Secret, but fun!

Several projects I can't really talk about in too much depth, but rest assured there's going to be plenty to talk about soon!  The last week have been pretty busy as I've been working with Ian and Ricardo and Nick shooting promotional material for an upcoming feature film with their production company BackYard Studios.  Check out this short video to find out what the project is all about!








It's been busy. I spent several days working with Ian, Nick, and Ricardo and I'm really excited to see this project get started!  I'll be sharing little bits and pieces of what I can on here as the project rolls along.  So keep an eye out!

Aside from working with Backyard Studios, we have a few studio projects we're working on.  Today (Christmas day), we're actually going to be moving all the studio gear to the Project Tank because on Monday we're going to be tracking a special project at my house!  My latest piece just arrived in time to aid with our recording too, a Radial JD7 Injector.  This week's project is going to be chock full of more win than Charlie Sheen himself!

Even though it's Christmas, we've been busy working.  Troy and I literally just spent 2 hours moving all the studio equipment to my place which I am just now hooking up and setting up to prep for tomorrow morning's session!  Then, i'll be on my way over to Mok's house for a Lan party with a bunch of friends for a bit.  Finally, I'll be back home in time to do stretches!  Boy what a day it's been on Christmas day!  I've also managed to complete the first 3 chapters of my story and am now on the 4th...

However, it is better to give than to receive, so here's a special treat I hope everyone enjoys it! (It's all in good fun, no egos were bruised during the making of this piece).  Click for full view:

Have a merry Christmas everyone!  Feel free to leave comments!

We get some Soul..

This last weekend Troy & I went to Milpitas to film a live performance of Pacific Soul as a favor to a friend of a friend.  Wow!  This group is a nine-piece band that performs R&B classics and are a really well-rounded, amazing sounding group!  Pretty much everyone in the band sings and harmonizes together, Everyone's got a function in the band that plays well.

It was sort of last minute and a little under-communicated, but I think we've pulled it off with a decent look.  We shot with the Sony Z1u and the Canon T2i so the look between cameras is vastly different, and is a real pain to get a close match between them.  The area they were performing at was inside at a seafood marketplace, and was really dark (no lighting).

The Canon T2i fared well as we simply boosted the ISO to 3200 and the footage came out clean even at high ISO for video.  The Shutter speed pretty much sat at 60 and Troy walked around with the T2i getting various close-ups and shots with the shoulder rig we were lucky enough to have borrowed from a friend's production company!  Thanks Ian, we'll have it back to you ASAP.

I kept the Z1u stationary and just did simple panning and zooming as best I could while taking notes and monitoring audio.  I brought my XLR cables for just such an opportunity to get a direct feed from the Front-of-house (FOH) mixer. This was where I ran into a problem.  Once I started monitoring the audio coming into the camera with my headphones I noticed severe compression and limiting and I had already set the camera's gain settings for the XLR inputs to -18dB (the furthest down it would go).  I thought maybe it was the camera doing the limiting and maybe just maybe it would be decent.

Pulled frame from T2i footage

The next level to the audio problem was the mix itself.  The FOH mixer was only creating a mix for the PA system to pump out to the audience.  I know how live mixing goes and for a session of this size the PA really just needs to fill in the gaps for the lowest level performers: Keyboardist who has no amp on-stage but has a monitoring speaker by him, the vocalists who also have a couple of monitoring speakers in front of them on the ground.  The Bassist has a cab on stage but it's mic'd and instead he's also using a monitoring speaker on the floor.  There is a percussionist in the back, and to add to that an electric acoustic guitar being played by one of the singers as well who's got a direct out feeding the mixer.  The drummer has some mics on the kit but I couldn't see much as he was behind the stage. 

