Week 7 - Friday - Day 31

Started at 10 again and we had to continue working on the magazine. I had to retype texts again. Import pictures and slide it to the corner and convert them to greyscale.
Always slide the picture on the corner tosize it in every way, but if possible and to fill up space you can stretch it, but only if there isn't much quality loss and everything is still visible. If your picture isn't big enough from corner to corner make sure the other ads get the same size so it will still look decent. Mess around with it and place it in the center for example or work with thick borders to fill up the blank space.

Never cover the page numbers and make sure every text is readable. Use pictures to make your articles look more fancy; this can be on the background of text, partially on the background at the top or bottom or  a small picture filling up the blank space.
Also don't have multiple fonts on one ad. Stick with one otherwise it will look unproffessional.

There are a lot to think about when fixing a magazine, especially the pagenumbers. It won;t line up on one page like we are used to, but he page numbers will count from left to right up as well as back.
For example page 2 on the left and page 35 on the right, next page has 34 on the left and page 3 on the right. etc. That was something that confused me for a moment, but it makes sense xD

It sure takes lots of work to make a magazine as you have to think about placement, get sure the sponsors have their ads, page numbers and articles. I didn't work on it from the first step, but am working on the last phase. Adding the sponsors and pictures.

At 6 I was done. I had to change another ad for an event and had to add new symbols and a new background. My co/worker also dropped by and sang in some scratchtracks. Which means tracks that are still concepts and will be shown to the singes. The singers have the chance to change the song to their liking.
The scratch track is only there as an example. If the song will be used the recording process starts again.
It was cool to see that happen. I didn´t realize a scratchtrack was also a process in the music industry, though it does make a lot of sense to be there.

After 6 my roommates and I headed to the mac donalds. We were all so hungry. I didn´t order anymore burgers even though I planned two at first as I thought I would still cook rice and bake chicken, but as we got home at 8:30 and I got full I didn't do it anymore.

At night I moved my stuff to my room and got to be the co- judge of the broken record stand which means a one episode competition where people had to sing terrible songs. As intro we sang Never gonna give up as that one has to be the most overrated and terrible song out there. It was hilarious to do. I was nervous but my co judge is so spontaneous; he pulls you right into it.
The show was a success and I listened back to it with other members of the forum right after. Normally I would cringe at my voice, but now I liked it and we also received positive responses!
Now we are planning a new show (a horror show)  which will be 8 episodes long.

Week 7 - Thursday: Day 30

1/3rd of my internship done and there's still a lot on my way too. I still have commercials coming up, magazines, album covers, learning mixing, voice acting, maybe background vocals and events to attend to.
The Calgary stampede is from 7-15 July, but I have to work on Friday and Saturday at Streetwheelers on Saturday 12th and 13th, so that will be a busy weekend with Calgary stampede on the 14th.
But it will be a lot of fun.

Today was a short day due to the supervisor hurting himself a day before. He had to go to the hospital so I was free in the morning until 11:30. I slept that whole time as I am so stupid to keep on reading stories and roleplay until 1:30. I think too much so I only sleep a few hours at night xD

When I arrived we worked on the magazine for streetwheelers. My job was to add in sponsors on the right page and to retype some parts as it were converted to curves and so you can't select the font.
I had to add in pictures and convert them to greyscale. Next to that I had to remake a whole ad for someone. It had to look the same, but the picture had to be different.
The supervisor didn't expect I could do that easily. I was slow though, but I at least had it done.

My program didn't cooperate that well too as it kept on freezing, but we got that part done. At 4 I got brought home. I cooked some potatoes with veggies and two sausages, but I was full quickly.
Played another Resident evil round, listened to a singing round (got second place ^^)
and signed me up for judging a competition. I just have to take htis step, so I'm more comfortable in talking English. People enjoy my voice he said so that is a comforting thought.

Week 7 - Wednesday: Day 29

Oh man, I should keep up with my blog because I have a hard time remembering what I worked on o.o
Oh yeah, this day was all about driving. We drove around Lethbridge to go to Sponsors and working on the Magazine that way. I sat in the car and had the laptop on my lap having to open the files of the clients we were going to. I didn't really go inside or anything, I just waited in the car. Sometimes I had to look up an address or had to change an ad slightly. We were driving around for 3 hours and stopped at A&W for lunch.
We took a picture for the magazine and then decided to drop by at the casino. I gambled a lot and I lost..
Just kidding. We only checked it out briefly as I have never been in a casino before. It looked really good, so many machines and lights! I would love to go to a casino once when there's an opportunity. (Bachelor party? =P) But don't worry, I won't gamble too much.

