Tag Archives: 555

Pointed to by digg.com: Why do we like certain video game songs more than others? Maybe they’re catchy. Maybe they’re more varied than some of the looped sounds in other games. Or maybe there’s another factor no one’s aware of. Link

ALso, there’ll be side decorations for doorway, windows, walls, ceiling of the space.

～柯粤川

(Thanks to you all. It is your contribution that makes it possible)

————————————-

Photo Copyright Reserved 柯粤川 (C) 2007

————————————-

————————————-

Photo Copyright Reserved 柯粤川 (C) 2007

————————————-

A Yuechuan Ke Film (Yuchwan Keh)…an “Action Driven Thesis Interactive Film”…

Well, we really don’t wanna say too much about it. We gang of the same philosophy just shoot. Hungry? Blood up? Click on ME.

We are in need of crews, the best from IMD. Don’t let those plain P guys make the history!

( Co-Producers: Yimin & Andres yiminfilm@gmail.com theultimateaction@yahoo.com )

~ 柯粤川

What I’ve read:

The Photoplay: A Psychological Study – Hugo Munsterberg;

The Surfaces of Reality – Michael Roemer;

The Language of Vision – Gyorgy Kepes;

Art and Visual Perception – Rudolf Anheim;

Film as Art – Rudolf Arnheim;

Toward True Cinema – Slavko Vorkapich;

An Introduction to Psychology (only the part of the visual and aural);

An Introduction of Film History;

….

(I’m cautions to see reading is good for fine arts – except the history. For cinema, the recorded media, many productive researches along the history are based on hands-on experiments; Playing with text (medium) doesn’t mean anything because it has nothing to do with cinema, another medium. The Bibliography of the recorded media, cinema, should be a serial of cinematic pieces.)

So a few people have reacted quite negatively to the quote from my previous post. I guess my choice of words wasn’t that great…

I think the thing to note is that: no matter how awesome an engineer is at the mixing board or how quickly a person can fly around the console view of a PC sequencer, he mixes through a method of controllying multiple one dimensional values. With his given hands he can only shift one of these values at a time. If he’s GOOD, he can shift two of those values at a time.

Spatiality, however, cannot be defined by a single one dimensional pot or fader.

Sure, the old paradigm of the stereo line worked fine with the pot and fader combo: a quick twist to put it somewhere between full left and full right, a quick push to place the volume.

But in the surround sound world that just doesn’t fly. Things like how focused or wide the sound is, or distribution of rear channels, or ratio of front to rear mix. And there are other things like reverb and EQ that also affect the perceived directionality of the sound.

I did recently buy a high end audio sequencer; I upgraded my old Sonar 3 to the hip and cool Sonar 5 Producer Edition. Among the things that it has is an “intuitive surround panner” that “appears on any surround channel or bus, with no need for patching.” It’s not bad, and it allows for automation too… but for a top-of-the-line professional tool, it feels remarkably amateurish…how about being able to visualize sounds on top of each other? If you want to see sounds relative to others in surround space, your only option is to look at the respective surround panner circles side by side. Geez!

There must be a better way… a way that is not only faster and more intuitive, but also perfectly complementary to existing workflows as well as inspiring to manipulate and behold.

I think I’ve got an idea.

So I’ve been having fun thinking, writing, and drawing about my thesis. Lots of fun. Particularly the whole thinking and drawing aspect. When I first started down this road last year, I had no idea I’d been drawing as much as I was… largely because I had no idea that this whole studio workflow model was as stagnant as I said it was. I guess for a while there, there was a part of me that didn’t want to believe in this whole thing I was spouting off on…

Lately, I’ve been reading things on studio design. The few dedicated texts out there (here’s one) just don’t pertain a lot to what I’m doing, since the interface is NEVER the topic of discussion. Mostly I’ve been checking out photos, looking at magazines, reading interviews with engineers and looking at the photos and imagining how they’re moving around the room. How they’re moving their hands about the room.

One of the things that hit me this summer was the classic image of the sound engineer, one or two fingers on faders on a ginormous mixing console. What’s the other, non-mixing hand doing? Most likely gripping the headphones while he grooves to the mix. Something silly like that.

Last year at my original thesis presentation (no, not the one with the 12 tone music, I’m done with that…), I said the nice and very quotable: “Augmented reality is the future of audio design interface.” I’m going to go ahead an say something that’s at least as quotable:

“Audio engineering is a one-handed art.”

That classic image of manipulating those faders a few at a time, waiting for the second pass to record a couple more bits of automation into the sequence… well, that might not be true. But using the mouse on their graphical representation of that 60s era console, traversing its geography with point-click-drag eloquence, that’s just as bad. And very real, almost inevitable in this audio workstation world.

I’m reminded of a sign reminder common to family restaurant staff waiters: Both hands full at all times.

If I can make something where people are using both hands meaningfully and intuitively, whether it be through some AR paradigm or this tablet-mixer model I’ve been fleshing out…oh man. I think I’ll just explode with excitement!

Two hands!

WOW!

CTIN-555A Advanced Interactive Project

Cinema Lab $100 PM 4 Lec-Lab 037-18390D 10 9 0 02:00-05:50pm Th Bolas RZC201

CTIN Class Schedule is Here

First – REMINDER TO CONTACT YOUR THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBERS WITH YOUR MONTHLY UPDATE BEFORE NEXT CLASS, and let me know.

For next class, Marientina will again attend the first half, and Perry if he’s available. Please be prepared to continue discussion about exhibition details – any and all. Things WILL get crazier and crazier so NOW is the time to plan smart.

The second half of class we’ll continue on updates for your projects, presentations, and papers again.

Please have written specifications of your equipment needs for thesis exhibits, including schedule for when you need what and ideal/minimal scenarios. Do not assume anything (e.g., projectors need screens, or at least white walls) (e.g., special lighting requires special lights). Please include:

- off-shelf hardware such as computers and projectors

- custom equipment

- other items such as props, signs, and furnishings

We’ll spend the first half of class, with Marientina and Perry, adding everything up and agreeing on strategies to make this happen.

The second half of class will be production updates. Please be prepared to briefly present where things stand and how it compares to your plan.