I’m Baaaaaack!
On my last Production Log, I made the healthiest, toughest yet wisest decision in stepping away from the Gauntlet film project. That decision was made public on Oct. 3rd, 2018. From that day up until today, which is 432 days in between, I can confidently say that I’m back in business with new found life! Sometimes you need to walk away to regather your thoughts and work on other projects to flex that creative muscle. In so doing, I was given the ability to clear my mind, rest and more importantly regroup.
Speaking about other projects, below are quick updates on what I’ve been doing this past year before I share the progress on Gauntlet.
Lurks Lessons – YouTube Channel
The current status of Lurks Lessons is that we’re 116 subscribers strong with just under a total view count of 7,000 (6,869). I’ve just released my 15th video that you can watch below. Creating the channel has been a huge blessing for me because it’s giving me a platform to showcase my animation skills. Also, it’s allowing me to show my talent in a quicker way as opposed to creating a feature length sci-fi film. Instead of taking over 7 years, these videos are averaging about a month to produce. The fruit of this is already on display for you can easily tell the difference in quality of the video from my very first one.
I’m actually currently working on another “How To Be” video and hope to have that published on the first Tuesday of January 2020. Being able to upload a video consistently on your channel has been a proven tactic in order to grow on the platform. YouTube suggests uploading a video two to three times a week, if not weekly, to have sufficient growth. Unfortunately, there’s so much research, design and animation that goes into one video that I’m happy of just doing monthly uploads to avoid burnout. Because of this, that’s why I’ve just recently crossed the coveted 100 subscriber milestone on October 10th, 2019, as I end my 16th month being on the channel. However, the snapshot below is the reason why my heart is full in creating these educational pieces as opposed to how fast or large the channel is.
Freelance
This past year I’ve been blessed with multiple freelancing opportunities that have not only stretched my talents but also challenged me creatively. From animation to VFX, from 3D modeling to vector design, this past year has allowed me to fine tune my skills in Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications to champion these projects. If you like to view these videos, all 8 projects that are displayed in the gallery below can be found in my Portfolio page.
Moving
After living in the South for the past five and half years, I chose to take a job that would move my family back to the Midwest. I’m eternally grateful to all of the friends whom I’ve broken bread with during my time there. In fact, being in the South is where we filmed the rest of the movie in my garage with the green screen set up that you can look at on Production Log 27. So, these past few months have been hectic practically in finding a place to live as I began my new gig back in September of this year. As I’m settling into my new digs, I had a creative scratch that I had to itch and couldn’t ignore anymore. That itch was discovering the possibilities in creating the sound to Gauntlet.
Sound Design – Gauntlet
Now back to the sole reason for this post. For those of you who don’t know, the art of Sound Design is generating audio examples to create either a practical element on screen or blending pre-existing sounds for something entirely new. A fantastic example of this is from the film 1993 Jurassic Park on where sound designer Gary Rydstrom was tasked to create the dinosaur’s noises.
Jurassic Park sound designer Gary Rydstrom was tasked with of coming up with dinosaur noises nobody had actually heard. As this animal had been instinct for over 65 million years, Rydstrom took inspiration from other living animals instead. Rydstrom manipulated sound from the hoots of geese, the shriek of dolphins and the galloping of horses. Even Rydstrom’s Jack Russell terrier, Buster provided the sound for the terrifying tyrannosaurus rex roar. All of this became a major success! Rydstrom won two Academy Awards in 1994 for his work on Jurassic Park and has gone on to win five more for sound design in other films.
So as you can see, it takes not only technical merit to come up with the blending of more than one sound, but it’s also artistic. Rydstrom specifically took sounds from key animals to make such an iconic sound in cinema history. Challenging? Yes. Have I ever done it before? Absolutely not.
Back in 2016, I had my colleague at the time Shane Sorensen have a stab at sound designing one of the later scenes in Gauntlet. Shane’s experience in working as an assistant editor to Hollywood films like Stolen and Expendables 2 gave him incredible insight to begin the process. After viewing his work, I was floored at what he accomplished. First of all, it was the first time I “heard” of the world we were creating for I spent the last five years visually creating it. Second, I was introduced to a brand-new way to be artistic in the use of sound. I was hooked.
Timeline “bucket” of all of the sounds being used for a fight sequence
As you can see from the still above, you use multiple different sounds at once to create a brand-new sound. You do this by creating tiers or layers by having a high, middle and low pitch. In a video timeline or sequence, you can have as many different layers as you want. I chose to begin my journey by taking what Shane did for a later scene and apply his method to an early scene where two characters spar with energy batons. After a few trials and errors, my confidence grew to attempt another fight sequence later in the film. Only this fight scene took place inside an 8-bit video game. You can listen to what I currently have by clicking the player heads below. Make sure your speakers are turned on!
Impressed? Well, this novice surely is! The unfortunate reality is that these are only 2 scenes out of 70 in the film and to be honest, they still need some work. So, I’m purposefully not looking at the vast amount of work that’s ahead of me. Rather, just focus on making each scene as great as I can before moving on to the next one. As stated before, I am officially back to working on Gauntlet, which is exciting. However, there’s a mountain of VFX work that still needs to be done and if I want to save money, there’s the rest of the film that needs sound effects to be applied. One day at a time.
To wrap up this post, I’m super grateful and happy of everything that was accomplished in 2019. Don’t know what the year 2020 will bring but I’m confident that it’ll be a great year! Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Here’s to all of the cringe and unnecessary 2020 puns!
“Not every movie has to serve as every audience member’s need for completion.”
– Todd Phillips (Joker, A Star is Born, War Dogs)
