Internet Kills the Video Star

Ok.. so this is my first time posting work for critique.. and.. well it's been a while since I've subjected myself to criticism.. and um.. I may be terribly unorthodox with respect to where I'm coming from.. But um.. if you can stomach me.. hopefully you can dig it...

Well first of you can view / hear the piece here, though you will need the latest version of quicktime and or a video iPod.

So on the purpose and inspiration and what not.

Once upon a time there where sound artists who thought the future of the music industry might be in "Music Videos." This was largely a byproduct of the introduction of laser disks.. Anyway.. eventually MTV came around and subverted the music video art form.. turning it into a kind of expensive commercial.. And you probably know how this story turns out since then.. Well it appears the information revolution is changing things a little bit.. And Apple recently introduced a "Video iPod," and I thought "Hmm.. maybe I should make a Music video as Art form" type project.. So that's the basic idea...

For influences I watched a documentary on Verdi.. I watched the recent film Dig!. I took a look at a Frank Zappa thing.. titled something like "In the dub room," and of course there's stuff like Sun Ra's "Space is the place".. At some point in college some of my peers were making videos where the video was composed uses some of the system's of John Cage... On the film side of it I'd also mention some of Andy Warhol's stuff.. where you watch a guy sleeping for 10 minutes.. Or I might talk about David Lynch who.. I think more then most film makers has made sound play an important roll in his films...

My feeling was that I could probably make a radicle new form.. or go in such a direction.. In the sense that various things like.. film, and TV.. are all sort of formed by certain market factors.. And so I was seeking "a new existential relationship to the market place." And clearly video podcasting is a very different matter... Which would have a different "systemic effect" on whatever I might attempt.

From a business point of view I'm hoping to use video podcasting as a means to find an audience.. that I can then sell my music to.. And so this first video podcast is an attempt to introduce myself, and my larger project, to an audience.. And there is a section of it where I nearly recite a press release...

Another influence was some stuff I read in The Wire a while back.. On the microphone as a kind of substitute for Sigmund Freud.. The idea being, in part, that we now often listen to music with the sense that we are listening to something "constructed" as a pose to listening to a "recording" of an event. Deeper in this was the idea that you could sort of peer deep into the psyche of the performers.. In fact "the score" of my video is, in part, conceptualized as "the commentary of the film makers unconscious," on what's going on in the video.. Which runs along with the idea that the film maker is, in some way, providing you with "an unreliable narration of events."

The idea of "microphone as substitute for Dr. Freud" worked something likes this: I've collected around 40 hours worth of video, most of which has been shot over the past 5 or so years.. So in the process of making the video podcast, of which this is the first episode, I would be creating a kind of autobiography.. Where in I would enter into a kind of dialectic with the recording of the unfolding of certain events of my life.. This is sorta like my post postmodern approach for dealing with issues of identity, I suppose you could say.. And while we are at it I should like to suggest that I am probably more of a Jungian then Freudian.

On a not to distant note I was thinking of the literary idea found in the work of Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson of "New Journalism." I'm trying to document the kind of culture that spontaneously comes into being when two or more people come together and hang out and stuff.. And the adventures that in sew.. Which I think is particularly fun when the people involved are of the an anti establishment subversive artist variety..

Other film maker influenced would include Godard's stuff.. Richard Linklater's stuff.. particularly Slacker and Waking Life... Certain qualities from Terry Gilliam.. and the list probably goes on infinitely.... David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch comes to mind...

Also there is a Zappa thing where he talks about thinking about "none sonic events" from a musical / compositional stand point... He's, in many ways, following Varese in this..

Anyway.. so on with the specifics...

1 Techniques:

Well there's, sorta like, 3 main sections.. each of which is created a little differently then the other 2. In the first section I set up a video camera in my room with 2 studio condenser microphones via which I try to create a binaural recording (to no great effect.) The audio went directly to Cubase.. I give a little presentation.. of what is basically a press release sort of version of what the podcast will be about and who I am.. And then I put on these head phones and pick up my guitar... In the head phones is a click track.. programed drum section / metronome.. Which I then improvise a guitar part up against... (the guitar is going through NI Guitar Rig). Latter I go in, using Cubase and NI Komplete... to score the whole thing.. including the guitar solo part.. and mix the whole thing, and blah blah.. Then I export the project.. and bring it into the video authoring environment.

