And here is the shiny finished program.
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35 days out
Things are pretty good.
I have endeavoured a little bit to delegate roles, like costume designer and that sort of thing but I think I’m a little to much of a control freak to really work.
The posters proved that. But they are great I’m very happy with them. Photoshop in 24 hours helped with those bad boys.
As for the sound system I have everything in place now and am going to start installing it Monday. The speaker stands are actually proving the hardest to find not the speakers. Which is weird.
I am having some difficulty working out how to trigger the one shot samples independently of the timeline in the playback session. This is crucial because I need to be able to have an atmos track playing and then trigger a sound like a door know, with ought it interfering with the timeline.
I will ask around uni tomorrow.
The set hopefully will come together next week. The room can be set now so Monday and ekka Wednesday are devoted to setting up the system and the set.
Will be fun. I’m looking forward to turning on the speakers for the first time.
Woe
There is a special kind of day that is experienced usually about once every 3 months. A truly terrible day, in which living successfully becomes a forgotten memory and the goal of the day turns from thrive to survive.
The Byron recording trip was one of these days.
It started with a car crash. At which point I should have turned around, swallowed the two grand debt and gone home. Instead I soldiered on with my 4 mics down to Byron.
My goal was to make an Ambisonic recording in native b format on location by the beach.
It went perfectly in terms of its creative aims. The actors were brilliant and the weather could not have been better. We recorded at 11pm and the set up and execution worked perfectly. It took 4 takes before I thought it was perfect.
I checked before we left that everything had worked but of course i was mistaken. the two merantz kits i was using to record monitored in stereo but for some reason had recorded only one channel. So of the 4 channels I only had 2.. It was just a shame.
But still a good exercise for the actors. After the trip everyone was definitely more involved and felt like it was there project as well as mine.
Update
I haven’t said anything in a while, but it’s really because most of the work hasn’t had anything physical to show. The first cast meeting went well, and if all goes to plan I should have all the seen characters locked in by the end of the week. It’s coming up fast, the show that is, I really need to speed up the production side of things. Hopefully I can knock over some of the VO this week. I had a practise with the beach scene that went well and I have clearance to use the mics so all that is good news!
Sound Recordings List
Here is a concise list of the recordings that need to be made.
Many of them require me to use my pseudo Nimbus Halliday technique outside the studio. Which is a bit of an issue as it requires 3 ribbon microphones and an Omni. I could do it with those 4 mic’s, 4 stands and 2 merantz kits or similar portable recording devices. Ideally a soundfeild microphone would solve all the problems.
Anyway here is the excel with the sound list.
Getting Real
Ah yes, the sometimes fateful jump from theory to reality. The beauty in the mind shattered into ricocheting embarrassment as it moves into the world..
It’s worth a try though is it not, my reluctant actor’s?
Start of production
So begins the production phase. I spoke to John and Holly the basement arts directors today. In the next few days I will be putting a message out to my short list of actors to see who is available and on what days. I have access to a basement arts rehearsal space once a week, I will go in next week with all the speakers and a tape measure just to see how it all sounds. I need to decide whether its going to be upstairs or downstairs. Over the weekend I will build the speaker stands and fill out a sheet of the entire list of sound that needs to be recorded before rehearsals can begin.
Basement Arts
The show was very good. I especially liked the lighting and the set design. It was interesting to listen to the dialogue of a real play. And by real I mean a successful one like 48 shades of brown which is Australian and is written in very much a way that we all completely understand. After talking to Kai, who ran with the attitude of less is more, the dialogue in 48 shades seemed to go on and on. I think i am taking it a bit too literally maybe, and long dialogue sequences are fine as long as they allow for something new or something to be revealed within the character. It also gives the actors a bit of space and time to work with. Otherwise it will just be my voice being spoken by 5 different people on stage and we definitely don’t want that.
Anyway I had a good brief chat with John and it seemed to be right up Basement art’s alley which I thought it would be but it’s good to finally start talking. I am going in on Thursday with the script and for a longer conversation about details and things.
This seems to be the last of the major major things sorted so from here on in its just buckling down and making. It all worthwhile, for everyone involved. I wish I could have had the meeting before I wrote the report because then I could have ticked all the boxes but anyway it’s just good that it is and that is the main thing.
Ambisonic Studio
I am posting a short video describing the Ambisonic studio and the workflow i have been using. The sound quality is not very good but it is very hard to demonstrate Ambisonic things with out the viewer having an Ambisonic system themselves.
This is the first of a number of planned updates as my Ambisonic experiments continue and as the sound scenes get created.
I Remember Demo
I have recorded a demo of the opening song of the play.
I will record this song as if Dallas is playing it in an environment similar to the one it is now, outside, like a film set. The actor playing Lucy will be there and at the end of the song she will give a small clap and say
Lucy: I like it.
Dallas: Thankyou
Lucy: It’s sad though
Dallas: Yes.
Notes on Creating a Sound Play 