for anyone that's known me for a while the concept of me waking up at 5am (as opposed to say... going to bed at that hour) is a little insane. And yes, it has been insane going through what can only be called a pretty radical change in lifestyle, leaving me seldom motivated when I have the time, to spend it blogging. Sorry about that. On the bright side, life is a bit more comfortable as a result of said job. So... yay!
She Stoops to Conquer was an overall success. My apologies to the second cast for not getting any of the footage up (yet), which I still intend to do. If there is one thing perhaps more than any that I regret as the summer comes to an end its how little of the ever growing backlog of footage from the last few shows has been edited and uploaded. I have on some projects up to a dozen hours of footage to slog through and in more than one case a great deal of sound recording problems to unravel. Fortunately I have a new shotgun mic. which should allow for a significant improvement in sound quality for future recordings.
I've still been composing a lot of music while not putting it all on youtube. Some shall be posted sooner than later. I've also been doing a lot of writing, working on the collaborative novel with Anna and some things of my own. Anna's been rather busy herself, having finished Stoops, she took a break from directing to act in a production of Collateral Bodies at The Bridge. I hear there will be footage from that show going online in the future, but for those that missed it here are some lovely photos. Anna and Gorilla Theater provided some costuming and set pieces for the show as well.
For those looking for a more lighthearted venture, Anna can be seen next weekend in Live Arts' Summer Shorts performing in a piece by Sean McCord (who played Mr. Hardcastle in Stoops) entitled, Moving.
As for Gorilla Theater Productions, Anna has selected the last three plays that will close out the year and will be announcing them soon enough. While work for me around the holidays will make it difficult to participate beyond scoring, I am already starting work providing scores/house music for all three productions, which will be a fantasy adventure for teens and tweens, a small classic Scandinavian drama with Anna in the lead, and something not very small at all by the Bard. These are all projects Anna is very passionate about and after a summer of acting is posed to be very regenerated for attacking. It's going to be a blast!
The blog activity slowed down considerably after Secret Garden due to my leaving the unemployment club. I now work 6am to 3pm at a warehouse, mostly driving forklifts about and loading and unloading product. It's fun, but for anyone that's known me for a while the concept of me waking up at 5am (as opposed to say... going to bed at that hour) is a little insane. And yes, it has been insane going through what can only be called a pretty radical change in lifestyle, leaving me seldom motivated when I have the time, to spend it blogging. Sorry about that. On the bright side, life is a bit more comfortable as a result of said job. So... yay!
She Stoops to Conquer was an overall success. My apologies to the second cast for not getting any of the footage up (yet), which I still intend to do. If there is one thing perhaps more than any that I regret as the summer comes to an end its how little of the ever growing backlog of footage from the last few shows has been edited and uploaded. I have on some projects up to a dozen hours of footage to slog through and in more than one case a great deal of sound recording problems to unravel. Fortunately I have a new shotgun mic. which should allow for a significant improvement in sound quality for future recordings.
I've still been composing a lot of music while not putting it all on youtube. Some shall be posted sooner than later. I've also been doing a lot of writing, working on the collaborative novel with Anna and some things of my own. Anna's been rather busy herself, having finished Stoops, she took a break from directing to act in a production of Collateral Bodies at The Bridge. I hear there will be footage from that show going online in the future, but for those that missed it here are some lovely photos. Anna and Gorilla Theater provided some costuming and set pieces for the show as well.
For those looking for a more lighthearted venture, Anna can be seen next weekend in Live Arts' Summer Shorts performing in a piece by Sean McCord (who played Mr. Hardcastle in Stoops) entitled, Moving.
As for Gorilla Theater Productions, Anna has selected the last three plays that will close out the year and will be announcing them soon enough. While work for me around the holidays will make it difficult to participate beyond scoring, I am already starting work providing scores/house music for all three productions, which will be a fantasy adventure for teens and tweens, a small classic Scandinavian drama with Anna in the lead, and something not very small at all by the Bard. These are all projects Anna is very passionate about and after a summer of acting is posed to be very regenerated for attacking. It's going to be a blast!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
She Stoops to Conquer Week One Another Success for GTP!
The show was a blast! Here's a trailer/highlights video:
We didn't get much press out for the opening week and anticipated small turnouts as a result. That is the way of theater sometimes. One can't always sell a show and make sure it's good, so Anna opted for the later and braced to lose money, with the hopes that the turnout would get word of mouth around for the following week. What she got however were two rather healthy turnouts, to put it lightly. Seating was more limited than Antigone, but few seats that were laid out were not filled. Rent was more than paid.
If you like what you see from the cast, worry not. This week's line-up is the same but for three of the youth leads, and while they've been left big shoes to fill, the follow ups are more than up for it - as those familiar with the play might discern from the behind-the-scenes video I previously posted.
Also, sorry this new video took so long to put together. I planned to have it out this monday, but then attended a wedding (it seems that I am at that place in my life where weddings happen a lot), followed by a series of computer problems that kept preventing it from uploading. As usual, please spread the word and check out gorillatheaterproductions.blogspot.com for more info.
Cheers!
We didn't get much press out for the opening week and anticipated small turnouts as a result. That is the way of theater sometimes. One can't always sell a show and make sure it's good, so Anna opted for the later and braced to lose money, with the hopes that the turnout would get word of mouth around for the following week. What she got however were two rather healthy turnouts, to put it lightly. Seating was more limited than Antigone, but few seats that were laid out were not filled. Rent was more than paid.
If you like what you see from the cast, worry not. This week's line-up is the same but for three of the youth leads, and while they've been left big shoes to fill, the follow ups are more than up for it - as those familiar with the play might discern from the behind-the-scenes video I previously posted.
Also, sorry this new video took so long to put together. I planned to have it out this monday, but then attended a wedding (it seems that I am at that place in my life where weddings happen a lot), followed by a series of computer problems that kept preventing it from uploading. As usual, please spread the word and check out gorillatheaterproductions.blogspot.com for more info.
Cheers!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Come Check Out GTP's She Stoops to Conquer!
The silence of this blog has not been due to a lack of productivity, but rather an overabundance of it!
There have been many happenings over the last few weeks that have gone by sadly un-blogged. I will try to get to them all very soon. First and foremost though, I must address that after overcoming many obstacles (including actors battling illness, and a change in venue), Gorilla Theater Productions will be opening their third production, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, THIS WEEKEND At Random Row Books! While this has been a delight put together thanks to an amazing team of volunteers and a wonderful cast, including many close friends and a smattering of delightful newcomers, I think it can also be fittingly called 'the show that wouldn't die.' It's hard to give praise to my wife without it sounding biased, (probably impossible) but I feel it's fair to say that most producers would have canceled a show like this when the going got tough. After all, it is only theater, and shows get canceled all the time by company's much larger and better funded (i.e., not working out of owner/producer/director/costumer/set builder/fight choreographer's home.) However, Anna's kept this show alive long after there was anything to prove to anyone, and as I stood before the stage this evening as the last touches to the set were being hung, I realized she really might have done it again.
Here's a behind the scenes video I put together from some of the rehearsal sessions I visited:
I think this is going to be a blast. As someone admittedly not in love with the play (it just never personally won me over the way my favorites from its period did) I've actually come around quite a lot while witnessing it leap off of the page. It's a reinterpretation for sure, but the heart is all still there. There's a pinch of Antigone in the approach and as I think that was one of Anna's stronger shows, I'm certainly more than looking forward to it.
I think this is going to be a blast. As someone admittedly not in love with the play (it just never personally won me over the way my favorites from its period did) I've actually come around quite a lot while witnessing it leap off of the page. It's a reinterpretation for sure, but the heart is all still there. There's a pinch of Antigone in the approach and as I think that was one of Anna's stronger shows, I'm certainly more than looking forward to it.
I really hope people will come out and support this production. If you can't make it, please consider passing the word on to anyone else that might be interested. Tickets are only $5 so that we can provide affordable theater to the surrounding Charlottesville community, but it only works if we have a good turn out. We're especially hoping to pack the house this Saturday with many of our vets (some roles are played by different actors from the first weekend to the second) warmed up and then let word of mouth build up for the following weekend's line up.
Cheers!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Opening Night a Success for GTP's The Secret Garden!
It's not easy getting over fifty people to come out to a show on a Thursday, let alone a children's play. You can usually get the parents, some friends and extended family, but it seemed like there were more than a couple people that just came to watch a show. That's what the kids delivered, a show. The jokes got laughs (because they were funny), several songs were fantastic, and I heard only good things about the dance numbers (I was in the back operating the rear projector). The thing one dreads the most in children's theater--everyone standing around on stage completely unable to remember their lines in a frozen panic--didn't happen. They had each others' backs and even saved a song when there was a technical problem. Great kids all around!