The next section.. is a kind of Vertigo Fresh Meat Project Tittle sequence.. The video for this section is achieved by compositing / animating video / graphics around the screen for a while.. Some of the audio is audio taken from video clips.. Other elements of the score.. Well I basically import portions of various music projects.. of varying levels of completion / polish.. And I basically just mix / edit them together using the limited abilities of Final Cut Express.

The 3rd section.. We see me asking "New Ape V" what he thinks of the project we are about to engage on.. This video sequence was edited.. and then exported... and scored in Cubase.. using Reason as well.. I went in and tried to score the actual camera movements.. and approach it in a way that would reinforce certain "formal aesthetic issues."

To all this I should say that for 90% of the score I program in each individual note into a sequencer.. And program all the mixing automation.. The exception are a few sections.. Where I used these.. real time sequencer / beat boxes.. where you basically hit the play button.. and tweak the knobs.. and record the results.. These became individual parts / sections that I would then mix into the larger production...

Also there's a certain amount of microtonalism to the project.. Which is mostly achieved by putting pitch bend information on many of the individually programed notes.. The various instruments' pitch are, hopefully expressively.. and certainly on the edge of the subliminal, coming in and out of phase with one another... With respect to there relationship to 0 pitch bend...

2. How long did it take to compose the piece:

I have a lot of work hanging around my hard drives that date back years.. with which I can draw from.. the video and graphics generally fall into this category and do some of the sounds.. But for the most part this piece took me about a month to finish.. And I feel as though it could have used a good deal more time.. But I wanted to kind of rush to get it out.. because I saw there being a kind of opening in the market, so to speak..

3. Structure:

I think I've sort of covered this a little. The first part is the copyright part.. Where you would normally get the threat about federal agents going after you should you brake the copyright... to this I suggest "sharing is caring" and so for this reason you should "share me." And I do this in such a way so as to make a little dig at the RIAA.

The Next section is me introducing this podcast, and myself.. Then I go about trying to prove that I am "a real musician." Then I remember that I forgot to tell you about Fresh Meat.. and so I sort of introduce this.. while playing the guitar.. I call this my "Jimi Hendrix circus section" in the sense that Jimi Hendrix did a lot of pyrotechnical playing.. where he'd play with his teeth / behind his head, and all the rest.. in order to convince you that he was really something special... I try and "talk and play the guitar at the same time" which I think is equally impressive.. although very strange.. in terms of the tone in strikes.. The next section is the "Fresh Meat Project Vertigo" that is to sort of disorientate you.. it's sorta like my "Star Gate Sequence" which is to echo the sequence in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odessy where they sorta like go into a whole other dimension..

The next part is the "New Ape V on The Fresh Meat Project" section.. which is then followed by end credits where we learn that I did everything.. and that some of the names have been changed to protect the guilty... And that's it.

4. Obstacles when composing:

Well there where a lot of technical problems I encountered... One of the big ones had to do with moving files between my Macintosh and my PC lap top... And the feeling that I desperately need to find funds to upgrade..

One of the challenges I set out to do was to learn a little bit about the craft of "The Mix Engineer." For me the mix is a part of the composition.. But here I was trying to learn more about "the traditional ways these things are dealt with," and particularly I wanted to make the dialog tracks as audible as possible.. so that you would hear those.. so I tried to carve out there own frequency space for those elements.. All though where I didn't feel that you needed to hear what was being said so much.. I allowed things to degrade a little.

Another issue was just learning about video and learning final cut express.. I'm rather new to this.. Also the performance art elements provided a challenge.. There are many different types of elements going in.. each of which need "a different compositional process" in order to realize results.. and a part of what I was interested in was the dynamic tension between disparate parts.. Along with this is the sense that you never know what's going to happen next... Which I think really gets to the central compositional challenge.. Of how do you create a situation where you don't know what's going to come at you next.. Where there is a good deal of tension over the question of what will come next. For me, as the author, the tension was always "will it end up sucking." And the challenge is to go as far out on the edge as possible.. To not let that fear get in the way of being, I guess, and be "violently creative."

5 Summery of the over all piece:

I've probably done this already.. But basically I suppose it's an ad for my work and future video podcasts.

Well I guess that's it... If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to field them.. I don't have much of a score I could give you.. I suppose I could export stuff from my sequencers.. but then I don't think you would get representation's of stuff like pitch bend.. or mixer stuff.. so.. Well any who.. I'm interested to get some feed back.. LOL, and thanks for tolerating me...

Um.. I should maybe add, to, that I've been writting more about this subject on my myspace blog..

Well, it was certainly interesting, the bits of the middle I watched. I'll watch the rest later, however, 15:00.