Looking for work?

The last few weeks have been crazy trying to get things in order.  I've been rounding up projects, finishing up a couple in particular: The Arcade box Design for Mikey.  I've also finished a couple small projects: a video reel for a friend of mine Lauren, as well as Harry re-modeling a logo for an upcoming project he's been pushing forward on.  We're still waiting to wrap up the two commercial project campaigns I worked on back in May, but as soon as they're wrapped I'll have lots of updates.

1st design iteration

As I started to get more characters placed and sent the client a picture for reviewing on the "direction" he wanted the design to go, I was given instructions to lose the "logo" in the center and do more of a collage.

2nd design iteration

After updating the client again I got more information how how he wanted the collage to look, and he sent me a few for reference:

3rd design iteration

3rd design iteration update

Should have this project done this month, I've had the Dubstep remix on hold for a short while thought I'm still touching base with it and will be getting back to producing it very soon.  I've had to take care of some serious financial stresses and as soon as I can get myself situated in that area I'll have the ability to mentally focus the project down and have it released by the end of this year if all goes well!

I have a couple other growing projects, taking on a client / label that is going to start needing steady mastering work.  Will be mastering a project tomorrow, and negotiating for further projects down the line as well. 

The studio has some projects on the back-plate that might get moved back to the front of progress continues well with these I'm wrapping up.  A sample catalog is in the works, along with a roayltay free music elements catalog for game and interactive media developers. 

I'm going to announce this on here just as a "possibility" of opening up a new youtube section for Neologic Studios and producing a weekly series of DIY and tutorial videos for audio production.  There's no telling when / if this will happen, but the idea is that they would be short, concise videos that highlight a particular product in demonstration, used in a project we are working on, and give an in-depth look at it's use; to DIY projects and how-to's.  If this interests you, get some discussion going on this post's comment section!

RPM Challenge Days 7-9

Monday we started running into writer's block and the stress levels have been rising as it's already week 2 and we still have a lot of work cut out for us both!  Monday, after a lot of errands and chat and talks with clients and doing a few side jobs, Troy managed to get ideas down that he liked for the Pop Punk song.  While the album calls for a particular style that would be reminiscent of Blink 182 in their old days back around their first album release, he came up with a pretty cool riff that is more pop thank punk but still pays homage to the genre.

I've been having a terrible case of writer's block coming up with ideas that I actually liked to fit the bill for the progressive metal song.  While I cycled through a bunch of ideas and some that fit other song ideas, they were too rough and I couldn't seem to focus on one I liked until I hit the main riff that set me into motion on the intro to the Progressive Metal song.  It took me quite a while to dial in what I was hearing in my head that inspired the lick, but it finally got down.


Tuesday was our worst day of all.  Don't ever try to force musical concepts out from nothing when you simply don't have the ideas.  Not only does it sound less authentic, it simply sounds uninspired.  Troy eventually stumbled across some ideas he liked but nothing solid.

As for me, I tried to tackle the ambient interlude track that comes in before my alternative electronic song, but absolutely nothing was getting done!  All in all, we spent a lot of time discussing and clashing ideas and trolling through my vast sound collection with samples I've collected, made, and virtual instruments galore.  I think I found a decent start for the Alternative song I have to cover.  I managed to demo a basic idea for it, but both Troy and I were just too tired.  I exercise every day, and he swims before he works his part time job.  Tuesday just seemed a slow and uneventful day.

Wednesday we got a lot more accomplished.  During Troy's lunch we demoed his Folk Pop song idea

While Troy went back to work, I did my usual routine of hitting up the Gym and taking care of errands.  Later in the evening we resumed tackling the 2nd interlude track.  With a few minor interruptions from family and clients calling and booking more work (yay!) we started capturing Foley in my family's garage.

The interlude is a dark ambient track with a heavy foley base and will require a lot of processing and mixing.  We spent a good couple hours just setting up and getting ideas down for Foley, sound effects, and even voice work for background. 

I set up 2 mics in the garage extended from my snake and ran headphones out as well.  I quickly found a good placement for both mics and set them pretty far away from the sources of the Foley.  I let Troy go at it for a few takes and then I did my takes after.

 

We ended up with like 8 different takes, trying various ideas from bumps, impacts, and scrapes to vocalizations and guttural noises.  This interlude is already sounding a lot darker and more violent than I had originally imagined it would!

All in all, the energy we had yesterday made up for Tuesday's shortcomings and lack of progress. We're still on schedule and plan on keeping this pace up until the end of the project.

Troy making a point

Today (Thursday) we have more demo's to finish and hopefully by Friday we can tighten up ideas to take to the studio to track as much as possible!