There are three shows remaining. Tonight, tomorrow and a late Sunday matinee. I have no hesitation recommending this show to anyone interested in the material, or kids theater, or theater in general. As one parent said, approaching Anna afterwards with a very stern look on his face, "You call this children's theater!?!?" Pause. "Anna, this is theater!"
Again, performances are May 3, 4, 5 @ 7:00pm, and May 6 @ 3:30 pm at Sojourner's Church, 1017 Elliott Avenue, Charlottesville, VA 22902. Tickets are only $5.00. Hope to see you there!
Also, I recently looked at the stats on the show's trailer only to discover it is about to spill over 200 hits, of which about 150 are individual viewers! For everyone spreading the word, thank you so much. This is a hard show to break even on and we need all the publicity we can get.
There are three shows remaining. Tonight, tomorrow and a late Sunday matinee. I have no hesitation recommending this show to anyone interested in the material, or kids theater, or theater in general. As one parent said, approaching Anna afterwards with a very stern look on his face, "You call this children's theater!?!?" Pause. "Anna, this is theater!"
Again, performances are May 3, 4, 5 @ 7:00pm, and May 6 @ 3:30 pm at Sojourner's Church, 1017 Elliott Avenue, Charlottesville, VA 22902. Tickets are only $5.00. Hope to see you there!
Also, I recently looked at the stats on the show's trailer only to discover it is about to spill over 200 hits, of which about 150 are individual viewers! For everyone spreading the word, thank you so much. This is a hard show to break even on and we need all the publicity we can get.
Friday, April 20, 2012
The Secret Garden Trailer and Involvement Status Corrections
The Trailer:
I had a few technical difficulties putting this together (not all of which were fully resolved I'm sorry to say), but still, I am happy to report that the trailer for GTP's next production is here!
Please, please pass it on to friends and family (especially those with kids!) in the area. It's not easy making theater with children this young and it not turning into a recital, but I feel all involved are giving it everything they've got to achieve something more. There are some really talented kids in the mix. Along with new faces it has been a delight to see some of the older kids who have been in previous productions with Anna really coming into their own as actors on this. So come on out!
To be frank, kids need theater and theater needs patrons.
Involvement Status Corrections:
In a previous post I incorrectly said the Beverly Seng would be providing an original score that I would be arranging for this production. This was a misunderstanding on my part. I had initially planned to not be involved with this show and was then asked to arranged the instruments and sound mix for the tracks about a month in to make things sonically more in the spirit of Anna's last big young children's theater fantasy project, Snow White (which was the first that I had provided any music and sound effects for). Along with instructing the children for the musical numbers, Beverly arranged the original score, simplifying some numbers for our young beginners' ease and tweaking others. Being a fairly peripheral team member on this production, and with many other things going on in my life, I took "rewrote" to mean she wrote something completely new. This assumption wasn't corrected until I started discussing promotional material rather late in the game, but again, I was on the sidelines for most of the pre-production and rehearsals until the last couple weeks.
So, to clarify... Beverly Seng arranged the score and I arranged the instrumentation and sound mix. Sorry for the confusion and misrepresentation. My bad.
I had a few technical difficulties putting this together (not all of which were fully resolved I'm sorry to say), but still, I am happy to report that the trailer for GTP's next production is here!
Please, please pass it on to friends and family (especially those with kids!) in the area. It's not easy making theater with children this young and it not turning into a recital, but I feel all involved are giving it everything they've got to achieve something more. There are some really talented kids in the mix. Along with new faces it has been a delight to see some of the older kids who have been in previous productions with Anna really coming into their own as actors on this. So come on out!
To be frank, kids need theater and theater needs patrons.
Involvement Status Corrections:
In a previous post I incorrectly said the Beverly Seng would be providing an original score that I would be arranging for this production. This was a misunderstanding on my part. I had initially planned to not be involved with this show and was then asked to arranged the instruments and sound mix for the tracks about a month in to make things sonically more in the spirit of Anna's last big young children's theater fantasy project, Snow White (which was the first that I had provided any music and sound effects for). Along with instructing the children for the musical numbers, Beverly arranged the original score, simplifying some numbers for our young beginners' ease and tweaking others. Being a fairly peripheral team member on this production, and with many other things going on in my life, I took "rewrote" to mean she wrote something completely new. This assumption wasn't corrected until I started discussing promotional material rather late in the game, but again, I was on the sidelines for most of the pre-production and rehearsals until the last couple weeks.
So, to clarify... Beverly Seng arranged the score and I arranged the instrumentation and sound mix. Sorry for the confusion and misrepresentation. My bad.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Recent Demos: "Now and Again," "Fingerprints and Vinyl Dreams," and "Smoke Dragons."
Here's a few old songs I've rearranged demos for.
"Smoke Dragons"
This was a song I wrote and performed back when I was attending Charlottesville's No Shame Theater. It's very heavily influenced by Bob Dylan's original version of "All Along the Watchtower" from his album, John Wesley Harding. I used to listen to that album on vinyl in the living room on weekends as a teenager, around the same time I was getting into Leonard Cohen. Chiefly led by the imagery of Tom Waits albums like The Black Rider, Bone Machine and Mule Variations, I was very interested in composing some sort of southern gothic, apocalyptic musical or folk opera, or concept album... or... something. It's never truly made it to fruition, but all along the way I have been dropping pieces, and bread crumbs, and a few brontosauruses assembled from the bones of this or that. This is one of those bones. Probably a femur.
The experimentation with the video generated some of my favorite results of any I've done thus far. I expect the particular look of this one to rear its head in at least one future project. Though that's still a very 'wait and see' sort of venture.
"Fingerprints and Vinyl Dreams"
Also written in high school, this song has for many years lacked a melody of its own. When I first wrote it, the lyrics were just sung to Devon Sproule's song "New Song" off her first album Devon. In that regard I feel like this is the longest song in progress, that I've written as this can be seen as the official melody instead of some reworking like the other songs I've shared. Sadly though, I think this had some of the worst mic/singing problems, and the vocals get a little more Billy Corgan-ish than I have any business attempting.
"Now and Again"
This was written after I graduated from high school and attending PVCC. It was a strange transition for me, from this tight-knit group at The Living Education Center to the comparably larger community college where everyone was a stranger. For all the social diversity at LEC, we were all relatively like-minded in political and spiritual views. Combined with the divisive climate of the time (the Bush/Kerry elections, and the Marshall/Newman Amendment), PVCC was a pretty stark contrast to that environment. It was a good thing, ultimately, but at the time it was frustrating, to the point of feelings even of resentment towards LEC. At its core, the song is very much about that moment where two people are getting along - until they realize they aren't supposed to be. Of the lot, I'm most happy with how it turned out.
That's it for now. I'll have more on Gorilla Theater stuff real soon. Much has been going on all fronts and this last week has been exhausting.
Later.
"Smoke Dragons"
This was a song I wrote and performed back when I was attending Charlottesville's No Shame Theater. It's very heavily influenced by Bob Dylan's original version of "All Along the Watchtower" from his album, John Wesley Harding. I used to listen to that album on vinyl in the living room on weekends as a teenager, around the same time I was getting into Leonard Cohen. Chiefly led by the imagery of Tom Waits albums like The Black Rider, Bone Machine and Mule Variations, I was very interested in composing some sort of southern gothic, apocalyptic musical or folk opera, or concept album... or... something. It's never truly made it to fruition, but all along the way I have been dropping pieces, and bread crumbs, and a few brontosauruses assembled from the bones of this or that. This is one of those bones. Probably a femur.
The experimentation with the video generated some of my favorite results of any I've done thus far. I expect the particular look of this one to rear its head in at least one future project. Though that's still a very 'wait and see' sort of venture.
"Fingerprints and Vinyl Dreams"
Also written in high school, this song has for many years lacked a melody of its own. When I first wrote it, the lyrics were just sung to Devon Sproule's song "New Song" off her first album Devon. In that regard I feel like this is the longest song in progress, that I've written as this can be seen as the official melody instead of some reworking like the other songs I've shared. Sadly though, I think this had some of the worst mic/singing problems, and the vocals get a little more Billy Corgan-ish than I have any business attempting.