After we had to get copies ready for the orchestral and jazz band. Fun... putting 100 booklets into the case as well as the disk it's self. It actually took quite long as well xD Well that was my day, quite shorter than the day before.

Week 7 - Tuesday: Day 28 - long but good day

Started at 10:45 and the first thing we jumped into was the supervisor showing how the mixing panel works.
Because! I would guide my co-worker through the practice session. Which means I had to know how to communicate with her, the do's and don'ts of the mixing panel and the volume control.
First the mixing panel has to be turned on of course and that requires two red buttons. The middle one first! Wait a few seconds and the buttom one can be turned on. Then the computer has to be started and you're good to go. The lights should be orange, not red which is obviously a sign of error.
The drums got set up, though tha twas a short process.

After that he started Nuendo and showed how to work with the microphone. In order to make it work the red slide for volume should be at 0 and depending on what instrument the person plays the number corresponding that one should be to the middle. Is the slide up and the microphone, then there will be feedback and that will heard your ears badly. Instead of sliding the microphone things down you can also press the mute button.

No problem, I got it down. My co-worker arrived and I lead her to the studio and started communicating through the microphone. I wasnt nervous or anything, I knew her from three months back and she is a very relaxed woman. I helped her set up the track for her to practice, but got the request to turn up the vocals. At first I didn't know what to do, but eventually I got back to her and put the slide of the mixer up.

During the practice sessions I talked with her during breaks and in the meantime I also worked on the album cover and finished the masking first which was the easy part, but chosing the fonts, colors and position would be tricky. Eventually I had the feeling I got it and also the supervisor thought I did a good job. The only thing I had to change was the rectangle shape. It had to be more a square so I had to cut off a part from the top.
Because of this I had to make the font slightly smaller and put it more to the middle. I can't show you the result now, but when the album is for sale online I will!

I also got an explanation on what Auxileries or AUX in a drumtrack do which is quite important in the process. You have three of them.
Aux 1 = Kick drum in and kick drum out. Making this a stereo and overall sound.
Aux 2 = Snare drum  in and out. Same.
Aux 3 = Toms plus hi-hat..

In another break my co-worker and I talked about her projects and harmonies in songs. She got curious and wanted to hear me sing.  I showed her and she said she was impressed and had to show the supervisor.
I also showed the dragonborn comes to him and you should have seen the look on his face. He ran upstairs and called his wife to listen too. He was just in disbelief it was me; he didn't know I could sing.
>.> I am starting to believe now I can sing as he is owning a record lable and was praising me. I should stop being so darn shy about it. He suddenly got ideas of me singing back up vocals for a Celtic song from one of his artists and instead of working on an instrumental project with my co-worker he wanted me to sing in it too. He will for sure use my singing now which I still can;t believe. I hoped this would happen, or dreamt a little of it, but never thought I will now. Don't know what plans he exactly has with my voice, but I am really looking forward to it!

My co-worker and I left to get some subway and I met another artist from the studio. Really nice lady and she sings soooo good! You should check the L.A Records youtube page and hear her sing. She is amazing.
The supervisor also wanted me to show me singing to her xD
Anyways I sat at work until 10 pm watching how my co-worker played bass! Longest work day I ever had (Nearly 12 hours) though it didn't feel like work most of the time.

When I got home I found out I won an acapella singing episode, got asked for another Skyrim role and my bard Ange came out in a mod
(Yes, I should be less shy about posting me sing even though I can hear mistakes, so here it is:

So this is a very rewarding day! I'm happy.

Week 7: Monday - Day 27

Today I started at 10 and we started working on our advertising: Facebook.
We wanted to create a new page for L.A Records, but we thought that it would be better to have a banner and profile picture for the Studio productions one.

I spent quite some time on getting it right. We were planning on having the banner with the logo on the left side and pictures of the studio lined up on the right. It took us a while to find a nice picture, but when it was done and uploaded it the supervisor didn't realize the profile picture would be in the way of the logo so we had to redo it. Now the pictures would go in the profile picture and the logo in the middle of the banner.
We thought of some text to use and then worked on the profile picture. We couldn't figure out what picture to fill up one spot so instead we used a bunch of logo's. And once everything was nearly done we had to find a background for the banner. It took a while, but eventually I found one with some nice dots which weren't in the way of the letters.

Well here is the end result. My first banner made in corel draw (with the help of my supervisor of course) When you're on facebook you can like the page! We will be more active soon.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LA-Studio-Productions/178189272233990

And the Records and Media is here even though there is nothing on it yet.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LA-Records-Media-Distributing/513463515367608?ref=hl


After the facebook thing I got a new assignment: Creating an album cover for a singer.
The supervisor pasted in some pictures which I had to use and quickly showed how to mask the picture for the cd picture. I couldn't work on it yet, but would tomorrow as I had minigold in the evening.

