Standoff: Editing Exercise

For the final project in Nonlinear Post Production, the class had to collectively edit an entire episode of the cancelled FOX show, Standoff, starring Ron Livingston. The show is about FBI hostage negotiators, and has a few familiar TV faces on it besides Livingston. (I was happy to see Firefly's Gina Torres having a small part as well.) It only aired 6 episodes, and we got allllllll the footage they shot for the episode entitled "Heroine". After this project, I got to say "Look Ma! I edited a whole TV show!"

The class was divided in teams of two, for each team to edit one of the four acts. One team volunteered to also tackle the trailer for extra credit. I was appointed Supervising Editor (a decision made based on the quality of my previous work in the class, such as the shoe commercials and an edited scene from the TV series Angel.

This was the first time I have edited with a partner or collaborated with anyone really. My partner, Andrew Darling was also appointed Supervising Audio Engineer for displaying his own proficiencies at soundscaping and audio selections on other projects. He is a skilled and easy-going partner who also wanted a professional end result. Sometimes we edited together, getting and giving input on editing decisions, and other times we worked alone. Both methods worked out fine, and the end result speaks for itself.

After our act was finished I also had to edit the others for continuity, content, and time. The final cut had to be 44 minutes, and ours was 49 all together. As Supervising Editor, I had to cut scenes that were not necessary, trim dialogue, and cut long segments (instead of a continuous shot of someone walking to get a door - I just showed the door opening). I had to color correct certain segments, and seek footage that was not included for our project. I searched for HD footage of Los Angeles to use for scene transitions, and grabbed some footage off of the Hulu video of the same episode (such as opening/closing credits). It was an intense project that required many hours of work, but was a blast and I'm very proud of the show and the work my fellow classmates put in.

The clip below is the climax of the show, and the act Andrew and I edited together. Sorry it isn't in YouTube format, they claimed I violated come copyright stuff, and some morons didn't understand the refute I sent them.

*Update: Here's the embedded video courtesy of Vimeo!

Nirvana Desktop Wallpaper

Due to the popularity of the White Stripes wallpaper, I thought I'd upload the Nirvana Wallpaper I made a few years ago (2007). It was one of the first projects I did with Photoshop on my first-ever Mac, so I was just gettin the hang of it, and using layer effects for the first time. There are plenty of GLARING errors (at least to me) and things I'd like to improve upon one day. I'd also like to resize it a bit better. But for now, I'm just gonna upload it. Obviously focused primarily on Kurt Cobain, but Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl are there too...

A-Phlatt's Mixtape

While working at 747 Productions for my internship, Andre "A-Phlatt" Russel asked if I would be willing to design him an album cover for his upcoming mixtape - Mr. Feature Vol. I, The Double Disc Edition. I said sure, and came up with three variations before settling on this one. The design process was completed within 3 days.

The original image of A-Phlatt himself was not the best quality photo - colors were bland and the image was pretty blurry. After isolating him from the background, I converted it to a black and white image. I applied a light "Dark Strokes" filter in Photoshop to him, which provides a nice high-contrast smoothness without making it any blurrier. I used a gradient overlay to get that blue-pinkish purple color for A-Phlatt, and created a different gradient for the blues in the background. After looking at Lil Wayne's Carter IV album, we decided to use a fancier font (Snell Roundhand) for A-Phlatt's name to contrast with the grungy and bold type everywhere else (Impact font with some grunge brushes overlaid on top).

The city was created with merging several shapes of city skylines together, and is no city in particular as far as I know. I then added the splatter shapes below and merged the two and added a yellow stroke around everything to really make it pop. Using a few other brushes, I added the greens and yellow-red flourishes all around for a more soulful touch, like it is surrounding A-Phlatt (who looks pretty imposing over the city skyline). Overall I think it encompasses classiness and boldness at the same time. That QMG logo is semi-transparent, and is positioned to be kinda at the heart of the city, without interfering with it. I also created matching promotional flyers for the release - which is coming up on December 17th! Check out "She Betty Boopin'" below. (My flyer is at the beginning and end of the slideshow!) The song is pretty damn catchy...

White Stripes Wallpaper

To commemorate the return of Conan O'Brien and the appearance of Jack White on the new TBS show, I decided to get artsy-fartsy and make a desktop wallpaper. (By the way, if you havent seen the rockabilly performance that Conan and Jack did, look it up - it's pretty cool).

The main idea for the poster came from a poem I've been working on - it's still in the works, but the title is "Jack and Meg". The poem is a descriptive journey through the world that the White Stripes have created and their roles as children wandering and battling with Meg's wooden sticks and Jack's plastic guitar. (It definitely sounds better in the poem). I decided to focus on the ideals of the White Stripes, from the earlier days of Elephant and White Blood Cells, and kind of ignored the more experimental styles of Get Behind Me Satan. The duo themselves went back to their older style for tours promoting Icky Thump, so a few images are from that era as well.

I hunted around for some rolling grassy hills and found a great one with a beaten grass path right in the middle. I colorized it red, and then duplicated the hills with a different layer effect to create some of the highlights in the grass. For the white path, I just cut out that part, made it black and white, and messed with contrast/brightness. I took out some trees I didn't like, and removed the sky - since I would be creating my own. I messed with the Render Clouds filter and placed it over a pure red background and a very light vector starburst shape. I placed a peppermint candy "sun" right in the middle of the starburst, and added some inside and outside glow effects.

