Week 11 - almost there

This week featured the first round of presentations (something I avoided). I know that people who presented this week had less time to organise their thing but never the less, I expected…something different. Lauren went first disguised as The Electro Kitten. She is already well on the way to being identifiable on the local scene, she has her alias well figured out and a simple logo of a cat printed on everything she works with (including business cards). To the end of being a techno artist, her portfolio is excellent. The thought that struck me (being perhaps not so directed in my endeavours) was that she repeatedly was able to demonstrate her skills in her chosen field but didn’t demonstrate any other skills (something that I think this year’s study is perfect for). I would prefer to go for a portfolio that shows a diversity of productions. No one had really managed much with their demo track (ideally, I would like to do a mega mix not unlike the tracks that Nick Skitz creates for the beginning of each Skitzmix CD though the short time frame probably didn’t help this. A couple of people had thought about creating web pages for their business. I’m thinking a Myspace will be sufficient. I could reinvent myself…Sound Engineer Sam (nothing like a bit of alliteration). There is a lowly recording business (in Adelaide) who sends messages to bands over Myspace offering to record demos for cheapish. From what I have heard though, he is not very good.

WEEK TEN can i have a yiros please

Well, Shawn Timm of Timm’s tunes definitely has a different outlook to anyone else we have met this semester. Summing it up nicely I think would be his stating that he regards himself as a part of the advertising industry, not the recording industry. To begin our tour, we were shown into Shawn’s studio, sat down, given a very brief overview of what equipment he has and given a long pep talk on starting from the bottom. His equipment is minimal, he uses Protools and MIDI synths and not a lot else. As he is not really a sound engineer, he has no objections to using digital plug ins (makes life a whole lot easier for him), there isn’t even a mixing desk attached to this system. He does have the power to record (mostly voice overs) and a really shmick vocal mic but that is all. He also has supplied himself with a fine collection of instruments. This way, he can guarantee that whichever session musician he brings into record will have a good instrument to play. I was most intrigued by the presence of a Koto on his desk. Shawn owns and runs his business and gets paid twice because usually, he hasn’t just engineered the song he is recording/creating but composed it as well. Financially speaking this affirms in my mind just how much of a cash cow the marketing industry is though I’m not sure if I want to be a part of that process. In addition to Shawn’s workspace we were shown a second studio, which seemed to be used for communicating with clients interstate or overseas. We were treated to a nightmare story of the 3rd studio breaking down and the impatience of clients awaiting the transfer of information from the malfunctioning studio to a functioning one. This of course is a very bad thing to have happen in a professional context. The third studio seemed to be the best one, the employee who inhabited it worked for Shawn but also, rented the space and did his own thing there too. In terms of making money from having knowledge of sound engineering, Timm’s tunes definitely seems to be the ticket. However, it does not seem like a place where a career/art could be forged.

Weeks 8 and nine Movies movies movies

Week Nine Today we were shown around Oasis Post (one of Adelaide’s High End Post Production and Special Effects Facilities). A theme that seems to reoccur is that of versatility. Disc Edits have the capacity to master CDs and record voice overs, Mix Masters have the facilities to record to disc or cassette and at Oasis, the work ranges from adds to blockbuster films and their skills include the editing of visual and audio aspects of film. First of all, an overview, our guide gave us a bit of a run down on what they do and what equipment they have to do it. It seems that, like the film corporation, quite a number of medium sized films have past through the doors. Oasis have done well to acquire the best equipment and most efficient systems of communication and transfer We were sat down and shown a preview for the follow up to Wolf Creek, Rogue. As far as I was concerned the movie seemed indistinguishable in visual and audio quality from any other blockbuster. It is pleasing to see that film makers from America bring their work to Australia for the finishing touches and I guess the quality of Rogue is a fine indication of why (or maybe once again, like the film corp. it is more to do with subsidies and cheaper costs.) The next room we were shown was a neutral space for previewing work with. I cannot for the life of me recollect its specific purpose. There is a projector in this room that can ‘learn’ what the conditions of the room are and adjust its projections accordingly. For example, at Oasis, it ‘knew’ that 3 of the walls were black curtain and one was stone. Lastly, we were shown Tracks Adelaide, the incorporated facility for editing sound to video (courtesy of ProTools). The way Oasis is set up, information from a computer working on visuals can accessed by the Tracks Adelaide Computer (save time on transfer of info). Tracks Adelaide use a smaller version of the Icon desk and, while we were there, the engineer was working on a DVD for the Hilltop Hoods performance with a symphony orchestra (mostly for love). Week 8: FILM CORP and the crazy white room with no walls floor or ceiling Back out to the industrial wasteland west of the city this time to look around the Film Corporation. Oddly enough, this entity is government owned and funded. The Film Corp. is versatile, essentially, the building is a Space that people can rent out and use. There is a studio for foley work (the idea that foley is crucial is reinforced yet again.) The foley recording space is a comfortably messy area, there are several varieties of ground, a bicycle, misc. A couple of good room mics, a remote control system to hit play on Protools for those days when the techie has to work alone. While we were there, the sound guys was working on the Foley for some b grade Aussie kids show (I’ve never ceased to wonder where these shows get churned out from). There were some instances where the foley guy had to ‘invent’ a sound (i.e. a scene with a baby crawling around in it). If a filmmaker has hoped to just use the sound caught on location, they are dreaming. Should you ever want to take the show overseas, the actors’ voices will be dubbed over and all the other Foley will need doing then too, best to do it at the beginning. We didn’t get to look in one of the filming spaces but we did get to go into the room with the crazy non-walls. While we were there, they were white, often they are a particular shade of green which is immensely hard to come by. You may have heard the term ‘blue screen’, in Australia, you can’t get blue screen, the paint for it was on sale once at the very beginning and never again (hence the green screen). The highlight for me was most definitely attempting to walk to the corner of the room with no walls or corners, very trippy. Our next thing to look at was the studio for synching sound and film. The Film Corp uses a monster desk called a Harrison (the techie treated us to its equivalent to Vegas mode, an act that was met with a collective, appreciative ‘ooh’). The Harrison has 92 inputs but even that cannot save it from being made obsolete, already, the film corp. is looking to acquire an Icon desk. In short, the have to if they want to stay competitive. A lot of movies get made in Australia or New Zealand because it is cheap.