Tuesday 25 May 2010

The Ghost In The Machine (Phase two)

This project has moved on the the next stage with Jonathan(the director) formulating a project management programme called Basecamp, were he can upload each scene and where others can use as a file sharing platform for the movie. As there are a number of different sound designers involved in the project, Bascamp has been very useful and has also been used as a forum to discuss techniques, approaches and problems we've been having. So far Jonathan has uploaded the first batch of scenes, of which we have to choose from and mark our name next to, making sure no one else completes the same scene. We have been told to only apply Atmos+FX to the scenes, as the Foley and ADR are being completed by another group of professionals in a London studio. My first scene I chose was scene 7 - "Sophie and Mark argue", because it's based by the sea and I can accurately recreate this, as I live in a coastal town.

My first scene without ADR+Foley:

Untitled from Jamie Frye on Vimeo.


Monday 17 May 2010

HARDCORE STRAIGHT EDGE DOCUMENTARY

The Straight Edge Documentary by jamiefrye

I have produced a Punk fuelled hardcore straight edge documentary for Resonance FM, Which is a central london based radio station that kindly gave myself and others the chance to produce a three hour show. This documentary follows the birth of American Punk and continues with how it became hardcore, which then leads to the current UK scene and how Straight Edge still influences bands today. Making this documentary involved:

  • Researching through interviews and other punk films, as to how the American Punk scene started.
  • Writing and developing a narration script with Leeds based hardcore veteran Nate Bean.
  • Recording interviews at shows.
  • Recording and producing an interesting narration that would keep audiences griped throughout.
  • Piecing it all together to create the final product.
This documentary will be aired on the 19th May 2010 on Reaonance FM and at Ravensbournes, Ravelive.

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Flowers - Short Film

I was contacted by Sarah(who is a third year content student) to help with sound on her final project called flowers. This is a short film which was filmed both in college and on location at a house in Bromley. Sarah needed both sound mixer and boom op, so asked a classmate to help boom op so I could concentrate on cable bashing and sound mixing.

Battling with trains, Plains and lawn mowers

The problems we came across were batteries running out and not being able to get the boom microphone close enough to the actors. we also film outside and had to wait for plains, trains and lawn mowers to stop, so it wouldn't be captured by the personal and boom microphones. This was important as the producer didn't have enough time to perform ADR to replace the dialogue so had to get the best production sound possible.

Sunday 9 May 2010

The Allen Family Band - Demo Recording

This was an interesting project as this oldtime bluegrass band from New Mexico is lead by a grammy award winning fiddle player, and is accompanied by his four kids. All of which were all under 17, which I found incredible as they played with such confidence and experience. They recorded 4 oldtime tracks in there own hillbilly style. The band played to all together in a live atmosphere much like a transatlantic type session. The Vocals were even record live, but then would get Roby (the vocalist, 17) to over dub and redo lines that were pitchy or not in time. Acoustic guitar, Bass guitar, Mandolin, Banjo were all performed live and then went on to multi track Fiddle. I used a:

Rode NT3 - Acoustic Guitar
NT3000 - Vocals
Sans Amp D.I - Bass
NT5 - Banjo, Fiddle

What I liked about this recording was that we recorded it in the afternoon, went for Dinner, then returned to mix in the evening. So the turn over was very quick. I used a high pass filter on most instruments to remove room hum and rumble from other instruments. It was a pleasure recording this family because their family band goes back to the 1850's. Problems I faced during recoding was the amount of bleed from the other instruments in the vocal microphone. This happened because the band wanted to be close to each other, as they would be in there natural playing environment. I could have prevented this by using a more directional microphone like a hyper cardioid 416, Instead of a large diaphragm cardioid condenser.

Monday 3 May 2010

COLD SNAP RECORDING


This was a difficult recording as I had a very short deadline, which was given to me by the record label. This recording is set to be release on a 7" on Dead and Gone Records, with a release date in early June.


http://ctwrecords.bigcartel.com/product/cold-snap-bad-moon-rising-7-pre-order

  • Edited drum tracks so were constant in tempo as I refused to record to a click to help song flow and drummer comfort.
  • went on to enhance bass drum using an edited version of the original. Also used a medium plate reverb on drums to get that trade mark New York drum sound.
  • Bass was recorded using a sans amp pedal to give that signature No Warning/Terror presence.
  • I used a Marshall JCM 2000 and 900 to get an authentic Hardcore tone.
  • Vocals were recorded over 2 sessions as vocalist lost his voice mid way through the first session, Therefor having to make voice sound similar on the next session as punk/hardcore vocals can change over time.