Keeping Viola Playing Alive

I've actually been playing my viola a lot more than in recent months. Just finished a very interesting concert with the Mission Chamber Orchestra featuring a new piece by Hector Armienta called River of Women. Quit a challenging opera. Definitely a concentration buster when it came to meter and tempo changes.

Getting ready for another evening of quintets. Mostly likely Mozart and Brahms.

On the Fringe of Art

Man it's been a long time since I've blogged here. Not that I haven't been busy. Mostly on the fringe of art. Been playing more quartets, especially difficult stuff like Beethoven Op. 59 and 95, along with Brahms and Dvorak. Really kicked my butt, but the group has been very supportive and I've been enjoying the challenge. Also practicing for an upcoming concert in early December.

Been setting up an Apple machine to work on iPhone apps. Can't say much right now 'cause I don't want anyone to steal my idea (if anyone actually read this blog ;). But I can say it's music related (what a surprise). Got a second app in the planning phase that has quite a bit of visual coolness factor to it as well.

So no major art endeavors at the moment, but always thinking about it...

Creative Commons

The subject of copyright comes up at some point during the creative process, but it's not an easy thing to understand and isn't very flexible in the digital world-wide market. Along comes Creative Commons and puts a whole new twist to how you protect your art. As their site says:

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

So now you have a bunch of choices instead of all or nothing.

Quartets/Quintets Anyone?

It's been quite a while since I've played quartets/quintets. My dad invited me to play with his Tuesday night standing quartet gig, doing Mozart and Brahms quintets. Lovely stuff. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to have to hold my own.

The next week my dad couldn't play, so I subbed for him. We played Beethoven and Borodin. Some of my favorite quartet music. Afterwards we sat around the table, having wine and strawberries. Good times!

Celtx Storyboard Continued

I took snapshots of all my hand drawn storyboards for the Roadkill video and put them into Celtx with the original notes. It's been good practice getting my hands wet and it exposed several areas where the concept wasn't completely thought through. A lot of missing details, especially around the types of shots I want to use to convey the story line.

I really want to find a location that will take the hand drawn concept into the real world. I've been keeping any eye out for such a place; just haven't found it yet.

My Irish Jig Takes Wing

So I've actually been quite busy the last month, but didn't put much energy into the blog. For starters, I sketched out my classical composition (working title My Irish Jig). Got the basic structure in Finale and even have a first draft of the opening, which turned out much better than I could have hoped. Still plenty of arranging to do as well as flesh out the minor middle section (the original recording had a very short, simple repeating line).

Kill Bill Vol 1

Just watched Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol 1. Loved the big fight scene entrance with Lucy Liu and her gang (her expression is so focused and beautifully strong). The slow motion and changing angles, along with the different groupings of characters, driven by the soundtrack, really give an impression of power and prestige. Here's the clip:



I also really appreciated QT's final fight scene in the snow room. The stark white contrast of Liu's traditional kimono to Uma's yellow biker outfit, along with the beautifully done slow motion wide shots with swirling snow, where masterful. Once again, the sound design enhances the scene. Here's the clip:

Some Experiences Follow You Home

I love the child-like quality of this new commercial for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is by far one of my kids favorite places to visit.



It was created by guys who worked on Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. They sure know what they're doing.

iPhone Storyboard a Hit

Well, I was able to test out the iPhone as storyboard conveyor during my vacation (just got back last Tuesday and am still catching up). I showed my brother the rough storyboard synced to his band's song Roadkill to demonstrate my idea. He definitely could see for himself the direction I was heading and liked the concept.

I'll definitely be using my iPhone more for this sort of thing in the future, especially by adding real photos instead of storyboard sketches.

An iPhone is Worth A 1000 Storyboards

Seeing is believing. That's the gist of Kenn Bell's article iPhone to the Rescue. Some excellent tips on maximizing your time when gathering location shots; giving the client a real sense of progress early on and generating a lot of excitement. I love the way cool devices like the iPhone have pushed the envelope in the arts.

