The music makes all the difference.
Ever watched a video with no sound? It’s has nowhere near the same impact as one with sound. Just think of the cinema, how dramatic is that!!?? (I like to stay until the very end, to be able to listen to the soundtrack in an acoustically treated room with a good sound system!)

Anyway…
Most people hardly notice the background music at all (or at least what it’s doing), and that’s what you want to do. You want to put the emotion into the scene but without it sounding out of place. And when you do it right, people won’t notice you’ve done anything at all! So that’s why it’s so important to spend a lot of time getting it right.
It’s only when you do it wrong that it notices!

The soundtrack took quite a long time to do.
Before I could even start writing anything, I had to spend a long time just watching and thinking. I found it helpful to ask myself questions like; “What’s the mood of the characters in this scene?”, or “When and how should the music start and end?”
I think that that creativity comes from solving problems. So I like to see problems as a chance to be creative, by finding ways around them.
So I found that the more questions I asked about each scene, the easier it became to understand what to do.
And when I finally got it right, I’d listen to it and think; “of course, that’s so obvious! How come I didn’t think of doing it like that in the first place?”

The first piece of music that I wrote was a very simple sinister sounding atmosphere, for the first scene (the one with the monks in it). Then the monk pushes play on the tape recorder and soon after, the second track starts. Then the atmospheric music fades out, as the music on the tape starts changing from a radio sound into the live sound of Jayme and Joe! playing in the classroom.This wasn’t hard at all because it was just simply a matter of following what was going on in the visual.

Then it goes straight to the bar scene, with Joe! (years later) and the music starts the scene off. There the music is used as if it were playing in the bar.

After we finish playing, the next track starts at the end of the scene. I think that it really ties the scenes together and gives the whole thing more continuity, plus it complements the “9 o’clock on a Saturday morning” joke. It also gives off the feeling that something else is about to start, i.e. the next scene.
This track was the first one I worked on and it was very hard. I ended up having to dump the first song I wrote for it and write a new one because the flavour was all wrong. Getting the right flavour is so important!

It was also very hard deciding what to do with the music once it had started. “Is it O.K to just play it in the background, even though they’re in the street?” Answer; This particular piece of music isn’t in their world, so they can’t hear it! It is simply just part of the soundtrack. “O.K, but is that still O.K to just play over the scene…?”
So I simply tried it with and without the music..
I found that, due to all of the cuts and the way the scene has been filmed, there is quite a few continuity faults. So leaving the music playing over the whole scene helped to gel it all together by giving it more of a timeline and making it more like one long scene, instead of a load of cuts.

More soon…

Today I thought I’d do quick rundown of the basic things you need to set up a fairly efficient home studio, for those who are interested in setting one up.
So…

-First you’ll need a computer.
Desktops are usually more stable and powerful than laptops, plus you can upgrade parts later on.
Now the dilemma…
P.C or Mac? Well, this is a tough one:
1: Mac= supposedly better than a P.C
2: P.C= CHEAPER!

…Once you have your P.C, you’ll then need a DAW.
Digital Audio Workstation. This is where all the music is going to be put together. There are lots of diferent ones; Logic, Cubase, Sonar, Ableton Live, Pro-tools, e.t.c..
To me the DAW is like another instrument. It plays a big part in the way I write music, purely because I am able to manipulate whatever I’ve record, until I like the way it sounds!
Moving on…

-Then you’ll need some sample libraries.
Sampled pianos, organs, drums, e.t.c…

-A midi controller. (Keyboard) To trigger the samples.

-A microphone, or microphones.
Essential for recording vocals.
I would definitely recommend at least one condenser microphone for acoustic guitar and vocals because it is more sensitive than a dynamic one, so you’ll get a much clearer sound.

-An audio interface.
This is basically a sound card.
Choosing the right one depends on what you’re going to be doing.
If you need to use microphones for acoustic guitar recordings and more, then you’ll definitely benefit with more than 1 XLR input (a high impedance mic input). If the audio interface has phantom power as well then even better because some microphones, like condenser microphones, need it.
I used to use a mackie onyx 400f, but I don’t think that it’s available anymore. Now I use a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56.

