Made By Other People.

Jurassic Park.

On the 19^th of October we held a screening of our most recent work at Toronto’s Cinecycle (which is a bike shop by day, screener of movies – typically 8mm – by night). Before we started the feature presentation I had the distinct pleasure of attempting, with the help of some enthusiastic volunteers, to do a Foley Fridays Karaoke session live.

If you don’t know what Foley Fridays Karaoke is – I basically take away all of the sound/dialogue from a scene of a film and recreate it on the spot. The spot usually being my living room. This time I had a theatre and 7 other people to recreate the sound/dialogue for me. The film? Jurassic Park, of course.

Everyone did an impressive job – considering they had no time to figure out how to make the sounds they were asked to make, using the props they were just given. Even the entire audience was used to create the sound of the rain storm in the scene by snapping their fingers and hitting their thighs. Most importantly I think (hope) everyone had a great time doing it. The rest of the Made By Other People agreed that it help make the night just that much more special.Though, if I had one thing to do over again I would set up a better micing system as some great sounds were made but just weren’t picked up by the microphones.

Thanks again to the volunteers, the audience, Cinecycle and the T-Rex for saving our asses from those Raptors (almost too conveniently) at the very last minute.

To see past Foley Fridays Karaoke go to the Foley Fridays section of the website here.

The End.

When I first heard the last chord of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life I immediately thought that it sounded as close to the end of the world as a song can get. I’m not saying that was their explicit intention but it just sounds like the musical equivalent everything imploding.  I’ve thought this so much that when 5 years ago when I needed to make an explosion sound representing the end of a world I played that chord on a piano and mixed it underneath the sound of an atomic bomb exploding. That’s what’s playing above (my apologies for the less than stellar quality). If you don’t hear the chord (E Major) right away listen again – it’s definitely floating in there.

But why am I writing about the end? Mostly because this is the last Foley Friday.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in a while and to be honest I can’t see me wanting to in the future so I’m going to end things here. I’ve got a few ideas for future ongoing projects plus the ‘Karaoke” I’ve been doing monthly will keep going and return soon. This decision also comes from our plan to redesign the site into something that won’t exactly support weekly blog posts. Something that, I think, is for the better.

I want to thank those of you that have read even one of these posts in the past, and especially those of you that have read numerous posts. I hope you were on occasion entertained and were able to learn something new over the course of the year and three quarters of Fridays featuring foley. I think I did.

Thanks again, nothing coming next week.

Hawk.

As birds of prey go Hawks demand a lot of fear and respect. They are also pretty awesome. There are a lot of movies that use the screech of the mighty Hawk as a standard noise to let the audience and the character on screen that the character in question has been left, most likely dumped on purpose, in a desolate location, often hot and dry, to die alone. The screech is the last sound a lot of animals hear before they die. I’ve seen hawks pick up squirrels and fish and can’t imagine the horror they will experience once the bird tears open their soft bellies with its immense talons, taking the time to let the hot guts of the small prey steam in the cool air, snapping its beak in some sort of grotesque laughter as it swallows chunk after chunk of flesh.

As such I was recently in a conversation with a few friends about going to the woods in the near future. One friend wants to bring her puppy and I very appropriately stated, “Yes of course. but I would warn to be vigilant for Hawks.” It’s safe to say my friends do not fully understand the respect a Hawk commands because MBOP’s own James Vandewater crafted this little screenplay in response:

EXT MOUNTAIN PEAK – DAWN

SIR MITCH stands stoically on the edge of a great crevasse. The countryside lies below him with an eerie calm about it. Smoke drifts lazily from a battlefield.

SIR MITCH takes a moment to adjust the belt on which his greatsword hangs, the blood of countless men frozen on it’s blade.

His legendary beard flecked white with snow, he turns to the small wood-elf beside him.

SIR MITCH

I would warn to be vigilant for hawks.

FADE OUT.

A scene almost as awesome as the Hawk itself. If you want an example of how perfectly the Hawk screech works as a sound effect that actually adds something to a scene re-read the script above and press play immediately after reading the dialogue aloud. I understand if you now have to change your pants.

Until next week I remain vigilant.

Ghostbusters.

Those who know me know that Ghostbusters is one of my two favorite films. I grew up watching the Cartoon, owned most of the toys (still do) and have now amassed an entire collection of memorabilia. I have even gone the extra mile and created a screen accurate costume (you can see me wearing it in the video). I’m just missing the proton pack. I’ve been waiting to do a scene from this movie since I came up with the idea for this little monthly event.

To say that this film has had an impact on my life is an understatement. I sometimes quote or get excited about references to it and the only other MBOPer that knows what I’m getting excited about is Billy Allinson. We even planned a Dan Aykroyd themed party that celebrated Ghostbusters almost above all else.  I’m always amazed at how seriously Bill takes the process of writing. He is constantly writing something that may never see the light of day. The films he does make are unmistakably his voice and style. – Films like Regular and recently I Spyders, which are experiences that will either change your life or at least force you to change your pants.

This was one of the most fun “Karaoke” experiences we’ve done yet. We didn’t really need the script since we knew the lines by heart. The only worry was making the proton pack sound right. I used an old flash for the sound of it turning on and the beam is a combination of sparklers and a vacuum cleaner (bill’s inspired suggestion). Which is ironic really because how many times during my childhood, a lot of our childhoods, were spent pretending a vacuum was a proton pack in the first place.

Until next month, Who Ya Gonna Call?

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