The skyline features a few larger than life images of Jack and Meg, and I messed with a few layer effects to get them to look how I wanted. Found a cool picture of an African elephant since they have bigger ears and are overall cooler than Indian elephants (no offense). I messed with positioning and gaussian blur to create a sense of perspective, and had a little Jack White leading the elephants with guitar in hand, like a Pachedermal Pied Piper. I wanted more images of the group, so I took the cover of Elephant, and had them sitting in the tall grass, with Jack looking straight up at the peppermint sun. The lightning effects were added to give it a little more "color" (white isnt a color, but I just wanted more white).

After creating the initial wallpaper, I realized the aspect ratio and sizing was a little off, so I also made a more horizontally-friendly version using the clone tool to "stretch" out the landscape, and added more lightning (below). It was a lot of fun to do, but it makes me miss the White Stripes...obviously love all of Jack's other endeavors, but there's something really special about Jack and Meg together.

Rack Room Shoes :30 Ad (2)

This is another commercial for Rack Room Shoes, and the assignment was the same: create a 30 second commercial using hours of footage by the same guy who directed the other one. This one is pretty self explanatory, I color-corrected the whole video with a little more yellow to give it a south-western flavor. The rotating shoes at the end was done with some chroma keying effects (green screen) and was the first time I ever used that effect. (I just watched some tutorials online to figure out the basics). The music is "Hello Operator" by the White Stripes, and it's only a coincidence that there is currently a Converse commercial using it nowadays. Or maybe they got the idea from me...

747 Productions Logo

It was a bit of a daunting task: I had only been working at my internship for a few weeks when they asked if I could redesign the logo. I admit, I knew that it needed some serious work the first time I saw it, but I never really thought I was gonna do anything with it. Here's the original stacked up against mine:

The most glaring problem of the original logo was that the design couldn't exist anywhere but a white background. If you wanted to slap it on a poster or something, it would have to include an ugly white rectangle behind it to make it stand out. The easiest way to fix this was to put the contents into a shape so that it at least has some kind of unique form.

I wanted to keep the same basic color scheme, since it had to fit with the same website. I messed with the spacing in "747" to make it fit better in the circle, and wanted it to have that cool shiny web 2.0 button look. So I messed with these layer effects: Gradient Fill, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, and Bevel/Emboss. I left the main text pretty much as is for it's simple elegance (the font is Monotype Corsiva). I gave the whole shape a slight gray to light-gray gradient, and a light blue outline to tie the colors together.

Rack Room Shoes :30 Ad

In my non-linear post production class, all are assignments are given to us with all the footage, and it is up to us to turn it into something useful. These projects are "tests" that are given to prospective editors to assess their skill level and creativity.

For this project we had to create a 30 second ad (which of course means 29 seconds and 29 frames - that last frame is used to signal the next commercial). The add could not be any longer or we would lose points (makes sense to me). We were only told to use 3 computer graphics: "Smart Shoes" "Dumb Boyfriend" and "Rack Room Shoes" (The shoe company for which the commercial was made for in the mid 90's)

The premise: a daughter invites her new boyfriend out to lunch with her parents at a diner. The father is skeptical of the new guy, and the mom is trying to play peace keeper and just have a nice family outing. Meanwhile, the new boyfriend (Judd) engages the girl in some good ol' fashioned footsie. She gets up and leaves (probably cause she was getting too excited...) and Judd realizes that he was just feeling up Dad.

The difficult part came from culling together the right "scenes" of the commercial from literally hundreds of takes. The project was headed by a first-time director, and he didn't quite know what he wanted. So there were no less than 20 takes of the boyfriend walking into frame. It's kinda nice not having to go out and shoot once in a while...but at the same time, it was super frustrating knowing that these shots could have very easily been gotten without all this hassle. There were also entire sequences and lines that would have been impossible to include in the 30 seconds.

I chose the Black Keys' tune "Howlin' For You" (off of their latest album, Brothers) because the commercial was intended for girls in the south. The southern-blues song has the right mix of sexy and playful moods and has a fun sing-songy chorus. I made the graphics in Photoshop because I thought it would be a good idea to manipulate a single image of text and the arrow instead of using Avid's title tool and then creating another arrow. I also grabbed the Rack Room logo (thanks Google) and threw a light glow around the .png. I thought it turned out pretty good.

Keep in mind...this was shot in the mid 90's...so don't go blaming me for non-HD and whatnot.

Eiffel Tower Power Lines

I always had this grand idea of taking power lines and super imposing the Eiffel Tower in place of each regular thingy. It just kinda reminded me of it - the metal structures holding up each line were just stripped-down, less Parisian version of the Tower itself.

It was done a few summers ago - before I fully refined all my Photoshop techniques. I wish I could say I took the original photograph, but it was actually the second image I found on Google (hope no one minds...) But I mostly used the Clone Tool to paint the sky over the original structures. I then placed a high-contrast image of the Eiffel Tower in each spot where it belongs. I shrunk and lowered the opacity for those that were further away to enhance the illusion of perspective. I also increased the contrast to get a slightly more dramatic sunset. It was just for fun, and was my desktop background for a while.

The Social Network: Movie Review

As Published in The Bradley Scout

When you start a movie off with a White Stripes song, it tends to get my attention and high expectations follow. (I won’t go into detail how Napoleon Dynamite fooled me with similar pretenses...)