Not sure what else we did, but I got home at 5:30. I ate some soup as I wasn't feeling too well and wasn't hungry at all. At 6:45 my roommate and I left and quickly picked up his sister from school.
There were quite a lot of people at the golfcourse. I think 16? Luckily I recognized most of them.
I got into an all girl group and we started with the 4 of us but someone else joined. The group was hilarious and quite hyper xD I took the game seriously at first but later got into their mood. We named our balls as somehow two teammember's balls kept on hugging each other and because of that we just needed to name them xD Mine was calld Bubbles as she looked like bubblegum (or that was what a teammember said)
We also got a grear picture and I filmed a little. The golfcourse was so pretty! Had lots of water and fountains and mini waterfalls and stuff.

At 9 we were done and we were standing around in a huge group doing nothing. Well, nothing. Most people started waving around their golfclub, trying to balance it on their hand or forehead or they were doing 'club fighting'or were pushing each other way. Eventually someone took the initiative to go get some icecream.
Our small group went as well even though we didn't want icecream xD We were just standing outside waiting for the others to come out and that's where we stood for another 90 minutes.
The group is cool and all, but I can't really talk that well with them yet. Sure I join in their silly conversations, but that;s it. My feet also started to hurt like hell and it got cold, so when the group shrinked to 6 people at 10:30 I asked to go home as well. At home we also ate our well deserved icecream in the form of a milkshake, but once again after a few sips I was full even though I didn't have solid food the whole day.
At 1:30 I went too bad as I got carried away in reading roleplays. Man, makes me want to write again and I shall one day again! But first have to finish my other projects >.<

Week 7 - Weekend

... What did I even do, I can not remember xD Oh yes, I worked on editing my submission for a creepy pasta reading (scary stories) I got 3rd by the way, so that was fun.
I did lots of editing on songs as I am joining in the Voice Hollywood Carnaval. Other than that I played skyrim for a long time and played resident evil. Was supposed to go to church the next day, but I didn't feel good so I stayed home. On sunday I continued editing and watched a lot of De Lama's episode, out of nowhere XD And at 3 I got brought to the church as I was supposed to help my roommate with painting.
But... Igot lost. All doors from the church were closed. The right entrance was also locked, but I saw an Asian guy walking and followed him and saw I forgot to check that door.
I ended up in a Japanese service and no sign of my roommate. I asked around, but they couldn't help me either. One lady did say she could be downstairs. But yeah, where is that? Not downstairs in that building as it was empty.
I waited near her car and luckily spotted the leader from the biblestudy who eventually let me in.

I met another biblestudy friend who helped her too. We couldn't get much done, we only pained some blocks green and it was already time to go. Aw well, I was at least out and got social XD

I forgot what I did on sunday night, but I couldn't sleep at all so I turned on my laptop and started reading old roleplays until 3:30 in the morning. Gaah.. I do miss it as the characters have actually become very important to me =P 

Week 6 - Friday: Day 26

We started with taking a look at my booklet and he was happy with what I showed him.
The order was good, the only thing I had to change was to underline the titles and to use a different font.
Not too bad, ey? (=P) I'm glad that was good, only we moved on to the script which I was less sure about.
It was not too bad he said, it needed some improvement which I perfectly understand.
I had the commercial starting with an intro which wasn't appropriate. He taught me I have to start the commercial with the name of the company and announcing the event.

Some wordings were improved, but the content of the lines I wrote pretty much still existed.
Instead of writing 'us' I had to write down the name of the company and the extro also had to consist of the company's name. We basically copied the first line again only changed it slightly at the end to attract the viewer.

After that I had to read the script out loud. Gosh, what a disaster. I felt it was lacking and he also noticed I struggled. We started practicing words as I really really have to improve the 'th' sound.
I have to stick out my tongue more in order to do that, but as I'm not used to it I keep on forgetting that.
I also have to pronounce the p, d and t's at the end which I slur. Well, I know I have to open my mouth more and speak slower in order to pronounce those letters too.
Next thing I have to work on is my confidence. My readings need more energy, but I can't do energy when I'm focusing too much on my speech. I also smile all the time when i talk which is a sign of nervousness.
Didn't even realize this xD but I did feel awkward trying to pronounce the words correctly. I have to work on my seriousness now.
Well, good thing I have a creepy pasta reading coming up (which means reading out a scary story)
So that way I can practice my speech a lot.

He also told me he had to learn the dictionary and memorize all words in college and the way things have to be pronounced. Good advice, I will do that too at words I'm not sure of so I will pronounce them better.
(like the word temperature)

Later I will have to record the same script and work on my energy and pronunciation. That will be a blast, though it will probably take a while to nail it. Confidence is the key.

