So I’ve been burning the candle at both ends recently. Sometimes when you have too much on – what is the best thing you can do? For me, despite the fact it seems like counter-logic – the answer is to take a few moments out to refresh and re-evaluate. This happened to me whilst making Spare Change where our Photographer Mel told me to “take 5”, which actually helped enormously (thanks Mel!). And It really works, even if your brain is hard-wired to say “but you are losing another valuable 5 minutes by doing this”.
Last week, I was ramping up ready to throw myself into some editing/composing work when I was forced to “take 5” for entirely different reasons. I had a hard-drive failure.
Ironically, the first I knew about it was whilst backing up to optical media (although this was no thanks to Cyberlink’s crummy error messaging – which wasted several Blu-ray discs unnecessarily). Cyclical redundancy errors. This was backing up data which I had only just copied onto a USB stick a couple of day earlier – when it seemed all was working fine. I’m a firm believer in not putting all your eggs in one basket. Thankfully I didn’t lose any data, but consider this a wake-up reminder that these things happen and they aren’t as uncommon as we might like.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. I needed to “take 2” (not “5”, but they were “days” not “minutes”). I had to ensure I had retrieved absolutely everything from the drive in question. So common sense dictates:
1. Back-up your important data. Do it now! Have a workflow so you do this regularly.
2. It’s best to have more than one copy of this data. Sometimes like lightbulbs – things can all go pop at the same time!
3. Back-up using alternate methods. USB/NAS/Optical Media. Some are more reliable than others. But ultimately – most are destined to fail over time. Spread the risk as much as you can!
4. Make sure you have an off site back-up of your important data. If you have a flood/fire/insert other disaster here – you will be thankful.
5. Make sure you have more than you need in terms of storage space, should disasters such as this occur.
I’m now back on my feet. Data is extremely valuable. Indeed some of it is invaluable and irretrievable if lost! Storage is getting ever larger/cheaper. There are no real excuses. Always have a back-up plan!
Last week served as an important reminder that it is important to keep up with the networking. Sure you can do this on twitter or via one of the other social networking sites around. These are definitely useful for making connections, but there is no substitute for actually getting out there and doing this in person.
My first bit of networking brought about another photography job off the back of some of my earlier work (I’m sure I wanted to work in film-making, but hey this is all useful stuff and it pays). Next I decided to meet up individually with some of the Spare Change crew members to see how they were getting on. This also brought about a few new opportunities. Exciting!
So as a film-maker, just a quick blog post to say – once you have finished reading this: consider just getting out there, chatting and making things happen! Meet people! All sorts of people! People watch films! Most people are therefore (initially at least) interested when you say you make films. Just because they aren’t film-makers or know nothing about, well this shouldn’t put you off! Maybe they are gate-keepers to another useful resource (financing, they may know others who can help, they may teach you things, they may own a mansion where you can film your next opus – who knows?!). Of course it doesn’t all just have to be about one topic (in this case film-making). I love meeting new people anyway. If anyone reading this blog would like to get in contact and just chat a bit more, then I’d love to hear from you.
So let’s all take a moment to remember for that old film adage – it’s not what you know, it’s who you know also.
Now that all the US election-mania has passed, life is all about editing, editing, editing!
Firstly I’ve just been handed a first rough-cut for my latest short film Spare Change. This is being overseen by local film-maker Philip Hind who made the excellent documentary The Ultimate Survivor.
It is heading the right way, but still needs an awful lot of work. The pacing isn’t flowing, the sound definitely isn’t there, a couple of pick-up shots are needed, it’s all ungraded. So why not enjoy another screen capture from the edit because I can’t guarantee these are going to make the final cut.
Earlier in the week, I watched an interesting SkyFall Q&A. Firstly it is Bond director Sam Mendes talking with Bourne director Paul Greengrass (Bourne vs Bond – fight!). Secondly the part which particularly resonated with me was the part where Mendes talks about the first trailer they put out for SkyFall (which if you recall I was a little underwhelmed with). It turns out he wasn’t involved and sure enough half the shots don’t actually appear in the final film! This happened for the last couple of Bond trailers also. You can view this Q&A below:
Moving on, speaking of Phil’s documentary brings me to my second “editing” project. This is a DVD extra. I’m not going to spend hours agonising over this as it’s of limited value, there are deadlines and it’s mostly for fun.
The final project interesting. I’m onboard as the editor/composer. I haven’t viewed the project for about a month, which has allowed me to view things from a fresh perspective. It instantly hit me that the whilst some recent tweaks have definitely quickened tightened up the pace, it was at the detriment of connecting/empathizing with the main character. This is in part because we took a scene out in the middle altogether. We thought the brief scene wasn’t adding much. Clearly it was adding “something”. So I’m currently working with the director to make this part work in some form. It also became apparent that things can be trimmed back even further with a couple creative edits. We are definitely getting there. We aren’t quite there yet!
In a somewhat timely manner, Chris Jones posted his editing mini-masterclass based around the 50 Kisses project earlier in the week. Gail Hackston who is the writer/producer for Spare Change is also collaborating with Chris on that project and we chatted a bit about this. Sure, you can take out too much, but I agree more often than not you can usually improve by cutting more. I have already blogged about this topic , although Chris and I disagreed in that entry. Interestingly the film’s director Jonathan Newman took my side, I’d be curious to know if Chris might ever change his stance. Sidenote to self: never argue with a more establish speaker who has a microphone!
