Short Film

As mentioned in a previous post, my friend Andy entered a short film halloween contest. He'd asked me to create some music for it... here is the film. It's about a guy that keeps on bleeding, but can't die. Enjoy!

Assignment 05: Nemo Style

He wrote:


She wrote:


One score Liam and I both really like is for the movie Finding Nemo. This particular assignment is in the style of Finding Nemo (score by Thomas Newton). That means: use of harp, pizzicato strings, and piano. Throughout the movie, different events happen, so the score ranges. I chose to do one with a bit more movement (ie. fish swimming around), whereas Liam chose something more sullen (ie. at the beginning of the movie when the Nemo's dad finds the Nemo egg.) For those who aren't familiar with the score, I've uploaded a small clip below:



This next bit is on temperamental music software. Music software is pretty high-maintenance. In that, any little change has a high chance of causing it to not work. These changes include: loading other software on the computer, connecting the computer to the internet, software updates, having other programs in use at the same time. For this reason, I (with a lot of other people who do music composition) have a completely separate computer for music only. It is not connected to the internet, and it has only the music software installed. I never do any security or software updates on it or load anything non-music onto it for fear of the headache that will ensue. This also circumvents the problem of getting sidetracked on things like the internet and messenger... (which I have a tendency to do frequently - easily distracted am I).

Liam, however, is not as fortunate... with only one computer, he made the mistake of installing a security update. That was a couple weeks ago. Yeahhh. Things still not working properly. Since he didn't have access to all his sounds, his instrumentation includes only piano and strings.

This time around, I think we're both not too excited about the pieces we came up with, but... I suppose that's just how the creative cookie crumbles. Can't write something excellent every time. My excuse? None really. I just procrastinated. :P

'til next time.

Halloweeny 09

My friend is entering a 48-hour film-making contest in honour of Halloween. Starting on Friday, each film-making team will be given a subgenre (zombie movie, revenge, etc.), a phrase, and a weapon they must incorporate into their short film. Each team will have 48 hours to create a short horror film. There's not really a whole lot that one can prepare, but he did ask if I could prepare some halloween-y scary-movie music for him. So I did. Nothing fancy, since it was kind of on a tight deadline (remind me SOONER! This means you, Monsieur Leblanc!) Not sure if it'll be used, but thought I'd share anyway. Enjoy!

Assignment 04: Fairy Tale Land

He wrote:

She wrote:

The theme for this exercise was "Fairy Tale," that is, in the style of Danny Elfman in Edward Scissorhands. So the guidelines given were pretty sparse - just fairy tale-like, using 2 very fairy tale sounds: glockenspiel and choir. That combo seems to make a piece sounds mystical, and magical. It's weird... there is something about fairy tale music that makes it fairy tale.

So my music buddy was saying how it's kind of sad how the comments are always at "0". I know there are only like 3 readers for this blog, but if you listened to the song, comment! Say something! So we know this is not all in vain.

My glockenspiel "ding" is cut off :( I must do better mixing. I am not a mixer. I am a writer. Boo.

Midnight Madness Stamp Sale

Due to popular demand (one request), I have posted this set of stamps which I purchased at the Midnight Madness sale at "I'm Impressed" on Granville Island. I like it. It's an elephant-themed birthday set. The birds, grass, and tree elements can also be used in a non-birthday context. I guess the elephants could be used that way too... WeEEeEeE! New stamps! My wallet is a little thinner, but my heart is a little happier. Worth it.

Baby Girl Card

A friend of mine is having a baby girl - well, technically she should have already have had it already. This is a little card for her. The carriage stamp and sentiment is from Michael's 1.50 spot, and the embossed paper is from Michael's as well. I love Michael's. Nothing too terribly remarkable about this card, except that I made it with my friend Angela, who is very particular about everything on a handmade card being 100% perfect. If a cut of mine is off by 1/32nd of an inch, I'd still use the piece. She would start over again. Yeeeeesh. No need to be THAT perfect! It's handmade, all part of the charm.

Owl Card

I made this card with my friend Eunice. That's her owl stamp there... Love it! At approximately 9:30pm at night, this is the conversation that went down:

Eunice (with caution): "Sooooo... are you... finished buying stamps for the year?"
Me (with caution): "Nooooo..."
Eunice: "Soooo... The stamp store at Granville Island is having a midnight madness sale tonight, the whole store 40% off - 50% off, if you wear your pyjamas..."
Me: "You waited THIS LONG to tell me!?"

Less than 15 minutes later, we were on our way. :D Weee! I love stamps!