"Now and Again"
This was written after I graduated from high school and attending PVCC. It was a strange transition for me, from this tight-knit group at The Living Education Center to the comparably larger community college where everyone was a stranger. For all the social diversity at LEC, we were all relatively like-minded in political and spiritual views. Combined with the divisive climate of the time (the Bush/Kerry elections, and the Marshall/Newman Amendment), PVCC was a pretty stark contrast to that environment. It was a good thing, ultimately, but at the time it was frustrating, to the point of feelings even of resentment towards LEC. At its core, the song is very much about that moment where two people are getting along - until they realize they aren't supposed to be. Of the lot, I'm most happy with how it turned out.
That's it for now. I'll have more on Gorilla Theater stuff real soon. Much has been going on all fronts and this last week has been exhausting.
Later.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Winning Battle Royale
A few weeks back I slapped together a video and submitted it to an Ain't it Cool News contest to win a special edition copy of Kinji Fukasaku's final film, Battle Royale.
And I won.
YAY!!!!!!
For those not familiar with the infamous classic that I now have a very sexy special edition of, lets just say that The Hunger Games is to B.R. what Twilight was to Let The Right One In. It's a film about a class of middle school teens being forced by their government to fight each other to the death, only this film doesn't soften that concept for the mainstream in the least. There's lots of blood and drama and even a few moments of beauty. It's quite disturbing and not for everyone. Made in 2000, it's still banned in several countries. Though my Mom got me an imported copy this last Christmas, this BluRay marks the first official release in the States from what I understand.
Kinji Fukasaku was a giant in Japanese cinema, best known by Americans for directing the Japanese half of Tora! Tora! Tora!, he worked extensively in the Yakuza (Japanese gangster) genre with such films as Graveyard of Honor and Sympathy for the Underdog. For many contemporary fans of Yakuza films from the likes of Takashi Kitano (who stars in B.R., as the former teacher of the class now put in charge of their game of death) and Takashi Miike (who went on to remake Graveyard of Honor), Fukasaku is one of the elders that they are responding to with their existential/surrealistic "Neo-Yakuza" films. My point being... Battle Royale is a blood-soaked masterpiece. I can't wait to look over all the behind the scenes footage and finally compare BluRay to DVD formats by watching the same video in both. But in the mean time, I just wanted to express my gratitude to AICN news for this awesome prize.
And I won.
YAY!!!!!!
For those not familiar with the infamous classic that I now have a very sexy special edition of, lets just say that The Hunger Games is to B.R. what Twilight was to Let The Right One In. It's a film about a class of middle school teens being forced by their government to fight each other to the death, only this film doesn't soften that concept for the mainstream in the least. There's lots of blood and drama and even a few moments of beauty. It's quite disturbing and not for everyone. Made in 2000, it's still banned in several countries. Though my Mom got me an imported copy this last Christmas, this BluRay marks the first official release in the States from what I understand.
Kinji Fukasaku was a giant in Japanese cinema, best known by Americans for directing the Japanese half of Tora! Tora! Tora!, he worked extensively in the Yakuza (Japanese gangster) genre with such films as Graveyard of Honor and Sympathy for the Underdog. For many contemporary fans of Yakuza films from the likes of Takashi Kitano (who stars in B.R., as the former teacher of the class now put in charge of their game of death) and Takashi Miike (who went on to remake Graveyard of Honor), Fukasaku is one of the elders that they are responding to with their existential/surrealistic "Neo-Yakuza" films. My point being... Battle Royale is a blood-soaked masterpiece. I can't wait to look over all the behind the scenes footage and finally compare BluRay to DVD formats by watching the same video in both. But in the mean time, I just wanted to express my gratitude to AICN news for this awesome prize.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Recent Music: "Real Doll Delivery (Demo)" and "Gale of the Wyvern"
And now for something that has nothing to do with GTP (gasp!).
Real Doll Delivery (Demo)
I actually wrote this song back in 2007 in a body of songs called Casualties of the Times, and its kind of a mind job for me to think that it's five years old. In part because I've slowed down a lot as a lyricist and in my mind it's a fairly recent song, but even more so because of how old that makes the many songs I wrote before it. As I said on the YouTube description, I originally structured it more in the style of "Sister" era Sonic Youth. When I started dabbling in recording vocals with Garageband, I applied it to the very basic bass loop structure and found the vocals more angsty. I think Xiu Xiu was stuck in my head on that day. It was sometime last December before Anna got me a mic for Christmas and I used the built-in mic of my aging iMac for the recording. It has been sitting on my hard drive ever since due to a lack of enthusiasm towards the result and mixing problems. I think I'm finally satisfied with the mix (there isn't much one can do about poor singing skills, but at least you can hear the guitar loops).
The video is of a wasp I found stuck between the screen and the glass of my kitchen window. I added some textures and stuff, but that's the gist of it.
Gale of the Wyvern
I might have started the earliest incarnation of this piece as far back as recording Real Doll Delivery. I've been picking at it on and off for a while, but of late it's served as a pallet cleanser at the end of the day - a little project unrelated to theater, film, or family commitments, that I can poke at for 20 or 40 minutes before going to sleep. It started out very much a guitar piece, and for some reason reminded me of that (also angst-ridden) moment in The Crow where Brandon Lee smashes his guitar. Obviously it sounds nothing like it, but I just got this image of someone having this kind of epic guitar-off to the point of becoming comical as I worked on it. I could never decide where the track was going though. Over time the second half was added and the idea of some sort of pursuit started building. The idea of running from a dragon kept swimming around in my head, and then for god only knows what reason I added high bass dance beats to the mix... and it felt right. There's a lot of almost chaos throughout the track as the two styles clash, but I like it and it feels good to be done with it.
The video footage is mostly comprised of some recent material from yesterday. I was parking my car across from the train tracks down by the amphitheater downtown, on my way to GTP auditions for She Stoops to Conquer, when a train happened to be coming into the station. Since I had my camera with me, I took a moment to film the wheels. I'll probably use the footage again in other things. What really excited me about it though was the sound I recorded from the train going down the tracks. Between editing The Doctor and my own projects I'm pretty sure that is going to come in real handy.
That's all for now.
Later.
Real Doll Delivery (Demo)
I actually wrote this song back in 2007 in a body of songs called Casualties of the Times, and its kind of a mind job for me to think that it's five years old. In part because I've slowed down a lot as a lyricist and in my mind it's a fairly recent song, but even more so because of how old that makes the many songs I wrote before it. As I said on the YouTube description, I originally structured it more in the style of "Sister" era Sonic Youth. When I started dabbling in recording vocals with Garageband, I applied it to the very basic bass loop structure and found the vocals more angsty. I think Xiu Xiu was stuck in my head on that day. It was sometime last December before Anna got me a mic for Christmas and I used the built-in mic of my aging iMac for the recording. It has been sitting on my hard drive ever since due to a lack of enthusiasm towards the result and mixing problems. I think I'm finally satisfied with the mix (there isn't much one can do about poor singing skills, but at least you can hear the guitar loops).
The video is of a wasp I found stuck between the screen and the glass of my kitchen window. I added some textures and stuff, but that's the gist of it.
Gale of the Wyvern
I might have started the earliest incarnation of this piece as far back as recording Real Doll Delivery. I've been picking at it on and off for a while, but of late it's served as a pallet cleanser at the end of the day - a little project unrelated to theater, film, or family commitments, that I can poke at for 20 or 40 minutes before going to sleep. It started out very much a guitar piece, and for some reason reminded me of that (also angst-ridden) moment in The Crow where Brandon Lee smashes his guitar. Obviously it sounds nothing like it, but I just got this image of someone having this kind of epic guitar-off to the point of becoming comical as I worked on it. I could never decide where the track was going though. Over time the second half was added and the idea of some sort of pursuit started building. The idea of running from a dragon kept swimming around in my head, and then for god only knows what reason I added high bass dance beats to the mix... and it felt right. There's a lot of almost chaos throughout the track as the two styles clash, but I like it and it feels good to be done with it.
The video footage is mostly comprised of some recent material from yesterday. I was parking my car across from the train tracks down by the amphitheater downtown, on my way to GTP auditions for She Stoops to Conquer, when a train happened to be coming into the station. Since I had my camera with me, I took a moment to film the wheels. I'll probably use the footage again in other things. What really excited me about it though was the sound I recorded from the train going down the tracks. Between editing The Doctor and my own projects I'm pretty sure that is going to come in real handy.
That's all for now.
Later.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
She Stoops to Conquer Auditions - There's Still Time!
If you are interested in auditioning for GTP's She Stoops to Conquer, don't let the "'till the end of the month" bit discourage you. While that would be ideal and some roles will be cast with the 'early birds' that get in before this coming monday, many auditions have been scheduled for Saturday and I think a few for Sunday. We've got a lot of people who have auditioned and more that are auditioning that have us very excited, but there's a sizable number of roles to fill in total, from meaty leads to walk-ons, allowing for a cast of mixed experience from veterans to newcomers. So if you're interested, swing by the main site and send an email or leave a message.
