I wrote this post back in September '08 and for some reason never posted it.
I'm here at work marveling at the technology that allows me to listen to Shostakovich's 7th Symphony ("Leningrad") with such brilliant clarity in a room that would be a bit small for performing even a string quartet.
But more than that, I'm marveling at the brilliance of Shostakovich's music, and the brilliance of the God who invented music and gave us the ability to create it.
From time to time I should sit down and write in more depth about the music I listen to. Unfortunately, I usually blog when I'm at work, which is not a time when I have the time to write in depth. So instead I limit myself to quick thoughts and snippets of ideas.
On the subject of music, if you're looking for a soundtrack to add to your collection, I suggest Elliot Goldenthal's fabulous score for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Epic, brooding, cacophonous, mournful, bombastic, tender... all these things and more. It's one of my favorite scores.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Return of The Wileyman
More bloggage is forthcoming. The author of this blog regrets his negligence in keeping it updated, and hopes that he will be able to retain at least a few loyal readers if he picks it up again soon...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Lament
I've added a brief, simple piano piece to my Myspace Music page. I wrote it sometime in 2007 (I think). It's called "Lament."
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The Destroyer - Production Stills
(pictures cross-posted from Facebook)
The Destroyer is still in post-production. I'd guess that the color correction and visual effects are mostly complete, which means that we're mostly done except for final editing tweaks, sound effects, and scoring... in other words, not yet quite close to being done. But the movie is coming together nicely, and it's exciting to see it take shape.
Here we see Leona, the main character, and Lastora, a Mirovian who befriended her, approaching Lastora's home as night falls. Night really was falling when we shot this -- it was the last shot of the first day of shooting -- and consequently the lighting isn't all that great.
The Oracle interrogates Leona, before proving yet again that Oracles are never helpful. I didn't do a great job framing this shot, but everyone gave good performances in this scene.
Leona and Lastora gaze out over the Mirovian landscape as they try to find a way to send Leona back home. One of my favorite shots, and one of my favorite locations in the movie. (We shot it at Dowdell's Knob in F.D. Roosevelt State Park.)
The enigmatic Sorceress, whose goal seems to be preventing anyone and everyone from accomplishing their goals. This shot is the conclusion of a brief exchange between Lastora and the Sorceress, and is another of my favorite shots in the movie (in spite of the backlighting).
Wizard sat alone on a seat of stone...
Carrie shot this one, since obviously I couldn't, and did a nice job of it too. My acting, on the other hand, left quite a bit to be desired...
Edited to add: The more I look at this shot, the more I think it's really good. Great job, Babe!
The Destroyer is still in post-production. I'd guess that the color correction and visual effects are mostly complete, which means that we're mostly done except for final editing tweaks, sound effects, and scoring... in other words, not yet quite close to being done. But the movie is coming together nicely, and it's exciting to see it take shape.
Here we see Leona, the main character, and Lastora, a Mirovian who befriended her, approaching Lastora's home as night falls. Night really was falling when we shot this -- it was the last shot of the first day of shooting -- and consequently the lighting isn't all that great.
The Oracle interrogates Leona, before proving yet again that Oracles are never helpful. I didn't do a great job framing this shot, but everyone gave good performances in this scene.
Leona and Lastora gaze out over the Mirovian landscape as they try to find a way to send Leona back home. One of my favorite shots, and one of my favorite locations in the movie. (We shot it at Dowdell's Knob in F.D. Roosevelt State Park.)
The enigmatic Sorceress, whose goal seems to be preventing anyone and everyone from accomplishing their goals. This shot is the conclusion of a brief exchange between Lastora and the Sorceress, and is another of my favorite shots in the movie (in spite of the backlighting).
Wizard sat alone on a seat of stone...
Carrie shot this one, since obviously I couldn't, and did a nice job of it too. My acting, on the other hand, left quite a bit to be desired...
Edited to add: The more I look at this shot, the more I think it's really good. Great job, Babe!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Look! An Idiot!
Or, Christmas Day, long journeys, movie-making, and other sundry updates on the life of me.
(The title of the post, btw, is a line from the movie Mirrormask, which I highly recommend.)