With the 2nd week coming to a close very fast, Weeks 3 and 4 are going to be critical when it comes to tracking Vocals, heading into editing, mixing, and mastering.  Several other elements need to start coming into play too as we have to discuss album artwork ideas and schedule photo shoot time for ourselves, and I have started to work on the album design with Discmakers' templates for the particular package design we want to use.

RPM Challenge Day 5 & 6

Troy (center) and me (right) heading into the control room to start our day

Our first tracking day has arrived.  With a full day to spend at the studio the track that makes it to production first is They Say.  The album's opening track is a homage to a classic rock era in which the songs defined the sound, not the other way around.  Back when Radio was the primary source of music and Vinyl was the only way to distribute a lot of the recording technology was in its infancy, or reserved for the high-end of the financial spectrum.  We wanted to try to emulate the essence of what this era had to offer, both in the musical styling and sonic signature.

A classic mic for a classic job

They Say is inspired by countless songs from The Beatles, and Velvet Underground among others.  Keeping the soundtrack theme in mind, we decided on this style of song for multiple reasons. Mainly, this song should set the tone for the exposition of the “movie” as an opening track for a typical unassuming Midwestern town.  Small, somewhat backwoods, and for the most part, peaceful.  This song should reflect the typical blockbuster opening for such a movie, often works great overlaying panning and helicopter dollying shots of the land and town from above as the sun is setting, perfect for opening title credits.  Not only setting the mood but the characterization of what's "on-screen".  

Tracking guitars through an LA-610

Keeping that 60's era in mind, Troy tackled this song primarily with a bit of feedback from myself and a few other trusted ears.  The driving factors that lend to the authenticity of that era's vibe are mentioned below:

• Bass very subtle and easy-going.
• Drums match in complexity with song with variations differentiating verse and chorus.
• Incorporation of the iconic guitar of that era: Gibson SG delivers the punch of the classic rock with the Fender Telecaster delivering the backwoods Twang and crunch.
• Guitars melodic and mostly in the upper octaves, with picking for classic rock sound.
• Overall, composition and arrangement are simplistic with focus on lyrical element and vocal harmony with rest of song.

Miking the drumset

The recording techniques we opted for emulated various techniques from that era, albeit with much newer technology.  Tracking Drums was as authentic as it gets with just 1 overhead mic.  We took the time to decide on which mics would deliver what sound, what preamp they should go through, and what amount of processing in the hardware should be done during recording.  

Troy about to get down and dirty on the drums

One limitation to the technology of that era we simply did not have to deal with (especially from reading the book "Recording The Beatles") was the limitation of how much material could be recorded at once.  Some of the first recordings with them birthed the first uses of the "stem mix" as they could only use so many 4 track consoles and tape, which would then have to be mixed into a new "dub track" for the artists to play over in another set of tracks along to the pre-recorded material (roughly summing it up).

Tracking Rhythm guitar

We paid attention to every detail and left no rock unturned.  We have already discussed ideas on mixing and mastering for this song, and while we feel this track could sound just as polished in stereo, we are going to experiment with mixing and mastering only in Mono, and going so far as to emulate mixing and mastering techniques employed in that era, and that means getting creative with certain effects.  There may even be a vinyl emulation, to "add in" the particular subtle nuances such as mechanical and electrical noise from vinyl recordings as the master is recorded, down to the amount of bend and warp and surface noise introduced from playing an imperfect surface of vinyl on a record player.  

Troy tracking rhythm guitar

So, just 1 track into production.  I hope I have shed some light on just how much attention to detail sound and music production can get into.  It's a science, and an art.  We captured very descriptive notes during the session that can allow us to recall everything at a moments notice if we need to, but there is still a subtle and unmeasurable quality in the energy that goes into it each time that makes each capture, every moment unique, that part of the art just can't be put to the science of the craft. 

Troy (far right) and me (center) recording percussion

It's as simple as putting a mic in front of an instrument, and as complicated as knowing what effect the mic's placement has on the sound, as well as the room, the temperature, the artist, and every other element in the equation.  This is an industry where the saying "greater than the sum of it's parts" rings all too true.

Troy (right) and me (left) discuss progress on tracking for the day

Overall, the day's progress was a relaxed and laidback pace with lots of forethought into the proceeding step.  We didn't even get to record Drums until Sunday.  I left the schedule somewhat flexible so that things like this could change and still be adaptable instead of running way off schedule and falling behind.  

Showing off a C414

Thanks for reading! Check back for more, as we've been just as busy shooting and organizing all the footage for the video blog when it's due to release!  All in all, we're making good progress already to have this album published by the 28th!

RPM Challenge Day 4

Troy and I worked pretty hard today serparately, mostly getting our two songs down.  I spent a majority of the time working with Steven on demoing vocals for Curing The Cure.  We experimented with some effects for octavting and other effects on the vocal overdubs to get a unique sound.  I then spent time mixing it a bit to get ideas for the mixing process later on.  The song needs a bit of work in the arrangement department, but that can come later.  I wanted to focus more on getting the essence of the track down and exploring some of the nuances in the harmonies I liked.