Last Saturday, my date and I barely made it in our seats when “Ball and a Biscuit” began rumbling and the Columbia lady popped on the screen. The first scene immediately set the film’s tone and cleared up any confusion that may have occurred from watching the trailers.

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook Founder/CEO) is a big fat jerk.

The opening scene has Zuckerberg narcissistically ranting about joining exclusive clubs at rapid fire pace at his then girlfriend, while demeaning her intelligence. He is mechanical, unrelenting, and completely self-absorbed and it leads to his girlfriend dumping him and calling him a…well…a big fat jerk (paraphrased).

Thus begins Zuckerberg’s maniacal quest to get recognition. He does it all with relative ease, and his genius never comes into question. After hacking into Harvard’s computer network to create a Hot-or-Not type website, he is approached by some fellow students to program a website that would connect every Harvard student with pictures and personal information. Zuckerberg agrees, and then doesn’t talk to those guys for a while.

In the meantime, he goes to his best (only) friend with an idea for a college social site. His best friend becomes part of the new company, and invests all the initial startup money. Later on down the line, Zuckerberg produces “The Facebook”, ignores that first project for Harvard students, and then leaves his partner and friend in the dust.

The movie weaves in and out of the chronological narrative of the startup of Facebook, and two separate trials of Zuckerberg’s former friends and business partners suing him.

The film artfully unfolds by telling the story from the perspectives of Zukerberg, his then-best friend, Eduardo, and the Harvard guys who asked for the original website. Jesse Eisenberg plays the prodigy-hacker Zuckerberg with the perfect mix of a little bit of vulnerability and a lot of social personality disorders. Sometimes I caught myself liking his “stick it to the man” attitude, but then I was quickly reminded that he’s not being rebellious for any good reason other than furthering his little computer empire. Eduardo, played by Andrew Garfield, offers the most dynamic performance as the once-loyal and only real friend of Zuckerberg. Justin Timberlake also excels as the charismatic and wild card personality of Sean Parker, founder of Napster. The film functions excellently as a character study of the strange habits, motivations and intricacies of friendships and business partners of our time.

The actual soundtrack differs from the widely distributed trailer featuring a choir covering Radiohead’s “Creep”, which has an awe-inspiring yet melancholy feel. It differs for good reason – Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails scored the movie with a characteristic industrial-noise background that adds a dark and foreboding undertone throughout the movie.

The fitting soundtrack aside, the whole movie feels wonderfully tense as it goes back and forth with accusations, lies, excuses, and leaves the audience grasping for truth. The message of the film is vague enough for you to do a double-take before you actually declare him a jealous and misunderstood tragic hero who just needed to belong.

I was only really disappointed with social commentary that was only hinted at with Timberlake’s character. Instead of examining how Facebook changed business, social networking, and the Internet itself – the zeitgeistal shift is overshadowed by a story of ambition and greed. While still valid topics, I still cannot get over how this particular big fat jerk conquered our culture to become the CEO of a $25 billion company. See the movie to understand the history of that little part of your life that you utilize every single day.

Grade: A-

The Bob Dylan Translator

I was in an audio-production class my sophomore year. It was a blast, and among other projects there were PSA's, music mixes, and even a DJ show. We had to make a few 30-60 second commercials with original content, and for this particular commercial, I directed two friends (you would think that they were actually PROFESSIONAL voiceworkers!), Andrew Stewart and Joe Olafsson - two overall cool guys.

I don't know where the idea for a Bob Dylan Translator came from...but I was just getting into his music at the time, so it was a great opportunity to utilize my new favorite artist. The commercial goes like this: two fellas are hangin out, and one laments that he cannot understand what Bob Dylan sings sometimes. The other, luckily, has the official Bob Dylan Translator that helps decipher his lyrical genius.

It's pretty silly, but I thought the humor was there. The robot-like translated part came from recording my Mac's built-in text-to speech capabilities. I wrote out the lyrics and then highlighted them and pressed the command key I set up (I'm not sure what the default is, but mine is option+s) You can learn how to use it here.

The volume is a little low, so you might have to turn up the speakers a bit to hear it properly. To view it on YouTube, check it out here.

Summer Albums That Didn't Suck: The Black Keys, Danger Mouse, and Devo

I spent my whole summer avoiding the radio with whatever kids are listening to thee days - the Beibers, Gagas, and Ke$has. Yeah, I may be a bit of a musical curmudgeon…but I know I’m not the only one uninterested in how many floosies come out of the state of california. (I’m talking to you Katy Perry! And the other five people it took to write that awful song!)

That being said, there was actually some great music released this summer. Here are my three favorite albums of the summer.

The Black Keys: Brothers

Release date: May 18th

Certainly the most accessible album on the list, a few tunes from the Black Keys sixth studio album have already gotten some serious attention. The first single, “Tighten Up” had an award-wining video that has gotten airplay on MTV, and can also be heard in the commercial for the new season of House.

The attention is well-earned, and this may be one of the best albums to date. Each song contributes well to the overall theme of the album, without being an actual “concept” album. It has all the great hooks you can expect on songs like “Tighten Up” and “Next Girl”. All the familiar Black Keys song elements and structures are there, and the album is truly cohesive in mood.