Monday, March 26, 2012
First Wave of Stoops Auditions - a success!
Auditions for She Stoops To Conquer are going quite nicely so far with some familiar faces and a few new ones. This being Gorilla's first show to cast adults, Anna and I are getting very excited at the prospects of so much new blood joining the mix, along with old friends returning to work with us again. The first wave of readings was thoroughly invigorating!
While the new direction of the show is still gestating and will only take its true, full form once a cast is completely selected, I can say thus far that it's going to be a very character driven show. I think what turned me off to the play initially (it had the unfortunate fate of being read shortly after discovering Congreve's The Way of The World) was the portrayal of the characters as caricatures to facilitate the laughs. However, returning to the text Anna and I've continued to not only find depth in many of the roles worth taking seriously, but something we all-together never anticipated: a familiarity with these characters that could allow this to become a fairly personal project.
There was always the historical context to be juxtaposed to our current economic climate, but beyond that I anticipated, from the sidelines, that it would prove somewhat a challenge to convey the context of such a comedy that's jokes are very rooted in another place and time from our own. (Imagine remaking Juno with the same script... only a couple hundred years later, and expecting people to laugh at "Oh my blog!") This I suspect is the sentiment that leaves it seldom put on the way shows like The Importance of Being Ernest and School for Scandal are. Yet, what we found in rereading the text and working with the first wave of auditioning actors was that the relationships and family dynamics in Stoops have aged surprisingly well, and for a couple born and raised in Albemarle and Buckingham, these British characters of almost 300 years ago--even with their servants and class systems--read with a curiously Virginian flavor to them at times. What will come of these observations, you'll just have to wait and see! What Anna and I are certain of for now is that the show is funny, and we believe that through making our audience care about the characters, we can make it hilarious.
Auditions are continuing to the end of the month. If you're interested in participating, there are still rolls to be filled! Please go to Gorilla's auditions page for more information.
Cheers!
While the new direction of the show is still gestating and will only take its true, full form once a cast is completely selected, I can say thus far that it's going to be a very character driven show. I think what turned me off to the play initially (it had the unfortunate fate of being read shortly after discovering Congreve's The Way of The World) was the portrayal of the characters as caricatures to facilitate the laughs. However, returning to the text Anna and I've continued to not only find depth in many of the roles worth taking seriously, but something we all-together never anticipated: a familiarity with these characters that could allow this to become a fairly personal project.
There was always the historical context to be juxtaposed to our current economic climate, but beyond that I anticipated, from the sidelines, that it would prove somewhat a challenge to convey the context of such a comedy that's jokes are very rooted in another place and time from our own. (Imagine remaking Juno with the same script... only a couple hundred years later, and expecting people to laugh at "Oh my blog!") This I suspect is the sentiment that leaves it seldom put on the way shows like The Importance of Being Ernest and School for Scandal are. Yet, what we found in rereading the text and working with the first wave of auditioning actors was that the relationships and family dynamics in Stoops have aged surprisingly well, and for a couple born and raised in Albemarle and Buckingham, these British characters of almost 300 years ago--even with their servants and class systems--read with a curiously Virginian flavor to them at times. What will come of these observations, you'll just have to wait and see! What Anna and I are certain of for now is that the show is funny, and we believe that through making our audience care about the characters, we can make it hilarious.
Auditions are continuing to the end of the month. If you're interested in participating, there are still rolls to be filled! Please go to Gorilla's auditions page for more information.
Cheers!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
A Long Day: Filming and the Status of SHE STOOPS
Saturday was indeed a long day.
Filming
As previously mentioned, Anna and I helped work on a short film. "The Doctor: We All Have Our Demons," co-written and directed by our protege Gabriel Komisar and featuring a few familiar faces from Gorilla's theater circle and others we hope to work with more in the future. Anna and I provided sets and assistant directed. Anna appears in the film as a mysterious woman who will give the protagonist a towel and some sound advice (thus winning the Douglas Adams Fan seal of approval!) before tossing said protagonist out a door and taking on some demons. I was the cameraman and cinematographer. I will also be editing the film.
I think the shoot was above all an educational experience for everyone involved, and looking over the footage now uploaded, I can happily say a success. Working with high school students is tough. Not because of intelligence or maturity so much as the simple reality that they are often quite busy in ways that make it challenging to get all in one place for rehearsals and blocking and all the preparation that goes into a smooth shooting schedule. In this case, we had to knock out the majority of the film in one day starting at 9:00AM and ending at 3:15PM. Everyone walked away exhausted, and I'm sure wondering not if we nailed every shot, but if we nailed any shot. Ultimately, we didn't them all. Some things could have used another take. I found some technical hang-ups with sound and a few shots, but as a whole, we didn't shoot a broken film, and some scenes came out genuinely great. The rests our the griefs of perfectionists still learning (myself included).
I need to talk more with the writer/director duo about what more I can share from or about the film. It really was a blast, and for Anna and I, the project was also a proof of concept for grander ideas. I'm sitting on a script for a full-length film, and after today, I feel very confident that with the proper resources, we will definitely be able to handle shooting it. More on that later.
Status of She Stoops To Conquer
With the evening came less happy tasks. After much discussion and reluctance, Gorilla Theater Productions has decided to terminate Tim Hulsey's involvement with She Stoops to Conquer. It is neither my nor Anna's desire to dwell on the particulars for why she came to this decision, nor do we wish ill will towards Tim or his future pursuits. Some clarification is due however. Tim is gone, but we are still doing Stoops.
Tim presented the idea for She Stoops to Conquer to us, and adapted the script for the production. Tim takes that adaptation with him, and we fully expect he will direct his interpretation (which I do not mean to imply was anything so radical - just that it was simply his) of the classic sometime in the near future, perhaps even the very near future - independently or as soon as he can find the backing of another company. This is my presumption though. Tim is no longer involved with GTP, nor we with him, and so neither can speak for the other. If he does pursue it, then whether he accepts it or not, he does have our blessing on the task. Tim came to Gorilla with enthusiasm and praise for Antigone, indicating that he believed in what we were doing. If that sentiment has changed, we nonetheless appreciate it for what it was at the time. We genuinely do wish him the best of luck.
GTP is a small company, based largely out of our home (stage flats still rest in the hallway between the living room and my office). The success of each show literally funds the next, allowing Gorilla to survive. It is essentially a non-profit without the 501c3 to make it official. Our reputation is still growing in this town, and it can't afford the hits that, for example, canceling space rentals (potentially convincing key venues that we are unreliable) can cause. We've committed to the location, spent money on fliers, and devoted many, many hours to this project ourselves (especially Anna). A large part of the changes to the summer programming were due to devoting more time to this production, the first production to mostly feature an adult cast, showing that Gorilla is not just a youth theater company. So, yeah, no pressure.
It really was a hard call for Anna to make, but we move forward with at least one conciliation - that our production will truly not take Tim's show away from him, even if he opens his own version on the same week. I find that the older a play is, the more malleable it is to re-interpretation. She Stoops to Conquer is 239 years old. Whatever vision Anna is coming up with for it, it will be pointedly not like that conceived by Tim.
As the use of "we" and "our" throughout should suggest, I will be much more involved with this project. Besides promotions, my role has been fairly vague, but I have a feeling I might find myself wearing more than a couple hats as we solider on.
Later.
Filming
As previously mentioned, Anna and I helped work on a short film. "The Doctor: We All Have Our Demons," co-written and directed by our protege Gabriel Komisar and featuring a few familiar faces from Gorilla's theater circle and others we hope to work with more in the future. Anna and I provided sets and assistant directed. Anna appears in the film as a mysterious woman who will give the protagonist a towel and some sound advice (thus winning the Douglas Adams Fan seal of approval!) before tossing said protagonist out a door and taking on some demons. I was the cameraman and cinematographer. I will also be editing the film.
I think the shoot was above all an educational experience for everyone involved, and looking over the footage now uploaded, I can happily say a success. Working with high school students is tough. Not because of intelligence or maturity so much as the simple reality that they are often quite busy in ways that make it challenging to get all in one place for rehearsals and blocking and all the preparation that goes into a smooth shooting schedule. In this case, we had to knock out the majority of the film in one day starting at 9:00AM and ending at 3:15PM. Everyone walked away exhausted, and I'm sure wondering not if we nailed every shot, but if we nailed any shot. Ultimately, we didn't them all. Some things could have used another take. I found some technical hang-ups with sound and a few shots, but as a whole, we didn't shoot a broken film, and some scenes came out genuinely great. The rests our the griefs of perfectionists still learning (myself included).