Troy worked on getting ideas down for the Pop Punk song and got quite a good idea down!  We sat around and chatted about different musical ideas and techniques for the song, and then tried out a simpler recording technique to demo with and despite me not having a standard tuned guitar, used a cheap backup Flying V and ended up sounding pretty good to us both!  We then laid down bass to the track and I tested out a mix and already have editing and mixing ideas in mind for the track.

Plenty of funny stuff and good times here at the project studio, the Video blog project is getting stressful as we often are just shooting ourselves until we can get some help, though the help we get is much appreciated!  As for the project progress, we're making good time, and I can't wait to get to the progressive metal song!  Tomorrow is tracking day.

RPM Challenge Day 3

With 2 days down, and the weekend coming up quick, we have to get at least one or two songs ready to track.
With most of my free time spent sampling sounds from found objects to use in the Curing The Cure track with Steven's Lyrics, I had to start composing the synths and guitars and drums.  Most of the work on Troy's song Troy spent during his lunch and at home on his nights before coming up with ideas for the Indie song project of his. 

Most of the instrumentation was worked out and the basic idea for Curing the Cure has been conceived. I have the track ready to receive Steven's vocals so that I can start arranging the music, and getting it to it's final stages.

Troy and I were discussing influences for Curing the Cure and while we want the essence of what might sound industrial, listening to artists like Nine Inch Nails and clashing ideas together with the inspirational song from Linkin Park's newest album A Thousand Suns: When They Come For Me; we pretty much got the groundwork paved for the concept of what this song should be and sound like.  Many different ideas on mixing techniques and recording techniques to be employed, down to the timbre and EQ for various instruments and stem mixing as well...

Our biggest goal heading into the weekend is to get at least 1 song tracked in the studio and if we have time, start working on the next.  Troy's songs are coming together faster than mine, but mine tend to have a lot of production value put into them as the genres I cover tend to call for it.  Synth work, various guitar elements, complex drums, the arrangements themselves have more changes as well which need to be thought out.  So far, so good.  We're still on schedule and it's time to get back to work...  Check back tomorrow for Day 4's update...

RPM Challenge Day 2

Day 2 officially came to it's end and it couldn't have come soon enough.  Demoing 2 songs and getting more ideas solidified for the album design. 

While most of today was getting stuff on paper, and "demo" status in Sonar here at my project facility (or as I like to call it, Home) we did have a few other side projects that came up and things that we won't show until the video blog!  The video blog should start getting pretty interesting, hopefully should make for some decent entertainment!

So, as far as the project goes; just a bit of info now as far as the soundtrack goes: with Steven interested in doing lyrics, and his heavy augmentation of the story for the "film" the soundtrack is based on going through some serious drafting and plot work.  Way to go Steven.  While he goes off on a tangent with the story and works on developing things as detailed as the characters involved, and miniature plots within, we've gotten the basis for the inspiration we need to create the songs.  We've started picking out the order and sequence for roughly where the songs should lay in the soundtrack, and just what inspirational soundtracks should help us hone in on the various interlude sounds. 

There's also been various discussions on recording techniques we want to hit on.  Without giving away too much (don't worry we'll do that in the video blog), we discussed doing a song in mono, using recording techniques that pay homage to the Beatles era, all the way to experimenting with some Mid-side drum recording, experimental layering techniques with electric guitar, mixing philosophies... the list goes on.

Fun times, busy times, all times.  It's only going to get busier as we head into production, 2 songs in demo and thought out, 8 more to go, lyrics after, and a very compact schedule.  Be sure to check our facebook updates for some quick recaps and photos of our work throughout the month.  Also, if you want to jump into discussion on the RPM project, be sure to head over to our discussion page on facebook and leave your feedback!

RPM Challenge Day 1

RPM kicked off yesterday (yes I'm a night owl).  The first day may be pretty boring when the Video blog gets published, we'll see...  but we did get a lot accomplished.  We got a direction and a set of ideas we all liked and have committed to as far as the album goes.  We even went so far as to come up with a story concept for a fake film to base our "soundtrack" album to.

So why the soundtrack album?  I'll tell you why,  it works for us on many levels.  The first thing being that we're a studio primarily, and we want to showcase as many genres as we can.  Secondly, because we all wanted a challenge out of this challenge, and to span various genres would make a concept album very hard to pin in a commercial market.  Thus, the concept birthed many solutions, and a nice creative outlet to start honing ideas.