Everything is kinda dark, a little melancholy, and it all sounds comfortably fuzzy. It is a straight-forward and soulful tribute to the blues of old, but maintains its catchy rock riffs to make one real cool album.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse: Dark Night of the Soul

Release date: July 12th

I could have potentially written about this album last year…but under very different circumstances. Auteur producer/Gnarles Barkley member Danger Mouse had an idea for a concept album some time ago. He got together some top-notch collaborators, like Julian Casablancas, Wayne Coyne, and Iggy Pop. Together, they created an album dedicated to celebrating the gritty human condition, with songs like “Daddy’s Gone”, “Revenge” and “Pain”. Most of the tracks deal with some pretty dark subject matter, but all are simply beautiful – due to Danger Mouse’s characteristic dreamy ambience.

Along with a book of photography by David Lynch (who also appears on two tracks) the super album was semi-released last summer. What does that mean? The CD contained was blank. Written on the disk was this: “For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will”. It was an interesting stunt, but still left many potential listeners out in the dark.

It was nice to see the album get fully released this summer, and any indie fan can appreciate its catchy hooks, R&B beats, and the absolute best ensemble of artists you could hope for.

Devo: Something For Everybody

Release date: June 15

I’m just as surprised as anybody to find that the first Devo album in 20 years is fantastic. I wasn’t exactly a Devo fan prior to the album, but like any fan of music, I thought 1980’s “Whip It” was awesome. My mom, knowing this, TiVo’d the band playing on Regis and Kelly over the summer. They played “Whip It” and their first new single, “Fresh”. I was blown away and got the album shortly after.

First of all, you gotta remember that Devo has been playing music since 1973…so these guys are old. But knowing that, you cannot help noticing how cool they are. These guys are playing synth-based satirical songs that rock harder than a lot of stuff out there now. When a song like “Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)” has a repeated chorus of “Don’t taze me bro” it is hard not appreciating the charm of these hip 60-somethings.

The album is a blast to listen to, and I dare you not to fall in love with at least one track.

Silent K Records: The Blanks

This is the second full assignment we had gotten in my web design class, and we were asked to create a one page press release. It had to be some kind of music release - so we needed images for a parent company or record company, and another image to put in the article, like a CD cover. So I (of course) used my Silent K Bunny, and stuck with a red/black color scheme.

I found a nice picture of a black and red Gibson SG, and threw some downloaded paint brush effects on top of it to serve as a giant (web-optimized) image for the background. The rest of the design was positioned to that one background image.

I created the album cover by taking a high resolution image of a Hulk action figure and applied a "Cut Out" filter in Photoshop. I then turned it red and messed with the Saturation and Contrast filters. The hardest part actually came from cropping the image of the hulk on the CD cover. Depending on how close it was cropped, it would have completely different looks and feels to the design, and I wasn't quite sure what I wanted. I asked for opinions, and narrowed it down to two choices, and wound up solving the problem by using them both! One extreme close up for a CD cover, and one cropped out a little further to be used for the DVD cover. I threw a glow effect on them and saved the .png so I could position it anywhere on the site.

The copy is all original content and contains a bunch of little "inside jokes" of my favorite musicians, directors, actors, and things from my personal interests. The band name itself - The Blanks was a two-man-band I had in high school. (The logo was also very similar, but I recreated it for this project). It a fun project, and I think this was the project that cemented Trebuchet as my favorite typeface (you are reading with it now in fact!)

Check out the fake site here (hosted on my website) Here.

Dee-Xign-A-Day Blog/Face Morph

For my web design class, we had to create a non-functional Blog-like space. I remember that it was just one of those days where a bunch of projects were intersecting, and I had to crank this one out in a few hours. I really liked the header, even though it was pretty simple - just a half-tone effect of red and black, and a cool font (Cooper!) in front of a simple bullseye shape.

We needed to come up with something clever to denote it as a design blog, and you know how those clever designers love spelling things differently, so I chose to spell it "De-Xign".

I divided up everything which was pretty monocromatic with blacks and grays, with red borders. It was right after this project that my teacher told me I needed to experiment outside of red and black... lol. But on to more interesting things: the face morph. The story on the site is true, so I'll just repaste most of it here. You can see it hosted on my site Here.

One night, I was working on some video stuff. I revisited an old project (Out of Batteries) to change a few title sequences and alter the credits a bit, but the process was basically done. Anyone who has ever worked with video editing knows that the last part of completing a project sucks - cause that means you have to spend a bunch of time rendering (especially if you are working in HD). To kill some time, I surfed Facebook, stumbled upon this picture of my friends, and decided to alter it.

It took about ten minutes and the process went very smoothly. First I Lasso'd the guy's face, Refined the Edge and copied it over the girl's face. With the Hue/Saturation tool, it was easy to get the correct skin tone, altering mainly the Saturation and Brightness.

After that, just took the Eraser tool and made sure the edge was highly feathered and I was done. It's real easy (especially if the copied face is right in the picture), and usually has a good effect for humor...plus it's fun to do and to kill time with.

There ya have it, perhaps one of my best face morphs.

Silent K Logo

I designed my first logo in my sophomore year of high school. Back then, I didn't even know Photoshop existed - so I naturally used whatever was on the old family Dell. I taught myself how to use Microsoft Picture It! 2000 and was pleasantly surprised years later to see many features integrated into Photoshop.

The idea was to use the logo for my garage band, Critter Jones (no, we weren't any good). I was getting into The White Stripes and punk art, so I was interested in high-contrast minimalistic designs. I wanted to play off the idea of a "critter" and for whatever reason a bunny popped into mind. I grabbed a guitar shape from google, because I still cannot for the life of me draw one freehand. (It's the curves! Screw up one side, and the whole thing is ruined!) I drew the bunny using a pen tool.

