Where the heck has this year gone? Today I feel like it's still the beginning of the year, but looking at the calendar reveals that it's almost December. And I've been very absent in my writings here. So I'll make a short summary of what has happened this year.
I'll start with a personal note to some how try to explain my absent minded writing. This has been a big year in regards to personal goings about. I started the year with my grandmothers's funeral. Then I started to plan my wedding which was in the summer. Then when autumn came we bought a new house into which I am just now starting to settle in. So with these things I have been rather busy. But onto Reveltone stuff.
I've posted a couple things here about my big mystery project which I said was going to be released this fall. Well, it got pushed back first to the end of November then finally to February 2013.
In Clear Sight has progressed to the point that the score is mixed (thank you Paul for the excellent work) and is being mastered by Erno. The first master is waiting on my desk for me to listen (which I will do tonight). So the movie is good shape.
I've been working on a few ideas lately. One of them is the idea of rebooting the "Sumeria" concept album which I didn't have much time to finish. I've re-concepted it and will start working on it shortly.
Also next week I'll have an interesting new track coming along. So stay tuned for more...
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Living the quiet life
Yeah. Right.
Times have definitely not been quiet. I've been busy with two projects lately. The first one is the mystery project I've blogged and even shown you a video clip about. But I won't talk about that today and I'll focus on the other major thing taking up my time currently. I'm writing the score for a movie called "In Clear Sight".
"In Clear Sight" is a roughly 60 minute film set in Cold War Germany directed by Atso Pärnanen. It follows two soldiers on a surveillance mission of a Soviet military exercise. So, this one is right up my alley. We started talking about the music with ideas from Jerry Goldsmith's Rambo and the later addition by Brian Tyler. Also mentioned were Basil Poledouris' The Hunt for Red October and the Inception score by Hans Zimmer. From these stemmed several ideas we thought would be necessary for the score we were about to create.
The main theme of the score needed to be more human than military, so we chose to not have too many marching rhythms there. I've written a few different orchestrations of the theme, the main one having an acoustic guitar in the background and a duet of a trumpet and a french horn as the lead. The basic version of the theme is fairly simple, but it still has the potential to be really grand and big.
One of the big things in the film is the tension that is there as our heroes are operating behind enemy lines and spying on their activity. This we've chosen to create with synthetic sounds so we can create a slightly surreal feeling in it.
There is also a need for some action music in this film. The path we've chosen for the action music is more primal than your standard everyday Hollywood action score. It will be raw and big. Ok, maybe there will be some melody in there as well...
So, this is what I'm working on right now. I'll post some clips as soon as we're satisfied with the score.
Times have definitely not been quiet. I've been busy with two projects lately. The first one is the mystery project I've blogged and even shown you a video clip about. But I won't talk about that today and I'll focus on the other major thing taking up my time currently. I'm writing the score for a movie called "In Clear Sight".
"In Clear Sight" is a roughly 60 minute film set in Cold War Germany directed by Atso Pärnanen. It follows two soldiers on a surveillance mission of a Soviet military exercise. So, this one is right up my alley. We started talking about the music with ideas from Jerry Goldsmith's Rambo and the later addition by Brian Tyler. Also mentioned were Basil Poledouris' The Hunt for Red October and the Inception score by Hans Zimmer. From these stemmed several ideas we thought would be necessary for the score we were about to create.
The main theme of the score needed to be more human than military, so we chose to not have too many marching rhythms there. I've written a few different orchestrations of the theme, the main one having an acoustic guitar in the background and a duet of a trumpet and a french horn as the lead. The basic version of the theme is fairly simple, but it still has the potential to be really grand and big.
One of the big things in the film is the tension that is there as our heroes are operating behind enemy lines and spying on their activity. This we've chosen to create with synthetic sounds so we can create a slightly surreal feeling in it.
There is also a need for some action music in this film. The path we've chosen for the action music is more primal than your standard everyday Hollywood action score. It will be raw and big. Ok, maybe there will be some melody in there as well...