Pulled frame from T2i footage

The problem with getting a mix from the FOH is the mix is designed to fill in the mix around the drums which are naturally loud.  The keys had a prominent position at teh front of the mix, the vocals collectively sat just behind that, and the drums were barely audible in the mix at all feeding the PA system.  the Bass sat just under the Vocals as well and was primarily low-end.  However, the mix was either being heavily compressed in the mixer or as an artifact of the signal coming into the camera.

Pulled frame from T2i footage

We had no idea how it would turn out in post, but would have to make due with what we got.  Before the performance started we had time to set up and talk to the engineer at the FOH mixer.  I did notice he had a macbook with Pro Tools ready to rock and the idea was that he was to capture the multitrack performance from the mixer so that the whole session could be mixed properly in post later on.  After the performance was over we talked to the engineer again and that was when we were informed there was no capture into Pro Tools!  Sometimes these things happen and miscommunication can lead to issues that need troubleshooting later on.

Pulled frame from Z1u footage

So I'm at home dubbing the tape from the Z1u into Premier Pro and then importing all the captured video from the T2i.  Once we started dropping the video on the timeline I got really curious as to the sound of the audio from the T2i.  I was greatly surprised by how well it could fill in the mix once i started getting everything in line.  I knew I'd have to battle with sync issues as there was no way to lock the two cameras together so that frames and timing would be in sync.

Pulled frame from Z1u footage

You won't notice it by the video as the lip-sync between both cameras is not noticeably off, but where you will immediately hear it is in the audio tracks lining up.  It creates a slight delay affect that's a quick echo.  So, this can be simply remedied by bringing the audio into Sonar later on and aligning them so they are in-phase.  The natural top-end clarity due to the small diaphragm of the built-in mic in the T2i was able to lend clarity to the mix from the Z1u which was quite muddy, and the lost transients and the natural room tone (the live sound) came back making the drums present again.

Pulled frame from T2i footage

My final issue to tackle is creating a good blend between the two audio sources in mixing to get the sound to blend.  There is a couple spots where the main audio track (FOH mix) cuts out.  First in the very beginning something happens to the mix cutting out.

The timeline cursor (red bar) you can see the right channel cut out and then the left channel.

Then I had Troy run the T2i while I changed tapes because I was running off a previously used tape that still had 30 or so minutes unused.  Finally got the fresh tape in and it took a little bit to get to camera speed.

The timeline cursor is where you can see the gap in the main video and audio feed.

Other mix conditions have to do with Troy's camera position around the band and how it captured the sound of whichever instrument or vocalist is most present.  Some positions he took with the camera are directly out of phase with the direct mix as he's standing next to a speaker 180 degrees out of phase with it.

Just barely wrapping up final edit.  It's getting even more hectic as there are a couple jobs coming up, and i've been getting contacted about more job opportunities elsewhere..  The immediate agenda for now is to just finish this video and get back to my story-board and novel projects.

Short and Quick

So,  October was fairly busy.  Life's been hectic if nothing else.  Wrapped up work on the E.P. for Trials & Memories including finishing album art design;  which you can follow here.  They also just recently posted up a 4 minute radio edit of Crematoria.  The EP Drops on Black Friday!  Congrats to Jeremy and Mikey!  They also were very happy with the final album artwork.  I am too.

So what have I been doing?  Nothing. Well, not really.  Short Film Soiree got started with a group of friends doing short film projects and lately I've been spending my time doing some storyboarding for a couple.  Troy is also back in the area so we've been collaborating on some of the projects, and planning out a couple skits.  Aside from that I helped him set things back up at the Warehouse.

Microsoft started a public submission for the Windows Gallery themes expansions they've been doing and calling for all kinds of artwork.  I took some time to update a bunch of my Fractals and submitted them

Unfortunately, my back has been giving me a ton of problems the last couple weeks.  So much left to do, so little time!  Looks like I'll have me plenty of free time now to get back on track with my novel.  Speaking of...  I'm off!