Now I will get to watch my supervisor to record the commercial. The way it looks now he will be using my altered script so that's cool! Next to that I will be home in the afternoon starting from 1 o clock, but will have to go back this evening for the last recording session for Mike's album.
Will have to cook early this time, spaghetti is on the menu. Yummie.

Cooking is going pretty well! Haven't messed up anything yet, but to be fair I don't change much in my food.
I mostly bake hamburgers, chicken, meatloaf and sausages. I make spaghetti, wraps, rice and potatoes with frozen veggies. I vary more than my roommates though. I never see them cook actually =P

Week 6 - Thursday - Day 25

We started out by looking at videos and take a look at what videos we wanted to put online.
The majority of the time I have been uploading videos and walked back and forth the studio to take a look.

At the end of the day he took a look at my script which I wrote on Monday.. He thought my intro was funny, but not really what they would be looking for. He said to pull up the website and copy ONLY the price, gas info and features from the website. Don;t bother looking at the other more eleborate features.
Then from there you want to choose a feature that is important to people, for example the gas.
Avoid the automatic lock information as that isnt very important. If you pick out a feature script writing should be easier as you have a guideline as to write about.

I tried again and this time I had thought of something quick, only it was quite bad. My dialogue wasn't natural as you wouldn;t talk that way and my "Or we should buy a new one" (car) was randomly added only to get to the commercial. That's something I really have to work on especially with English not being my first language.

I also got homework at the end of the day: Writing a script for a Sports store and adding a long list of names into a booklet for the orchestra album.
I got the advice to look at the other commercials we put online to get an idea of the energy I have to put in it.

The first thing I did was working on the booklet as that looked the easiest for now. Unfortunately my program crashed the first time I tried. Being frustrated later I managed to finish it. I misclick a lot in that program so that I'm dragging the wrong thing over and over. I wasn't too sure what to do with the titles "Orchestra band and Stage band" But I had the both bands at least separated.

I had some supper in between: Chicken with green pepper and after that I had a game session with an online friend. (Got an online gaming buddy, finally =D)
Then it was time for script writing. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was surprisingly going well.
I had the intro written pretty quick and could see the combinations of the example lines. The end I was struggling with, but I ended up with: Go outside with *company* as they had outdoor shows and activities.
I was pretty content afterwards.

I also got an email from a person I was voice acting for stating that if I had to let him know if I would like to try out for anything else. I volunteered as a bard and 5 minutes later I got the songs!
Yay! I get to sing in my favorite game and so many people play that mod! Now hopefully I can make it work and don't shy down with roommates =P

Check out the new video I posted, that gives you an idea of how the studio looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/user/LARecordsandMedia

Week 6 - Wednesday : Day 24

This day started at 10:30. We started on fixing the orchestra songs and then we had to burn 84 copies.
In the meantime I could work on rendering the remaining video, but when the supervisor watched it he decided to drop it as it didn't look so professional after all.
He also showed me two magazines as we will have to finish the streetwheelers one and I could work on a few pages too. He asked me which one looked better and why. I like how he is asking me such questions as that makes me think about a lot of things. He also doesn't judge you at all when you are wrong as he will explain exactly why something works and why not. I could luckily spot the difference and we are going for the tighter look which means having the text written in small boxes so everything is on the right vertical line.
The other one had clear examples of words or letters jumping out of that box. He also asked me what I had to do in order to get that tight look. I thought of creating a box and that was kinda true, but there are also other ways. He showed me that they left extra spaces between some words to have everything match up.
If you just look at it you won;t even notice it.

I couldn't start yet on the magazines as the supervisor had to think things through so he didn't have a task for me. Instead he asked what I would like to do. I responded that I would love to mix and master a song!

We started things up and he gave me the files for a song which I heard play from the other intern's laptop. She is also working on it, only she has to figure it out on her own some more.
We started the project and I quickly fixed an issue with the sound and then we were good to go.
The first thing he wrote down for me to remember were the places of the instruments and the colors. He said more companies were doing it this way. I did write down some colors earlier, but now I got the full list.
Also ALWAYS lable your tracks so it's easier to find. I tend to forget this.
I had to make 16 mono tracks and 3 stereo for the drums. I don't fully understand why some tracks were stereo, but I will figure that out later.