The back story is fairly simple, I mentioned that if we did a survivalist theme seeing as how these types of movies are very popular we can go for a wide ranging feel of emotions from the more upbeat to the darker and more sinister sounds we might like to explore.  We all liked the idea so we ran with it and Steven and Troy and I all came up with various ideas which amalgamated into this sort of stylized western zombie action survival story.  Without going into too much detail right now, suffice to say it gave plenty of inspiration for the various tracks we wanted to do that could "fit the bill" of a typical blockbuster movie of this genre. 

The next layer on the cake, was the production value, we wanted to experiment as a studio with recording techniques and challenge ourselves to just how far we could go to recreate the "iconic" sound of a particular genre, not necessarily going for cookie cutter imitation, but capturing what we feel is the essence of that genre's sound, and putting our spin on it.

The final layer to the cake, and is purely for the gimmick of making the soundtrack album sound more authentic is the matter of coming up with original custom voice-overs, foley, and sound effects to add into the various interludes as "sound bytes" from the fake movie concept we came up with.  One good example of an inspirational source is the Kill Bill soundtracks.  The songs that were cleverly used in the movie are sprinkled with interludes that were sampled from the movie itself, which was an idea i liked and wanted to go for on this album as well.  This added layer to our concept is going to also allow us to showcase our skills in these areas of audio production as well, not just that we know music, but know and appreciate all audio engineering; Sound design, ADR, Foley, and the like.

Obviously we've got big ideas for this project.  I came up with a rough day by day schedule to give us a good idea of the pace we need to be keeping to stay on track.  Basically here's what it breaks down to:

1. Week 1 - Pre-production
2. Week 2 - Demoing and Tracking
3. Week 3 - Tracking and editing
4. Week 4 - Mix, Master, and publish

As we have to move at such a quick pace, the schedule is just a guide, and can remain flexible.  But overall we need to be able to move swiftly through each phase of the project.  This will also mean that we may be working in a segmented fashion between Troy and myself.  While we may just barely get to tracking certain songs, others may already be in editing and mixing phase.

With a deadline of February 28th having to have the entire album published and online, we've got a lot of work ahead of us, and the clock is ticking! I'll try to post pictures when I can, and Check Neologic Studios on Facebook to see our latest status updates!

Crunch Time

So, want to know what I've been cooking up lately?  Check out my youtube channel and stay tuned because during the month of February we're going to be posting up daily video blogs tracking the progress of the latest studio project I've been working on!

Check out the announcement below


Check back here daily as well as I will be posting our notes and progress updates on here with the videos included!

The boredome festive...

It's the holiday season.  Turkey day, the epicenter of family time and relations, good (if not enormous) meals, and lots and lots of alcohol (for everyone else).  We've all officially entered the hibernating mode where everyone gladly sits back and relaxes: watching movies, talking, sharing stories, jokes, or whatever competitive oral phenomena one can drum up.

In fact, I myself have been in story-mode.  This last week or so, while waiting to see where my finances stand as we enter the holiday rush for present purchasing and putting our bank accounts through the financial binge that inevitably comes, I've re-purposed one of my story concepts, and begun to write anew.

Today, actually - began with some creative re-arrangement of the storyline.  What was once the first chapter is now the prologue and the first chapter has pretty much written itself.  I must admit after recently seeing Harry Potter 7, and watching movies like How to Train Your Dragon, and various other fantasy movies coming out as of late; I've had ideas churning in my head for this story that have only cultivated in some great (in my opinion) characterizations and really allowed me to explore a more human element I know I've been lacking in my writing skills. 

The story as it unfolds in my head plays out like a movie I would be seeing on screen and just keeps driving me to want to create it however I can!  So, very soon (perhaps just after the holiday season is over) I will be doing some sketching, concept design, and the like for this story, which I will more than gladly post my progress of on here :).

I'ts been too long...  Until then, however - enjoy a happy thanksgiving, and may everyone enjoy their holidays!

A Dashboard Confession

It's been a long October moving swiftly and not so diligently through a TV series concept and getting it off the ground.  Let's start at the beginning shall we?

A couple months ago my friend who happens to own a nice Sony Z1u approached me about a possible job opportunity he had been brought into the fold on.  This job consisted of developing and operating a production company around a tv series concept.  Lots of promises and lots of changes and rescinding on said promises later, and one bunk storyline and proof of concept after another we arrive at Friday October 15th.

The producer has me cabbing him around first to pick him up and we go to meet our private investor company whom, after an hour and a half or so of bantering and not even talking business really - decided to hand our producer a final check for the "production".  I can't go into detail on how much exactly but it's a generous amount to actually do something business-like with.

The plans change about 3 times in the span of an hour after getting said funding and our producer decides on a whim and without anything packed, that he wants me to drive him out even further to oakland with a stop in pleasanton so that he can fly out to vegas that same day.  God knows what for...