OH, first... Battlefield 3 on PC has been in my possession since it's release day; unfortunately none of my current circle of friends are PC gamers (extremely sad face).  So, if you are so inclined to add me, hit me up on Origin and let's join up for a match or two! 

Zombie Appreciation

I cannot seem to find enough time in the day to get to this thing!  The last couple weeks have blasted by. 

I suppose first things first:  The first skit we filmed almost three weeks back was a Zombie skit in collaboration with Underpaid Heroes project with Troy Norcross.  The whole thing was improvised on location, not to mention slightly less than legal it turns out!

Troy led the skit idea,  It took us a while to get makeup done on 2 zombies.  A few hours longer than expected running the whole production on account of the Navigator battery dying because of improvised lighting with the cars and 1 mobile spotlight being run from a power inverter (yay for homebrew videography)!

We tried to race through a lot of the shots with a tight time-table.  Mok operated the Camera hand-held and I ran the Shotgun mic the same.  There was hardly any time to plan out camera angles and really understand what the group wanted to do action-wise.

We ran out of time to really make sure we got all the shots we wanted to make the scene complete on account of it being after 3 AM by the time we shot the last bits.  The next day we dubbed the tape to Premier and built a rough edit in just 30 minutes.

With only a mono audio source to play with there would be a limited pallete of real-world audio to play with and a lot of sound replacement.  I refined the rough edit Mok had done and proceeded to the visual FX for several shots that happen in the skit.

Getting to Picture lock was fairly easy with the minimal VFX shots we had to work on.  The final edit still needs bumpers and motion graphics for the titles.

While the picture was pretty much complete aside from those elements I headed to audio and proceeded to break apart the audio.

I quickly went through the audio from each of the takes to pull apart the vocals, and then find useful ambiance to overlay or if it included Foley for footfalls etc. I moved them into timing and copied the audio where necessary. I could only do so much with most of the audio, so I proceeded to then mark spots and add in sound effects for replacement, and then foley and sound effects for enhancement.

First, iZotope's Ozone 4 was used to analyze the entire audio track before any noise reduction was applied to capture the EQ profile of the Rode NTG-3 mic's on-location audio.  The next step was the most time consuming.

I had to go through one clip at a time for each cut I made in the timeline to analyze and apply noise reduction for each separate take that followed the take from the video.  Once the noise profile was captured for that take, I could simply copy the plugin to the next clip I cut.  The plugin is very processor intensive so I had to bounce each clip after the noise reduction was applied.

We also had to replace quite a bit of Voice work from the on-location audio as it was too compressed and the impact noises with the gravel and dirt muddy up the mix.  I setup my shotgun mic outside my room and had everyone record their parts to the video.  I then applied the Ozone EQ matching profiles to the new material.

I still have to head into surround mix, and compose the underscore to the skit and then apply the final film grading and review before it's done.

Not sure if zombie is zombie or clown...

fast zombie = fast...

Hit the deck!

Kaplow!

Who plow?

Homie don't play dat.

Horror scene, or eerie homo-erotic love scene?

Yup, eerie homo-erotic love scene..

So, I have to get back to my busy schedule.  I will definitely be adding more up very soon of the other projects I've been working on.  Now, off to gym!

RPM Challenge day 11

Today marks the last weekday to get stuff demoed.  This week was marked with lots and lots of phone calls about potential jobs with friends and colleagues lining up for future dates, which is great and distracting at the same time!  Business is business however, and today we wrapped up Curing the Cure's final vocal takes.  This song is finally tracked.

Steven (left) and I (right) getting a good look

We had a lot of fun fooling around between and even during tracking the vocals!  Troy danced, Steven cracked jokes a lot of laughter kept the night moving quickly.

Troy getting his groove on

First things first, Setting up the mics and pulling up the track and reviewing what was needed on the final takes.  Steven was ready to go right away.

After just a couple takes of the main track we had a take we liked and reviewed the sound for the "corrupted" vocal overdubs.  I used plugins on the vocal track to test out a deeper voice manipulation effect that erred on creepy phone call status.

