Right.

Reading the Beeb News again (the source of many a good story) and learn that Google is getting into the online music market with the launch of OneBox, an alliance with music sites Lala and MySpace-owned iLike.

When users search using OneBox, a pop-up widget powered by iLike or Lala offers to play the entire song.

Interesting to find that the words “music” and “lyrics” are among the top 10 search terms of all time, according to Google [reported here]. Also interesting is the news that Apple currently have the music industry over a barrel, dominating the online music market with around 70% of worldwide sales.  Thus, they are now presumably the largest music distribution operation in the world.

One of the possible advantages of the service for the beleaguered music industry is seen to be a halting of piracy from torrent sites.  While Apple may not be able to stop iTunes users adding pirated music to their libraries, Google can.  Simply by “adding alongside all of those Torrent results… a heavily integrated Google music offering“ (Mark Mulligan, Analyst @ research firm Forrester).

Yipee. So now we can expect adsense on Music searches.  Bound to get you what you’re looking for in no time, as any Google search generally will [SIC- sore point, some blogging on this here before].

Coinciding with proposed charges on YouTube piffle (sorry, content) Google seem to really be getting into the Christmas spirit…

Lifting liberally from the BBC press release here, please note that:

“…At Google, we see millions of music-related queries every day,” said the company’s vice president of search Marissa Mayer at the launch in Los Angeles.

“It is clear to us that for our users music holds a very special and particular place…” (Source BBC)

It is clear that Google is in the best market research position in the world.  Let’s face it, they know what pretty much the entire online world is searching for, and are in a unique position to anticipate trends, one could suggest in a monopolistic and somewhat insidious manner.  And now they have learned that people like music.  Result.

So then, one would have to wonder, if people like music so much, why did Google not get into this before Apple spotted the niche?  Why would they have wasted so much time and resources giving the world such epic fails as Google Video before buying their way out of the problem with the acquisition of YouTube?  I can guess, can you?

Not all of the feedback about this will be positive, and a casual Twitter search brought this other early opinion:

“…Will Google , which has just wheeled out a new search thingy called Onebox, soon be hit by one or more trademark infringement lawsuits?

A week ago, “Giant online advertising company Google is like a nasty virus,” p2pnet posted. “It’s everywhere and into everything. And now it’s planning on a music ’service’.”

Google is already the world’s largest music indexing site overshadowed, perhaps, by The Pirate Bay. And it’s even Cartel Proof, said p2pnet in July…” (From P2P Net)

Final call on this, if Google end up becoming contenders with this service YOU KNOW it will mean that Madonna, Robbie and Jay Z will have to start and finish all of their future world tours in the Google canteen to a room full of polo-necked nerds.

Can’t stop progress.

Computer Camp Love.

Who needs a reason?  Don’t remember this exactly, but somebody obviously does and was very scarred by the experience.

“Here’s something silly I made for the bbc comedy website,” beams Mutated Monty.

He’s taken a powerful microscope to examine Gordon Ramsey at every visual level.

Interesting stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.

On a related note, it was sad to see the passing of Keith Floyd recently, who was the daddy of them all.

Celebrity Chefs lined up to gush warm tributes his way, but Keith was not exactly reciprocating:

These are the notes on a lecture we gave on sound design, pitched at animation students.

HISTORY OF SOUND DESIGN:

In motion picture production, a Sound Designer is a member of a film crew responsible for some original aspect of the film’s audio track.

The terms “Sound Design” and “Sound Designer” were already in use in theatre and were introduced to the film world when Francis Ford Coppola directed a live production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco where sound designer Charlie Richmond was resident, while the final cut of the The Godfather was being edited in 1972.

In the original film world meaning of the title, as established in the 1970s by Coppola and Walter Murch, a sound designer is an individual ultimately responsible for all aspects of a film’s audio track, from the dialogue and sound effects recording to the re-recording of the final track. The title was first granted by Coppola to Murch for his work on the film Apocalypse Now, in recognition for his extraordinary contribution to that film; in this way the position emerged in the same manner the title of production designer came in to being in the 1930s, when William Cameron Menzies made revolutionary contributions to the craft of art direction in the making of Gone with the Wind.

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO DEVELOPMENT OF SOUND DESIGN

* Cinema sound systems became capable of high-fidelity reproduction, and particularly after the adoption of Dolby Stereo. These systems were originally devised as gimmicks to increase theater attendance, but their widespread implementation created a content vacuum that had to be filled by a competent professional. Before stereo soundtracks, film sound was of such low fidelity that only the dialogue and occasional sound effects were practical. The greater dynamic range of the new systems, coupled with the ability to place sounds to the sides of the audience or behind them, required more creative decisions to be made.

