Interdisciplinary.... One for them!!

In order to tick off this part of the assessment criteria, audio students had to be involved in the creation of a piece of work for a different discipline i.e. graphic design, games, animation or film. I sat in on a session organised by the lecturers where games students would pitch their projects to their class, and outlay the type of audio requirements that they would need to complete it. It's safe to say that almost acted as a deterrent to me. I can barely make the type of music I came to school to learn how to do, let alone '9 levels of different in-game music where the idea is for the player to move through the earths core into hell to fight the devil'. I was stumped at how I would even start a project like this...

It was time to network once again. I had already intended to carry out this project with classmate Peter, so we reached out on SAE Interdisciplinary Facebook page to express our interests and try to get this thing underway. We were met with reception from a student, Liam, to create a minute long music clip for an animation with a 'Jackie Chan' Asian inspired theme. Peter then received a message from Brook asking to collaborate on the same project with her and Dylan also. We agreed that 4 heads would be better than one and decided to link up!

A six hour MIDI studio session was booked for the first installment of production. Liam was invited to the beginning of the studio session to help construct ideas with the group on what he wanted. After giving us some ideas, he left so we could make a start. The DAW of choice was Pro Tools. All involved felt it to be a good idea to use this DAW as it was the most familiar interface that everyone had used. We then brainstormed together sounds that would fill out the mix. Legal samples were researched from both Splice and FreeSounds- Edgy electric guitar, Asian gongs, sword clashes, short vocals and pan flutes were all used in final version. The picture above shows the process of positioning and manipulating said samples for use in the track.

Below is a snapshot of a message I sent Liam via the messenger on the progress of the song. He was very happy as you can see!

It was nice to know we were heading in the right direction for the client. More samples were found online and arrangement, editing, EQ'ing and time based effects like reverb and delay were also added into the mix. The track was then mixed by team member Brook!

The final result can be found on my SoundCloud here:

After the completion of this project, I have officially networked and collaborated with new audio teammates and also an animation student! Teamwork was vital in the success of this track. I had no real idea of how to begin this process, and via networking with fellow students, I have been able to sit down and contribute to an actual mini cartoon. Helping with arrangement and sample research was very helpful to the project. Now I have added two more students to the number of collaborators I have worked with in audio. Not to mention I have now helped an animation student, or client if you will, on a project also. I cannot wait to see how the finished product looks. I have earned myself the opportunity for an animation student to do something for me in the future if I was ever in need of such a project!

The excitement for trimester 4 at SAE is growing for me. The last 3 weeks I have literally busted my ass getting the work done and now feel I have begun to shake off the rustiness of not being in school for 10 years. My growth has shown me I am capable of performing at a higher standard. Taking on a project such as this definitely shook the comfort zone borders I have and I like it!

References-

Austin Powers Image-

Google.com.au. (2017). austin powers I've gone cross eyed - Google Search. [online] Available at: https://www.google.com.au/search [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].