I had grand visions of the logo being used on buttons, round stickers, and painted on the bass drum. None of that happened, but I still wound up encircling the design with red - just in case merchandising would actually happen.

I actually thought it would be really cool and punk-rock to put an "x" in the eye to show that the rabbit was dead or a zombie or something. I started messing with the filters and one of them simplified the "x" into a soft circle. I printed out a sheet of paper with several variations in color and shape, and asked for opinions. I don't even think I went with the number one choice, but I picked the one that I use now.

I have been redesigning it on and off for a few years with a few touch ups. I simply call it "the Silent K Bunny". Once in a while there is some descriptive text saying it's a "Silent K Production" or something like that, but I happen to like the mystery of the logo - a textless bunny playing guitar.

Blue Orchid Typography Project

In my typography class, we were tasked with creating an artistic representation of a phrase, song lyrics, poetry, or dialogue. I chose to pick a song that was just begging to be made into some kind of project - "Blue Orchid" by the White Stripes. I was listening to the song a lot at the time, and it just sounded like something I could work with.

Jack White's high-pitched, forceful voice required a fluid, even slightly feminine typeface - I found a graffiti-esque font, by the name of Farfel ICG Felt Tip. Since White's delivery of the lyrics emphasize each syllable, I off-set each syllable and placed it in a vertical hierarchy - as if written on a musical staff - to mimic the changes in pitch. Some of the words had a certain accusatory "bite" so a grungier, bolder font is positioned behind the main script when necessary. Meg White's steady drumbeat is represented by the ever-present lyrics in the background, that have a much more rigid grid system than the main text. Those are a dark grey, which only pops out against the black a little bit, so as not to overpower the piece.

The paint splatters represent the blaring guitar riff, that come and go. I would have liked a brighter more electric blue, but It would have looked funky next to the blue "blood" dripping from the orchid. To create the effect, I made a very dark gradient of blue and used Liquify to pull down various parts on top of the flower. I then used Bloat to create more realistic "drops" on the flower. I added the white splatter to emphasize the end of the song a bit, and to make the blue stand out, otherwise it would get lost in the black. The picture I had didn't contain a stem on the orchid, so I had to make one up with some filters and shapes...It's the only part I kinda regret, but no one takes pictures of flower's stems on the internet it seems...

Check out their official video:

Poster: Shut It Down Sunday

Another project I had to do for my internship at 747 Productions was a poster for another event at Shots Pub N' Club - called Shut It Down Sunday. It is a contest for aspiring artists, where you pay an entry fee then get to sing, or rap, or whatever and the winner gets some cash and free recording time at our studio.

This poster was pretty simple, I just happened to have a bunch of really cool shapes to work with. I kept the format and fonts similar to the first poster I did. After laying down all the text I would need, I started making the composition which was basically a rowdy crowd leading up to the city of "Peoria". The skyline isnt quite the same...but I think it's at least obvious enough to be a city. I had a rapper outline and stuck him on the right, as if he were the special guest performer (Gutta ENT). I threw in barbed wire shapes at the top just to tie the piece together more using more white images. I dont know what made me chose orange for a color, but it goes nice with the black (even if it may be a little Halloween-y). I'm particularly fond of the contrast that the "IT" has in the middle of the title. Breaks it up nicely I think.

Poster: 2nd 2 None Sunday

The first thing I was asked to do for my new internship at 747 Productions was something I was very familiar with - making a poster for an event. I was given a list of info to include (the most I've ever had to work with) and was told to make it sexy and classy. It was a "ladies night" type of poster, so it had to appeal to Peorian females.

The first thing I did was to get all the text on there to get a basic hierarchy going. (This is how I start most posters). I made sure to stick with only three fonts - otherwise I feel it breaks the unity, and looks cluttered. I needed a woman, and I wish I remembered the search term I used in Google...but it was something probably like "sexy lady"... but I cut her out of the original image and feathered the edges after using the Quick Selection tool. I added a layer mask and used a gradient to gradually make the picture fade at the bottom and sides.

For the background, I chose a gradient that was a little feminine, but wasn't hot pink or lime green. To create the vector "starburst", I used a technique that I learned from the internet ages ago. First create and define a pattern with 2 differently-colored vertical stripes (like white and black). Then fill a layer with the pattern you created - duplicate that layer and merge the two to create a single raster image on a layer. Then go to Distort>Polar Coordinates and use the "rectangular to polar" option. There ya have it! I then enlarged, positioned and messed with the layer blending options to get the effect I wanted. I had some grungey brushes that I used on the corners, and added a "sponge" filter tothe background to create some gritty texture. After all that, I added a paint splatter shape that I found on the internet. I threw in a variation of my logo - this one has a semi-transparent "SK" which of course, stands for "Silent K".

The Flaming Lips Reveal Their "Dark Side"

[Published in the BU Scout on February 19, 2010]

When The Flaming Lips decide to cover other artists, you know you are in for some kind of bizarre treat.

The Flaming Lips fans can recall YouTube videos of lead singer Wayne Coyne shouting the lyrics to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” into a megaphone and crooning a haunting ballad version of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” But what exactly could any fan expect when The Flaming Lips announced an entire cover album?

