Author: gravitystix

Free Music, Not Quite…


In an interesting new article written by Mark Montgomery, he explains the situations of royalty-free music for those of us looking into adding new libraries of music to your array. In “Royalty Free Music Tips” he explains that royalty-free is not free at all. Although the name sounds convincing, the big difference is how you pay! If you were a producer looking to get more music or sound affects to use for your next production, then you would simply make a meeting with a business that makes what is right for you.

Whether that be thrilling music for a horror music, or an orchestra and silly sound affects for a cartoon, the first choice to make is how much money do I have to spend and what genre of music do I need to purchase. Royalty-free music does not run cheap at the start, but pays itself off over time. It works by creating a contract with the music producer of choice, then for the music you have chosen to buy and instead of giving that company a cut of the profit from each DVD or CD that you sell, instead you create an upfront flat rate payment. In doing this, you pay a lump some in order to be able to sell your product more cheaply and faster, while taking in more profit.

Of course when you choose a company to buy from, there are many options you can choose that can augment your works. Some companies layer their sound tracks and music, so that when you need want to draw out the fox horn in a piece of orchestra music, you can do so without messing with every other volume of music and without the use of cumbersome effects. Also in buying large packages, you usually get many sound affects, pieces of music and miscellaneous items. Each of which can be used to help a piece make that step up into greatness.

Finally he important part in royalty-free music is legalese and organization. Keeping to a contract can be important, as many people are sue happy and if you do not follow rules and regulations set down at the beginning of the contract, you can find yourself in a pickle and deep in debt. Lastly Organization is key, as you increase you stock of sound libraries, one should learn to, or hire someone to keep the music and sound effects in an order to allow easy use and transferal of the material, this will make your next editing session run much more smoothly.

Father’s Day card.

Firstly: AHHH! Now that the initial freak-out is over, I can try and edit like a pro. Anna, Shaw, Spencer, Pat(?) and I have been figuring out the doc this week. We’ve been sorting through different footage and have found some pretty cool shots that can definitely be used in the actual project. As of now, there is a lot of stuff that is completed, but we have to find a way to put all of the pieces together and fluidly integrate them into one documentary. Shaw came up with a possible solution: make two separate “mini” docs. I like this idea because we could have some people focus on one, and some on the other, which could help the project move along faster. This is the main project, and has number one priority. 
 
The dance recital is coming up soon. Shaw, Spencer, Anna, Pat, I should all sit down sometime and talk about what kind of shots we want and the general feel for the project. I think this could be beneficial for the project, because a lot of money is riding on this project. 
 
Anna and I have definitely put off our Beatles music video, because we have too much going on at this point… 

Putt-putting…

Well, procrastination has caught up with me. In September I was so excited to sort through all our footage from Putt Putt and organize and edit the best documentary ever. I had a good start, I was getting organized, figuring out where the whole thing was going. And then our computer crashed, and I diverted my attention. I found new projects to spend my time on, like the Winter Carnival and Cabaret DVDS. 

I also just did a music video with Evan to “The Good Life” by Lara Minor.  We finished it and uploaded to youtube on Friday, and we are in the running to win $1,000.  The results will be posted by July 1st. There’s only about ten other videos so maybe we actually have a good chance!

I still promised Jason I would film that video for him, and he is planning on getting the period off that I have class to do it. We want to film it outside in a nice nature setting, with lots of different angles. I will be working on organizing and planning that. 

And then there’s that dance recital thing. Yeah. Good times. 

The doc. needs. to. get. done. 

Update From an Admin

Hey everybody, just wanted to let you all know how the blog is doing. We’ve added a new page which explains the services which we are offering to the community. Please check it out via the link bar above or by clicking on the logo to the left.

There is also a new poll to the right where you can suggest changes and improvements to the blog.

Winthrop High School Graduation 1997 will soon be available on DVD. Yes you read that correctly, 1997. A VHS tape containing the entire ceremony was recently discovered. We have logged it onto a computer and will be burning one or two copies to DVD for the archives. If per chance you are interested in a copy talk to Ms. Shaw.


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Monty Python’s Life of Brian


Chris here. And here’s another movie I should have seen a long time ago. Well, anyway, even though most of you have probably seen it, I’ll give you a recap.

The movie starts out as Brian Cohen, is born a few doors down away from Jesus, which confuses the Three Wise Men, as they are both Jewish. Brian grows up not liking the Romans, who are occupying Judea, and he eventually joins the People’s Front of Judea, one of many splintered anti-roman groups who fight each other more than the Romans. I won’t ruin a lot of the humor for you, but I will give you my opinion of the movie.

About halfway through, the humor starts building up. At the beginning, there isn’t much funny about much of anything, which is what I didn’t like about it. It’s kind of slow. There’s a chuckle or two later, but eventually all those chuckles build up, and a single scene contains eight different things that made you laugh, so it gets good after a while. Also, there are two scenes that just made me laugh outright, simply because they’re so funny. (I’m not going to ruin it for you.)