The order of instruments and colors as follows:
Kick drum - Orange
Snare drum - Orange
Toms - Orange
Hi-hat - Orange
Overheads - Orange
Bass - Blue
Accoustic Guitar - Light green
Electric guitar - dark green
Organ / Piano - Pink
Vocals - Yellow

For the vocals you always need two seperate tracks. One for the reverb and the other 'dry' which means without the effect. I chose the church hall effect, but as there was too much reverb the supervisor explained that I should pull the wet slide down. Wet means with effects and now the effects were enabled fully instead of balanced. I also had to put the slide reverb time down from 4 to 2,5

When playing them together it sounds so much better as the dry one keeps the vocals strong.
After that EQ has to happen and the supervisor explained that we should edit it based on the human voice.
This means that the 4.000 has to be raised to 2,5 and 5.000 has to be raised to 2 and also 3,15 with 1.5
This gives the vocals a brighter sound.

Next step was to work on the drums. We added another reverb on all tracks with the church hall only this time we lowered the mixdown to 10. I personally thought there was too much reverb, but he supervisor said it sounded fine. As he had to leave my task was to edit the slides and make the drums sound better. I moved around some slides but I was actually stuck. I did know the kick should be lower than the snare, but other than that I didn't know what to do!
The supervisor explained I should start by 0 (stupid as he showed me that before only I wasn't actively involved) and from 0 you have to raise the volume one by one starting with the kicks.

I have to watch videos about mic placement at drums as I don't really have a clue to what sound has to be prominent.

Now the kick drums should be around -32
The snare - 20
Toms same as snare?
Hi hat I had to move around and see what fits
Overheads same thing
Bass also around -20 / - 15? Not too sure about that one, but I just had to try stuff out. With this list I would hear if something has to be louder or not.

Week 6 - Tuesday: Day 23

I woke up after barely having slept. I only had a light sleep so I did dream a lot, but I saw every hour in the night. I stayed home in the morning, but went to work at 1 after all. Bad idea on one hand as I got so tired during the day. The first thing I remember is that we fixed the voice files from the voice acting I had done earlier. After that the Supervisor had to leave and left me with the task of editing a script. I had to highlught the important parts and make the lines flow. This task was easier than coming up with a script by myself.
Later we tried finding a streetwheeler video and I had to edit the beginning and end and upload it to youtube.
 I was supposed to look at 1000 pictures of cars and had to pick out 20, but eventually that didn't happen. I got no clue what else we did o.o must have been on auto pilot as normally I remember everything clearly. I do know that the singer dropped by at 3:30 and we had to set up the studio for him to practice with the drums. I got to take a look at how he tested the drums and to get the vocal booth ready.
My task was to carry a guitar to the booth and I made the stupid mistake by bumping the guitar against the door >.> The supervisor let me know that it's alright for now (He knows I'm not feeling well) but I should NEVER do this with an artist's own guitar. That would ruin the atmosphere immensely and the artist will remember this experience as something horrible and will blame one of the coworkers for it.
Yeah, lesson learnt. I will pay attention to it from now on. I got a second chance by bringing the guitar back and picking up another but this time I didn't do anything wrong.
The drummer arrived and when everything was set up I had to go back and turn up the headset volume.
It didn't look too hard as that device only had things unplugged for headsets. He said to put it on 2 o clock, which makes it level 4. This should be the average setting, but if you are me you want it lower xD

Didn't do much right after. I had to render some videos with an extra ending, but as the supervisor saw how tired I was he brought me home at 5. 

Week 6- Long Weekend

Saturday I didn't do much so no use talking about it.
The next day was more eventful. In the morning I went to church with my roommates and that was early, but also nice. It's so different from our church. At the start we had to greet people and wish them good morning or get to know them before we started the real service. Also they had a woman singing and playing the piano and a man backing up with keyboard. She had such a beautful voice! The songs just hit you because she sang it so powerful. Also during prayers the woman started playing the last song we sung softly on the piano which made the prayer had more meaning. Well, it has it without too, but the music is strengthening it.
I didn't really pay attention at the sermon as my mind likes to go elsewhere >.> But hat happens in our church too or at school.
There was also a well known African gospel singer singing in Swahili! The songs sounded so happy in that language. I only could understand the word Baba which means father (thanks to the baba yetu song =P)
There was also a child dedication which I never really experienced before. The preacher held the baby and presented him to the church and spoke some words. It was quite short actually.

After the service we could get coffee and a snack. Oh they had the table full with treats! Chocolate cookies, chocolates, strawberries, different types of cake.. Yummie. We sat at a table and people can join you for a chat. We sat there for 15 minutes and then left to get some groceries.
I didn't buy that much this time. 23, - on mostly extra meat and some additional stuff. That's not too bad!
We also ate a hotdog at Costco and were back home at 12:30. The morning felt so much longer than that xD

At 3 we had guests. A married couple from the bible study. We started talking and later played some games. One word game and later the forbidden word. I sucked at it as the others were way faster with yelling.
At 7 we ate hamburgers from the BBQ and there were chips on table. You could guess we were pretty full after. I left the conversation after a while as they talked about school and stuff I couldn;t talk about so I sat in the living room, but they joined me right after.
The people left at 10:30, but I could get along with them so it was a good day.