I need to talk more with the writer/director duo about what more I can share from or about the film. It really was a blast, and for Anna and I, the project was also a proof of concept for grander ideas. I'm sitting on a script for a full-length film, and after today, I feel very confident that with the proper resources, we will definitely be able to handle shooting it. More on that later.
Status of She Stoops To Conquer
With the evening came less happy tasks. After much discussion and reluctance, Gorilla Theater Productions has decided to terminate Tim Hulsey's involvement with She Stoops to Conquer. It is neither my nor Anna's desire to dwell on the particulars for why she came to this decision, nor do we wish ill will towards Tim or his future pursuits. Some clarification is due however. Tim is gone, but we are still doing Stoops.
Tim presented the idea for She Stoops to Conquer to us, and adapted the script for the production. Tim takes that adaptation with him, and we fully expect he will direct his interpretation (which I do not mean to imply was anything so radical - just that it was simply his) of the classic sometime in the near future, perhaps even the very near future - independently or as soon as he can find the backing of another company. This is my presumption though. Tim is no longer involved with GTP, nor we with him, and so neither can speak for the other. If he does pursue it, then whether he accepts it or not, he does have our blessing on the task. Tim came to Gorilla with enthusiasm and praise for Antigone, indicating that he believed in what we were doing. If that sentiment has changed, we nonetheless appreciate it for what it was at the time. We genuinely do wish him the best of luck.
GTP is a small company, based largely out of our home (stage flats still rest in the hallway between the living room and my office). The success of each show literally funds the next, allowing Gorilla to survive. It is essentially a non-profit without the 501c3 to make it official. Our reputation is still growing in this town, and it can't afford the hits that, for example, canceling space rentals (potentially convincing key venues that we are unreliable) can cause. We've committed to the location, spent money on fliers, and devoted many, many hours to this project ourselves (especially Anna). A large part of the changes to the summer programming were due to devoting more time to this production, the first production to mostly feature an adult cast, showing that Gorilla is not just a youth theater company. So, yeah, no pressure.
It really was a hard call for Anna to make, but we move forward with at least one conciliation - that our production will truly not take Tim's show away from him, even if he opens his own version on the same week. I find that the older a play is, the more malleable it is to re-interpretation. She Stoops to Conquer is 239 years old. Whatever vision Anna is coming up with for it, it will be pointedly not like that conceived by Tim.
As the use of "we" and "our" throughout should suggest, I will be much more involved with this project. Besides promotions, my role has been fairly vague, but I have a feeling I might find myself wearing more than a couple hats as we solider on.
Later.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Secret Garden Photography
Just thought I'd share some pictures I took last weekend with Anna. We wandered the UVA area trying to capture images for the rear projected backgrounds to be used in Gorilla Theater Productions' late April youth production of The Secret Garden. At this point I can't say which of the dozens of photos taken will be used but I'm pretty sure it will include at least some of the following:
There's some photo shopping to be done, but that's Anna's department. Like I said, who knows what will be cut, and this isn't all of them. Photo's that are too angled, too closeup, or otherwise fail to establish a level background and scale with the stage may be used in transitional montages. Or she might go expressionistic. We shall see!
There's some photo shopping to be done, but that's Anna's department. Like I said, who knows what will be cut, and this isn't all of them. Photo's that are too angled, too closeup, or otherwise fail to establish a level background and scale with the stage may be used in transitional montages. Or she might go expressionistic. We shall see!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
A Productive Day
Not too much to report. Just thought I'd share the general happenings of the day.
Spent a fair chunk of the afternoon with Anna collecting footage and images of Spring for Secret Garden's backdrops. As I understand it, the plan is to rear-project the images onto the background of the stage. Not sure how much of it could be used in the trailer at this point as that's still being discussed. The music arrangements are also coming along pretty smoothly. The weather is really getting us in the spirit for it all.
The previously mentioned film project also met with some wonderful news as it looks like we may be a-go for shooting on location at a local establishment. That they might legitimately say no has been a fear throughout pre-production, as the scene was somewhat key and most conceivable alternatives would have really taken away from what the writers were going for. The details are still to be worked out, so I'll hold off from names, but the initial response to our inquiry was enthusiastically positive. Yay!
That's about it for today. Had a few fun prospects for jobs (as in, employment). I'm looking into becoming an electrician as a long-term career goal, but for now with the economy as it is I'm just seeking something to fund my more ambitious projects, electrician classes, and help pay the bills. I suppose it's relevant news to this blog in that it's the key thing holding me back from pursuing a few bigger projects that are currently resting on the back burner. More on those when there closer to the... um, fore burner. Yeah. Fingers crossed!
Later.
Spent a fair chunk of the afternoon with Anna collecting footage and images of Spring for Secret Garden's backdrops. As I understand it, the plan is to rear-project the images onto the background of the stage. Not sure how much of it could be used in the trailer at this point as that's still being discussed. The music arrangements are also coming along pretty smoothly. The weather is really getting us in the spirit for it all.
The previously mentioned film project also met with some wonderful news as it looks like we may be a-go for shooting on location at a local establishment. That they might legitimately say no has been a fear throughout pre-production, as the scene was somewhat key and most conceivable alternatives would have really taken away from what the writers were going for. The details are still to be worked out, so I'll hold off from names, but the initial response to our inquiry was enthusiastically positive. Yay!
That's about it for today. Had a few fun prospects for jobs (as in, employment). I'm looking into becoming an electrician as a long-term career goal, but for now with the economy as it is I'm just seeking something to fund my more ambitious projects, electrician classes, and help pay the bills. I suppose it's relevant news to this blog in that it's the key thing holding me back from pursuing a few bigger projects that are currently resting on the back burner. More on those when there closer to the... um, fore burner. Yeah. Fingers crossed!
Later.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Antigone: Part 2 - The Trailer
If I take nothing else away from Antigone, I take one very valuable lesson: when shooting a trailer for a play, set aside an actual day where you will shoot said trailer. This may seem obvious enough, but when working on a project as mean and lean as Antigone proved to be, taking a day to shoot a trailer is actually a luxury difficult to afford. Instead, I began to film the actors in rehearsals. Cobbling together footage from three nights, I found myself sifting through several hours to make the finished result.
The majority of the rehearsals used an upstairs space in the library downtown, which was great because of the Jeffersonian interior design. But actors were not positioning themselves for me to shoot, they were positioning themselves to their blocking. The tripod often had to be set aside to unobtrusively get shots, and after the first hour each night the shaky cam would get pretty bad.
After the first night though I decided that I could use this partially to my advantage, opting for a grainy high-contrast black and white look, inspired (though not replicating) the Italian Neo-Realism style of Rome, Open City. Anouilh having wrote and staged his adaptation of Antigone in Nazi occupied France, it seemed natural to draw from films and news reels of the time (though the final result flirts more with Sadie Benning). It was only really unfortunate in that it was a very similar look to the last trailer I had done for one of Anna's plays, cementing me to this grainy black and white style which I must now prove is not all I can do.
(To make matters worse, I want to use this look in a future film project of mine and have been asked to use it in a short film for a friend. At this rate I'm going to have to shoot something in technicolor just to prove I'm not colorblind!)
I was having some trouble trying to distill something from all the material, a synopsis that would be engaging and draw people in. Then one night the actor playing Haemon brought a soldier's helmet from WWII, wondering if it could be used in the show. At the end of rehearsal he had a few minutes to spare and agreed to pose as Antigone's dead brother. This really gave the trailer a shape. It allowed me to show in a simple image of what was at stake and let all the drama be framed around it.
Again though, I had to work with what I had, which brings me to the often asked question, 'why the line about the fruit?' Well... one it alluded to some moments of comedy in this otherwise very dark and serious play, and two, it was a moment of the lovers together quarreling. I was trying to get the trailer out early enough to generate buzz, so I couldn't film them at a dress rehearsal. As a result I was focusing on head-shots to avoid drawing attention to the actors' street clothes, which, again, really limited the pickings. So, I admit the 'fruit line' was not the best choice, but it was certainly one of the best of what I had.
All said and done, I'm very pleased with the trailer. It got roughly 2oo individual hits before the second show, which sold out, and with about 200 tickets sold in total (not bad for a debut show that only played three nights) I think the advertising campaign was a success.
To end on a fun note. Look very closely at the moment in the trailer where Antigone is smiling and stroking Haemon's hair... around the 1:17 mark. It looks like such a tender moment, but that was actually a moment where the actor made a joke and got slapped upside the head. I slowed it down and caught the smile then cut away just in time (I might have also played the shot in reverse). It's my favorite thing about the trailer.