I don’t believe in ratings, but if I did, I’d give it a 879,416,742 out of 1,000,000,000.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog

Now some people might say that this is not a movie, but it is I tell you! This movie was shown to me by Spencer and I have to give him a lot of credit, this movie is fantastic. The movie is about Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) as he tries to get into the Evil League of Evil, which is a very high league of super villains. It sounds foolish at first, but it is amazing. The acting is very well done. Dr. Horrible has a crush on a girl named Penny (Felicia Day) who he sees at the laundromat weekly. He accidentally hooks up his nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) and Penny up during one of his heists. Dr. Horrible must figure out how to get his dream girl and defeat Captain Hammer.

The movie is a musical, I forgot to mention that. The songs are hilarious and very well done. One might not think Neil Patrick Harris has a good voice, but he actually does. The songs are highly amusing and very funny when one listens to the lyrics of the songs. My personal favorite is either “A Man’s Gotta Do”, or “Brand New Day.” They are probably two of the best songs in the movie. I have come to love Dr. Horrible to the point that I have made my parents watch it, though their lack of humor made it less funny for them than myself. I would recommend this movie to people 100% and even if you are like my parents and do not have a very good sense of humor you will still enjoy it, just not as much as I have.

Chris Balcer Says: TV Is Dead!

Hey, all. I’ve been saying it for quite a while, and now it’s being confirmed– traditional TV and video as we know it is dead. Quite a few factors are contributing to its demise.

The first would be an end to filming standards. There are at least four video quality ratios on YouTube alone, and there are a slew of other formats. The only standard is the one that the cameraman chooses. Another factor is 3D, one of big video’s main gimmicks. Avatar… or Avatar in 3D? Unfortunately, it is referred to as the “flying car” or “jetpack” of the movie industry- cool concept, but nobody cares.

There is also the rapid evolution of bigger and better aspect ratio available at home, and cameras are getting cheaper and easier to use. Any idiot can buy a good video camera and make a crappy movie in 1080p with 60 frames per second. Editing is also going to get easier, and anybody is going to be able to do it relatively well. Distribution is already a large factor in killing traditional movies- why pay ten dollars to see it in theaters, or twenty to buy a DVD that’s incompatible with your system and you’re only going to watch once, when you can pirate it for free? Why pay $100 for a thousand cable channels you don’t watch when you can just watch it on Hulu? TV is dead. Dump your stocks and accelerate the process. Please.

Monty Python


And Now for Something Completely Different, actually that is the name of the movie. Released in 197, it is a masterpiece of British comedy. Created and produced by the same people who produced the infamous Monty Python and the Holt Grail, this film was intended to be a compilation of the best skits produced by the Python’s for the intent of getting U.S. citizens hooked on their acts. Although this movie is not the best acting, filming or based on story line, the skits in general rival that of almost all current comedy.

They have set the bar for current comedy acts and within this movie, they give it their all to show what they have formulated. The general Idea that I see is that if you look at the movie as a movie, it is not very good. However if you look at each skit individually they are works of art. They never get bored or dull and use the transition to great extents mixing comedic artwork to the changing of scenes, even at some points creating a joke by not even allowing the punchline to drop before switching.

Even today I can ask my brother about “The Lumber Jack Song,” and they will instantly burst out in laughter or start rehearsing it for me. If anyone has the time I would suggest watching this or any of their works. Not only that, but the countless documentaries which I have just recently become addicted to allow for hours of sitting back and actually learning about people that are funny. All in all the skits individually get a 5/5, but the movie in general lacking basic composition gets a 2/5!

"Get it done."

“Get it done.” These words have been stressfully uttered this week as Anna and I have been editing fiendishly in attempts to get the “Good Life” music video completed. We are pretty much done with the video, which we have to send in tomorrow to make the deadline. Minor editing jobs such as smoothing out transitions are the only things left to do. I’m happy with the outcome of the video, and I think it has a good chance of placing in the competition. Cabaret 2010 is finally done, which relieved some stress, with the help of Spencer’s/Pat’s wonderful multi-clip discovery. 

The documentary also has to be done by the end of next week, which Anna and I have had no time to start because we’ve been working on the our music video non-stop all week. We’ve been talking about what we want to do with the project and the direction in which we want it to go.
We’re supposed to start our next music video: “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles. I doubt we’ll have time to start shooting this project until well after next week. Our documentary about school hunger is also “sitting on the back burner.” Maybe after our music video we’ll start it..

Read this article, It will Actually Help! Plus it is short

As we all know, trying to record a video sequence on-time and as you wanted is almost impossible these days! Laura Martone has written a short article for Video Maker Magazine, called: Video Production Scheduling funnily enough!


This very compact and general guide did not personally present new info, but in fact just organized it for me to understand and use more easily. Anyone who takes Video production learns to make a story board first and then they must decide on a place to shoot, and actors. What if you forgot to get permission from the place you were shooting, or your actor was sick, What then?

“. If you take the time to create an accurate shot list, consider details like location availability, and fashion a shooting schedule accordingly, your shoot will go much faster and smoother – and your cast, crew and client will thank you for it.” Not only does this show the general idea of cast, time, set, location and product, but this actually shows the investment of money. These days everything is money and whether it be saving your clients by saving time, or by saving you time to earn money at the high school job, I am sure all of us have!

In conclusion, I believe all students should be made to read this article… Seriously, read it! Shaw might describe it, but you can realize it is not just her “lying” to you. With this not only can you save yourself time in making your next video, but you will also save Shaw from haveing to stare blankly at another piece of “High School Trash”!