On a monday I was supposed to do homework, but I woke up with a headache and was pretty tired with it. I talked to my parents, but after that I just went to bed and lay down for 90 minutes.
It didn´t get much better... I couldn´t focus on script writing at all. I did do some research to a nissan car and wrote the narrator part and basically copied the text from other commercials, but on the husband and wife talking I didn´t know what to do. I gave up..
Also another bible study friend dropped by, but I didn't speak to her or saw her. I just stayed upstairs as I really didn't want to deal with anyone now. Also didn't cook, but just made two grilled cheese.

I tried to sleep at 10:30, but I failed. 

Week 5 - Friday - Day 22

The supervisor was working on mixing the orchestra songs and I watched. He explained what he was doing. I honestly thought it would be more work, but all that stuff will happen in post-production.

He showed me that he faded in and out the songs and first thing he did was normalizing a track. 

Then moving around the volume slides to make sure everything was balanced. and added a slight (small hall) reverb to have everything blend together. At one song the recording was too loud so it cracked and peaked most of the time so he showed me how to fix it. The clicks and buzz remover could do the trick, but then it wouldn't be compressed nicely so he used another program for that.

After that I quickly voice acted some lines and he edited it for me (I was watching) He showed me that the track should look alive and all notes should be around the same level. Not being cut off and be so tight like what happened with his sdefault settings. 

Soon after he went to the post production and added maximizer to balance all levels. Added an EQ and had the bass and the higher tones slightly up. And evetnually he added the same reverb (small hall) 

The sound was so much better and I didn't expect that would happen that fast. But this is a whole different process than albums from singers. That requires a lot more time and work. 

As homework I would had to make a poster about anything so I could practice in corel draw, but when i was skyping with my parents I decided to do it right away.

he looked at it and said it was good, but basic. Also a thing I didn't look at were the sizes.

I had my poster in letter size 8,5 by 11 inches while a poster size is 11 by 17.

That's something I really have to pay attention to. 

He also showed me by making a duplicate of my letters and making one black and thicker and having the other on top is making it stand out more than the normal fonts.

At 6:30 I got back home and also received an assignment for the weekend: Thinking of a script for a car commercial. I have no idea how this will end, but I'll give it a shot. 

Week 5 - Thursday: Day 21

Today I was supposed to work at home but I could drop by the studio after all.
I didn't do much as I was only there for a few hours and I had to wait on a song.
I made a short demo reel for the website to show that we also record live footage of shows and in this case it was a children musical. That was actually the only thing I have done.

In the evening I had to cook, but didn't feel like it so I stole two slices of pizza.As dessert we went to Mac's to get a slurpie. I had Dr Pepper flavor mixed with cream soda. Great combination! Next time I'll get that one again. We walked back home and we all sat in the living room with the laptop.
Then out of nowhere we decided to go outside to take pictures. It was already getting dark, but we didn't care. We took pictures with their photo camera first and then with mine. Next time we'll do the photoshoot again, but then with better weather xD

Recap of the internship so far.. 20 days

Before I started the internship i had no idea what would happen. I had a bit of an idea what I could do, but not necessarily the activities we were about to do. I did expect I would work with music a lot, but composing will have to be done as a hobby for now.
In the first week I got thrown into the unknown and found myself hooking up microphones to the snake and got to witness how a recording process goes of an orchestra.

I also didn't realize I would be working on music videos and what impact my 'knowledge' of videos would have on the company. I get called the video expert now and if there's a video project it gets brought to me now to edit and to upload onto our new youtube channels.
There's still a lot in store for me as to actually be in the process of a professional story like music video.
I'm the most excited for this activity as I will be involved in the concept, get to determine shots,  going to locations, learn some camera tricks and editing the whole thing and probably advertising it as well.

So far there's a lot of focus on videos, but I'm learning new things like the green screen and dealing with camera'sand angles. I'll be moving onto the graphic aspect soon and also the audio like mixing and mastering.

What I have learned so far is hooking up cables, learning some technical names and learned keying out a green screen. Next to that I picked up some audio tips like having your volume down when recording otherwise you'll get extra noise and having vocals doubled to have one voice with effects and the other empty to balance it out.
As in working for clients. It was the first time I have done that. I had one client so far (Mike) and he was happy with the results of the music video.
Now the next step is the concept and I do have to figure out the concept for the newest musicvideo with him and the supervisor. Our job is to find a balance in my ideas and his ideas and how can we shape this the best. Then working with a client really applies.