----------------------
We celebrated Christmas Day with the Fam (my wife's side), and had a pleasant, relaxing, and peaceful day. Perhaps anticlimactic after the efforts and celebrations leading up to the day itself (see previous post), but also appropriate for commemorating the birth of the Prince of Peace.
A trip down South to visit my family followed. We got off to a late start (10:30-ish) on the 26th, and arrived in the early morning hours of the 27th. Passed the time talking, and listening to music, and reading [i]Inkheart[/i] (Carrie read; I listened and drove). And plotting the story for a movie I wanted to make with my sisters.
I'd meant to make one during our summer visit, but for lack of a script, the opportunity was lost. After we arrived and enjoyed our family Christmas celebrations, I spent a couple of days writing the script, based on our outline. A few new characters showed up, and a few plot twists twisted.
It's the story of Leona, a nine-year-old girl who is transported to another world where the people believe that she is The Destroyer -- one whose coming, foretold in ancient prophecies, will bring doom to the entire world. (Setting it in another world allowed us to get away with having everybody in the movie wear a cloak, which is cool because cloaks look really cool on screen. And we love cloaks. Oh, and it lets us use magic, too.)
We shot the movie over two days. The sun shone bright from a near-cloudless sky on the first, which gave us some beautiful location shooting. We shot a couple of scenes on a mountaintop just before sunset, and the lighting was perfect (the shots weren't quite perfect, as I was limited to slightly less than 180 degrees for camera placement, due to the parking lot and picnic area right next to where we were shooting.)
(That was also the place where a family came off the hiking trail and saw us all wearing our cloaks -- yes, cloaks -- and called out, "Hey, are y'all from the Twilight movie?" I throttled them all with my mind.)
The second day of shooting, unfortunately, dawned gray and moist. The scenes we shot in the morning worked all right, since they were mostly set out in the woods. A nice rainstorm in the early afternoon had me doubting whether we would be able to finish, as it was the last day before Carrie and I were to head home. But someone (I forget who) suggested that we drive off in search of a place with no rain. So we did, and found a place that worked, and finished the climax and all the other scenes that needed to be shot just before we ran out of light. Well, except for a couple of brief shots that still needs to be filmed. But those can be managed later.
We're now back home (more on the adventure of getting there in a later post) and I'm deep into the post-production phase -- all the stuff that's long and tedious and not nearly as fun as the shooting itself (editing is fun, actually, but the other stuff can be taxing). I've got a rough cut of the movie edited together, and am starting to explore digital color grading and digital special effects (I don't need many, but a few could help immensely). Then comes the sound editing, and the music, which will take a while. But when it's all done, the result should be 20-minute, fairly coherent fantasy movie that I hope will be enjoyable in spite of its many flaws.
More later, maybe even a still or two from the movie. But now, I have to go to the Post Office.
(The title of the post, btw, is a line from the movie Mirrormask, which I highly recommend.)
----------------------
We celebrated Christmas Day with the Fam (my wife's side), and had a pleasant, relaxing, and peaceful day. Perhaps anticlimactic after the efforts and celebrations leading up to the day itself (see previous post), but also appropriate for commemorating the birth of the Prince of Peace.
A trip down South to visit my family followed. We got off to a late start (10:30-ish) on the 26th, and arrived in the early morning hours of the 27th. Passed the time talking, and listening to music, and reading [i]Inkheart[/i] (Carrie read; I listened and drove). And plotting the story for a movie I wanted to make with my sisters.
I'd meant to make one during our summer visit, but for lack of a script, the opportunity was lost. After we arrived and enjoyed our family Christmas celebrations, I spent a couple of days writing the script, based on our outline. A few new characters showed up, and a few plot twists twisted.
It's the story of Leona, a nine-year-old girl who is transported to another world where the people believe that she is The Destroyer -- one whose coming, foretold in ancient prophecies, will bring doom to the entire world. (Setting it in another world allowed us to get away with having everybody in the movie wear a cloak, which is cool because cloaks look really cool on screen. And we love cloaks. Oh, and it lets us use magic, too.)