Assignment 03: Chick Flick Music

He wrote: Bittersweet Time


She wrote: Maybe One Day


For this assignment, we were to write a piece for the background of a chick flick. This usually means piano as a somewhat focal instrument, with strings accompanying. Liam went in a sentimental direction, while mine was described as at first sounding like Enya, and then turning into "The Legend of Zelda" music. (Sidebar: I always thought Zelda was the dude in the boots and elf hat. Turns out, Zelda is the princess he is trying to save! Go figure... all these years...anyway, back to the music stuff).

I am easily sidetracked. For me, when writing something I flip through my sound bank and play each sound to find something I like. The danger of doing this is finding completely unrelated sounds for completely unrelated styles of music. In the midst of trying to write this Chick Flick piece, I came across a sound I thought would be perfect for carnival music. And then, the only thing going through my mind was carnival-esque music. So, I closed the file I was working on, opened up a new file, and started writing something completely unrelated. So here it is, the carnival music that incessantly played through my mind while trying to desperately write something wistful, and reflective:

Carnival Ride:

Hip Hip Hooray

This is one from the archives. I had my friend Sandy and her sister over for a card making extravagaaaanza a little while back. I pre-cut some designs for them and we spent the night putting the cards together. This one is one of the cards from that night. The bird stamp is from Imaginesence, the Hip Hip hooray is from the Michaels $1.50 spot. The bird has clear acetate over it with a white diamond Stickles border. Black dots were done with a Gelly Roll Glaze pen. I love pens. But that's another post, for another day.

Fruity Card

This card was inspired by a 3D apple sticker I saw at the store. The apple sticker was similar as shown, but much smaller. I decided to cut out my own (by hand!) and give the apple some friends - the pear, and orange. The metal embellishment says "happy" - not that visible. The green dashed border and cloud border are from a piece of patterned paper, that happened to the same color as the blue cardstock base. I think the fruits are pretty nifty myself...

Assignment #02: Funky

He wrote: A Funky Dalliance


She wrote: Plotting a Scheme (80's style)


I will title the postings I write for the 2 week assignments with Liam (music dude - yes, Liam, that is how I have referred to you - would you like a more prestigious description? Liam (Audio Designer Dude for Next Level Games), as "Assignment #". Makes it easy to keep track of where we are in terms of what we've accomplished.

For this particular assignment, the theme was "make it funky". This means, no traditional orchestral instruments allowed (i.e., flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, french horns, trombones, cellos, violins, violas, double basses, timps, etc.) What's left is synth sounds, or sounds created through manipulating real sounds, or just more electronic sounding sounds. Check out the pieces above.

Note: You'll notice how Liam's piece is much louder than mine - this is because he properly compresses the music afterwards. I lack the know-how on this. Until I learn, his pieces will be at the proper volume. Mine will be softer.

Note 2: I've updated the last music post with Liam's rendition of the "heroic" theme. Check it out below on the last music post as well...

Assignment #01: Heroic

EDITED TO INCLUDE:
Hello! Just an update to this post. As mentioned earlier, I met up with an old highschool classmate recently; we'll be writing songs every 2 weeks, along a common theme/stated guidelines. He's given me permission to post his works here as well, so you can compare the two. This is the first week, "Heroic"... check out his, check out mine.

PS - Purely by chance, both pieces ended up being 1:28 min tracks when recorded into webstream format. Weeeeeeeeird.

He wrote: Time Marches On


She wrote: Determined


Well, it's been a looong time. For no good reason, really 'cept that I was out having fun. Activities included, but were not limited to: playing tennis, running a half marathon, visiting China, Whistler, Vegas, sporadic States trips, hiking up mountains, and just enjoying the summer.

Recently, by chance, I met up with an old highschool classmate who now works in the music industry as an audio designer. For me, when writing isn't my job, its hard to find a reason to do it. For him, when writing IS part of his job, it's hard to find a reason to do it (outside of work). So now, both of us will be writing regularly, 1 - 2 minute clips every couple weeks. I will post my clips here.

The first clip is called Determined. The theme of the week is "heroic". That means horns, and open fifths, thirds, and sixths. Enjoy, and I'll be back soon. (For reals.)

Flower Cutout

Sorry, could not think of a good title for this card. This card took FOREVER. The petals were all cut out freehand, and different patterns from various stamp sets were stamped in black. The petals were then mounted on white cardstock and cut out again. A jewel brad for the middle mounted on black then pink cardstock completes the flower and an extra petal is popped up on dimensionals on the side with "enjoy" stamp from Michael's $1.50 spot. Thin black ribbon with dots of crystal "Stickles" <-- "professional" glitter glue (Yeah. That's right, I just wrote that.) finishes off the card. Phew.