In December, The Flaming Lips released a track-for-track remake for Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of The Moon.” They named it, “The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon”

I know what you want to do. Your initial instinct is probably to go crying blasphemy over even the idea of touching one of rock’s greatest albums. “Dark Side of the Moon” is the album that defined the studio concept album. It is the album that made Pink Floyd a staple in rock music and turned boring planetariums into psychedelic laser-light shows. Let’s not forget that even the cover art turned the color spectrum itself into a world-wide icon.

Who are The Flaming Lips to even attempt this feat?

Indie/Space-Rockers The Flaming Lips are not alone in their quest for the cover album, as their overlong title suggests.

They enlisted the likes of Henry Rollins, Peaches and Coyne’s nephew’s band, Stardeath and White Dwarfs. Rollins handles spoken-word parts of the album in a suiting monotone voice, while Peaches wails in the background on a few tracks. The album overall places a heavier emphasis on the ambient background, while Coyne’s characteristic airy vocals sputter in and out of tracks like “Breathe.”

Regardless how you feel about remaking an album that sold more than 45 million copies to date, the Flaming Lips did so fearlessly with their own style.

The Lips are experts at creating those operatic and atmospheric layers that are required for “Dark Side of the Moon,” and the whole album is overall entrenched with more funk and attitude than the original. Overdriven guitars and distortion reign supreme on most of the tracks, and whammy effects are used on many for that extra funk sensibility.

Many tracks, however, fall into the category of “Big Disappointment” or “Huh?” For example, “Money” is probably the most recognizable single off of the original, featuring looping cash registers, arguably the most intense sax and guitar solo of the album, and soaring vocals from David Gilmour.

The Flaming Lips version has no sound effects loop (Come on guys! That part was easy!). It has no solos at all, and instead of singing the unbelievably catchy tune, Coyne robotically recites the song’s lyrics with a disturbingly metallic effect. This song in particular is a huge disappointment and reminder how the album as a whole still pales in comparison to the original.

You can appreciate a band that isn’t too afraid to tackle an almost canonical album while maintaining their characteristic sound. The album’s conception still comes off almost as a dare – as if enigmatic Coyne himself was just trying to do the next “weird” thing. No word yet if the album synchs up with the “Wizard of Oz” or any other movie.

Lips fans will probably love it, but Pink Floyd purists will probably still go burning the album in heretical glee.

R.L. Stine Gives Readers A Halloween Scare

[Published in the BU Scout on November 2, 2009]

Goosebumps. Choose Your Own Scare. The Haunted Mask. Horrorland. Done nostalgically wallowing in the creepiest, spookiest corners of your childhood? R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series permeated every literate grade-schooler’s life at a certain point. It was hard to avoid the frenzy: there seemed to be a new book out every week, a television series, movies, toys, fruit snacks, games and underwear…

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I had the Goosebumps underwear.

But anyway, it was pretty hard not to be drawn to these easy-to-read books with the cool covers where kids (just like me!) got into some pretty weird situations (Go Eat Worms!). I stumbled upon an old favorite…Attack of the Jack-O’-Lanterns.

Now I have to say, it isn’t the creepiest of Stine’s books like Night of the Living Dummy, the title is not as clever as Say Cheese and Die! And the cover isn’t nearly as impressive as a staircase dripping with Monster Blood, but hey; it is still a genuine Goosebumps book.

After establishing the main character as a mischievous and tough twelve-year-old girl - Drew, we find out that Halloween is her favorite holiday. But it was ruined two years ago by a couple of big fat jerks, Tabby and Lee. (These two pranksters faked a break-in and a strange hostage situation where Drew was forced to do pushups!) So this year, Drew has a plan to get even – thus begins the good ol’ fashioned revenge tale: Goosebumps-style!

The blood-dripping chapter numbers of the book flew by as I read the book at a record pace. Almost every chapter ends in a mini-cliffhanger where someone gets scared because a big gruesome monster is biting its razor sharp fangs into Drew’s flesh…only then does she realize that it is a Halloween mask. If you get frightened at all at the end of these chapters; it’s okay. Just turn the page and the benign phenomenon will be explained instantly.

Back to the story: Drew somehow convinces Tabby and Lee to go trick-or-treating - which is strange since they seem to be mortal enemies. You see, Tabby is a little stuck-up *#&@ and dresses like a princess every year, and Drew is a bit of a tomboy. Oh, and Drew also has a tendency to growl at people… I counted seven “Grrrrr’s” throughout this 113-page turner. She’s got a bit of a complex and is described as small and elf-like, which lends itself to her deep resentment of almost everyone. This is Drew’s last chance for revenge, and last time to trick-or-treat because apparently you have to stop the moment you hit the teenage years.

While tick-or-treating, the gang meets up with what they assume are their twin friends, Shane and Shana. They got these real great pumpkin head masks, with real flames in the jack-o’-lanterns! Tabby and Lee are real scared once it becomes clear that these pumpkinheads want them to keep trick-or-treating…forever!

I don’t want to SPOIL the ending for you, but the pumpkin heads really were their friends the whole time: they just happen to be shape shifting aliens who have been abducting, killing and eating fat adults in their town for the past few years. Oh, and if you are wondering if that little jack-o’-lanterned dog (the one on the cover) appears in the book, don’t bother looking. He is nowhere to be found…the only disappointing moment of reading the book.

The Silversun Pickups Band to Bring Unique Sound to Expo Gardens

[Published in the BU Scout on October 23, 2009]

Few indie bands have made quite the same kind of impact in only a few short years as the Silversun Pickups.