-Some loudspeakers and amplifier.
For mixing, it’s better to use loudspeakers than headphones.
You’ll also need to treat your room so that you don’t get sound bouncing all over the place and bass collecting in the corners, giving you an inaccurate reading. Bass traps are good for this.

-And finally some headphones.
For recording guitar and vocals, e.t.c.. But don’t expose yourself to loud volumes for long periods of time cos you’ll damage your ears!

So I’ve finished the mixing!
I was quite annoyed because just at the final stages, when I was just about to do the final bounce down, I spotted a problem in the main vocal! Right at the beginning of the first and last chorus the word “can’t” is sung with a different vowel sound to the harmonies. I sing “cAn’t” (with an american accent) but the harmonies sing “cAHn’t” (with more of an English accent to it) so, when sung over the top of each other, it doesn’t gel together as well.
I should have sung it the same vowel sound as the harmonies.
Talking about accents..
I like to try and sing with an accent that feels comfortable to me and not ‘put on’. So sometimes bits come out sounding American. I don’t know why but sometimes it does feel easier singing with a slight American accent, even though I have an English accent. But I do have trouble with the words “can” and “can’t”. When sung with an American accent they both sound identical, except for the ‘t’, and it sometimes can be hard to hear the difference between the two, in a song. But when sung with an English accent it’s not just the ‘t’ that changes, but the vowel sound too, making it a lot easier to tell the difference.

So anyway, seeing as it would be a lot of work to fix the “can and can’t” problem, and seeing as I’m too lazy, I’ve decided to let it slide…

The first scene with the monks in a smoky room was actually one of the last scenes we filmed (there were a few more, but close enough) It was certainly the last scene I appeared in. I was the monk who´s sat down, Jayme did the voice over later. He was actually the second monk. The scene proved surprisingly difficult to film due to the smoke machine, which was half broken and temperamental to begin with. The preparation took a lot longer then we thought it would and new problems kept arising, just after the smoke machine had let out another belch of head-lightening smoke. There wasn´t much ventilation in that room and we had to shut the door to get the cloudy atmosphere.
The cigarette that I stub out is actually a dog-end we had to scavenge around for as only our older brother smokes, and by the time we final got the take I nearly burnt my fingertips. Joe was behind the camera at that point as well as directing the whole thing, which actually means “make sure Jayme doesn´t get distracted” something that was very dificult considering Jayme was on a skateboard for part of the scene. Then the smoke machine died, only to come back to life at inconvenient moments, the table was at the wrong height, was the wrong size, the legs got in the way of the camera, the hoods of the cloaks were never in the right positions, the box kept clipping the edge of the table, the candles were melting away and Jayme was still messing about on the skateboard. Oh, Joe! how my heart bleeds for you at times…

Darryl (Craig Robinson, the Office u.s) is Matt Berry (Darkplace, Mighty Boosh etc…)
Draw your own conclusions, but the evidence is right there… Staring you in the face…

Mixing.
Now, before I start I just want to say that I don’t consider myself to be that good at it.
All I’m going to say on this post is what I have picked up over the years. So there’s probably lots that I don’t do, am doing wrong or should be doing at all! So please excuse me for that.
Anyway…
Now that I have the harmonies and everything done, it’s time to start mixing.
I usually find myself mixing the song as I’m putting it together. This results in a lot of cpu usage, from all the fx used on each track. So I usually end up having to work with high latencies (to gain more processing power). When the overloading cpu starts getting ridiculous, I start bouncing down the tracks that I am pleased with, or freezing them (a handy function in Cubase) to then be able to get rid of the xf, thus freeing up more processing power!
So anyway, by the time the song is ready for mixing I already have a small amount of it done!

