… what next? …

The video for “Combat” is essentially done. I only need to lock in the music track and get it finished.

Oh yeah … I’m recording an album. Huh…

I’m kind of lost as to what to do next. I have thirteen songs in various states of disarray. Some are completed demos. Some have been re-recorded. Some need lyrics. Others need guitar. They all need mixing.

It’s a crazy smattering of pieces that I’m staring at and can’t seem to figure out how to put back together.

My job ends in a month and I need to find work. I also have two more videos I’m starting up.

I really need to focus on the record … but I’m not sure where to start. Do I mix it myself? Sure … that’s fine. Do I master it? I’d rather not.

How far do I take each performance? I have many songs with the original vocal performance recorded (as in - I wrote the lyrics and recorded them the same day). The performances aren’t perfect … but they have a good energy. Guitar too … should I re-track everything????

No … this is probably a waste of time to a certain degree. I have to start sifting through it all, song by song, and figuring out what I can live with and what needs to be changed. I don’t have a good amount of time to dedicate to this … so I’m kind of screwed.

I guess I’ll figure it out…

… Combat video - 1st cut …

Here is the first cut of the video for the song “Combat” off of my up coming record “Bits”. You can stream it in HD by clicking on the HD link in the video or:

Click here to stream it in HD on Vimeo!

To watch the video type in the password: combat

If you have anything short of a stellar internet conection … let it stream for a while before you watch it so it doesn’t get all stuttery.

I have made it password protected to limit people viewing it until I get the final version locked.

The lyrics are can be read here.

I have chronicled much of the creation of this music video on my blog here. Just do a search for “Combat”.

The music in this cut of the video is not the final version of the song. The guitar and vocals tracks are a blend of scratch tracks and primaries. The song will be remixed and mastered before it is released as well. There will be a subsequent version of this video that incorporates the album version of the song as soon as I get it finished.

I am providing this so that people following my progress on the blog can see what I’ve been up to.

Let me know what you think!

… uh, let’s try that again …

After close to eight hours of rendering my video for “Combat”, I watched my first edit and decided to go back and hit a few scenes again and do some color matching between a few shots. I’m not sure how they slipped by, but I have over 200 layers in my After Effects composition, so there is some room for error in there.

I fixed the problems, and I’m rendering the next version out as I write this. I’m not sure where to post this initial cut. I might throw it on youtube or vimeo. Vimeo allows for HD streaming so I’ll probably go that route first. Maybe I’ll just keep it on my blog for now.

Another issue is that the underlying music is the first version of the song “Combat”. I’m going to go back and re-track some of the scratch tracks in this version. I probably shouldn’t go out of my way to get this version of the video out until I get the song locked down.

So … I’ll probably throw a version up somewhere so that a few interested people can check it out. Later on, after I get the album finished, I’ll replace the audio with the proper version of the song.

… tonight, I render …

I have finished the first complete cut of the music video for the song “Combat” off of my forthcoming album “Bits”. I did all the real work on the film in After Effects CS3. The video is in HD - 720p (1280 x 720 square pixels 24 fps).

Eventually, I’ll have to render three versions of the film.

1) An HD version (1280 x 720 - square pixels)
2) A widescreen DVD version (720 x 480 - 1.2 aspect ratio pixels)
3) A web version (480 x 270 - square pixels)

I can’t just render the big one and scale it down. The problem is in the structure of the grain I’m overlaying on the footage. If I scale the movie down, the grain gets scaled down as well (and disappears), so I need to create three version of the film, each with an appropriate scale of grain.

The grain may look exaggerated in the picture above, but once the film is set in motion, it has a completely different feel. It changes from frame to frame, based on the footage that it is being added too.

Why does it matter? Well … when I started making movies in the old days, I shot primarily on Super 8 film cameras. Video didn’t really do it for me and the (affordable) computers just weren’t up to task. Film was pretty kick ass and I loved the soothing effect the grain had on my subconscious.