I believe the most effective editing comes when you can act in the same manner as a screen-writer might. Do a first draft/rough cut, let things go,takes a step back, work on some other things and then return to take a new look. It’s amazing how different things might appear after a break (this part is too slow, this bit is no longer required, that scene I spent hours on which never quite worked can be fixed by doing x-y-z, etc)! I appreciate on most projects an editor is unlikely to have such a luxury. However if you can afford it, it is invaluable. It is very easy to become blinded or just want to finish. Relax, revisit, recut, repeat! Your project will almost certainly benefit.
Feeling inspired after watching SkyFall and listening to Thomas Newman’s new take on Bond music – I thought it only fitting to have a musical dabble over the weekend. Thought I’d have a go at attempting something a little bit Thomas Newman, a little bit old school John Barry and a little bit me. With hopefully more than a dash of spy/James Bond thrown in for good measure!
There are a couple of tiny timing issues and I also ran out of computer memory (I would have dearly loved to add additional power and made the brass/string articulations stronger). But hey, it has a zither which brings a big geeky smile to my face and this was created purely for fun! I’ve called the track the completely nonsensical/ambiguous title of East meet West. If you have any comments please leave them below or on Soundcloud (where I will upload any further tunes from now on). Hopefully that should encourage me to write a few more tracks. Enjoy!
Yesterday was a good day! Two Bond music related goodies arrived at my front-door. John Burlingame’s book, The Music of James Bond (which I can’t wait to read) and the new SkyFall Soundtrack.
If you weren’t already aware, Bond has a new sound courtesy of frequent Sam Mendes collaborator and eight time Oscar-nominated composer Thomas Newman (son of the legendary composer Alfred Newman). Series regular David Arnold sits this one out after a run of five consecutive movies. Whilst this may not be the popular consensus, I’m actually very grateful Bond has a new contemporary sound. I must confess, I was initially somewhat weary of Thomas Newman getting the gig, his brother David would seem a much more natural fit for this film.
David Arnold is clearly respectful of late composer John Barry and whilst his work is definitely serviceable, his work has a tendency to be somewhat derivative of his first Bond score (Tomorrow Never Dies). John Barry was a master of creating atmosphere by using specific orchestral styles or instrument types (even creating a new sound for each Bond actor – Connery: Guitar/Brass, Moore: Strings/Brass, Lazenby: Moog/Synths, Dalton: Bass/Drum-loops). David Arnold on the other hand tends to throw in the entire kitchen sink. Subtle it aint! Some of his work is often loud, overblown and occasionally bloated. Once you have thrown everything at a cue, you don’t really have many places you can go (although he falls back by throwing a hanging trumpet chord before repeating all over again). The exception to this rule was his more introspective score to Quantum of Solace – which I think holds up as some of his strongest Bond work to date (even if the film itself doesn’t).
Newman takes his own approach. It won’t sit well with everybody, as it is at times very minimalist, but still has the power when required. The difference is he generally doesn’t tend to over-blow just for the sake of it (although there are instances where it still happens – including one “Thunderball” moment – although this mostly brought a smile to my face). Generally this is not what we have come to expect for Bond score (ala Eric Serra), and whilst I believe it fits the film like a glove – some will dismiss it as “not David Arnold”, “not Bond” or “sonic wallpaper”. Time will tell.
Newman is a composer I rarely “get” upon a first listen, some of his work here is no exception. However there are definitely stand-out tracks which broke this rule, most notably Severine (a beautiful lush romantic track which harks back to John Barry) and Komodo Dragon (which is more David Arnold in style and also quotes Adele’s Bond main-title). Talking of which, the Adele track isn’t on this album which it is at pains to point out on the back of the album. This is a dire trend which started with Casino Royale and the omission of the Chris Cornell’s rather good You Know My Name track (if only they did this with some of the less than good tracks such as Another Way To Die or Die Another Day). If you want Adele’s song you will need to buy the single separately. Personally I rather like the Adele track and it works rather nicely in the film, albeit it with seemingly softer vocals. One other track you may or may not get is Old Dog, New tricks, which is an iTunes exclusive. Two other tracks I’d like to single out as enjoying early on are Enjoying Death which had a nice cryptic 60’s spy-flute swagger about it and Mother which has a more emotional tug.
For the most part however, Newman’s style of pulsating chromatic percussion and guitars keep the momentum going without ever drowning things out ala Die Another Day. There is definitely a large ethnic/turkish influence felt through-out the work which starts right from the opening track, a rather exciting action cue. You can hear three full tracks from the album here (including the exquisite Severine track) – courtesy of Cinema Musica and Sony Music:
Criticisms? Sure! Thematically it could be a little bit stronger and the music tends to be rhythm based. There is thematic material to be found however such as a melancholic yet regal M theme (as witnessed on both Voluntary retirement and Mother), Severine’s theme (also in Modigliani, Komodo Dragon) and of course the James Bond theme (Breadcrumbs). As I said, Newman’s material doesn’t always hit you between the ears on the first listen. Only now am I starting to appreciate some of the density. It could also be argued that for a piece largely revolving around Britain, things sound too ethnic. However for the most part, the album sits together well as a listening experience. The tracks are out of sequence and I’m pleased to say that the track names don’t contain any obvious spoilers. Only the last track seems somewhat out-of-place – mostly a mix of the action cue Newman infuses elsewhere.
Not everyone is going to agree with this assessment, but I commend Newman for bringing his own style to Bond, and for me this sits quite highly amongst the non-Barry soundtracks. Of course it is still nowhere near the great John Barry (even on an off day), but I certainly wouldn’t be upset to Thomas Newman return for another adventure further down the line. I highly suspect David Arnold will return back for Bond 24, and I hope the break has given him some fresh inspiration.
Meanwhile, to tie things up nicely – why not watch a clip of Thomas Newman, David Arnold and John Burlingame talk here?
Ferny films 