What I still want to improve is my communication and writing. My communication with the supervisor is fine.
I let him know when I finished something and I ask what has to happen or what will happen. So far he is happy with what I do so that makes me happy too. I have to admit I worried before I started if I would be able to pick up the pace and can do all the projects.
But the first time I meet people I stay a bit on the background. When an artist drops by more often then it's fine as I know them some more, but the first impression has to be good. The other people take a little bit more initiative in a conversation than I do.
As for writing I get blank when I have to write about an event or an artist. I didn't really have the opportunity to work on it yet besides yesterday, but I noticed that it needs improvement. I only stared at the page and wrote one line which got deleted right after the supervisor read it.xD

Next to that my goal is to pick up composing again and practice mixing and mastering beforehand. Also I want to edit in after effects instead of Sony Vegas all the time.

Week 5 - Wednesday: Day 20 - Good times!

Today is a good day. I started at 10 and we were planning on making those darn music videos work.
We were looking at other sites and we concluded we should use a certain player (forgot the name) or just youtube. I said I could set up an account easily with unlisted videos when the other player didn't work. I have a youtube account for 6 years now and made a few others in the meantime.
He was glad I was willing to do that and had a good feeling about this. We set up the account, I uploaded the videos and it worked. You have no idea how happy he was. He was seeing all kinds of possibilities with the youtube account (he wanted to avoid it at first due to people invading copyright)
I uploaded the other videos, added descriptions and also changed the account look a little.
Having my supervisor in a good mood he said he was bummed I would leave again. I said I could come back as I still have another shot at a visa, but he said I could continue my work at home too. So maybe a sort of part time job when I get home? That would be awesome!
He also said something that was quite strange as I wrote about it on monday. I mentioned I had a feeling God did guide me here and now he also said that something brought me here (he isn't religious)
That's quite strange isn't it!

Anyways, he wanted me to set up another account for his other business (the advertising) and so I did.
We uploaded quite some stuff already and we sure will a lot more. We will be advertising his company through Youtube now so I will have to make some good videos for it later.

If you are curious here you can find both youtube accounts ^-^

L.A Records & Media
L.A Studio Productions

Now it's food time and I will BBQ soon with my roommates. Then I will be off to work again to make behind the scenes videos from the singer Mike and learn something of Nuendo. This is a long work day, but tomorrow it will be a short one.

Edit:
Just got home. It;s 11:50 o.o So I was at work for nearly 11 hours today. But I had fun! I had to film behind the scene footage. So I got to be in the studio when he was doing his vocals and I filmed it from 4 different angles. It was interesting to see it from that point of view. It must have looked stupid for Mike though as I was standing behind the glass filming every move xD I should go to bed because I have to work at 10:30 again x.x But I don't think that day will be too long,  but I could be wrong. Tomorrow I will have to edit a 1 minute video to put on the website. 

Week 5 - Tuesday: Day 19

My day started later than planned, but when I arrived I worked on my stuff right away. This time I could mess around with editing a green screen.  Ireceived a couple of pictures and had to try to key out the green screen. I found some neat youtube tutorials and followed their simple steps, but for some reason it didn't work that well. My picture kept having a green glow around her.
I looked at a lot more videos, but no one really provided a solution. There was one guy who matched up the color with the eyedropper but when I tried that it failed even more. I couldn't get the solid black and white in the mask screen, but it was spotty. The standard option worked even better.
I did manage to make it look better when I did color correction, that made the green edges a little darker so they were harder to see. But when I placed a background it wasn't too bad.
I looked up a few backgrounds and added them and the supervisor was pleased with the results. 'It looked as if she was sitting on the bench' he said.

Moments later the singer dropped by and we were taking a look at the concept for the music video. The supervisor started explaining my idea very enthusiastically, but the singer had other ideas.
His vision was so much different than we saw. I thought it was about someone who died, but he wrote about someone who was dying. That changed it completely.
I wrote down his vision of the song and got the challenge to think of a new concept, but honestly that's quite hard as you don't envision it  yet that way. I did work with what he said and made something of it, but we still have to discuss if this is really the image we want to portray and if it's even possible to do. The singer did see potential in my concept so we might carry over some of those ideas.
I got to know the singer a bit better and he also brought me home. He would think about the concept and would write down his thoughts so I will see that soon.

When I got home we left to Mac Donalds as it's our no cooking day and we ordered quite a lot as we were all hungry xD I paid this time as they paid stuff for me before. We spent talking for quite a while at the table even when we were done for a long time. My roommates suggested to see the Calgary stampede.
I could go to their family for a few days and go with them to the stampede.
I really would like to go as thats a mean thing in Alberta and it's quite Canadian as well as you get to wear Cowboy hats =P So I hope we can go! Would be cool to see.

