A set of notes or: Rules for Drowned Girl

 I'm trying to cleanup my inbox. So I'm posting these notes from the Marsian Queene here:

Various color-corrections.

One thing about the theater - the first Triad scene around 9:43 is the right color correction. I think there is one after that, that is too dark, around 15:27. If we can't see the surrounding theater we get confused about why she is so tiny and distant.

I think? also maybe we lost the vignette in Popsicle in some later scenes.

Now I make the following rules and we can argue about them.

1. No weirdness inside scenes till after "fur coat" scene.

The weirdness has to build up. Right now I feel like the weirdness is all blended in. (I know this is not literally true but slightly true.)

So in the part before fur-coat, no snow in the junkyard, no water behind her in the Triad. We can use the "weird" takes, like the reflection takes in the junkyard and Triad. (I don't know if you have, but if you have it's ok under This Rule.) We can put lots of weirdness in the transitions between scenes (as you have done) but the scenes themselves should have no additional effects.

Exception: the very first moment "You ask about Jud Suss?" should be as weird as possible. I like what you have right now but it could be more? if you are tempted to do something else, more?

2. No dipping to black, no actual break from the action.

Need to fill in all the interludes with visuals. The last interlude with the redness is nice! We can't sit in blackness because it drops the build and rhythm.

3. No "swapping" the color corrections.

Popsicle needs to stay b/w and junkyard needs to stay color. Weirdness can happen but they can't switch. It could snow in Popsicle. Water could happen in junkyard. Vignetting can happen in Triad.

Exception: In Popsicle when she talks about Jugend and shooting it in color - keep what you have where she talks about how great it was to shoot in color. Then back to black & white as you have.

Other various color-corrections. Actually, two are the same I believe. 

I broke down

 I broke down an ordered a Telecaster. 

It's a cheap Telecaster. I know I won't be happy until I jump up many rungs and get a Fender Custom Shop tele designed just for me, but until that time, this is what I'm doing. 

I have a '51 Nocaster bridge pickup for it, and a Twisted Tele neck pickup. I also have some compensated brass saddles. I am considering an armrest carve and belly carve. I'm also considering putting a D-shaped hole in it. But I'm definitely putting paisleys on it. 

You'll note it is already quite light, so putting a relief hole (where the armrest carve would go) might not be the best thing. And without stripping off the poly, those sorts of cuts might not work at all. But the paislies? Oh those will work. 

PhD'ing

So, theoretically (heh) I have my viva voce for my PhD in March of 2023. Which means I have to finish writing the music (and doing all the audio post) for the Richard Byrne penned, Laura Schlachtmeyer produced, Drowned Girl, starring Annalisa Loeffler. 

I also need to fundamentally re-write the actual thesis, and write a big ol' commentary explaining why I put all the music cues where I did. 

I'm scoring in Dorico. Having to write out the score is 1. vital for any sort of academic work and 2. harder and slower than just playing into a DAW. But then there's also the fact I will likely want real players (alto flute, cello, harp, piano) to play on it so it needs to be laid out in a score anyway. Dorico is mostly pretty good. Sometimes it doesn't play back, sometimes it's a bit frustrating. But it works with my Spitfire BBCSO sample library so it's own output has the capability of sounding surprisingly good even without any real editing of the performances.

A spoon-billed platypus.

Various and Sundry

Now I put D'Addario EXL156 strings on my baritone. Those strings are actually made for the Bass VI. 

24 34 44 56 72 84

Getting the low E (the 84) through the hole in a tuning peg was more of an adventure than I'd signed up for. But it works. 

One of my favorite stills from Brazil.

I still can't figure out the relief adjustment on the Eden neck. There just doesn't seem to be anything to attach a wrench or screwdriver to. I'll call or write to them tomorrow to see if they can help. 

A pair of snuggly mastodons. Don't you try to tell me about biology. I know what mastodons look like.

Remember that Mastodon is the Twitter alternative. 

Taiko Project is an LA-based taiko group. They seem pretty cool. 

No you are

Ingram Engineering is sort of neat company that makes some preamps and tilt equalizers. 

