Friday 29 May 2015

No Cigar...

No posts for a while as I have been collecting myself post hand in / short listing events recently.

I have decided to try posting interesting finds on here as a source of reference for myself as I look back through the blog.

This fractal shape fantasy blew me away:



Saturday 9 May 2015

Spit Paint warm up_Captive mermaid

Gonna try and do regular warm up sketches, 'Daily SpitPaint' group on facebook is a good inspiration and some unbelievably talented artists on there.

Todays chosen topic was 'Captive Mermaid', felt great to do something different!




Friday 8 May 2015

Interdisciplinary Group Critique_7th May

A positive critique and feedback session as part of the MA schedule, a key benefit of which, as the title suggests is the 'interdisciplinary' aspect where a mixed group of MA students from all disciplines review and give honest opinions to your work.

In a some what harsh but holistic approach I was asked to show my final production and receive critique from the group without being able to comment. As this was my first foray into the world of sound production I based my sound work on a slowly animated reveal of a fantasy environment.  The final submission piece can be seen here:


After setting up my work I pressed play and sat squirming for just over 2 minutes while the group silently observed my work.  After the animatic finished there was a deadly silence for a few seconds before Paul, the session leader offered up the work for critique.  Initial comments included:

'Initial calming feeling becomes more sinister with the progression of the soundtrack'

'the imagery and sound were matched'

'...left with a sense of expectation, wondering what will happen next.'

I was awash with a massive sense of relief as my general intentions were carried across and a group of commentators with no specific understanding of my practice clearly identified my implied concept. The concluding discussion was invaluable with my personal battle of searching for my place in industry nearing an end.  It now seems clear that my skill set is in the generation and development of concepts to brief, with my ongoing task being to continue to research top industry professionals and identify their ongoing developments in working practice and innovation, at the same time taking what is applicable and complementary to my own working practice.






Wednesday 6 May 2015

ECU & Wide shots

Close up and wide shots from the start and end of the final animatic production:



Monday 4 May 2015

May the 4th

The deadline is looming and I have to cap my time on the environment visuals to leave me with this week to finalise my sound mix as well as a few other tasks...

I have tweaked a cropped image of the scene without the framing archway as that is more relevant to the moving image that will be submitted, I also realised the composition was slightly out with the arch and will have to adjust in the final cut animatic.

Below shows the cropped scene with the full scene in grey scale showing the frames for the short animation.



Friday 1 May 2015

Audio Mix Session #1

After dabbling in Audacity by cropping my Foley recordings down to the most suitable clips, it was time to bring the final sound bites into Logic Pro to mix the track for my pre vis animatic.

As this was my first proper dabble in the Logic Pro Software I called on the help of the NUA studio technician Sam Barnes who was kind enough to hold my hand through basic editing and manipulation of the tracks.

I was referencing a personal favourite song of mine from 1995 by FSOL (Future sound of London) called Amoeba:


The track begins with a female vocal chord which has been manipulated and repeated to create a rhythm, I wanted to replicate this for the opening sequence of my shot to create an element of sophistication and ambience. Initially I had recorded my own vocal which I was hoping to manipulate to work, however it quickly became clear that it was not going to work.  Fortunately Logic comes with pre recorded female vocals that can be laid down using the key board, once I had overcome the interface I was able to compose 2 tracks of vocals which I edited to replicate the intro of the FSOL piece.

Once I was happy with the female vocal as a base I began to bring in the various Foley sound bites to layer up the mix.  by the end of the session I had imported and arranged the wind, water and stone atmospherics, these will need to be tweaked in order to break up the frequencies by adjusting the EQ levels, I was also advised to move the sound between the left and right sides of the speakers to help fill the space the sound is representing.

Below is a screen grab of the results of the 1st Foley session: