Oh my, a link to the past

In a former incarnation of the Lizard Lounge, i used to run an open mic night called Free Speech. It was a happy little venue. The carpets were perpetually damp and when we left it had mushrooms growing in it... To be short, it was the perfect place for such bohemian activities. The interviewer was a friend, he spells my name wrong and I sound a little twaty, but still, it looks very professional!

http://www.theprogram.net.au/featuresSub.asp?id=2899&state=1

Or you can even look at the old web page which I stopped updating a long time ago. Someone told me that I should update it, and from a business point of view they would be right. But then again no one ever visited it and I like the idea of this static, out of date web page which shows just about the precise moment when the Lizard's star began to fall. Incidentally the police still have charges related to the venue, but prefer to continually delay the matter before the court so that Lauren (the owner) has to keep paying for legal support. I suspect they're trying to bleed her dry.

http://www.lizardloungeadelaide.com/

More sounds

This one's called The New Market State. It was made for a subject called Digital Audio Studies. There weren't many restrictions other than we had to use real sounds. The sounds were given to us mostly, exccept for the voice samples.

Feedback is more than welcome.

Composition for Screen - Mr Martin Armiger

Today we at the EMU where blessed with a visit by Martin Armiger, Head of Screen Comp. at AFTRS. It's about here that i should mention that AFTRS will soon be offering courses in Adelaide and its also about here that I have to wonder who is running this subject called "forum". Are we simply a venue on a spruiking circuit? Surely, some of us were excited to hear someone talk about screen comp., i know Jodie was. Heck, I was excited too, at first. [Martin is on the right

Martin delivered a talk entitled "The Trouble With Film Music". The trouble seems to be that directors and composers don't always see eye to eye. An "I say tomato, you say ..." kind of deal. Apparently the film The Hours chewed threw 3 composers. Oh my!

Armiger went on to explain some of the problems of working with film as a multi-jumbled form in which no one element (sound, mise en scene, acting, editing, etc etc) takes precedence over the other. It is a form made of many others and they all have to work together (Armiger 2006). It took some time before we got over this bump and actually got to look and hear some scoring - which was the best part of the talk.

As far as practical information goes, there was not much. Go and get a copy of Digital Performer. Decide whether you want to follow the action closely or you want to do something else (ibid). Oh, and learn to compose. It seems straight forward enough. Probably the most important thing you need to have though is a film. Once you have that I tend to feel all bets are off.

My general unreceptiveness probably comes from a desire to not engage in a general discussion about the "problems with film". While i know these issues are important for a great no. of poeple, expecially film theorists, as an introduction to the area (of scoring) i would have preffered some more examples and a few handy tips.

I often wondow why more films aren't inspired by music instead of the other way round? Anyone know of any?

As an interesting postscript to this talk, I had a Business module to attend after forum where Rob Pipan taught us all about royalties. There is a lot of money there people and writing music for TV or Movies will earn you squillions.

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Armiger, Martin. "The Problem with Film Music", Forum, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide. 27/7/2006

The Latest

So much stuff has happened these holidays. Ash's house on Hindley st. has disintegrated and with it 101 Damnations. I've actually been plotting the movement of the rubbish/milkcrates/otherthings from the front door as they move out of town. At the last sighting, Luke's red transport bike had made it to the squiggly sculpture on Light Square.

The Australiasian Computer Music Conference was held right here in Adelaide and I was able to attend as a volunteer. It was a bit hit and miss for me, not many artists but there is definitely something interesting in amongst it all. I did meet Ross Bencia though, which was great and I was able to purchase the registration for Audio Mulch off him. Such a rare thing when you can actually meet someone who makes innovative software and they're a good person living in Melb.

The Amazing Dean Roberts flew threw town and I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Exeter by complete accident. After a wonderful gig there he certainly poked ears at the ACMC offsite gig the next day. "Was that loud?" He asked me. "Yes," I said laughing. And it was, though it wasn't loud enough for the deviants at the back My best friend was in town from Sydney, and gave me employment for two days on a corporate video. The video's purpose: to explain just exactly what the company does to the corporate board, who apparently have no understanding or inclination to check it out for themselves. I don't mind though, and as a result there may be some actual musical work for me as a result with this company. I also turned 23 very quietly and had a stealthy birthday meal at Ky Chow - awesome.

Anyway, here is the first piece of music I've managed to put on this blog. Much thanks to Poppy! It's my take on a serial composition (which is basically a very strict way to write gibberish) and it's written for drum machine and reverb software. Feedback is welcome.