I advised that we get a business license set up, start planning out a rough schedule, and book hotel(s) and come up with a budget, as well as a contract that weekend so that we could have everything on solid ground before we depart for Vegas on Sunday by car.  Now,

• Lesson #1: never do anything without at least 10% pay up front.

• Lesson #2: Have binding documentation as to what the nature of everything is and how everyone is to be compensated (a contract, basically).  

I've known these for a while and our producer rushing out to Vegas despite my advising not to go made me very uneasy about the project.  However, he did pay for the travel (somewhat) around that day; he also paid 10% up front for both me and my partner to "get us out there".
So, Sunday October 17th, we depart late afternoon after a brief conference with our producer over the phone.  We have no idea what he's been doing out there the whole weekend.  I asked him to book us the hotel in the morning so we can have everything arranged for us to just come in and unpack when we get there at night.  The producer didn't book the room until we got into Vegas...  To make things worse, the next morning we were up early and on time to get prepped and ready to leave so we could make it to the shooting location we needed to be at by 9.  Our producer - being completely unprepared and came out with nothing but the clothes on his back, demanded I cab him to a bank and then to a Wal Mart to buy clothing and some miscellaneous items.  We also needed to purchase some groceries to minimize food expenses but we didn't have time.  Our producer bought himself new clothes just for the day (not the week), and we picked up some missing items we simply forgot to pack like shampoo and conditioner.

• Lesson # 3: make sure everyone is clear on expenses.

That being said, our first major shady act of the day, our producer says "so how should we split this? you guys pay for your stuff, I'll pay for my share of what we're all using?"  Now because he's carrying a minimal amount of cash I decide to go ahead and just pay for what we needed to get.  Except, in-case of any legal affairs later on that might happen down the road; i opted not to pay in cash, and instead use a credit card that hadn't been used in a while - no balance to pay.  For legal purposes I can show I was the one paying these expenses and track exactly how much I should be getting reimbursed for.

So just what is our jobs on this project, you might be asking...  Well, since I am in all ways not bound to any NDA agreement, and I myself actually wrote the contract (notice this is not notarized nor am I any type of legal representative, this is just purely for clear and concise documentation as to what the project is and who is responsible for what).

Crush The Record Production Contract

On behalf of Crush The Record Production, I ___________________________(Executive Producer)  hereby appoint ___________________________(Production manager, Production Sound Mixer) and ___________________________(Director of Photography, Digital Imaging technician) as project employees, and enter into the following terms of agreement:

1.       Terms:    ----- ----- on behalf of Crush The Record Production shall be known as Executive Producer.  Cameron Bashaw for the duration of the project shall be known as Production Manager, and Production Sound Mixer.  ------- ---, for the duration of the project shall be known as Director of Photography, and Digital Imaging Technician.  The three negotiating entities shall collectively be called the “parties”.  The pilot episode production for Crush The Record Production shall be called “the project.”

2.       Definition:     The parties wish to enter into the project on behalf of Crush The Record Production for the purpose of creating the pilot episode of a TV Series concept which technical descriptions shall be entered into agreement orally. The agreement discussed in this contract on behalf of all parties is for mutual assurance of satisfaction with exchange of services for compensation.

3.       Crush The Record Production Contract:  

a.       The Executive producer shall be responsible for handling the financing of the project which includes

                                                               i.      Handling of all fund(s) generated by project from initial private 3^rd parties and/or commercial entities entering into business with Crush The Record Production, and accept ON BEHALF OF Crush The Record.

                                                             ii.      Payment of employees and those associated directly with project.  Anyone involved in project doing work for hire directly for Crush The Record Production (i) only as considered part of video production (ii) involved in front of, or behind camera as a “personality” for Crush The Record Production (iii) not as a third party already being compensated by alternate source whether in front of, or behind camera.

                                                            iii.      Proper compensation shall be provided by the end of the project duration, and paid in full.

b.      Production Manager shall be responsible for organizing documents, and schedules, and coordinating the project once on-location and operating

                                                               i.      Handling of any task relating to disclosure of documents within project team and to third parties if necessary with approval of executive producer.

                                                             ii.      Coordinate with Executive producer on organizational tasks and oversee the project operation

                                                            iii.      Manage progress of day to day shooting and scheduling according to viable content that can be obtained throughout.

                                                           iv.      Create and organize documents and any bookkeeping throughout duration of project.

c.       Director of Photography shall be responsible for delivery of video content and production value throughout the duration of the project

                                                               i.      Creative control and consistency of videography throughout production

                                                             ii.      Communicate effectively with Production manager and Producer to obtain the shots needed for project, and stay on task.