* Directors wanted to realize the new potentials of the medium. A new generation of filmmakers, the so-called “Easy Riders and Raging Bulls”—Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and others—were aware of the creative potential of sound and wanted to use it.

* The new filmmakers were inspired in no small part by the popular music of the era. Concept albums of groups such as Pink Floyd and The Beatles suggested new modes of storytelling and creative techniques that could be adapted to motion pictures.

* The new filmmakers made their early films outside the Hollywood establishment, away from the influence of film labor unions and the then rapidly-dissipating studio system.

As many of these new filmmakers worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, the strong meaning of film sound designer has become associated with films made there, and the production companies situated there, such as American Zoetrope, Lucasfilm Limited (and its subsidiary Skywalker Sound), and The Saul Zaentz Film Center.

WHAT IS SOUND DESIGN & WHERE DOES A SOUND DESIGNER FIT IN?

Sound design is a conceptually creative/technical field. It covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, a music performance or recording, computer game software or any other multimedia project. A person who practices the art of sound design is known as a Sound Designer.

ELEMENTS THAT MAKE UP FINAL FILM:

VISUAL LAYER –                    FINISHED PICTURE

AUDIO LAYER –                   DIALOGUE / VOICE OVER

FOLEY / SFX (Deepens Immersive Experience)

MUSIC BED (Sets Emotional Tone)

MASTERING (Compression, Surround etc)

WHY IS SOUND DESIGN IMPORTANT FOR ANIMATION?

Sound design is extremely important for animation.  If it is working well, nobody will notice.  If it is going badly wrong, it will detract from the animation, no matter how good it is.

Much animation deals with creating imagined universes.  A dense and well thought out sound design and music bed can lend these environments credibility.

Animation Production Roles:

http://www.willamette.edu/~gorr/classes/GeneralGraphics/Production/

http://www.wideopenspace.co.uk/animation-tutorial/s4-production-roles.html

HISTORY OF SOUND DESIGN:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_design

WHAT DOES DIFFERENT MUSIC DO? – SETS EMOTIONAL TONE.

EXAMPLE OF DIFFERENT SOUNDTRACKS TUTORIAL:

http://www.wideopenspace.co.uk/animation-tutorial/s5-sound-and-music-score.html

DIFFERENT STROKES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkqKjgzLbOk&feature=related

DISTURBING STROKES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr-e3qGQ884&feature=fvw

EXAMPLES OF EXCELLENT SOUNDTRACK / SOUND DESIGN WORK:

http://www.motion504.com/AICP_show/

http://www.echolab.tv

http://www.tokyoplastic.com/

LINKS AND RESOURCES:

http://motionographer.com/

http://www.creativeireland.com

http://www.gotoandlearn.com/

FREE SAMPLE RESOURCES:

http://www.freesound.org/index.php

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/55-great-websites-to-download-free-sound-effects/

These are some thoughts I posted on a forum where the subject of teaching media arouse, and I thought I’d repost them here, as they may be useful to people seeking internships etc.  If there are any unfamiliar terms below, Google them!

Always shoot with the edit in mind.

I normally find that letting interns etc run around with the camera for a while and then trying to capture and edit stuff gives a good starting point to demonstrate what areas need improvement.

Understanding of all the basics such as the 180 degree rule (Breaking the Line) and recording with Burnt In Timecode and all of the rudiments of DV production are essential, however I’m sure there is plenty of resources and notes out there that can be lifted.

Another point is that it is handy putting the camera op on the edit of their own work, as they will see first hand where inappropriate camera settings and all the other little f**k ups start to do real damage.

I know that if you, like me, work in Post Production a lot, we end up having to ‘fix’ things that are far from technically perfect as a large portion of the job. So, this covers the technical end of things.

A good starting point would be to get students as technically competent as you can initially, as you can teach this stuff to anybody who isn’t intellectually challenged.

However, to have real flair, it helps to have a good eye and plenty of imagination. A friend on here pointed out to me once that imagination ‘can’t be taught’ and all of the technique in the world can’t make a weak idea soar.

Also, similar to many other creative endeavors, this is a cruel and difficult business, and it will take real perseverance to get anywhere with it.

Having said that, it is a lot of fun and very creatively rewarding, and so a good thing to do.