Fabula and syuzhet.

Animation settings in um... whatever the name of that program is. UE? Unreal Engine. That's it.

All Pedals contract manufacturing. 

BP settings. I suspect this was just for a very specific thing.

I put D'Addario XL Nickel Wound Baritone Medium Gauge strings on my baritone guitar. That's 14, 18, 26W, 44, 56, 68. Guitar still doesn't work properly, mind you. I have a lot of neck adjustment and pickup height changes to make before it's playable. But it has new strings. 

2 in, 1 more to go

So I got this email:

I am pleased to inform you that you have satisfied the Board of Assessors for your Internal Evaluation, which took place recently, in accordance with the requirements of the regulations for your research degree. 

   

This recommendation was ratified at a meeting of the Postgraduate Research Awards Board, held on 31 March 2022. You may therefore continue your course of advanced study and research. 

 

Please ensure that you keep in regular contact with your Doctoral School Administrator (email address copied into this message) who will provide you with details of all your future progression point requirements. 

So, one more year to complete my thesis for my PhD.

Penguin Game

 Joe Wilkinson's penguin game is really one of the funniest things I've heard.

It's really simple: you just see how long you can go without thinking about a penguin.

SIC

Have you checked out Chance Shirley on the Sleep In Cinema podcast? He's a great interview, really insightful and an amazing filmmaker. 

For Example

 I'm having a devil of a time with the Electric Princess overdrive. It's not even properly doing bypass. A lot of troubleshooting has happened. Much more will come. 

One issue of rather low importance right now is that one of the potentiometers is an audio reverse log at 5kΩ. There's a whole technique to rebuilding your own pots. But there's no way I'm going to do that. I'm sure just switching the pins on the PCB will allow me to get a regular 5k pot in there. 

That is, once the dang thing works. 

Ooh. I got bypass to work. Just not on a switch yet.

Electric Princess Overdrive PCB

 I got my set of five PCB's for the Electric Princess Overdrive from JLC. 

I'm still waiting on getting hardware parts. They're all coming with the enclosures. But the resistors, transistors, and capacitors are (almost) all SMD and were picked and placed and soldered by JLC. The switches, jacks, and pots need to be soldered by me. I'm just champing at the bit to get the parts.

Moo. Min.

Deadly Structures is an exceptionally cool video game. It is very hard to play. David Denyer is one of the developers. 

THE PANTONE COLOR OF THE YEAR 2022 PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri

There are numerous high-gain mods to the JCM-800. To me that sorta defeats the purpose of the JCM-800 but there you go.

Panda Planner. I don't know if it's a good planner, but I'm amused by the name. 

Namecheap email hosting.

Component suppliers for guitar pedals. 

Listen to Chance Shirley. 

Apparently all anyone wants are Tube Screamers and Fuzz Faces. 

Announcing the Electric Princess Overdrive

Here's a pre-production image of the top of my guitar pedal. The name has been changed to the Electric Princess Overdrive. The always brilliant Chance Shirley designed it. 

Here is the schematic. There are two gain stages: one that is based on an "Electro Harmonix Linear Power Boost" (but I think with slightly different cap values and a different transistor?), the other is based on the obnoxiously-named "Super Hard On" by Zvex. 

In-between those stages are two passive equalizers. One was a circuit I found using the Seymour Duncan EQ app (that's called the "Stack" in the Electric Princess Overdrive) and the other is the 100cps portion of a Pultec EQP1 where one can boost and cut simultaneously and it sounds cool. 

Have I put a completed one together yet? Heck no. I've tested everything except for the Pultec and I really like how it sounds though. 

Glimbp

Mini toggle switch!

Owl always love you.

Love My Switches is a fun seeming company.

Prism Live is, I think, based on OBS. 

Have I mentioned Subspace TV recently? Because it's really cool. 

Claude Debussy - Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp

Then what and such well

 The Marsian Queen on NPR (around 8 minutes). 

TouchDAW is a program that lets you use a tablet or device to control your DAW. 

Paste magazine's notion of the best 100 Film Noir of all time.

Synchronization rights.

BMI, ASCAP, etc.