Hi all,
Tonight (Sunday 23 January), at 10.15pm, TV One is screening a documentary called Sound and Fury, taking the viewer on a journey into the life and music of contemporary New Zealand composer John Psathas and his work in 2010.
My friend, Gregor, is doing a performance thing for his Masters, and is looking for participants.
He’s looking for theatrical collaborators to take part in workshops. The first workshop is next weekend.
Beginning of Saint Punch, a summer project which is associated with my Master of Arts research.
A callout to interested performers who are willing to participate bringing this written text into its performed existence- through Camera, Puppetry and Grand Guignol.
So anyone who is interested, please join the FatCircus group on FB, and ‘like’. You can contact Gregor if you’re available for the workshop tomorrow, or future workshops.
You know when you’re doing sound design really quickly, and you just need a quick .wav of a sound (rather than recording it yourself, which you would do if you had the time)? That’s when websites with free downloads are useful. Usually the website creators and/or uploaders are happy for you to download, sometimes requesting that you credit them for it (especially if their sound file is used in a film). Yay for Creative Commons.
The danger of downloading free samples is that you could waste time trying to find the perfect sound. Browsing takes time, and can suck it up far too much.
Ideally, one should record the sound on-set – mainly so you can get the ambience of the room/location, and also so that you own the rights to the sound recording. Second most ideal is recording it yourself in foley – again so you own the rights to the sound recording. One also has to replicate or fake the same location ambience that was on set. Third most ideal is downloading a file.
So far, I’ve quickly grabbed a chain saw and a light switch, and may grab a cupboard door sound (time dependent) for [SIC]. Unfortunately I’ve only found chainsaw sounds of a chainsaw revving, not of it cutting through something. I’m wondering whether I have the time to buy a pumpkin or watermelon, rev up the chainsaw, and cut through it.
But, where to download from? Which pages are best?
I usually do a google search, (i.e. light switch sound effect free), and open the first few pages on different tabs. Then you can preview the sounds available, and pick which to download and from where. But maybe it would be best to make a few notes on some of the pages available, so I can just go there later…
My New Years Resolution for 2011 is to have less stuff in the house. Saturday 8th was spent setting up a spare tent that I have, and taking photos so I can sell it. Meanwhile I had hired a friend of mine to do yardwork for me, and my flatmate was helping out. So whilst I was laying out tent poles and trying to work out what went where, whilst my garden was getting weeded and trees were being pruned.
My mother had bought a conical pup tent for me in the late 90s for my Guiding camps. I didn’t really use it. There were always other tents. She put it in an emergency kit that she set up, and there it stayed. My sister bought a new tent, that is way easier to set up, and which I inherited when she moved to Australia. So I didn’t need the old tent. And I’ve set up my own emergency kit, so I decided to combine the two.
The plan: set up the tent. Take photos. Upload to TradeMe.
I found it was harder than I remembered. So I updated my Facebook as I went, and created an album, so my friends could make suggestions if I asked for help.
Here’s how my FB went on Saturday.
Continue reading “Achieving my New Year’s Resolution by selling tents”
I’ve been accepted into the Honours scriptwriting course at Victoria in 2011.
Yay!
Fortunately, I had an idea for a feature length Western just the other day, which I’m going to start jotting down. I also have a few shorts and a biopic that I want to work on. That’ll keep me good and busy for the next year.
More news below…
Dear Cubase,
I’ve just started using you. You’re annoying me. I’m used to ProTools, and there are a few differences that are getting on my wick. Please see what you can do about the following.
1. When you don’t playback where I’ve just made a change. I want you to start playing where my change just occurred, so I can check that I’ve made the right change. Such as if I cut a bit out, start playing from the end of my deleted section, so I can check whether I need to cut out more. Not where the play line is currently sitting. If I process a sound file, I want to hear the processing – so start playing at the start of the amended sound file, not where the play line was left. Hell, if I’ve selected a sound file, that’s because I want to hear it. So start from the start of the sound file, and, again, not where the play line was left.