We shot the movie over two days. The sun shone bright from a near-cloudless sky on the first, which gave us some beautiful location shooting. We shot a couple of scenes on a mountaintop just before sunset, and the lighting was perfect (the shots weren't quite perfect, as I was limited to slightly less than 180 degrees for camera placement, due to the parking lot and picnic area right next to where we were shooting.)
(That was also the place where a family came off the hiking trail and saw us all wearing our cloaks -- yes, cloaks -- and called out, "Hey, are y'all from the Twilight movie?" I throttled them all with my mind.)
The second day of shooting, unfortunately, dawned gray and moist. The scenes we shot in the morning worked all right, since they were mostly set out in the woods. A nice rainstorm in the early afternoon had me doubting whether we would be able to finish, as it was the last day before Carrie and I were to head home. But someone (I forget who) suggested that we drive off in search of a place with no rain. So we did, and found a place that worked, and finished the climax and all the other scenes that needed to be shot just before we ran out of light. Well, except for a couple of brief shots that still needs to be filmed. But those can be managed later.
We're now back home (more on the adventure of getting there in a later post) and I'm deep into the post-production phase -- all the stuff that's long and tedious and not nearly as fun as the shooting itself (editing is fun, actually, but the other stuff can be taxing). I've got a rough cut of the movie edited together, and am starting to explore digital color grading and digital special effects (I don't need many, but a few could help immensely). Then comes the sound editing, and the music, which will take a while. But when it's all done, the result should be 20-minute, fairly coherent fantasy movie that I hope will be enjoyable in spite of its many flaws.
More later, maybe even a still or two from the movie. But now, I have to go to the Post Office.
Brief Reflection on December
I started the month of December on a high note, having just come off the adrenaline rush of NaNoWriMo. That high note quickly turned into driving ostinato as Christmas and its attending busyness came hurtling toward me at an impossible speed. There was a wedding song to arrange and accompany, a church Christmas program to prepare (including a last-minute song to arrange and perform), travel plans to finalize... nothing terribly abnormal, really, but all concentrated into one month, culminating in an explosion of activity on and around Christmas Day.
Exhausting. Draining. But fitting. For at Christmas, we celebrate the birth of a King. We add our praises and jubilation and revelry to that of the mother and father, the shepherds, the angels, the great company of men and women throughout the centuries who have done so and will continue to do so along with the vast company of heaven for all eternity. Celebration is a tiring thing. Revelry is draining. But it is also rewarding, and kings are glad when their people rejoice.
Exhausting. Draining. But fitting. For at Christmas, we celebrate the birth of a King. We add our praises and jubilation and revelry to that of the mother and father, the shepherds, the angels, the great company of men and women throughout the centuries who have done so and will continue to do so along with the vast company of heaven for all eternity. Celebration is a tiring thing. Revelry is draining. But it is also rewarding, and kings are glad when their people rejoice.
Friday, November 28, 2008
THE END!
50,428 words. 28 days.
Big smile.
Lingering over a celebratory shot of Laphroaig.
General feeling of "Wow."
Cheers!
edited to add: And nice celebratory sushi for dinner! (Green tea, rising sun, tako salad appetizer, eel, yellowtail, mackerel, black dragon roll, dynamite roll, and a mango mochi and a strawberry mochi for dessert.)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Writing Life
My second annual NaNoWriMo adventure is going well. Sorry for the lack of bloggage, but noveling has been stealing most of my writing energies.
And my other energies as well, actually. It's amazing how much my caffeine cravings have gone up during the past few weeks.You know those Starbucks Doubleshot cans you can buy in four-packs at Walmart? Those are the awesomeness these days. As are the usual daily cup of robust Irish Breakfast tea at breakfast.
I really haven't been staying up ridiculously late, as I had to do last year. But staying up just a little bit later than normal, on a regular basis, takes its toll. Guess I'm not as young as I used to be.
But the writing process is going really well. My minimal outline is keeping me on track, plot and character wise. There have only been a few days where I ran into total writer's block, and that was usually because I procrastinated. Getting past the halfway point on Monday felt great. I imagine it'll feel even better crossing 30,000 tonight. Something else that feels great? Killing off major characters. I iced the second one last night. Now I totally understand why Joss Whedon does it every five minutes. *Evil laugh.*
But you didn't come here to read about my evil glee, did you? No, I'll bet you came here for the Stuff of the Week.