                                                            iii.      Directs Digital Imaging Technician on all creative aspects of videography

d.      Production Sound Mixer shall be responsible for delivery of audio content and production value throughout the duration of the project

                                                              i.      Handling of audio equipment and content quality, including jobs of boom operator and Utility Sound Technician

                                                            ii.      Maintain audio equipment

                                                          iii.      Deliver audio content to executive producer for review and editing

e.      Digital Imaging Technician shall be responsible for

                                                               i.      Handling of video equipment and content quality

                                                             ii.      Operate and maintain video equipment

                                                            iii.      Deliver video content to executive producer for review and editing

4.       Mutual Agreement of the following terms outlining the proper compensation of the following parties by the Executive Producer: Production Manager and Production Sound Mixer, Director of Photography.

a.       Prerequisites:  The employed parties agree to (i) arrive at Las Vegas no later than Sunday, October 17^th for check-in, unpacked and prepared for production. (ii) Begin production schedule on Monday, October 18^th, conclude no later than Friday, October 24^th. (iii) Production team is allowed short-leave, but must return no later than Sunday, October 24^th, checked-in, unpacked and prepared for production.  (iv) Begin production schedule on Monday, October 25^th, and conclude no later than Saturday, October 30^th.  (v) Production team will leave Las Vegas on Sunday, October 31^st, ending production duration. (vi) Work per-Diem: set compensation for day, hours can be more or less than state labor laws as long as lunch break and breaks are provided.

b.      Per-Diem  compensation:    The employed parties shall be paid for the duration of the project per day for services rendered and equipment operated and maintained.  Each party member shall receive the value of $------- per day.  The duration of the production shall be no less and not to exceed 11 days.  The total compensation to employed parties across the duration of the project will reach $----- to be paid to ------- --- for the jobs of Director of Photography and digital imaging technician, and $----- to be paid to Cameron Bashaw for the jobs of Production Manager and Production Sound Mixer.

c.       Coverage of expenses:    The employed parties shall have reimbursement for travel expenses incurred throughout the duration of the project as stipulated during development.  Executive Producer holds the option to either:

                                                               i.      Pay directly for any expenses incurred throughout the duration of production (i) based on its relevance to project, (ii) necessity to travel for project including but not limited to gas, lodging, food, and utilities for production.

                                                             ii.      To reimburse expenses incurred throughout the duration of production (i) based on its relevance to project, (ii) necessity to travel for project including but not limited to gas, lodging, food, and utilities for production.

d.      Exclusions to coverage of expenses include items that are purchased for personal use or have no necessity to travel or stay throughout the duration of the project.

                                                               i.      Miscellaneous items and personal habit materials purchased are considered personal purchases and not to be covered by fund(s) generated by and for Crush The Record Production.

                                                             ii.      Excessive purchases of any items that cannot be properly documented for production or have no receipt with which to claim.

e.      Proper documentation and clear and concise reporting by Production Manager to accurately document all expenses incurred; Production manager is not responsible for acquisition of receipts from all parties.

5.       Disclosure  of this agreement herein provided solely for the purpose of identifying parties, services, and compensation shall be considered for good and valuable measure sufficient to all parties for the purpose of conducting the project.

a.       All parties arrive to mutual agreement and act according to common code of conduct including but not limited to: professional behavior, representation of the company values, adhere to any dress code, and punctual attendance according to any derived schedule.

b.      Any and all compensation is considered final and non-refundable.

c.       Any exemption from transactions must be weighed with good and valuable measure within reason upon breach of any of the terms stated in this agreement.

Upon reading and agreeing to the terms stated in the agreement, Each party hereby validates and enters into business of the project.  Proof of this shall be supplied by signing below.  Each party must sign each copy of this document as required for authenticity.

Now, without going into a detailed day-by-day description, I'd like to describe more of the useful experiences that were derived from this whole project.  From someone who's come from a studio background and this being the first travel / on-location production, there was a lot of learning going on for me.

First off, business to business side of things were developing relations with the raceway association, the company building the car for their client to compete in the upcoming race event, and then getting a hold of the parts companies being used on the car that is being captured for the tv episode to see if they want any involvement.   The producer is actually decent at pulling in interest from companies but that's fairly easy considering they have a budget to spend on things like advertising and marketing.

Working with what's really only a 2-man crew: 1 camera operator, and 1 production sound mixer tripling as Boom Operator, and utility sound technician; was not actually that bad, but limited the scope of what we could achieve as far as capturing "cinematic shots" for the TV series' look and feel the producer wants. 
Working with only mono for external mic to capture sound and our location primarily being a large machine shop for fabrication, everything was extremely hard to capture.  To add to that, while our producer wants the end result to feel very "weekly movie" the true aspect of production is fully reality / documentary as we spent most of our time in the "hurry up and wait" mode.  We captured 90% of the footage as we were able to shoot them, if things happened (and often they did) we just got rolling and shot what we could without interfering too much in the business. Aside from a few key dialogue moments, a lot of the footage would probably end up on B-roll or secondary footage used without any real audio or character focus.