Celtx!

I am so excited to have found Celtx! I was casually looking for a storyboarding program when I stumbled on this open source project. Wow! Talk about features and really tight integration. I know it's going to take my video projects to the next level.

I can already see how it's going to make the Power Cousin video project much more organized. I'll be able to storyboard with notes, clips, and audio, as well as insert location ideas.

So far the download/installation was painless. I've browsed a few sample projects and am now checking out the feature tour to see what it can do.

Ain't Nothing Wrong With That

I love this commercial on the Discovery Channel (the editing and sound design are really tight):



The song is Ain't Nothing Wrong With That by Robert Randolph and the Family Band. Here's the original full length video of the song so you can hear how the commercial used specific parts to sync up with the images from different DC shows:

Virtually Music-Free

I read a fascinating article (Frustrated music lovers have a score to settle by Kevin Cassidy) on the overuse of music in films as a default way of giving a scene that's not working some energy. One editing tip that resonated with me came from veteran composer/editor John Ottman:

When I edit a movie, I edit the film for months without temping it (adding a temporary score). In fact, I get my entire edit together, and there's not a note of music in it because I want to see how much the film can withstand with no music. I only want to score where it's necessary, because why gild the lily?

I love that idea! I find it's way too easy to let music take over a scene. Better to let the scene stand on its own and add a cue only if it really improves the scene.

Sound designer Craig Berkey also points out that there are a lot more tools than just music; it's just that they aren't as well known. As the article mentions:

Berkey's meticulously crafted sonic effects in No Country for Old Men are so key to the film's sparse, elegiac tone that the ingenious interplay of seemingly mundane sounds -- a soft desert wind, boots on gravel, a shriveled candy wrapper crackling with dread as it slowly expands -- take on a musical effect all their own.

MP3: Quantity vs. Quality

I was having dinner with a good friend of mine. We were listening to some fine violin jazz work he had recorded recently. We got to discussing the role of MP3's in today's digital age. I related comments I'd read by acclaimed musician Peter Gabriel on the subject (full article):

With the explosion of the digital world, which is really flourishing on the corpse of the music industry, the only thing that people haven't noticed is that we have taken a giant leap backwards in terms of sound quality.

From a musician's point of view, we spend a lot of time trying to get things to sound good, so it seems a pity that we have all accepted these super-compressed MP3s as the standard, which just kick the shit out of what you've recorded. There has been a huge access to quantity at a sacrifice of quality.

I have to agree. MP3's seem ubiquitous and yet they really are of inferior quality compared to CD's, which in and of themselves could be improved. And yet people are willing to pay big bucks for HD and Blu-ray. So why are they willing to settle for second best in the audio arena?

N.B. - Don't get me wrong. MP3's are great when you're on a plane or jogging around the block, where the ambient noise is high enough that high quality audio is lost on the surroundings. But when you want to really appreciate the work of an artist, at the very least a CD is much closer to the way it was meant to sound.

Keep Studying the Masters

I was watching Martin Scorsese in a documentary on Ovation TV about his personal journey up to the point where he, and his colleagues, started making films. He said something that caught my attention:

Study the old masters, enrich your palette, expand the canvas - there's always so much more to learn.

I think this is a very salient point. Learn from others. That doesn't mean you have to copy them or become unoriginal; just that the works of masters deserve close examination to make you better at what you do.

Power Cousin Video: And the Winner is... Roadkill

I got a great idea for a concept for Roadkill, so that's the song I'm going to tackle. Instead of trying to make the video about people, I'm going to instead go with a story about a desert creature and his infatuation with a shiny hub cap that he has to cross a busy two-lane highway to reach. Since it will be shot through the eyes of the creature, it's left up to the imagination of the viewer as to who he really is. It also frees me up to shoot it on my own (no cast required other than a shiny hub cap ;).