So, this is what I'm working on right now. I'll post some clips as soon as we're satisfied with the score.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Calling cards
(I've spent quite a lot of time this autumn thinking about our calling cards. I've tried to re-imagine what our cards should be like. I wanted them to show our sounds somehow (which incidentally is frigging hard when you're dealing with cardboard). The first thing I came up with was memory sticks. We got them printed and packed them full of music and sound design stuff (a whopping 11 hours and 28 minutes worth).
But I wasn't really yet satisfied. I wanted to have something we could just easily give someone. For some reason I started to think of videos. They've usually got some sound and most people are kinda visually oriented.(Geewiz, film composers making videos with images and music... That's original.) But I gave it a shot and came up with this:
Now, if we could only get our hands on something like this:
Come on Sony. Get that sucker into production so we can finally have our cool calling cards...
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Before a blank DAW view: Spec tracks Part One - Inspiration
I thought I'd write a bit about what happens before I start a new project for a change. So this is going to be a rant about inspiration, ideas and how to get them. So with out further ado I'll just jump in and start.
Stories
Obviously for me stories are a main source of inspiration. I rarely make music without a story to inspire it. So where do I find these stories?
1. History
History is one my favorite sources of inspiration. It is filled with unbelievable stories. The only thing one really has to do with history is choose. And this is where the inspiration part comes in. I try to avoid making the obivous choice of a big heroic story and try to dig in deeper to find those events and stories that happened outside the limelight of victorious glory. Did I mention that for me inspiration is as much detective work as it is something mystical that can't be described?
2. Myths
After history myths are my biggest source of inspiration. I find it interesting to see how the mythologies of different cultures vary from each other but are still some much alike. You can find new perspectives to familiar stories by looking into a different mythology.
3. Books in general
This is one of those duh-things. Books are stories. A good book can inspire you to many things. Simple as that. Books you can easily tackle, since there's a whole a lot more in them to work with. Often some obscure side line can be the most interesting part. For example a single line "the final flight of the Luftwaffe"from a book spawned an eight minute action packed track.
4. Newspapers
Newspapers are full of interesting stuff. Usually there's a lot of stuff that can tickle the imagination and bring new ideas to your head. Most of the time you just have to dig deeper into the subject. And who knows, you might end up finding a different story that way.
5. People
Listening to old people is often really inspiring. They can have a lot of increbidle stories to tell and they can give you the human side of them. You don't find these stories in the history books, but they are more tangible than all the above.
Other sources
Not all of my tracks have stories behind them. Ok, this happens rarely, but it does happen (sometimes). Then I need to dig my ideas from somewhere else.
1. New instruments
I tend to collect instrument libraries and almost always when I get something new on my hard drive I get inspired by it. Ok, at first I'm baffled by how to use them, but then I get inspired. The new sounds just bring new worlds to mind and open new doors for you to explore. Usually getting new instruments gets me out of my normal tracks and shift me into different styles of music. Which is always a good thing.
2. Old instruments
I really have to mention this as well, since I get this often. As I'm always buying new libraries I tend to forget somethings that my old libraries have and then "discover" them. And get inspired.
3. Art
I find a lot of ideas from different kinds of art work. Sometimes a beautiful photograph, an unfinished painting or a sketch is all that is needed to get my mind running. The only problem I find with art as an inspiration source is that you might have go through a really large amount of stuff to find the pieces that inspire you. But like I said before, the detective work is one of the best parts of working with new ideas.
4. Travelling
Getting stuck in your normal circles is a pretty bad thing when your trying to be creative. Travelling is probably the best way to break your routines. Plus going to someplace that is really cool can give you extra vibes and ideas.
5. Nature
It's no surprise that nature has inspired so much art in the course of time. It is just full of marvelous sights from small to large. You just have stop and see them.
6. Design
This one crosses paths with art (and sometimes with nature) as well designed objects, places, whatnot, are pieces of art. But I feel this still needs it's own little tab here. Let's take an example: a Ferrari sports car. No one will says it's not a piece of art but there can be so much more to it. I have seen a group of Italian Carabinieri (the police for those not familiar with Italy) just stare at a starting Ferrari and watch it speed away well over the speed limit right before them and not one of them gave chase. They just took in the beauty and power or the car and then went on with their business. So design can give you quite alot of stuff to work with.