The entire first week was primarily spent at the shop with the fabrication company building the car for their client to race.  the Second week we started getting other footage needed while still basing our operations at the shop.  By Tuesday, October 26th, we had private access to the Bull Ring track at the Vegas Speedway to shoot some B-Roll footage of the track itself, as well as from the stands, some trucking / dolly shots, and transition shots. Thursday we started shooting interviews and prepping for Friday's practice, and Saturday's event.

Friday was perhaps one of the longest days we spent out there as we tried to get there as early as possible to get footage of the last bits being worked on the car, while our producer spent time with his dad who came through for the day, as well as at the track setting up onboard camera shots with a very lucky turnout.

Our producer was lucky enough to have a couple reps from Go Pro buy into the concept of the show and loan us 6 Go Pro Hero HD cameras with mounting kits and memory cards.  Our producer set them up on the cars, while we stayed at the shop to wait around to capture the last moments of the car being built and hopefully catch them doing the first engine firing and tuning.

Friday's schedule for the Bull Ring consisted of practices for all the different leagues and classes of cars on teh track that day.  The first SMRA practice session was at 4:15 pm, then again at 6:15 pm, 8:15 pm, and finally at 10 pm.  the two of us stayed at the shop the entire day waiting around for our shots which didn't actually happen until 10 pm finally when they got the top wing fully assembled and on the car.  By now, 3 practice sessions had already happened and 2 competitor cars were at the garage already being worked on by their teams due to complications on the track.  After a good 20 minutes of clearing out the cars and getting our car prepped for it's first run, we set up and were ready to shoot the first firing.

Because of the type of design and the way the cars work, they have to be push-started, and our location made it feasible for the company to do this with their own trucks get the car in place, we were able to get static shots of the whole process, which at first, consisted of us running around the whole block keeping up with the push-truck and the car as they did laps around the building to make several passes at starting the car.  The whole firing attempt was successful but with some tuning needed on the engine which they promptly just pulled into the garage and started working on.  We rushed inside and stayed handheld through the rest of the shot and captured some amazing dialogue (compared to the rest of the production we'd done thus far).

Saturday we were up bright and early even though we had ended late the night before.  With some typical delays from our producer we still made it to the track early enough to beat traffic of the race event.  After checking in and getting our pit passes we started rolling out immediately and prepping gear for initial shots in the pits with the vaious racers.  The first practice session started at 1:15 pm, the 2nd at 3:15 pm, qualifying at 5:15 pm, and the main feature at 8:30 pm.

3:15 pm rolls around and we made it up to the track to start filming the practice session and plan out camera angles and get b-footage of the practice.  We weren't expecting to be involved in a crash on the track at 150+ mph!  The #85 car had a problem during his deceleration at the end of the straightaway on the track coming into the 1st turn and barreled toward us with a broken front axle.  The car slammed into the barrier at more than 150 mph and got airborne, slamming up against the upper fence where we were  filming a good 4-7 feet to our left.  Luckily no one other than the race driver was injured.

However the impact was extremely severe and he is hospitalized.  While we waited and watched what we could before the racing association cleared out the track area of all bystanders, we reviewed our tape and realized we had caught footage of the accident as it happened.  We showed the racing team that wanted to know what happened, and representatives of the track and racing association that asked to see what happened.  They also asked for a copy of the footage of just that portion for insurance purposes.  We cooperated with and respected their wishes and destroyed the footage after.

I just found out today however, that he is still alive, had just come out of surgery but is in stable condition though critical. Our prayers go out to the race team and family.  It was quite an unforgettable experience...

The show, however, rolled on.  Even with a 2 hour delay on the track from the crash, the qualifying round still happened about about 7:15 pm, and the main feature at 9 pm.  For the main feature we were able to get clearance to get down on the inner ring of the track behind the barriers.  After the race we finished up with some interviews of the various people racing, as well as final interviews of the builders and car owner we followed throughout the production.

Now, production may have ended Saturday, but we have still been very busy.  Sunday was an all-day drive back home, a very long and not very pleasant drive.  What was originally just me and the camera guy turned into his gf, and our producer riding home with us.  Everyone got home and unpacked pretty much killed the entire day, so on Monday we were supposed to capture footage.  Monday was pretty much everyone's rest day so I took it upon myself to work on some of the various other projects that need managing.

So, here we are at late last night.  My camera guy brings over the equipment and tapes so we can start capturing.  today we just brought the producer the footage we captured so far, as well as getting my primary payment.  Up next is discussing reimbursement of all the travel expenses.

All in all, I highly disliked the experience working with a shady producer, who's completely unprofessional.  That being said, the experience has allowed me to prove to myself I am capable of operating such a project at a professional capacity, whether or not I can put put this experience on a resume.