Two other areas that may not have been covered in the above stuff would be as follows:

1. Good shoot Practice:

Simple Directorial Benchmarks might be things like:

Good Framing (No Dutch Angles in background, understanding the eye-line to camera, use of grip kit as appropriate, filling the frame, understanding the rule of thirds, developing an aesthetic/critical sense, narrative visual composition etc)

Show – Don’t tell (This is a visual medium, make things visually interesting) KISS (Keep it simple, stupid, applies to all balances of approach over result, what are you trying to do, is this the most effective way of conveying it etc)

Audio (Pay attention to this, you won’t notice if it is all recorded / produced correctly, but you really will if its not right, this spoils so many otherwise excellent takes, and fixing it is really a different discipline that is another universe of things to learn)

Lighting (Know about use of light, natural light, exposure settings, shutter speeds and how the camera processes light compared to the eye)

Focus (Learn something about focus and depth of field, stay away from auto focus, the eye doesn’t see this way, focus as a narrative tool, ie pulling one actor in a two-shot into focus to show their reaction etc)

All of the above deal with aesthetics, and are principals to be applied AFTER someone has a firm grounding in all of the technical stuff.

2. General Media / Film theory.

I studied in the UK for my initial media degree, and am continually surprised at the lack of critical thinking and understanding of the codes and form of cinema history that is shown by media students here in Ireland.

There are many film genres, and all of these have been developing over time continuously through active dialogue with the audience. Film Theory can be analysed from almost any perspective, from Psychoanalysis to Semiology, from Political History to Art and Anthropology.

The main thing to know at an early level is that there is an ever-evolving set of codes that film builds on, to create continuous and deepening metaphors to help communicate the interpretation of an increasingly complex world.

See books like ‘Film on Film’ and ‘Ways of Seeing’ for more on this.

Away from film perhaps, to general media theory, and how the audience is engaged/ manipulated/ consumerized. This normally revolves more around TV production values, news reporting, critical thinking about agencies of the state and how they use media to re-enforce hegemony etc.

It can be analysed from many angles again, and Sociology is full of schools that help to understand various models of Communication theory (eg Marxism, Feminism, etc etc)

A look at authors like Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ would be a good starting point here.

Since I graduated, the media landscape has changed again dramatically with the advent of web video, web 2.0 etc, and the likes of YouTube has shown us that there is a worldwide glut of people who want to ’share’ and be heard, thus ‘talking back’ rather than the previous one-way model of communication (Magic Bullet Theory), however it has also shown us that a very small percentage of these people have any grounding whatsoever in the evolution of visual media and communication.

Anyhow that’s loads for now.  As an intern, you should already know all this.

©army of id 2009

A tune / video composed / shot / edited in 24 hours.
Shot in Dublin, Ireland

The Darklight Festival is approaching soon.

It takes place from the 8th-11th October 2009, and, now in its 10th year, attracts artists and filmmakers whose work explores the convergence of art, film & technology.

This year, perhaps to converge with the Irish Lisbon Treaty vote, the organizers have asked for short film submissions based around the theme ‘Democracy and Dialogue’.

A young animator/ graphic artist we know and whose work we follow with interest made a very nice piece indeed for the competition, which he said was based on our experiences with a previous anti-racism video on YouTube, as discussed here before.

It is short, and makes its point very effectively.  Take a look, and go to YouTube and rate it if you like, for extra marks.

We had posted about Privacy concerns on Facebook earlier this year.  It seems that this debate has started again, though it may have come from unfounded sources.

There was an invitation floating around Facebook some time back, asking if we wanted to install and run ‘Facebook Premium’.  This has been blogged by early adopters and geek freaks in various places, and it was noted breathlessly, in what read like a press release, that ‘…the social network is quietly rolling out a pair of beta services — Facebook Premium and Facebook Classic — to select users. Facebook Classic lets each user opt in to the Facebook design of his or her choice…’

Although the buzz-chasers were keen to source that Christopher Cox, Facebook’s Director of Product, had leaked the information of a beta version of this being tried amongst some heavy users of the service, it was claimed that:

“Facebook Premium adds more features that users have been clamoring for, including better integration with Twitter and other social networking services, better photo album navigation, improved granularity in the app and user blocking processes, MySpace-style theming support, auto-play music, and new privacy options”. Cox didn’t announce specifics of a pricing model for Facebook Premium, but in a Wall-to-Wall conversation, he intimated that it would be on par with similar services, such as Xbox Live and TiVo and include some sort of enhanced micropayment scheme.” – Will Smith Writing on Maximum PC

It has since been exposed as a hoax, as noted by Mesh Marketer, amongst others.  Just another case of lazy trigger happy writers thinking they’ve got the scoop when the Twitter winds blow by.  All good, innocent fun.