These are some of the things I've found inspiration for and this is by no means a complete list. I will write more about my working with spec tracks in time, but there's still one thing that this post needs. A little piece of advice.
Keep an idea book. Write down things you hear, see, read, experience. Don't let them escape.
Inspiration sources for spec tracks
Stories
Obviously for me stories are a main source of inspiration. I rarely make music without a story to inspire it. So where do I find these stories?
1. History
History is one my favorite sources of inspiration. It is filled with unbelievable stories. The only thing one really has to do with history is choose. And this is where the inspiration part comes in. I try to avoid making the obivous choice of a big heroic story and try to dig in deeper to find those events and stories that happened outside the limelight of victorious glory. Did I mention that for me inspiration is as much detective work as it is something mystical that can't be described?
2. Myths
After history myths are my biggest source of inspiration. I find it interesting to see how the mythologies of different cultures vary from each other but are still some much alike. You can find new perspectives to familiar stories by looking into a different mythology.
3. Books in general
This is one of those duh-things. Books are stories. A good book can inspire you to many things. Simple as that. Books you can easily tackle, since there's a whole a lot more in them to work with. Often some obscure side line can be the most interesting part. For example a single line "the final flight of the Luftwaffe"from a book spawned an eight minute action packed track.
4. Newspapers
Newspapers are full of interesting stuff. Usually there's a lot of stuff that can tickle the imagination and bring new ideas to your head. Most of the time you just have to dig deeper into the subject. And who knows, you might end up finding a different story that way.
5. People
Listening to old people is often really inspiring. They can have a lot of increbidle stories to tell and they can give you the human side of them. You don't find these stories in the history books, but they are more tangible than all the above.
Other sources
Not all of my tracks have stories behind them. Ok, this happens rarely, but it does happen (sometimes). Then I need to dig my ideas from somewhere else.
1. New instruments
I tend to collect instrument libraries and almost always when I get something new on my hard drive I get inspired by it. Ok, at first I'm baffled by how to use them, but then I get inspired. The new sounds just bring new worlds to mind and open new doors for you to explore. Usually getting new instruments gets me out of my normal tracks and shift me into different styles of music. Which is always a good thing.
2. Old instruments
I really have to mention this as well, since I get this often. As I'm always buying new libraries I tend to forget somethings that my old libraries have and then "discover" them. And get inspired.
3. Art
I find a lot of ideas from different kinds of art work. Sometimes a beautiful photograph, an unfinished painting or a sketch is all that is needed to get my mind running. The only problem I find with art as an inspiration source is that you might have go through a really large amount of stuff to find the pieces that inspire you. But like I said before, the detective work is one of the best parts of working with new ideas.
4. Travelling
Getting stuck in your normal circles is a pretty bad thing when your trying to be creative. Travelling is probably the best way to break your routines. Plus going to someplace that is really cool can give you extra vibes and ideas.
5. Nature
It's no surprise that nature has inspired so much art in the course of time. It is just full of marvelous sights from small to large. You just have stop and see them.
6. Design
This one crosses paths with art (and sometimes with nature) as well designed objects, places, whatnot, are pieces of art. But I feel this still needs it's own little tab here. Let's take an example: a Ferrari sports car. No one will says it's not a piece of art but there can be so much more to it. I have seen a group of Italian Carabinieri (the police for those not familiar with Italy) just stare at a starting Ferrari and watch it speed away well over the speed limit right before them and not one of them gave chase. They just took in the beauty and power or the car and then went on with their business. So design can give you quite alot of stuff to work with.
These are some of the things I've found inspiration for and this is by no means a complete list. I will write more about my working with spec tracks in time, but there's still one thing that this post needs. A little piece of advice.
Keep an idea book. Write down things you hear, see, read, experience. Don't let them escape.
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