Hey guys, due to snow, wind, rain, travel, economic climate, jury duties, new year's resolutions, retail, agriculture, magnetic north, average mpg, soul food, diabetes, paranoia, pessimism, optimism, socialism, interpretations, misinterpretations, time, space, Randy Newman, processed foods, the before and the latter; I have let my blog become dated and unkempt, for which I am sorry. So in the long and short, HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Well it's been a while since my last post so let's pick up from where we left off. It was a nuisance when the snow came and ruined every body's plans and endeavours, for example my college routine. I had so much work to do: Production project, evaluations, Ensemble research, a Blues Brothers gig, a photo shoot, a literature review...
Here is how I will go about this:
PRACTICAL PURSUITS
WRITTEN WORK
OTHER
Well as I recall that the first task I completed was my photo shoot. I had scheduled a photo shoot for one of the snow days, but that was cancelled. So I tried to get in contact with my designer to arrange a time, however Mr Hill perceived to be a tricky one to get a hold of and liked to tell fibs about when he was and wasn't in college. As I remember, I was watching some of the performances for the ensemble when one of my peers told me that they had spotted my designer in the college. Therefore I proceeded to find him and have a chat about his progress with our project. However he was nowhere to be seen, so I went and saw Helen and she knew exactly where he was. We found him and I arranged a new time for the photo shoot. I also found out in from our discussion that he had not finished a logo for me nor a portrait. This was disappointing as Helen had scheduled a time for my 'art' class to present what they had done with their designers within the next couple of days and portraits, logos and photos were on the bill.
Fast forward a few days to the day of the photo shoot. There I was, standing outside the photo studio, on time and on my own. Half an hour later, my designer shows up with his camera. I wasn't that annoyed as I knew that something was going to get done. So we went into the photo studio and took photographs of my in various poses with my guitar. He had a lot of ideas which I was impressed with. Marc took over 200 photos, which was surprising as we were only there about half an hour. We proceeded up to the Mac suite to look at the photos and I selected a dozen of my favourites to work on. I was very impressed with his photography skills. However, he said that he couldn't edit them in time and suggested that I did it myself for the presentation. So I got my Photoshop hat on and edited my photos for the presentation. I'll include one of the photos for the blog. The next day I did my presentation to my class by myself and I explained that I didn't have a portrait or a logo yet but I had some fantastic photos. The presentation went well but Marc and I will have to get the finger out if this project is going to come together in time.
The next major task of semester one was the Production module project. Last time there was a whole lotta work to do. There were a lot of evening sessions with my producer, the musicians and I since the last post. Thankfully the project got done, but it was by the skin of my teeth and not really the standard that I wanted it to be. This project has made me think about what had went wrong and what I should have done better. There were a lot of mistakes in the time management factor on both mine and my producers behalf. There were also other mistakes such as lack of technological knowledge, bad file management and musicians not learning the parts that I had given them. Those were the main time wasting factors in the project and I feel that I have actually learned from the experience.
I will talk about the last session as it is the freshest in my mind. The final session was on the day before the deadline and we had yet to MIX and MASTER the three tracks. This was unnerving. We spent most of the time mastering the first track Be In My Arms, which wasn't the best use of our time but produced the best result from a production point of view. The second track we mastered was Groovy Mama, which went a bit pear-shaped as my producer LOST the Bass track for the song. Instead we had to settle for an old Bass track which was quite bad and we just mixed the other instruments over it so it wasn't that noticeable. I was not happy about this, but due to time constraints I had to take it. It was awful. And finally the last track called Hurricane, was mixed and mastered in under and hour, so it was very slap dash. AGAIN my producer lost takes from previous sessions, so we had to settle for a MIDI piano in the song. The mixing was also very rushed so there is a lot of clipping in the track which I, again was not happy about. Once the tracks were 'mastered', the college closed and I went home, where I made a make shift CD cover and case for the CD. This was another aspect in which time affected the quality, but at least I made it myself. I then added the three tracks which I had recorded with my producer at college to the CD, along with two tracks me and a friend had done previously. Another problem arose from this. The two tracks I had added were not mastered to the same level as the three I had done at college, which meant there was a big jump in volume between the tracks. However I could not do anything about this as I do not have a studio in my flat... I handed it in the next day with the evaluation and hoped for the best. The evaluation went over all of those problems and more !
The Blues Brothers brought me a lot of woe on paper, but the performance was very good fun and was well received. As the end of semester came creeping round the corner, as did rehearsals for the Blues Brothers Ensemble project. A few of the songs were very off the cuff and kind of blagged in my opinion but I'm sure the audience didn't see that... I enjoyed the show very much as we incorporated dancing into a couple of the numbers which was very entertaining for the audience. We also dressed up in suits and glasses, similar to the Blues Brothers styling. I think the whole thing went very well, however if there was one thing I would have done differently is to start the rehearsals earlier and keep them at a consistent time. The written part of this assignment brought me a lot of grief as the initial topic for the essay was just awful. There really were no sources for it. So I decided to take it in a different direction. I looked at the musical arrangements of the Blues Brothers' songs and compared them to the original versions. This was a better topic to look at but it was not a good idea to change it a few days before the deadline. Time is the most deadly factor in any assignment and I learned that the hard way this time. I'm pretty sure the quality of my assignment was affected by the lack time. I'll probably go as far as saying that I think that paper I wrote was quite bad. The moral of this story is no to procrastinate.
An example of the opposite of this was my literature review. I started it early and finished it within plenty of time. I also think it was really good...
Do it now = Win
Do it later = Fail
Well I think that's near enough it for semester one. I'm just preparing for semester two now...
I did some other things apart for college ! I think they actually contributed to the pressure as they were happening parallel to each other. For example...
I finished my first round of teaching guitar. The snow affected attendance for my class. On the last lesson there was only one student that came in... He got a gold star ! (Not really). The attendance of the last few classes affected my ability to hand out teacher evaluation forms for the students. I handed out two and I didn't get any back... (The reason I handed out two was because there were only two students that came in because of the snow). I really hope I get another chance to teach again as it's quite rewarding teaching and I like having a proper job.
I also took on a contract from Centerstage to do some lighting for a show in Dunblane. I value my time there as I learnt how to operate a lighting rig and I made some contacts. Plus I had a great time meeting some new folk and staying in the hotel for free. The job was also well paid. Again I hope to get more job offers like that.
Also it's a bit late but MERRY CHRISTMAS.
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me.
You've already had a happy new year...
Next time I'll be back in the saddle again.
See you later.
Daryl
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