On-track, which track?

As I write this I'm on-location at Belfab fabrication shop at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, shooting for a Pilot episode for this startup production company.  With 9 days into the production, lots of money invested that I should be getting reimbursed, we are nearing the final push to wrap up the project.  It's been a rough couple weeks and I only imagine it's going to get worse as our hours extend to stay up with the final touches and work being done on-location here. 

While I've been here I've written contracts, invoices, schedules, outlines, itineraries, scripting treatments, and various other miscellaneous research items for the producer.  I could share the horror story this whole thing has turned into, but I'll save that for after we're concluded!  I can promise some great insider learning experiences gained from this project when I have time to write. 

I also just got finished reviewing a treatment for a friend's documentary project as a consultation.  Things certainly have a way of clustering together to happen all at once.  I've also managed to start outlining the floorplans to the warehouse studio I help run back home, as well as some nice additions to my studio!  Finally on the ball.  When I return home I will get back to the various other projects like the indie film concept Redhawk Rising, and my involvement with Troy's indie film project.

I'd also like to mention BR and I have started refining a script and plot design for a tv series concept that shall for now remain confidential.  BR, if you're reading this, we should continue developing that ASAP!

The big Push

As I write this I'm knee deep in organizational tasking for 3 major projects.  I just had a busy day traveling around doing a few meetings for the various projects at hand.  In the morning Troy and I had a 2nd meeting with a contractor to go over the renovations proposal for an expansion to the studio.

After a nice workout, I met with Mok and first headed out to Stockton to pick up a camera with footage and then we headed out to Copperopolis to meet with Tommy for the production company working on the reality series project I cannot yet name.  I've been in charge of production management tasks and even consulting on marketing. 

On our way back we discussed the project scope and scheduling.  Met up with a friend for a late dinner and chat, and then headed back to my place to discuss plans for tomorrow's meetings which will entail the next scene for the indie film that needs to be scripted choreographed and shot before renovations begin at the studio warehouse.  Right now I'm writing up the refined treatment for the scene and roughing in dialog and story progression into and out of the fight sequence. 

Tomorrow I meet with Mok to start choreograph ideas and talk about the concept build to the scene, and then schedule a meeting with the cast to start practicing and working on the choreography, schedule rehearsal(s) and the shoot.

Later tomorrow night I rough out a floor-plan to present to the contractor for a 3rd meeting to discuss plans and options before we say yay or nay..  Then it's off to Oakdale to meet with sponsors for the reality series and get production schedules refined...

Starting Monday next week, I'm Las Vegas bound for a solid 2 weeks of shooting for the pilot episode, and then 3 weeks of solid editing and post production putting together the pilot and any commercials and webisode content for sponsors.

It's going to be very hectic, I just ordered speakers that will probably arrive while i'm out of town.  I need to get mixing going and this post unit up here at my place, and still continue to manage these 3 projects; but i can promise there will be lots of updates going on here as I start to roll through more production concepts and share ideas with how things roll out.  Stay tuned!

textual problems

Been busy working on some test ideas for textual animations to go into some credit sequences.  I can't post any of the actual project info here, but these tests I decided to do for my music project with Redhawk for some of the music video possibilities we might have lined up later.  So far this shot below was what I was happiest with.

 

I've been trying to test out multiple renders with demolitions plugins but so far have been unsuccessful with the little time I have been able to spend learning it.  Instead I ended up with several test shots trying to hone in the look for the Scrap Children feature.  This next one below was one of the earlier renders just playing around with the plugin; obviously let it grow for too long!  The 2nd below is the first test render, and the very bottom was playing with Vray fur ideas but I quickly scrapped that look.

Later on, I'll post up progress after I get the demolitions plugins sorted out.  My intention is to have a cracked stone look to the text, have it crumble underneath a falling text above it that reveals the artist name, and crumble again for a final text drop, all under 10 seconds.  Nice short animation. 

Gyros Up!

More progress on the shoulder joints and back / structure.

Here you can see the bearing system that will hold the joint in place, still deciding on how to assemble the overall joint and connect the arm to the torso.

Been a Long Time Coming...

Long story short, a lot of personal, financial, and professional matters had to be dealt with, and they took a long time to deal with, obviously.  Finally getting back on track!  To make the short version of a long story short just a bit longer...

I have been hard at work on some musical ideas.  Producing for others, mentoring, and spending a lot of time out in the community, educating.  I've been a busy boy.

Fleeting Moments...

Just a personal update; Been taking some time I've gained free from work to sort out some personal issues, so my time in front of the Wacom tablet or the computer in general has been few and far in between the last few days.  I did however get the Intuos 4 medium tablet! It's awesome, just FYI.  More new sketches to come soon!