Even if they are hearkening back to some grungy elements of the ’90s, the Pickups bring enough fresh talent and themes to the table to make them a musically legitimate powerhouse.

The closest genre you could classify The Pickups would be shoegaze.

Named to describe bands like My Bloody Valentine and several others in the late ’80s, the term comes from describing how the bands typically performed in a detached, almost bored manner. For such loud distorted guitar rock, it was odd to watch a band basically stand on stage “gazing at their shoes.”

The Pickups, however, put on a fantastic, energy-filled show that differentiates them from their earlier influences.

The music of the Pickups sounds almost dense, with multiple guitar tracks, but it still remains almost minimalist. Distortion and overdriven guitars contrast heavily with the almost ghostly vocals.

They sound a lot like the Smashing Pumpkins at moments, but have a more uplifting and optimistic sound.

After initially getting your ears blasted with multiple layers of overdriven guitars on their first album “Carnivas,” you will immediately notice the otherworldly voice of Brian Aubert. The signature vocal effects of his voice construct a strange childlike sound worthy of being a unique instrument on its own. One moment the song may lead you through a sweet, almost feminine voice, then a gut-wrenching scream during a chorus cuts through to deliver the real emotion.

“Lazy Eye” was the mega-hit off their first album, with a dr e amy and addictive hook that spirals into a frenzied state as the song’s storyline takes a life of its own.

The band’s sophomore album, “Swoon” came out this summer and is better in every way. The title of the album is perfect – it exemplifies that immersive feeling put forth by almost every song on the album. The loud parts are louder, the soft parts, more sweet this time around, with an added bonus of a strings section on a few tunes.

“Panic Switch” and the recently released “Substitution” are the first two singles off the album a n d encapsulate very specific, yet relatable moods.

The band is coming to Peoria’s Expo Gardens on Wednesday. I’ve seen them live at Lollapalooza and they are definitely worth seeing. The group appreciates its fans and loves a good crowd.

The Silversun Pickups truly need to be experienced, because you might miss something if you simply give them a casual listen. Songwriter Aubert is that artsy kid in the corner of the crowded room, one day hoping to shyly reveal his poetry to the girl of his dreams. Paired with harmonizing female bassist Nikki Monninger, the pair produces an eerie but beautiful beast that equally snarls and croons its love songs.

Their music is intricately layered, and you can pick out the multiple guitar tracks and appreciate each one in its own way where they build up to be “just on the right side of the white noise.”

Monkeys Mature and Release Humbug

[Published in the BU Scout on September 9, 2009]

For a band hailed as the next big thing out of the U.K. since Oasis, it is still surprising that more people haven’t heard of the Arctic Monkeys.

With its third album, “Humbug,” released on Aug. 25, the lads from across the pond are steadily entering into American consciousness, though longtime fans may be disappointed.

Those of you still wondering “Who The @*%! Are The Arctic Monkeys?” look up its first two albums.

The debut album “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,” and breakthrough single “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” came out in 2006. Through constant touring and Internet fan pages, it became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history.

Sounding like the recording came straight out of the garage, the raw energy and unpolished nature of the band appeals to any fan of the do-it-yourself attitude. Each song in “Whatever People Say,” composed of what seems to be several tunes hacked together, evolves beautifully with its own beginning, middle and end. Singer Alex Turner is an observant and sometimes bitter wallflower – commenting on situations with a strong Yorkshire accent that adds a charming flair to his otherwise brooding nature.

The Monkeys’ sophomore album, the significantly heavier “Favourite Worst Nightmare,” perfected its unique formula to make a CD that sounds fantastic from start to finish. The album is much more polished than its predecessor, but still maintains that sound of controlled chaos with songs like “Brianstorm” and “Teddy Picker.”

As a third album, “Humbug” in its entirety may seem to be a bit of a disappointment, though it only appears so when compared to the Monkeys’ previous works.

Produced by Queens Of The Stone Age frontman, Josh Homme, the Monkeys introduce a new dreamy background ambience of sound that was only hinted at with Turner’s side project, The Last Shadow Puppets.

Also, fans of producer Dangermouse will appreciate the introduction, but it might alienate those waiting for another dance number.

The first single, “Crying Lightning” weaves dreamy guitars and clever wordplay into a grand showcase of what the band does best. Pulling together Turner’s storytelling genius and the band’s penchant for a living, breathing musical backdrop, “Lightning” is the best song on the album.

Halfway through the album, long-time Monkeys fans expecting something more dynamic and danceable will find it in “Potion Approaching” and then “Pretty Visitors” with more familiar, funky rhythms.

Most of the songs are missing that defining vitality that allowed each song to unfold into several different rhythms and melodies.

Perhaps it is a sign of the band’s maturity, to make a song as consistent as some of these are, but I miss the almost haphazard combinations of song elements. Of the ten songs on the CD, only a handful follow the usual configuration.

It is unfair to say this is a step back for The Arctic Monkeys. Instead think of “Humbug” as a slight sidestep exploring only a certain vision of the band.

Fans can appreciate that the Dylan-esque social commentary-through-storytelling is still there, further defined in soulful ballads like “Cornerstone.”

While “Humbug” would indeed complete the collection, fans of the first two albums are better off looking up the multitude of unheard B-sides, which are all masterpieces in their own rights.

The Dead Weather Displays New Shade of White

[Published in the BU Scout on April 3, 2009]

Of all the words you can use to describe Jack White, predictable is not one of them. He’s an actor and one-time upholsterer, but he’s mostly revered for his involvement in several genre-crossing musical endeavors since the early 1990s.