Cheers.
The majority of the rehearsals used an upstairs space in the library downtown, which was great because of the Jeffersonian interior design. But actors were not positioning themselves for me to shoot, they were positioning themselves to their blocking. The tripod often had to be set aside to unobtrusively get shots, and after the first hour each night the shaky cam would get pretty bad.
After the first night though I decided that I could use this partially to my advantage, opting for a grainy high-contrast black and white look, inspired (though not replicating) the Italian Neo-Realism style of Rome, Open City. Anouilh having wrote and staged his adaptation of Antigone in Nazi occupied France, it seemed natural to draw from films and news reels of the time (though the final result flirts more with Sadie Benning). It was only really unfortunate in that it was a very similar look to the last trailer I had done for one of Anna's plays, cementing me to this grainy black and white style which I must now prove is not all I can do.
(To make matters worse, I want to use this look in a future film project of mine and have been asked to use it in a short film for a friend. At this rate I'm going to have to shoot something in technicolor just to prove I'm not colorblind!)
I was having some trouble trying to distill something from all the material, a synopsis that would be engaging and draw people in. Then one night the actor playing Haemon brought a soldier's helmet from WWII, wondering if it could be used in the show. At the end of rehearsal he had a few minutes to spare and agreed to pose as Antigone's dead brother. This really gave the trailer a shape. It allowed me to show in a simple image of what was at stake and let all the drama be framed around it.
Again though, I had to work with what I had, which brings me to the often asked question, 'why the line about the fruit?' Well... one it alluded to some moments of comedy in this otherwise very dark and serious play, and two, it was a moment of the lovers together quarreling. I was trying to get the trailer out early enough to generate buzz, so I couldn't film them at a dress rehearsal. As a result I was focusing on head-shots to avoid drawing attention to the actors' street clothes, which, again, really limited the pickings. So, I admit the 'fruit line' was not the best choice, but it was certainly one of the best of what I had.
All said and done, I'm very pleased with the trailer. It got roughly 2oo individual hits before the second show, which sold out, and with about 200 tickets sold in total (not bad for a debut show that only played three nights) I think the advertising campaign was a success.
To end on a fun note. Look very closely at the moment in the trailer where Antigone is smiling and stroking Haemon's hair... around the 1:17 mark. It looks like such a tender moment, but that was actually a moment where the actor made a joke and got slapped upside the head. I slowed it down and caught the smile then cut away just in time (I might have also played the shot in reverse). It's my favorite thing about the trailer.
Cheers.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Current Projects 03/13/2012
I've got three big projects coming up:
1.
I'm currently arranging the score for Gorilla Theater Production's (GTP) youth production of The Secret Garden. This production features a largely original score by Beverly Seng with a few traditional hymns. The score was sent to me in Garageband files with the melodies mostly written for piano or guitar with flute accompaniment (some having more instrumentation then others though).
The arrangements were largely modeled for the kids to learn the rhythms and melodies of the songs clearly and with ease. My task is to spice these homework tracks up for the stage, both with soundscapes and ambiance as well as additional instrumentation and mixing. This will be my first project where I'm working with music by someone else. It's a fun score crafted by someone with a lot of knowledge about folk and classical music. I expect to learn a lot from the experience, especially about arranging music with lyrics - something I'm hoping to do more of in the future.
I'm also planing to shoot a trailer for this production in the coming weeks.
2.
Later this month I will start shooting as the cinematographer on a friend of mine's short film. The film will feature my wife, Anna, in the cast and as an assistant director. There have been some scheduling conflicts but we're hell bent to make it happen. It has a very David Lynchian vibe to it. I expect the project to be lots of fun. More info as it develops!
3.
Last night I met with Anna and Timothy Hulsey to discuss GTP's follow up production to Secret Garden, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. We looked over the script and talked logistics. At this point, my involvement looks to be as a production assistant, helping with sets and whatnot. I do plan to shoot a trailer for that show as well, more on that as it develops.
Cheers!
1.
I'm currently arranging the score for Gorilla Theater Production's (GTP) youth production of The Secret Garden. This production features a largely original score by Beverly Seng with a few traditional hymns. The score was sent to me in Garageband files with the melodies mostly written for piano or guitar with flute accompaniment (some having more instrumentation then others though).
The arrangements were largely modeled for the kids to learn the rhythms and melodies of the songs clearly and with ease. My task is to spice these homework tracks up for the stage, both with soundscapes and ambiance as well as additional instrumentation and mixing. This will be my first project where I'm working with music by someone else. It's a fun score crafted by someone with a lot of knowledge about folk and classical music. I expect to learn a lot from the experience, especially about arranging music with lyrics - something I'm hoping to do more of in the future.
I'm also planing to shoot a trailer for this production in the coming weeks.
2.
Later this month I will start shooting as the cinematographer on a friend of mine's short film. The film will feature my wife, Anna, in the cast and as an assistant director. There have been some scheduling conflicts but we're hell bent to make it happen. It has a very David Lynchian vibe to it. I expect the project to be lots of fun. More info as it develops!
3.
Last night I met with Anna and Timothy Hulsey to discuss GTP's follow up production to Secret Garden, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. We looked over the script and talked logistics. At this point, my involvement looks to be as a production assistant, helping with sets and whatnot. I do plan to shoot a trailer for that show as well, more on that as it develops.
A NOTE TO ACTORS:
Check GTP's site for audition info for She Stoops.
They will be looking for adult and teen actors.
Check GTP's site for audition info for She Stoops.
They will be looking for adult and teen actors.
Cheers!
Antigone: Part 1 - The Score
Antigone was the first production of my wife Anna Lien's new independent theater company, Gorilla Theater Productions. I got wear a lot of different hats on this one, from production assistant, composer of house music, assistant director, documentarian, and promotional assistant/trailer director. For now let's talk about the score.
Anna and I are big fans of using minimalist set designs that rely on the marriage of sparse structures and props with lighting and ambient sound. The goal was to make a series of mood tracks to fill the space between the play opening, intermission, and closing.
Opening score: Track 1 "Digging"
Anna requested that the score be primarily drum pieces having originally desired to have a live percussion group present. I did a little bit or research and found that most Greek drums, were similar to Native American Earth Drums, I set out initially to have spacy high bass drums booming which contradicted the more African drum sound that a percussion group would have produced. As the production evolved and I saw that Anna was going more for a timeless place out of time aesthetic similar many modern productions of Shakespeare I opted for less concern about anachronism and ran wild with what felt appropriate for the world of the play.
"Digging" could as easily have been called "Sneaking" as it's about Antigone going out in the night before the play opens. Of the tracks I put together and particularly pleased with this one on an arrangement level.
Transition into Intermission: Track 2 "For The First Time..."
This song became the theme of the project and was one of the earliest composed. The title comes from a line the Chorus says before Antigone's confrontation with her uncle. For the first time, facing her fate, Antigone can truly be herself.
Intermission: Track 3 "Searchlights on the Beach"
There were two waves which the Antigone Score was produced in. The first produced tracks 1, 2, 4 and 6, with 4 being the closing track. When asked to make music to stretch out across intermission (giving a more distinct cue that intermission was over), the second wave produced tracks 3, 5, and 7. Tracks 3 and 5 were drew more from themes in the play. Track 3 is named after the oft mentioned beach from Antigone's childhood memories with her brothers, and the idea that it is now oppressed by her her uncle's regime. The tune is very ambient as they are to be played while people stretch, use the restrooms and buy concessions.
Intermission: Track 4 "Sacrificial"
Originally the closing track this was moved to the intermission when the alternative closing track was made.
Intermission: Track 5 "Immurement"
Foreshadowing the fate of Antigone in the cave and the dungeon scene prior to it I made this tune very subterranean in tone. Along with Track 3 this tune has a very emotional association for me. They were both composed while my mother was in surgery. The procedure would take several hours, and as opposed to sitting in the waiting room feeling powerless, I decided to go home and be productive, more to stay sane than anything else. The state of mind however made this a particularly gloomy piece. I though of omitting it, but Anna encouraged me to include it, so I did.
Transition out of Intermission: Track 6 "Fate"
Somewhat the 'other theme song of the play', I was very inspired by how soldiers would bang their shields and armor against one another pumping up for battle. I think the turn was very effective in giving the actors a sense of urgency to the drama and was really happy with how it played out in the trailer (more on that later).