Troy getting a kick out of the voice manipulation effect

We goofed around for a bit while I dialed in a good setting on the effect, and got back to work on tracking the overdubs.

Just a few takes later we played more with the voice manipulation effect and reviewed the progress on the track so I could make mental notes on where to take it in editing and arrangement.  Since most of the song is done virtually aside from the industrial noises I sampled from found objects which were then processed, I'll go back over the track and start adding in various other elements to make the song sound fuller.

Discussing the final takes

After that, we took a break to go eat and Troy went to pick out some music from a retail store as research for another song we still have to write: the electronica song.

Steven's last look

We are still unsure of what we want to do for this one so afterward we wanted to go to the studio to get inspired.  However, with time constraints we ended up coming back to my place and just listening to bands like Celldweller to get inspired by the fusion of metal / techno / and industrial.

Troy at it again, dancing to Celldweller!

We really couldn't come up with ideas quickly enough, and he had to go for the night.  We discussed the songs we had left to do, and I decided to tackle the Fight song later in the evening.

The metal gods are not pleased...

I quickly got set up to record guitars and start demoing the Fight song.  Finding a good sound was hard because I didn't quite have any ideas solid in my head,  I played around for a bit to find the sound I liked and Troy commented it sounded very Metallica-inspired.  Thanks!

Schecter Hellraiser C-7 goodness

After a few ideas trolling through my fingers and out my amp, a few setting changes, and a good while, Troy finally decided to leave for the night, and I got on with tracking what I had.

I tracked the guitars and laid down a quick beat and then even laid down bass.  Most of the song was demoed, it still needs some more arrangement work but the core of the idea is there finally!

Tomorrow we are going to be super busy in the studio tracking all that we can!  Stay tuned for more!

RPM Challenge Day 10

Thursday, Day 10 was a good day to get stuff done.  Troy and I tackled my idea to have a blues-inspired song on the soundtrack to get back in touch with the concept we came up with.  During his lunch break we talked about ideas.

It seems like the longer we're around each other the more we screw around.  It was hard enough to stay focused with us both feeling so much pressure.

Troy feeling the pressure of the ever-creeping due date

We eventually got down to business and recapped over some crucial points on our progress we've made so far and what we have left to do.  After he left, I got back on task and started setting up to track guitars and demo the Blues-inspired song.

Setting up mic to record

I spent a good couple hours looking for a good setting on my amp and microphone placement that sounded new and different but at the same time called out that flare i was hearing in my head.

me preparing to lay down guitar tracks 

My primary goal was to completely demo the blues-inspired song and get it out of the way as the arrangement i imagined would be fairly simple.  There isn't a lot of changes going on, but it keeps it interesting enough that when layered with vocals the song still moves.  I played around with a bunch of guitar takes and different amp settings along with mic positions to get the right feel.

Afterward, Troy came back over and we chatted for a bit about the project.  Yet again, we found time to goof off as Troy heard my progress on the blues song and decided to do an impression of "me singing"...

Troy impersonating me rocking out to the Blues song

But seriously, we did get back to business.  Troy showed me his progress on writing his folk-pop song for another track on the album.

Writing lyrics and coming up with the main guitar riffs for the arrangement was easy, yet hard to land stuff he really liked and wanted to keep.

All in all, not a bad day.  Just not as far along as we'd like to be.  Troy continued to write and I continued to work back and forth on ideas for the alternative song as well as the blues song.

Thursday drew to a close too fast.  Tomorrow's day has to progress a little smoother as we both feel like we've lost steam on our pace we set out.  While technically we are still on schedule, next week we should be focusing on final tracking sessions, which mostly include vocals.  A lot of the demos only have rough lyrical ideas at best, so this is going to mean long hours trying to lay down vocals as we write!

Me demonstrating the balancing act we are doing on the project management