2. There’s only one place to click to move the play line, and that’s in a space at the top of the window, about 5mm tall. If I misjudge, I don’t move the play line, I create a marker. Uncool.
3. When I make a mistake, and I press Apple-Z, I expect that mistake to be reversed. Multiple times now, I moved or processed a sound file, then accidentally hit .5mm off where I want the play line, creating a marker. I have hit Apple-Z to remove the marker, and you know what it does? It leaves the marker, and changes the move/process I did on the sound file! As though any mistake made with a marker will not be fixed by the magical Apple-Z. UNCOOL!
4. The video window is in the way, and the pool window keeps disappearing. I have to keep typing Apple-P to get the pool window back. Every. Time. I. Insert. A. File. Granted dual screens would work best, but I don’t have dual screens.
5. The online help thing won’t connect to the internets. So I can’t read your help guide. My computer obviously isn’t having issues connecting to the internet (as evidenced by the fact I am typing this right now), so why are you having issues? Also, and this is directed only at you, but must you be one of those programmes that annoyingly, when I select the help menu and start typing in my question, decides it has no information, and I have to open the help manual. Why have the option to type in my question in the first place? If you’re going to force me to open the manual, then just cut to the chase.
I am sure that there are other things that will annoy me as I get to know you better.
I will let you know that I appreciate your short keys to change the selector tool; your colour palette; and the easy way to change various other settings. But, seriously, if you want me to not miss ProTools, you need to work the way I want you to.
Yours Sincerely,
Patricia Hetherington
According to twofifty (an app on Facebook), these are the films from the top 250 that I have not seen. Ergo, I should see them. So I’m putting them on this post here. As I see them, I’ll rule a line through. Then, rinse and repeat, to see which other films I should see.
Films with an asterix (*) are already in my collection; I just need to sit down and watch them. So they’ll be first. The italicised ones are already on my fatso list.
No, I haven’t seen ET or Rocky. 12 Angry Men isn’t available on fatso … if someone can lend it to me, that’d be awesome! (Maybe it’ll be in the Uni library?). Who voted for these though? Taken and Superbad? Seriously?
Black Swan hasn’t come out in New Zealand yet (it’s due out on Thursday 27th January), so I’ll go see that once it’s out.
Right, here’s the list…
Continue reading “Twofifty – a list of films I’m going to watch this year”
Cubase appears to be working for me. This is good. It’s not ProTools, but it’s Cubase working on my home computer. ProTools was on my PC which died recently.
I’m currently doing sound design for a short film – [SIC], directed by Jared Flitcroft. (I’m typing this on a 5 minute break from working on it). The 7 minute version of [SIC] is going to be entered into the Aotearoa Deaf Film Festival.
I’ve decided I want to blog more. Rather than just thinking about doing it, I’m starting right now. I will be posting on this blog once a week for all of 2011. And still whenever I feel like it. But I’m aiming for at least once a week. On average.
I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.
If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes, and good will along the way.
Signed,
Patricia Hetherington
My friend, Dan who lives in Melbourne, has been experimenting with making short films to his songs. He’s a very talented musician, and it’s great to hear what he’s doing. Below is his latest on Vimeo. I’ve given him some feedback, and asked if I could put his piece here so others can too.
So, please to enjoy. I think you’d like the music if you like Sigur Ros and Arcade Fire.
Feedback can be given direct to Dan on his Vimeo account, or here.
With this project I wanted to experiment more with both film and music. Essentially, I wanted to capture beauty in its simplest form, which is also why I opted to work with black and white visuals.
As well as that, I wanted to work with my friend, Lou, on a track so I asked him to come up with a bunch of guitar lines to use. On top of these ideas, I layered instruments and ambience as well as some interesting edits to create this finished project. Hope you like what I did Lou!!
Busy Times 