ep 18

finally ep 18 is up and away.

The phrases in this composition are from a great website I found that is virtual fridge magnet: http://isnoop.net/toys/magwords.php. People are invited in real time to rearrange the words. Each day for a week at the same time I noted the most interesting phrase I could find and used those phrases in this project. In the project I was trying to capture the moment between when these are single words, and when they are meaningful.


Much love to all the unknown poets who contributed to this project.


Conditions ep 18 from f3ilter on Vimeo.

mistakes and GPS

This morning I discovered that the end titles for ep 17 actually say '18' instead. I did this by mistake because I was working on ep 18 at the same time (just as there is an overlap this week between 18 and 19). I must admit I find these kinds of mistakes a little dispiriting. Firstly because it means I will have to go back and re-render (I'm lazy and by the principle of the thing I don't like going back to old projects), and secondly I feel incompetent because I missed something so simple.
Recently my partner told me about the GPS theory of life: that when you make a wrong turn GPS machines don't go off the handle at you, but calmly reorientate you back to the correct path. Its funny that such good advise comes from a machine.

This weeks ep is falling behind a bit. I've decided to concentrate a little more on the sound design. In turn this means some fundamental retraining of the software instruments I use to create that music. Its worth a little delay.

Thrilling Breath

First comes the vision:
I am perennially interested in white noise. The little flicks of sound that exist under the skin of everyday encounters with media. The mostly unwanted artefacts of electronics. Bad analogue sound systems. The crackle and hum of old vinyl records. Of unshielded cables. Its hard to precisely pinpoint why I like these sounds so much. Perhaps it has something to do with good associations: Old films (think of that crackle that accompanies the studio logos); or the rhythmic pops of record scratches (the ever morphing counter rhythm to the actual recording). But, for whatever the reason, I am continually drawn to these sounds: I sense the ‘music’ just below the surface.
This is nothing new. Others before me (and I particularly point your attention here to the wonderful music of Alva Noto, or alternately the song “Total Trash’ by Sonic Youth) have managed to exploit this space between noise and music, between randomness, chaos and organization in far more interesting and eloquent ways than I ever could. Regardless, though, I feel there is so much more that can be done in this area: so much more to discover, explore and develop.
I’m just striving to find my own little voice in all that white space.

new mechanics

In this weeks project I am going to work on a mechanism that is sort of an abstract representation of the ear. What I am most interested in is the hinge movement and a kind of billowing wave effect. I am also exploring some more of the abstract structures that I am examining in my thesis. In particular I am interested in the compositional space as trigger and as grouping mechanism.
For the abstract structure itself I want to get the camera in real close: some high depth of field shots. Look more at texture.
The sound I think will be overlapping waves of white noise to go with the steam image.

ducks are always fun

more words

hens

Ideally, by this stage of the week I would be moving into the rendering of the project. Unfortunately, however, the rendering problems from last week (into this week) have cause some delays. That being said, I see no reason to not to complete ep 18 by Monday or Tuesday. The screen captures are going well: I am finding some interesting phrases each day. Also, the music is done, and the After effects Comp is set up so that I can easily transpose the new phases in and adjust it to meet the needs of the music’s timing.
The only other issue after that is the particulars of the camera positions. I am thinking of a number of different types, but that brings up the issue of editing. These are questions that lead to further delays and there just might have to come a point where I will have to cut my loses.


I am very keen to see how this project comes out. I am interested in the effect of the words and phrase groupings winking in and out of existence. I have some doubts about it being interesting enough: is it much different to what we have seen before in other forms? Also, will it be a cohesive experience?
Its going to be interesting to find out.

ep 17

Conditions ep 17 from f3ilter on Vimeo.

Just by water

I’ve been having render problems again.
Too much compression, or too little. To much and I end up with muddy (dark) files with all the colour washed out of them. Too little and the file sizes are unwieldy. I would like to be able to archive these projects on a single dvd when I’m done. I tried the new pro-rez codec from apple, but that was no good. The same degradation of quality that I have found with H.264 and others. This is delaying the release of Ep 17 for yet another day.