Closer: Track 7 "Blind Mice Dance"
When we were painting the set, at Random Row, someone was playing the Soundtrack to the remake of Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. The cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song really stuck with me and was frequently hummed all through the later quarter of production. I think the influence is pretty present in the beat here. Also, one of the things I was doing as assistant director on the production was helping the Guard characters with their marching routine. Between the two influences and the play ending on the Guards playing cards, I came up with this track which I felt ended the show on a more militaristic tone, as well as a little swagger.
That's about it.
More on the trailer coming up!
Anna and I are big fans of using minimalist set designs that rely on the marriage of sparse structures and props with lighting and ambient sound. The goal was to make a series of mood tracks to fill the space between the play opening, intermission, and closing.
Opening score: Track 1 "Digging"
Anna requested that the score be primarily drum pieces having originally desired to have a live percussion group present. I did a little bit or research and found that most Greek drums, were similar to Native American Earth Drums, I set out initially to have spacy high bass drums booming which contradicted the more African drum sound that a percussion group would have produced. As the production evolved and I saw that Anna was going more for a timeless place out of time aesthetic similar many modern productions of Shakespeare I opted for less concern about anachronism and ran wild with what felt appropriate for the world of the play.
"Digging" could as easily have been called "Sneaking" as it's about Antigone going out in the night before the play opens. Of the tracks I put together and particularly pleased with this one on an arrangement level.
Transition into Intermission: Track 2 "For The First Time..."
This song became the theme of the project and was one of the earliest composed. The title comes from a line the Chorus says before Antigone's confrontation with her uncle. For the first time, facing her fate, Antigone can truly be herself.
Intermission: Track 3 "Searchlights on the Beach"
There were two waves which the Antigone Score was produced in. The first produced tracks 1, 2, 4 and 6, with 4 being the closing track. When asked to make music to stretch out across intermission (giving a more distinct cue that intermission was over), the second wave produced tracks 3, 5, and 7. Tracks 3 and 5 were drew more from themes in the play. Track 3 is named after the oft mentioned beach from Antigone's childhood memories with her brothers, and the idea that it is now oppressed by her her uncle's regime. The tune is very ambient as they are to be played while people stretch, use the restrooms and buy concessions.
Intermission: Track 4 "Sacrificial"
Originally the closing track this was moved to the intermission when the alternative closing track was made.
Intermission: Track 5 "Immurement"
Foreshadowing the fate of Antigone in the cave and the dungeon scene prior to it I made this tune very subterranean in tone. Along with Track 3 this tune has a very emotional association for me. They were both composed while my mother was in surgery. The procedure would take several hours, and as opposed to sitting in the waiting room feeling powerless, I decided to go home and be productive, more to stay sane than anything else. The state of mind however made this a particularly gloomy piece. I though of omitting it, but Anna encouraged me to include it, so I did.
Transition out of Intermission: Track 6 "Fate"
Somewhat the 'other theme song of the play', I was very inspired by how soldiers would bang their shields and armor against one another pumping up for battle. I think the turn was very effective in giving the actors a sense of urgency to the drama and was really happy with how it played out in the trailer (more on that later).
Closer: Track 7 "Blind Mice Dance"
When we were painting the set, at Random Row, someone was playing the Soundtrack to the remake of Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. The cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song really stuck with me and was frequently hummed all through the later quarter of production. I think the influence is pretty present in the beat here. Also, one of the things I was doing as assistant director on the production was helping the Guard characters with their marching routine. Between the two influences and the play ending on the Guards playing cards, I came up with this track which I felt ended the show on a more militaristic tone, as well as a little swagger.
That's about it.
More on the trailer coming up!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Ambient: Music for Babies
Three months ago I became an uncle. Yay!
As I was trying to think of something to give my sister for Christmas, ideally something I could make, I found out that they discovered the sleep inducing power of white noise for my nephew. Simply Noise is a great site that I discovered awhile back. I find it great for focusing, especially while writing, and was thrilled they were using it. White noise is essentially a perpetual "shhh" sound, letting the baby know everything is okay.
There was one problem, though. The sound put my sister on edge, much like a television set left on after the cable box is switched off. So, I decided to set out and make something more melodic than the same monotonous sound for her to try. I started making tunes that utilized white noise and other distortion and delay based sounds, along with some binaural beats. It sorta snowballed into an album, which I now call Ambient: Music for Babies. Now that they're trying to move past the noise approach, I figure why not share it with everyone?
"December Windows"
The footage is from the first snow storm of the year, and shows the environment I was putting this together in rather nicely. Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports was a major influence.
"Sleet Pulse"
"Late Evening Haze"
This tune was admittedly not quite baby friendly, at least not very likely to be. I was also influenced to do a few tracks that reflected the sleep deprivation of those first weeks (into months) of having a kid. Namely this track and "Midnight Tap Water" below.
"Gray Meditation"
"Linen Curtains (Tidal Wash Mix)"
The "Tidal Wash Mix" here is a reworking of the original session version. It turns out that trying to compose an album of any kind of music in under two weeks is not very easy. So, for Christmas I gave them a demo CD with a promise that several tracks would be reworked. The original version of this was much more piano oriented and cheery, really cheery, but it mixed wrong and didn't gel with the overall murky ambiance I was going for. I was like a patch in the sky of blinding bright sunlight on an otherwise cozy, cloudy day. As a result I added the more oceanic soundscape making the piano sound like something being listened to from underwater.
"Waiting in Airports"
A spiritual nod to Eno. I think the F@*k Buttons (NSFW only because of the band's name) were another influence on this piece.
"Midnight Tap Water"
"Beneath the Ballroom"
I had a very clear image for this tune, one of being underwater in darkness beneath a hazy surface of ice over which a ballroom dance is being carried out. It's a sort of manatee tune, very dreamlike in nature, the sort of thing my earliest dreams tended to form. I'd credit LIMBO as an inspiration, but I hadn't gotten to the game's climax when I composed it and I feel like those last moments are where it was most like the song and vice versa. It's an odd piece to include I suppose, but the idea of music in other rooms and of sounds out of sight - that those were things my sister and brother-in-law were encouraging their son not to be scared of, inspired the tune. It's a strange mix of darkness and uncertainty but also grandeur and wonder. At least, that's what I aimed for.
"Mumbled Lullaby"
And here is the infamous tune I linked to before while discussing "Into the City, It Cometh at Night," that my friend filled the comment board for with madness. It's a quaint little closing tune, but I'm not entirely pleased with the video. It just didn't come out right and were I ever to present this in some public exhibition, it would likely be drastically redone.
I haven't really discussed the videos much. They were all done on the fly from various footage on my hard drive, mostly assembled from the first winter snow we had. The footage was largely collected to experiment with for a film project I'm working on. Here I choose mostly to modify the footage into black and white as babies like high contrast. Of course, halfway through assembling them (not in order) I realized it would be a terrible idea to actually show any of these to my nephew as showing new born babies videos can lead to all sorts of developmental problems. So I just cobbled imagery that complimented the music to give them something more that a white on black title as they played on YouTube. There isn't much more to them than that. Aesthetically pleasing visual stimulus to accompany the music.
Trippy.
I feel I should close this with some form of disclaimer. While I know a couple of these tracks were just as effective as the white noise, my sister and her husband were already starting to move away from this approach around the time the final version of the album was finished. I have no idea what the long-term effects of my music would be be on a child and am not recommending the music actually be played to babies for long periods of time. So... don't cry to me if you slap headphones on your one-month old and blare this in their ears until their deaf... only to discover it makes them deaf, or into F@*k Buttons, or both. The title of the album is based on what I set out to do, not the final product.
Later.
As I was trying to think of something to give my sister for Christmas, ideally something I could make, I found out that they discovered the sleep inducing power of white noise for my nephew. Simply Noise is a great site that I discovered awhile back. I find it great for focusing, especially while writing, and was thrilled they were using it. White noise is essentially a perpetual "shhh" sound, letting the baby know everything is okay.
There was one problem, though. The sound put my sister on edge, much like a television set left on after the cable box is switched off. So, I decided to set out and make something more melodic than the same monotonous sound for her to try. I started making tunes that utilized white noise and other distortion and delay based sounds, along with some binaural beats. It sorta snowballed into an album, which I now call Ambient: Music for Babies. Now that they're trying to move past the noise approach, I figure why not share it with everyone?
"December Windows"
The footage is from the first snow storm of the year, and shows the environment I was putting this together in rather nicely. Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports was a major influence.
"Sleet Pulse"
"Late Evening Haze"
This tune was admittedly not quite baby friendly, at least not very likely to be. I was also influenced to do a few tracks that reflected the sleep deprivation of those first weeks (into months) of having a kid. Namely this track and "Midnight Tap Water" below.