However, there was an interesting footnote in this story, and that was the idea of ‘Facebook Background’.  In the same UNTRUE(!) press release, a new service called ‘Facebook Background’ was supposed to be in development.  Here’s the story:

‘…Premium beta users will gain access to Facebook’s Background service, which has been in closed trials for the last three years. Background gives any user full access to both public and private data in another user’s profile, for a one-time fee of $8 per user…’ Will Smith again

Now, while none of this is actually happening, it can be seen how such a simple step for Facebook could net them a significant revenue stream.  As it stands, there are many articles out there on Facebook background checks for prospective employers and so on, but seeing as Facebook has a number of privacy measures in place, it is our own responsibility as regards how we want to portray ourselves online, and who gets to see that.  As it stands, there are plenty of people who I don’t want to share my online profile with.  The idea that anyone can ‘buy in’ is indeed uncomfortable, because for me, Facebook has become a sort of open diary of key events in my life, a place where I store all my pictures and so on.

I guess the key message here is that we are all responsible for managing our online presence, and perhaps shouldn’t post stuff that we don’t want our parents or boss reading if it can be easily traced back to us.

A final thought:

All those fun little apps that help us break the ice online, with Risqué quizzes (What’s Your Pornstar Name? etc) ask you the name of your childhood pet and so on.  Imagine this is published to your profile, along with your date of birth, your mother’s maiden name, your city of birth, your favorite colour, what town you live in, and so on.  If someone reads all of this info, and joins the dots, they probably have enough information to get past the security questions with your bank teller over the phone.

Just a thought.  Play safe kids.

The Black Keys are an American blues-rock music duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney. They were formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001. Their sound heavily incorporates elements of blues and blues-rock.

So the Pedia of Wiki tells us.  What it doesn’t tell us is that this little ditty, ‘The Breaks’ is just about as fine a Tune as you’re likely to hear.  It has powered us through most of the summer, and we’re too selfish to share that mojo with just anybody.  We’ve had it all, so you can get it now.

First off, we will do a quick recap of what made the everyday and embarrassing an Internet sensation.

South Park have it covered with this, “We just made something really popular on the Internet and now we want our money…”:

We have been producing Viral Video for some time now, in fact we were one of the first Irish Production companies actively seeking ways to explore the medium to communicate.  It is still amazing to think that almost every time we get a query about this, it almost always falls through, because the client doesn’t get how viral video works.

We find that a lot of our commercial work comes through traditional Advertising Agencies and PR companies, who are in the process of re-defining themselves to meet the relatively new and uncharted digital marketing frontier, as we all have to.

The only problem with this is that the thinking behind the campaign we’re supposed to make Viral is not in tune with how Viral Video works.  If you’re organising a photocall with some models and a Z-list celebrity for press, there is no way to really ‘make this viral’.  If we throw it on YouTube for these clients, only them and their mothers will look at it.  Similarly, creatives in Ad Agencies who have been writing fantastic and effective TV Ads for years continue to submit scripts to us for Production and Dissemination that would be ideal for a captive audience in front of a TV or stuck in a cinema, but that don’t lend themselves well to the Viral market.  Its a different equation, and it requires different thinking.  In fact, chances are that if you have well practiced and hardened skills in other areas of communication you will have a harder time communicating to the Viral brief, because you will have to throw out the rule book.

And then there’s the client.  They want something Viral, because they’ve just come back from some seminar with a nerd somewhere who’s told them that’s what all the cool kids are doing.  Again and again, when we start to discuss possible Viral ideas with these people directly they immediately fear for the well-being of their brand and its wholesome image, and start wanting to ease back into ‘edgy safe’ territory.

Thing is, if you look at what’s been passed around the most, it is normally anything but safe.  The whole paradigm of this stuff has raised the bar on risqué humour, to the point that Hollywood comedies are WAY more edgy then they used to be a decade ago, simply because the extreme edge of comedy has come closer to everyone, and the audience sensibilities and expectations of how far a joke will go has changed dramatically and unalterably.

SO, some points to remember are that the traditional channels of delivery of creative don’t get this, and trying to turn it into a marketing exercise is something of a gamble, as there’s no telling whether it will catch or not really (though there are a few tricks to kick starting a campaign).  We’re amazed constantly by people ringing us with their ideas, and simply asking for Production quotes, because we see from the outset that the script or idea is written for a different medium.

Remember that most of the stuff out there is pretty crass, and you’re competing for the attention span of an audience that is as jaded as the sexual appetite of a 60 year old Colonel.  Ask yourself would YOU pass this idea on, or tell friends about it down the pub?  If not, we’re not on the same page.