One of the aims of this renewed take up of the conditions project is to take note of what I enjoy doing and what I don’t like. So far it goes something like this:

I enjoy the process
Working slowly through a long series of tasks to get to a goal

I enjoy the challenges of each Ep
Learning something new: a particular use of expressions for example

I like the idea that the theory of my thesis can be play out in some microcosm way each week:
That is I am inspired by the relationships between perception and abstraction that I am working through in my thesis. So far this has not been played out in much complexity (the closest I’ve come is in ep 9) but I’m getting there.

I like doing something new

I like learning how to do things better

What I don’t like is following:

The delays (particularly for renders)
These are all to frustrating: and in this particular week, delaying the work of the next Ep.

intentions

While I was waiting for my partner to pick me up from uni the other night I jotted down a few music concept notes. They go as follows:

Music concept for EP 18

Strings pulsing
cycling through chords

Timpani’s three beats at end of each measure.

Bass line following the T. But changing with chords of strings

Build up to just high strings

Then returns to main section

+ crackling sound electric sound underneath


What I’ve ended up with, however, is something completely different.

While I played around with some of the strings patches on the Kontact synth, I couldn’t really capture the feel that I wanted. I ended up with an emphasis on a kalimba sound: about three layers of them, and backed that up with some intermittent pad stabs.
Like last week it is very simple structure. Very short, too.
These projects are better that way.

Four steps

The first stage of this weeks project is to gather the materials: that is to find the most interesting phrase I can for the day.
as you can see this is still a process in progress.

Initially the next part of the project was to open up the phrase image in photoshop and divide it up into layers before taking it into AE. However, I did not really anticipate the degradation of image quality when you do that. The word were to pixelated: almost unreadable.
So I am now taking a different tact. Re-creating the phrase as text layers in AE.

As part of the next stage I have created a comp that that animates each word in 3d: they start out as a swirling vortex of separate words, then swoop in to form the phrase before swooping out.

The aim for today will to copy that comp and interchange the next days phrase.... hopefully a process as smooth as butter.

After that the challenge will be to find some interesting camera angles (always a challenge for me).

new project in the works

This weeks project is centered around the idea of found poetry. The plan is to sample a phrase each day the from this site: http://isnoop.net/toys/magwords.php
and use it in the next composition.
The composition itself will be something like a whirlwind of flying magnets/words where each of the phases will wink in and out of existence.
I'm not sure about the point of this other then I like the idea of the site, and communal poetry it represents.
As to what onirophyse means?
The only explanation I could find is here:
http://forthright.livejournal.com/210858.html?thread=1540266
To quote:
"It's not a real English word, that's for sure. It seems to be associated with a French artist/poet (see http://onirophyse.net/Onirophyse/Onirophyse/Onirophyse.html , a.k.a. World's Most Repetitious URL). The 'oniro' part is just an alternate version of 'oneiro' for 'dream', and 'physe' is the French form of the Greek root 'physis' meaning 'growth, change'."

GRRR

"After Effects error: opening movie - you do not have permission to open this file (-54)".

This is what I've been getting for the last day and a half when I try to render out a conditions clip that takes more than 10 min. It turns out that it was quicktimes fault. Damn you Apple !
this weeks work was looking pretty too. Not exactly complex, or inventive... but pretty. Like so:


I was really looking forward to seeing it play out with the music...
But as Apple doesn't make it easy to role back to a previous driver, it may not be complete ths week...
Hence the grrr!

Ep 17 Music

The music for this weeks Ep was created with an instrument preset from Logic Studio.
The preset sounds are not exactly groundbreaking but they did the job of getting me quickly in to the composition.
The feel I was after was something laid back: a little hypnotic. So to achieve this feel, I turned up the great convolution reverb that comes with Logic (in my view the best part of that package is that reverb). I also turned up the 'tape delay' effect for the most of the instruments: and it is these effects that permeate the African drum tapping that is the simple and relentless rhythm track.
On top of this is a simple three note bass line, a slowly pulsing pad sound (an almost retro sounding synth patch) Then, finally, I extemporized over this arrangement a rhodes piano part:

This is a fairly simple composition, and very haphazardly mixed. But it does achieve something of the feel that I want for this weeks ep.

less complicated than it looks

ten names

I'm working on a new conditions project this week. Its been a while, I'm working on it in between my thesis commitments. I just have to work on something again. I feel compelled.

The aim of this week is to keep it simple.
Elemental.
This morning I wrote a music track.
Tonight I'll work a a more detail visual concept.
After I've some some thesis work, that is.