Movie of the Week: It's National Novel Writing Month... do you really think I had time to watch a movie?
Soundtrack of the Week: That's more like it. I've been listening to a lot of those to spur me on my writing journey. I just got two in the mail yesterday: Dinotopia and Cleopatra, both by Trevor Jones. I give them both high recommendations. You won't find them for a decent price in the US, but you can order them from Mr. Jones's official site. Even though with shipping from the UK, I got the two of them together for a price comparable to what you might pay for a pair of CDs at Barnes & Noble or FYE.
I'll also throw out another recommendation for Jones's Thirteen Days, which I've mentioned here before.
Awesomeness of the Week: The Arturia Analog Factory Experience. It's a software synthesizer that comes with a very cool 32-key controller keyboard that is specifically designed to control all aspects of the software. Why it's cool? It's an easy-to-use program that runs on Arturia's synthesis engine and contains 3,500 presets from seven of Arturia's Classic Synth emulators (the minimoog, the Moog Modular, the CS-80, the ARP 2600, the Prophet 5, the Prophet VS, and the Jupiter-8). The individual versions of these emulators retail for about $200 each; the Analog Factory Experience retails for just under $300. And although it doesn't allow for the insane level of control that the individual synth emulators do, its learning curve is much less steep. Which, for someone like me who doesn't have currently have the time to learn the ins and outs of an exact virtual replica of a classic analog synthesizer, is excellent. I had been considering getting Arturia's CS-80V for a long time, but was a bit daunted by the insane amount of controls (just click on the picture and be blown away by the number of virtual knobs, buttons, and sliders). The Analog Factory Experience takes away the daunting factor while giving access to a host of classic synth sounds. The CS-80, btw, is what synth maestro Vangelis used almost exclusively to create the Blade Runner soundtrack, which is why I've been wanting it for so long. If I were prone to bouts of squeeing, this definitely would be squee-worthy.
Thought of the Week: Today marks the third anniversary of my marriage to my wife, who also happens to be my favorite person ever. It seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect, it was an even better idea than I realized.
That was probably a shorter Stuff of the Week than you would have liked, dear readers, but it'll have to suffice for the present.
And now, back to work. And later, writing.
And my other energies as well, actually. It's amazing how much my caffeine cravings have gone up during the past few weeks.You know those Starbucks Doubleshot cans you can buy in four-packs at Walmart? Those are the awesomeness these days. As are the usual daily cup of robust Irish Breakfast tea at breakfast.
I really haven't been staying up ridiculously late, as I had to do last year. But staying up just a little bit later than normal, on a regular basis, takes its toll. Guess I'm not as young as I used to be.
But the writing process is going really well. My minimal outline is keeping me on track, plot and character wise. There have only been a few days where I ran into total writer's block, and that was usually because I procrastinated. Getting past the halfway point on Monday felt great. I imagine it'll feel even better crossing 30,000 tonight. Something else that feels great? Killing off major characters. I iced the second one last night. Now I totally understand why Joss Whedon does it every five minutes. *Evil laugh.*
But you didn't come here to read about my evil glee, did you? No, I'll bet you came here for the Stuff of the Week.
Movie of the Week: It's National Novel Writing Month... do you really think I had time to watch a movie?
Soundtrack of the Week: That's more like it. I've been listening to a lot of those to spur me on my writing journey. I just got two in the mail yesterday: Dinotopia and Cleopatra, both by Trevor Jones. I give them both high recommendations. You won't find them for a decent price in the US, but you can order them from Mr. Jones's official site. Even though with shipping from the UK, I got the two of them together for a price comparable to what you might pay for a pair of CDs at Barnes & Noble or FYE.
I'll also throw out another recommendation for Jones's Thirteen Days, which I've mentioned here before.