Retro Flowers

Phew! It's been a while. But I'm back. After a last-minute trip to Vegas for my birthday, and then immediately following a course in Management... and then working on the studio (as opposed to IN the studio)... things have been a bit nutty. But it is returning back to normal, and so I will find time again to post regularly.

This post is thanks to my friend Angela who instigated a card-making night earlier this week. This one was designed by her... and I just went along for the ride. The paper is from a giant "My Mind's Eye" paperpad that I lugged home from Oregon a couple years ago. The stamp is from Stampin' Up. It took about 4 hours to make 2 cards that night. Heh heh heh. So I'm not the fastest card-maker in the world. But the other one had a lot of cutting n' stuff... will post later. Need to take a better pic of it in natural light.

While It's Made

One of the shows I used to watch a lot (back in the days when I had a TV) was How It's Made, from the Discovery Channel. They'd always explain how something was made (hence the name) - ice skates, transit buses, boxing gloves, TV's, solar panels, baseballs, plastic utensils - just random items. There are some sample clips at the link above (but you have to watch a 30 second commercial on some new texting feature for some bank first...).

The music in the background of these shows was usually something funky. As they showed the thousands of plastic utensils coming off the mold in the factory, there'd be some upbeat funky music in the background. This piece reminded me of that - thus the title, While It's Made. (How It's Made was already taken... and this seemed to better reflect the fact the music is the soundtrack to the factory items being made.)

Not typical of my style. Not sure what that is yet anyway, but 'twas a fun piece to create nonetheless. No traditional orchestral sounds used. Sometimes you just need a break from all that. So instead of a KitKat bar, I did this. It was a one-dayer - about 5 hours I'm guessing. (No clocks allowed near where I write. You're done when you're done.) A dinnerless day that was, but sometimes food is not important.

Daily Tango

I always fear that I will write the same thing twice. This piece was painstakingly slow, and I kept thinking I wrote that bit already into something else. Nevertheless, it has been completed, so I can now move on. Hopefully, onto something more inspiring. Not particularly fond of this one. Ah well, them's the breaks.

UPDATE: The more I listen to this, the more I dislike it. I may have to take it down. It might just be that bad... we'll see.

Fairy Lily

Pink Cat Studios is a local stamp company that makes AWESOME stamps... Right in Burnaby! (Usually all the good stuff comes from the states... not so in this case). Pink Cat Studios has new releases every month or so and for this new release, it was their character "Lily" dressed as a fairy. There was a contest to celebrate the release of the new stamp. You have to create a card using the image provided (which is a 'sneak peak' at the stamps to be released) Note: Lily herself is cut out. I had hand spasms after cutting that out with regular sized scissors. 'specially those antenna. The wings are in the background. Lily herself is popped up for that 'dimensional effect'. Yeah. I know. Many of you are not at all excited by this... soooo.... moving on. This card was for my friend Eunice's bday... Happy Birf-day Eunice!

Retro Video Game Music, Part 2

Following my Retro Video Game Music post, I had a request to write something more intense. You know, not just like the game's starting out and everything's cool. But maybe fighting the boss of a level or something. So here it is. Ah, cheezy music, what's not to love? This one's for you Marco ;)

And in other news, truly hating the white walls of the little room in which I write. So imagonna paint it :) Sidebar: about places where music is created. They're usually very masculine - greys, blacks, darker colors, leather couch - think Barney Stinson's apartment (for those in the HIMYM know). Why masculine? Commercial music composition is a severely masculine field (haven't figured that one out yet...). Also, white walls are kinda... boring. Plus, all the keyboards/music gear is usually black or grey/silver in color so white looks kinda ugg with that. Just need to figure out the right color... stay tuned. *excited*

Retro Video Game Music

Back to it! With the million - no, zillion - no, floppity JILLION - Christmas cards out of the way (HIMYM reference - LOVE IT!), it's time to fire up the music gear again and plop down in front of the ol' keyboard.

In the midst of creating something orchestral, I came across a sound called "Techno Bass". The upper ranges of the sound (which it wasn't really meant to be played in) had that 'retro video game' sound. So of course, I had to pause, put the serious piece on hold, and create a new file to make a fun video game track. For no real good reason other than - "It's Funny."

I am a huge.. HUGE fan of the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). My all time fav game? The original Arcade Mario Brothers... still looking to finish it. Though I'm not sure it actually finishes... could be just an algorithm to add more animals at each level. In any case, this music would be the backtrack to that kind of game. All pixely with 2-D images an simple scrolling back and forth movement. I love those games...