The first step I take, I like to call ‘clean up’, is basically going through each track, rolling off (cutting out, by equalizing, EQ for short) the bottom end of any track that doesn’t require any bass. The more tracks you have of something, the louder it becomes. So by doing this, the bottom end of the spectrum remains clean, leaving more clean space for anything that does require bass.
Then I go listening to each track “soloed”, checking for clicks and pops that could have been created from badly chopped audio. Then I check the sync to make sure that there aren’t any notes or beats out of place that could cause a problem later on.
After that, I’ll listen to the whole track and decide what sounds are the most important and when they need to stand out.
The kick-drum and snare-drum are quite important, seeing as they are what define the beat. But sometimes the bass-line can make it hard to hear the attack of the kick-drum, when there are notes that coincide.
A way around this is to move the bass line slightly so that it plays a bit later than the kick, just a tiny bit after, I’m talking milliseconds here! That way the kick gets heard before the bass, as if it were the sound that you hear when plucking a bass note.

I’ve usually already spent ages tweaking the guitars throughout the recording of everything, so it’s just a case of getting the right volume, and the smallest of adjustments make all the difference!

The main vocal is the most important, obviously. But it can sometimes stand out too much; if a song gets quite busy, the vocal needs to be turned up, but turning it up so that it’s clear enough to hear can sometimes make it sound almost too up close. A handy way to be able to get more volume without the vocal sounding out of place is to give the illusion of it being further away by putting on some reverb or delay on it (room sound or echo), making it sound like it’s in a far away room. Getting the right delay or room sound can take a while because it may sound good on it’s own, but then when played with the whole track it could sound rubbish! That’s why it’s a good idea to mix with everything playing, that way it’s easier to hear what the changes, that are made to each part, actually do to the whole flavour of the track.

I am being very vague about all of this, and have left out lots because otherwise this post would be too long and boring, so I’ll cut it short and leave it there for now…

This is what happens when you don’t have a good enough monitoring system or the head of continuity has a toilet break… Although for it to get past them is suprising, but for it then to make it past the editors and post-production crew, that’s just special. Enjoy!

Okay, taking a cue from the tall one I´m going to give you all some info on the filming of the pilot episode. The street scenes were filmed in the town near us. We couldn´t cut off the street so we´d have to film whenever there was a lull in the noise. We´d have to stop filming to let cars go by. Standing around in a bunny suit attracts a lot of attention and our town is small so by the next day everyone knew we were up to something. Some would stand on their balconies to watch The night time scenes we did really late, to avoid cars and noise. The tall one was filming and I was on the boom mic. It was so cold and we were shaking so badly, we really had to concentrate hard to not mess up the take. Poor Joe! was only in a windbreaker.
The police officer´s uniform was put together with a belt, walkie talkie, a cap and a jumper. Joe! printed out the word “police” on a couple of pieces of paper and we stuck them to the clothing with pins. The reflective jacket was what really sold it. Rachel, who played the police officer was really good about the whole thing especially considering her son´s english teacher walked past us as we were filming and had a good look at her. The next day everyone knew that too.
In most scenes with the Bunny I was the one under the mask. The mask itself was made by Joe! and Jayme with papier mache and covered with fur, which came from the lower half of the curadell bunny suit. The eye holes were covered with gauze to make them look white. The result was an amazing looking mask.
I couldn´t actually see much out of the eye holes, I could just about make out the edges of things if I tilted my head, this was made worse by the fact that i wear glasses. It was winter and the mask´s only breathing holes were the eyes, needless to say it got pretty hot in there so much so that my glasses would steam up. So I´d take them off; didn´t really help much considering I´m short-sighted. In the battery scene Jayme had to call out when I was near the door so I would know when to turn. And they laughed themselves sick when I missed. Come to think of it I hit into the wall more whenever I listened to Jayme…
Here´s a couple of photos of the mask and of the view from inside it.

Here is Part 3 of the rapidly growing cult “the Jayme-G Show” Be there from the start! Final Part coming Sunday the 5th September!!!

I can’t believe I have missed out on this genre for so long… Sure I’ve seen signs of it in Miyazaki’s films like Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo (Not sure what Walt Disney has got to do with them? Maybe just the translation…) but didn’t realise there was a whole category behind the style;

“…It came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes fictional works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, often featuring futuristic technology as the people of this historical period would have envisioned it to look like, i.e. based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. Modern materials such as Steel and Plastic, replaced with Brass and Wood…”

The Victorian era/style fused with modern technology. It’s the future. But … set… in the past…