I've already got the basic storyboard down. It needs fleshing out as it doesn't quite have enough frames for all the lyrics (sent to me courtesy of Mike). Also, I'm looking to shoot it in black & white using widescreen format. Should look really nice for the desert backdrop. Now I just have to scope out a good location for the desert (California's got real ones, but they're too far away for this weekend warrior ;). Let's see what I can find closer to the Bay Area.

Power Cousin Video: Choosing the Song

Well, it's down to two songs: Roadkill and Spanish & Beautiful. Different ends of the spectrum. Roadkill is high energy; S&B is smooth. Time to start letting them seep under the skin and see which wins.

There is one interesting twist: none of the band is here in CA. They're all back in NJ. So I can't really use them in the video. It's going to have to be about creating a story w/o them. I'm thinking it's time to fuse together images that follow the mood, not so much the lyrics directly, although I'll definitely want to make allusions whenever it feels right.

Power Cousin Video Project

I was looking at the videos on the Power Cousin website (my brother Mike plays bass in the band) and thought it would be great to create something more dynamic than a picture montage. I talked to Mike and he liked the idea a lot.

First up: which song to choose. They have six studio recordings. I've listened to each a few times, but haven't decided which is the subject of my first video.

Stay tuned...

Music in Motion

I was listening to Alanis Morrisette's Giggling Again For No Reason on my way to visit my parents late last night and images of fast moving traffic slowing into poignant scenes flashed in front on my eyes. I am always amazed how music can put images in motion. Makes me want to go driving with my video camera pointed out the front window!

The Profane Coach Part 2

Apparently the rest of my family seems to like the idea of the Profane Coach. Now it's taking on a wider audience and moving out of the realm of baseball into other sports like basketball, football, and even hockey. Should provide a much larger set of classic tirades.

One issue I need to tackle is whether to string them all together in a raging flood or try to separate them into vignettes, perhaps by author. I saw one f-bomb tribute on YouTube that had an instrumental underscoring, but I think I'll forgo the pleasantries as this is meant to be fast paced and hard hitting, but never taken seriously.

First I have to complete my collection of links, then I can move onto the next step.

The Profane Coach

My brother sent me a YouTube link to a classic Manager's Corner with Earl Weaver that is one string of f-bombs after another. It's so ludicrous it cracked me up and go me to wondering whether there were any others. Sure enough, the likes of Sparky Anderson and Tommy Lasorda are featured in all their glory, f-bombs exploding at every turn.

So now I'm collecting them up to put together a tribute to the Profane Coach (thanks to my brother for coming up with the title). Should be interesting.

Is Slice and Dice Music?

I was talking with my friend about how easy it is to construct a song by slicing and dicing live snippets. It got me to thinking: Is slice and dice really music? I mean, would you call such a work a performance?

In today's picture perfect world of music recording, anything less than flawless is, well, less than flawless and gets slammed as such. So how far should one take the digital tools at one's disposal when working on a tune? Can you keep the integrity of the song if too much of it is re-recorded and spliced to perfection?

A tough call. I'd like to say that a performance should essentially stand on its own, with as few fixes-in-the-mix as possible. Not always a mean feat.

Hatchings of a Screenplay

On a much grander scale, I've had an idea for a screenplay that I'd ultimately like to turn into a film. It needs a lot of work, but has some interesting twists and turns.

Release Engineering for Dummies

Ok. So this isn't purely an artistic endeavor (it has a pretty hefty techie bent), but it still requires crafting the written word, so here goes...

I've had this idea for a book for several years now: Release Engineering for Dummies (or maybe The Idiots Guide to Release Engineering). I've roughed out a TOC and even loosely filled in many of the chapters, but it's never gone anywhere. Maybe it's time to find a niche and go for it.

See, it turns out that college students study software engineering, but barely scratch the surface of Release Engineering (aka SCM). Maybe the angle to look into is as a text book rather than an industry reference. Also, a lot of small software companies just assign the job to a developer. A nutshell kind of book might make sense to help these poor guys out.

I've come across some other books that make the attempt, but none of them really cover everything. So we'll see where this ride takes me.