Now that I’ve all but given up of Super 8 and gone digital, I’ve found that I need that grain there. Video noise just doesn’t cut it for me. It looks gross. AE CS3 has a flexible grain generator that has allowed me to design a grain that is suitable for the movie. Cool.

So let’s hit the render button and start the process of getting my movie out there!

… best web search phrases that led to my blog …

My hosting service keeps track of what search terms people use that lead them to my site. It doesn’t tell me who made the search; it only tells me what they typed in. People search for some pretty strange stuff it seems.

This is a periodic source of amusement for me on many levels. Anyone that runs a web site is curious about how people actually find it.

Well … here are some examples, and my guesses as to why they found me:

Searched for:
“deadly pythons”

Found?:
Maybe they found this post? I may have caused some confusion with that one.
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Searched for:
“remote prosthetic arm 2008″

Found?:
They probably found this post.
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Searched for :
“mad scientist organ music”

Found?:
I’m sure their search took them here … and this one kind of makes sense.
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Searched for:
“how to move a lowrey organ”

Found?:
Once again … they search engine thought this post would be of some use. I don’t think it is what they had in mind. Scroll down, you’ll see what I mean.
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Searched for:
“mad scientist double chamber”

Found?:
I’m not even sure where to begin with this one. What is a “mad scientist double chamber” anyway? I hope they enjoyed my blog.
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Searched for:
“supernova 1006 disbelief”

Found?:
Had to be this one … but I’m not sure why someone would “disbelieve” a supernova.
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Searched for:
“why does tv have static when air condition turns on”

Found?:
My guess would be my post about T.V. static. I don’t think it answers their question though.
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Searched for:
“pictures of mind games about physics”

Found?:
Lord only knows why my site came up on that search. Kind of fitting I guess.
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Searched for:
“list of job ive had”

Found?:
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this post. If you Google “list of job ive had”, my site is right up at the top. My question is … why would some search for “list of job ive had”. Shouldn’t they at least type in their name?!
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Honorable Mentions

“photos of dr arman”
“arman bohn madscientist”
“arman special photo”
“give the best photos of arman”

Awwwwe geese guys … shucks … you shouldn’t have! I mean … I swear I didn’t type those in … really. I need to put up more special photos of Arman.

And if you are reading this because you are still searching for any of the things above … well … that’s just weird.

… working on Night Driver …

Today I attacked the song “Night Driver” again. It’s always been missing a few elements and I just haven’t had the right mindset to tackle them. I gave it a shot and it turned pretty good.

It’s an electronic/rock song that is keyboard heavy and sort of bops along a steady dynamic eventually dropping into an outro. Today, I decided to turn it up a few notches for the last section of the song … making it rock out a little more. I feel like it suits my original intention for the song this way. It’s a little more “me”. It made me feel better about my whole solo record thing.

It’s been a little rough since getting back from recording in Palouse a month ago. I haven’t tracked very much since then. I have worked on lyrics for several songs and today I started getting the lyrics and melody for the outro to “Night Driver” worked out.

It’s one of Liz’s favorites so it’s tough to go in and spruce it up … but it feels right and heck I am makin’ a rock n’ roll record aren’t I????

If I ever put a band together for this material, it will be one of those head bobbing, toe tapping tunes.

ROCK ON!

P.S. - “Night Driver” is also giving me chance to use my Guitar feedback sample too!

… found one! …

I guess you just have to look hard enough…

I found a snap together model plane at Fred Meyer that came with little plastic aerial bombs. I cut one away from its housing and super glued it to a paper clip so I can shoot it against the ol’ green screen.

It is really small. Luckily, the model came with four of them so if I break it or lose it, I have some back ups.

I worked on small detail stuff in the “Combat” video all day long and with this little bugger in my hands … there is no stoppin’ me now!

I can see the finish line.

But wait … how many videos get released like two months before the album is done?

… oh boy …