Awesomeness of the Week: The Arturia Analog Factory Experience. It's a software synthesizer that comes with a very cool 32-key controller keyboard that is specifically designed to control all aspects of the software. Why it's cool? It's an easy-to-use program that runs on Arturia's synthesis engine and contains 3,500 presets from seven of Arturia's Classic Synth emulators (the minimoog, the Moog Modular, the CS-80, the ARP 2600, the Prophet 5, the Prophet VS, and the Jupiter-8). The individual versions of these emulators retail for about $200 each; the Analog Factory Experience retails for just under $300. And although it doesn't allow for the insane level of control that the individual synth emulators do, its learning curve is much less steep. Which, for someone like me who doesn't have currently have the time to learn the ins and outs of an exact virtual replica of a classic analog synthesizer, is excellent. I had been considering getting Arturia's CS-80V for a long time, but was a bit daunted by the insane amount of controls (just click on the picture and be blown away by the number of virtual knobs, buttons, and sliders). The Analog Factory Experience takes away the daunting factor while giving access to a host of classic synth sounds. The CS-80, btw, is what synth maestro Vangelis used almost exclusively to create the Blade Runner soundtrack, which is why I've been wanting it for so long. If I were prone to bouts of squeeing, this definitely would be squee-worthy.Thought of the Week: Today marks the third anniversary of my marriage to my wife, who also happens to be my favorite person ever. It seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect, it was an even better idea than I realized.
That was probably a shorter Stuff of the Week than you would have liked, dear readers, but it'll have to suffice for the present.
And now, back to work. And later, writing.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Themes of Battlestar Galactica
I stumbled across Bear McCreary's blog today, and he has a series of five (so far) posts discussing the various themes that he's composed for the series.
Very interesting reading if your a soundtrack fan, a BSG fan, or both!
Beware of spoilers.
Themes of Battlestar Galactica, Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Very interesting reading if your a soundtrack fan, a BSG fan, or both!
Beware of spoilers.
Themes of Battlestar Galactica, Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Monday, November 03, 2008
A Capella John Williams, etc.
Saw this today, thought it was worth sharing.
In other news, I've gotten off to a good start on my NaNoWriMo novel. It helps having an outline ahead of time, even if it's not very detailed. I've got a pretty clear idea of what should happen when, and all that sort of thing. The characters aren't as well defined as I'd like, but that's what the rest of the month is for!
Also, if you want to hear the arrangement of "Men of Fenwick" (the Fenwickian National Anthem) that I did for ICS's production of The Mouse That Roared, I've posted it on my MySpace page. I had a lot of fun working on it. The lyrics follow, and the music makes more sense with them:
Men of Fenwick, in the hollow,
Do you hear the rushing billow
Wave on wave, that surging follow
Battle's distant sound?
'Tis the sound of the French foe-men
France's spearmen, France's bowmen.
Be they knights, or hinds, or yeomen,
They shall bite the ground!
Loose the folds asunder,
Flag we conquer under!
The placid sky,
Now bright on high,
Shall loose its bolt of thunder!
Men of Fenwick, young and hoary,
Do you seek a name in story?
Strike for home, Pinot, and glory,
Freedom, God, and right!
In other news, I've gotten off to a good start on my NaNoWriMo novel. It helps having an outline ahead of time, even if it's not very detailed. I've got a pretty clear idea of what should happen when, and all that sort of thing. The characters aren't as well defined as I'd like, but that's what the rest of the month is for!
Also, if you want to hear the arrangement of "Men of Fenwick" (the Fenwickian National Anthem) that I did for ICS's production of The Mouse That Roared, I've posted it on my MySpace page. I had a lot of fun working on it. The lyrics follow, and the music makes more sense with them:
Men of Fenwick, in the hollow,
Do you hear the rushing billow
Wave on wave, that surging follow
Battle's distant sound?
'Tis the sound of the French foe-men
France's spearmen, France's bowmen.
Be they knights, or hinds, or yeomen,
They shall bite the ground!
Loose the folds asunder,
Flag we conquer under!
The placid sky,
Now bright on high,
Shall loose its bolt of thunder!
Men of Fenwick, young and hoary,
Do you seek a name in story?
Strike for home, Pinot, and glory,
Freedom, God, and right!
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