There was the Grammy-winning rock duo, The White Stripes, with the single “Seven Nation Army.” There was the Academy Award-nominated soundtrack for Cold Mountain, to which White contributed several songs. There was the massive hit “Steady As She Goes” by the industry-proclaimed supergroup The Raconteurs.

It seems that his latest supergroup will be no different in terms of success, talent and all-out awesomeness.

They call themselves The Dead Weather. Indie-rocker Alison Mosshart of The Kills fronts the band as the lead vocalist. Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age contributes on keys and Jack Lawrence from the Raconteurs rejoins Jack White on bass. White himself takes a step back to return to his first passion: drumming.

While they may not seem like the typical supergroup to many, the mere presence of Jack White amongst fellow musicians seems qualification enough.

It’s been over a decade since the rock duo emerged from the heart (or bowels) of Detroit. Comprised of only singer/guitarist Jack White and his companion drummer Meg, The White Stripes attacked eardrums and industry standards with such tenacity that they changed the face of popular music.

Loud, distorted blues riffs accompanied by simple-but-steady drumming were suddenly okay for the mainstream. Jack and Meg charmed fans with a portrait of innocent child-like companions on a journey through a three-colored world of red, black and white. Throughout their rise, they maintained their humble attitude and lost few fans to claims of “selling-out.” It was quite clear the Whites were just interested in making good music.

During their six-studio album career, The White Stripes came in a surprising amount of shades.

Early work focused mainly on garage-rock oriented riffs and southern blues-style slide guitar. Their third and fourth albums, most notably “Elephant,” launched the duo out of the garage and into the mainstream with more complicated song writing and advanced soloing from Jack. His voice morphed song to song from soothing boyish naivety to howling emotional shrieks. The latest two albums, “Get Behind Me Satan” and “Icky Thump” began branching out from their tried-and-true method of simple music composition. There are marimbas, bagpipes and even a full horns section in “Thump.”

Though their overall concept and simple, yet oh-so-sophisticated approach to music cemented the White Stripes as the king and queen of modern rock, Jack didn’t stop there; for there was music to be made.

The Raconteurs arose when he formed a full band with Patrick Keeler, Jack Lawrence, and fellow Detroit native Brendan Benson. Since all members had been in previous bands, the music industry instantly declared them a supergroup, though it was far more obvious who the famous front man was.

White shared his love for hard-hitting blues with new band mates, while delving deeper into the world of country and bluegrass in their two albums “Broken Boy Soldiers” and “Consolers of The Lonely.”

Jack’s touring with The Raconteurs left The White Stripes on somewhat of a hiatus, broken only with a single performance on the final episode of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” earlier this year. With a lack of information lately, it came as somewhat of a shock to see Jack White producing yet another band, The Dead Weather, with a confirmed album release this June. While fans barely have time to recover from hearing of the band’s existence, the first single “Hang You from the Heavens” was released on March 11, along with a cover of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?”

“Heavens” features many characteristics of White’s most recent works with the Raconteurs, with thick, lurching guitars reminiscent of “Consoler of the Lonely.”

Alison Mosshart’s haunting vocals actually sound a lot like White’s as she stammers verses and sputters choruses. The b-side cover features the whimsically clunky organ-work you’ve come to expect on a Stripes track like “I’m Slowly Turning Into You.” The two songs are available for listening on thedeadweather.com, and their magnificence should make Horehound one of the most anticipated debut albums of the year.

Jack White’s illustrious music career has already declared him one of music’s greatest contributors, yet with each new album, you can’t help thinking that he’s just getting started.

Out of Batteries

This really is one of my favorite videos to date...I just think it turned out exactly how I wanted it to. I storyboarded it (I can't conceive of a project without proper storyboards), and shot and edited the thing, and got Mike Davis and Tom Sifuentez to star in it.

Shooting consisted of one, four-hour shoot that included all the indoors shots and outside parts. The inside shoots had few complications - there was a slight color-correction that was needed to get rid of blue hues in one of the rooms, and that was done during post-production. Since there was only one real scene to shoot outside (the final confrontation) it was overlooked that a mic of some kind would be needed. The on-camera mic would not have sufficed, so the audio was later dubbed over and syched up with the video.

Editing went smoothly, since the storyboards were done in a concise and professional manner. I had a slight dilemma with the audio. The project was conceived and designed around the musician Beck's 8-bit remixes of a few of his songs, but I don't exactly have the rights to his music. (Damn you UMG!) So I mixed my own audio track to emulate the feeling of those songs. Later, It was obvious that there was no subsitute for the REAL Beck, so an alternate version was produced utilizing "8-Bit Variations in B-Flat" and "Bad Cartridge". This was for a school project, so no one should get too mad at me...

If I had to change anything - I would of course get that microphone (boom mic) to get that famous one-liner.

Here is a direct link to the video with Beck's Music (UMG won't allow the video to be embedded on any website...jerks) Click Here!

Here is the video with the music I mixed:

Welcome to the blog!

This is the first post of the new blog...be sure to expect a detailed explanation on the production of all future projects (and maybe some older ones). The projects themselves will be on http://thekissilent.com since that is the portfolio. I will talk about the website's production in a future post! Also, I plan on sharing how I did my CSS/HTML hover animation on the main navigation of the website, and maybe repost some other stuff from my past. Check out the About Me section or click on the My Portfolio link!