"Gray Meditation"
"Linen Curtains (Tidal Wash Mix)"
The "Tidal Wash Mix" here is a reworking of the original session version. It turns out that trying to compose an album of any kind of music in under two weeks is not very easy. So, for Christmas I gave them a demo CD with a promise that several tracks would be reworked. The original version of this was much more piano oriented and cheery, really cheery, but it mixed wrong and didn't gel with the overall murky ambiance I was going for. I was like a patch in the sky of blinding bright sunlight on an otherwise cozy, cloudy day. As a result I added the more oceanic soundscape making the piano sound like something being listened to from underwater.
"Waiting in Airports"
A spiritual nod to Eno. I think the F@*k Buttons (NSFW only because of the band's name) were another influence on this piece.
"Midnight Tap Water"
"Beneath the Ballroom"
I had a very clear image for this tune, one of being underwater in darkness beneath a hazy surface of ice over which a ballroom dance is being carried out. It's a sort of manatee tune, very dreamlike in nature, the sort of thing my earliest dreams tended to form. I'd credit LIMBO as an inspiration, but I hadn't gotten to the game's climax when I composed it and I feel like those last moments are where it was most like the song and vice versa. It's an odd piece to include I suppose, but the idea of music in other rooms and of sounds out of sight - that those were things my sister and brother-in-law were encouraging their son not to be scared of, inspired the tune. It's a strange mix of darkness and uncertainty but also grandeur and wonder. At least, that's what I aimed for.
"Mumbled Lullaby"
And here is the infamous tune I linked to before while discussing "Into the City, It Cometh at Night," that my friend filled the comment board for with madness. It's a quaint little closing tune, but I'm not entirely pleased with the video. It just didn't come out right and were I ever to present this in some public exhibition, it would likely be drastically redone.
I haven't really discussed the videos much. They were all done on the fly from various footage on my hard drive, mostly assembled from the first winter snow we had. The footage was largely collected to experiment with for a film project I'm working on. Here I choose mostly to modify the footage into black and white as babies like high contrast. Of course, halfway through assembling them (not in order) I realized it would be a terrible idea to actually show any of these to my nephew as showing new born babies videos can lead to all sorts of developmental problems. So I just cobbled imagery that complimented the music to give them something more that a white on black title as they played on YouTube. There isn't much more to them than that. Aesthetically pleasing visual stimulus to accompany the music.
Trippy.
I feel I should close this with some form of disclaimer. While I know a couple of these tracks were just as effective as the white noise, my sister and her husband were already starting to move away from this approach around the time the final version of the album was finished. I have no idea what the long-term effects of my music would be be on a child and am not recommending the music actually be played to babies for long periods of time. So... don't cry to me if you slap headphones on your one-month old and blare this in their ears until their deaf... only to discover it makes them deaf, or into F@*k Buttons, or both. The title of the album is based on what I set out to do, not the final product.
Later.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Recent Music
While I'm going to be posting a lot of older material soon, I thought I'd kick things off with three recent tracks I put together in Garageband.
First off "Courting the Fire Dancer"
One of the major elements of iMovie I've been playing around with a lot lately is the green screen function, I'm slowly getting the hang of it but in older videos you'll see I used to be a lot more clumsy. Still I'm interested more in using it in ways it wasn't really intended to be used, creating digital collages. At this point there still isn't a great deal of method to the madness, just aesthetic experiments with color and texture.
Then there is the footage... yeah, I made a little tinfoil man and sat him in my bathtub, soaked him in 90% rubbing alcohol, and then lit him on fire. What about it?
Ahem. As for the tune itself, it has a somewhat grunge flavor too it. I had been been repainting my mother's bedroom listening to the Boys for Pele album by Tori Amos not long before I arrange this. The piece feels very gender conflicted, full of bad boys and fiery girls, and a little bit jazzy despite itself.
Next up: "Into the City, It Cometh at Night"
This is a much more industrial piece with an amusing story behind its conception. You see, in a future post I plan to share an ambient album I put together as a Christmas gift. I posted the whole album on YouTube, and a friend of mine decided he wanted to act completely insane, posting a rather lengthy series of comments, chronicling his downward spiral into insanity.
We have a... peculiar friendship.
Anyway, among the ramblings he mentioned a screamo-ish screaming album he wanted to record, so, being amused at his bit of mad digital performance art, I thought I'd make him an album of screaming. Sadly, life is full of demands, and this is as far as I got, a layered series of vocals with some bass and recorded keyboard loops. I'm quite happy with the piece, but it's not really want I set out to create.
The video follows a motif I've been slowly developing of abstracting footage into basic simple forms and textures, and is highly reminiscent of the footage I cobbled together, experimenting for the ambient album (which I'll get to next post!).
Finally, "Passage Among Glaciers"
I think this is one of the best pieces of music I've created up to this point and more than any other has made me start to take all this farting around seriously. It was composed without any template loops, which is to say, I didn't start by taking loops from the Garageband's library, and then moved the notes around until I made something totally different and new. All the notes are hand-dragged into place. It was a pretty massively layer piece, and yet it came together rather effortlessly.
The footage is largely thrown together from this last winter, and consists of a lot of the same footage from the aforementioned ambient album. It was one of the first things I did following that project.
Well that's all for now. I'll try and follow up soon with tracks from the ambient album and some side stuff I've been doing.
Later.
First off "Courting the Fire Dancer"
One of the major elements of iMovie I've been playing around with a lot lately is the green screen function, I'm slowly getting the hang of it but in older videos you'll see I used to be a lot more clumsy. Still I'm interested more in using it in ways it wasn't really intended to be used, creating digital collages. At this point there still isn't a great deal of method to the madness, just aesthetic experiments with color and texture.
Then there is the footage... yeah, I made a little tinfoil man and sat him in my bathtub, soaked him in 90% rubbing alcohol, and then lit him on fire. What about it?
Ahem. As for the tune itself, it has a somewhat grunge flavor too it. I had been been repainting my mother's bedroom listening to the Boys for Pele album by Tori Amos not long before I arrange this. The piece feels very gender conflicted, full of bad boys and fiery girls, and a little bit jazzy despite itself.
Next up: "Into the City, It Cometh at Night"
This is a much more industrial piece with an amusing story behind its conception. You see, in a future post I plan to share an ambient album I put together as a Christmas gift. I posted the whole album on YouTube, and a friend of mine decided he wanted to act completely insane, posting a rather lengthy series of comments, chronicling his downward spiral into insanity.
We have a... peculiar friendship.
Anyway, among the ramblings he mentioned a screamo-ish screaming album he wanted to record, so, being amused at his bit of mad digital performance art, I thought I'd make him an album of screaming. Sadly, life is full of demands, and this is as far as I got, a layered series of vocals with some bass and recorded keyboard loops. I'm quite happy with the piece, but it's not really want I set out to create.
The video follows a motif I've been slowly developing of abstracting footage into basic simple forms and textures, and is highly reminiscent of the footage I cobbled together, experimenting for the ambient album (which I'll get to next post!).
Finally, "Passage Among Glaciers"
I think this is one of the best pieces of music I've created up to this point and more than any other has made me start to take all this farting around seriously. It was composed without any template loops, which is to say, I didn't start by taking loops from the Garageband's library, and then moved the notes around until I made something totally different and new. All the notes are hand-dragged into place. It was a pretty massively layer piece, and yet it came together rather effortlessly.
The footage is largely thrown together from this last winter, and consists of a lot of the same footage from the aforementioned ambient album. It was one of the first things I did following that project.
Well that's all for now. I'll try and follow up soon with tracks from the ambient album and some side stuff I've been doing.
Later.
Hello.
Greetings and welcome to my brand spanking new blog! It's been awhile since I've blogged and much has changed since I started. I expect it's going to take me a little while to get used to everything again so please be patient with me as I fumble about.
The purpose of this blog is primarily to build off of my YouTube page, where for the last few months I have been publishing experimental videos and music that I've created using Garage Band. I may occasionally post Vlogs here as well, and the rare article, but primarily the purpose of this blog will be to promote and share my art as well as my contributions to past and future theater collaborations with my wife Anna Lien and Gorilla Theater Productions, and anyone else along the way.
I.e., welcome to my portfolio!
The purpose of this blog is primarily to build off of my YouTube page, where for the last few months I have been publishing experimental videos and music that I've created using Garage Band. I may occasionally post Vlogs here as well, and the rare article, but primarily the purpose of this blog will be to promote and share my art as well as my contributions to past and future theater collaborations with my wife Anna Lien and Gorilla Theater Productions, and anyone else along the way.
I.e., welcome to my portfolio!
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