Still keeping the dream alive to see my name in print!

Refining Serendipity

One of the things I love about editing is the accidental gem that comes up from time to time. I have a side of me that wants to let creativity be. After all, if it was one of those moments, why change it?

I came across this recently in a baseball video I did for my son. I had laid out some clips of batters in motion with space between them just to allow for room to extend or slow them down. Turns out I really liked the "eye blink" feel. But I left it at that. Later, I showed it to a friend of mine. He noticed that in the leading clip, the batter didn't complete his swing like all the other clips. He was correct - it didn't feel right. I went back and fixed it, extending the clip until the swing was complete.

So my point is this: Don't be afraid to go back and refine serendipity (after all, accidents are just that - accidents; they need tweaking to be perfect).

Short film

I've edited many episodes, mostly half-hour shows that have a lot of live material or montages set to music, again unscripted. They have their own challenges, which I enjoy. But I've always wanted to put together a short film (e.g. 3-5 minutes) of purely scripted material. Something that contains multiples takes to really bring out the story. Something that was completely storyboarded first.

So the question remains: what is the subject? And can I shoot it all myself or do I need to find some cohorts to make it happen?

Pain in the... Back

I've always had trouble with back pains after rehearsal. Heck, they last 2 1/2 hours with only a 10 minute break. What do you expect?! And yet, my dad, also a violist, never complains about back problems. So what's the deal? Did I just inherit my mom's bad back?

I talked to my chiropractor about it. She suggested that I should work on strengthening my abs to evenly distribute the work of holding up my viola during rehearsals instead of just relying on my back muscles. Brilliant! I started doing stomach crunches, and low and behold, I was able to sit through subsequent rehearsals with less back pain (it only started to hurt in the last 15 minutes).

Back to the chiropractor for more advice. She said stomach crunches don't really work that well. What's better is a workout using the large-format exercise ball. Off to target I went. I'm now starting a routine that includes balancing exercises to strengthen my core, as well as an abs-specific workout.

Back pain be gone!!!

Meadow of Dreams

A long time ago I wrote a piece for 12-string guitar, recorder and bass. It had a very Irish feel to it. The melody has never left my head, and I've always wanted to write a piece for chamber orchestra, so I thought, what better subject to work on than this tune that I love so much.

I can hear the opening section in my head: strings coming in quietly to introduce the stillness of the meadow at sunrise, followed by increasing snippets from the main melody played by clarninet, flute, and oboe. The strings crescendo to state the full melody with variations.

There's a nice minor section in the original recording, but it's really short and needs fleshing out in the orchestral version. It culminates in a crescendo back to major, where I envision the vn1/vn2 restating the theme with the violi providing the countermelody and the celli/bassi hammering away at a meaty bass part.

Finally, the day ends on the meadow. Strings return to a soft wash as a flute/piccolo duet playing to a snare drum and booming bass drum (that represents rolling thunder in the distance).

CSI: Miami

They always say to watch what others do and learn. So I've been watching CSI:Miami for editing and production value. I really like the richness of their colors. They are really juiced. Something I want to emulate in Premiere, but it seems like a huge amount of work to do the color balancing. Guess that's why pro films have such big budgets and personnel.

I also like the use of split screen and camera moves when they are analyzing some piece of evidence. It's a nice pace change from the storyline segments, although now that I've seen several episodes, it's become pretty obvious the formula they use in the show. Sometimes you gotta turn off your brain so you can actually enjoy the show ;).

Why Me-n-Edits?

When I was a kid my parents used to take us to a local pizza place to have lunch with my grandparents (on my dad's side). It was a really plain building. Big square thing with a sidewalk running all the way around it. When my brother's and I got bored with the adult conversation, we'd go outside and play hide-and-go-seek around the building. We always had a great time. The name of the place: Me-n-Eds. Hence the play on words.

Welcome!

I started this blog to put down my thoughts about different artist endeavors, especially around video editing, but also sound design, viola playing, and composing.