Bought my groceries and got a lot of meat so I can live of it at least two weeks. That will drop my costs next week hopefully, but the grocery costs aren't even that bad. Beforehand I thought and calculated I would spend 200 euro's (yes, I calculated in euro's) a month as all looked so expensive, but after two times groceries I only spent 70 (100 dollars). I will save a lot of money this way =D

We got a milkshake when we got home. There was some coffee liquor in it, but it tasted quite good!

Week 5 - Monday: Day 18 - work and bible study

Oh boy, I remember the sleepiness in the morning. I was ready at 10, but I got picked up at 11:30.
Perfect timing as I could sleep on the couch xD
Today was pretty much focusing on the music video research and storyboard. I showed him the concepts I had, but the first question he asked was: Why only slow songs?
Yeah, couldn't really think of a concept for the fast ones as I mainly didn't understand the meaning.
The supervisor was happy with what I had written down though. He liked the first idea about a man being paralyzed, but the second idea about the ghost guardian he could see happening. He already started bringing up new ideas to help shape the story some more. He asked me if I could write it down in the storyboard.
I opened up corel draw and learned to use the basics. (setting up a new document, opening a new paper and copying and pasting)
I wrote down the small concept I had and by writing it down I came up with new ideas to help shape the story better.
My day was short today for work. But I knew tomorrow we would continue with the storyboard as the singer would drop by and voice his opinion about it.

When I got home I made some simple pasta from the freezer and then got ready for bible study.
Some meeting I would normally not go to, but I figured to give it a shot as I could meet new people and help me focus some more on my religion.
It started good. People were introducing themselves to me and I introduced myself to some other people.
It wasn't awkward at all, but it felt good. The first thing we did was playing a game.
A sort of modern version from rock, paper and scissors only now with wizards, giants and elves. We had to make big gestures and make a fitting sound to it. If someone beat the other they had to tag the other team.
I wouldn't normally play such games, but ah well. It loosened everyone up xD

Then we started to get into serious business. First we introduced ourselves as there were 7 including me new people and then we got to the book of Marc. There were 21 segments and as there were 20 people we all had to read a part. We could also say pass and I was tempted to say that, but I decided to just go for it. Letting the nerves get out of my way.
To be honest I didn't understand half of it as everyone read that fast. I have to read it three times in order to fully understand it. Well, the leader chose a segment and we had discussions going on in small groups of 4 about some important matters: What expectations do we have of God? and  what we had to give up in order to have more time for God.
The biblestudy ended with prayers and praises and then you were free to go but half of them didn't go and started playing the game: Swat. I didn't play as I was tired so I just watched people get hit by a strange thing when they said a name to late xD I did talk to some people after that and they all seem very nice so I'll definitely be coming again.
The biblestudy did have me think about something. My trip to Canada for example. I applied for the internship, didn't hear anything, then got lucky to be accepted in the internship, then much went wrong, then things went a bit better, went wrong and now it's all good. It's a strange pattern and I think it wouldn't have gone this way normally. I have never been this lucky nor have I had the bad luck in the same year.
 Now thinking about it I do feel God had a certain path for me.. he was leading me through the obstacles.
I was waiting for things to happen and expected things to be fine or people do stuff for me, but now I take action myself and don't give up.
He gave me challenges to overcome and rewarded me afterwards. I'm happy to where I'm at now. Couldn't have asked for better roommates or a job and I feel I'm much stronger in life now; more independant. It could also just be life happening and I'm overthinking a lot now, but I like to think someone is watching over me no matter where I'm at.

When we got home my roommates and I already started planning things. Tomorrow we will eat somewhere else and do groceries and wednesday we will BBQ.
We also discussed August. Maybe they can drive me to Red Deer while they will visit Aerdrie..
Now that would be perfect, but it's still far ahead so we will discuss this in three months.

Week 5 - weekend: Day 17

Can't really remember what I have done exactly other than the homework I did.
I had to research music videos from similar artists as the singer I have to make a music video for. I set up some researcg questions and watched the videos a few times to see how they do it.
I also listened to all the songs from his second still concept album and had to choose a song to use for a concept. I was lost at a few songs as his lyrics are symbolic, but for three / four of them I had a good feeling. I wrote down the thoughts about what I thought the song meant and one day later I came up with a concept for three of them. I was pretty happy with two of them as it actually had a meaning, but thinking of an ending is still hard.

Oh yes I can remember what I have done on saturday. I undercooked my rice so badly! It was waaaay too crunchy. It sucked as the chicken and sauce was good, but it didn't hide the fact the rice was crunchy.
I had no choice but to through it away and I just wanted to start over. I knew what I had done wrong, I should have let it boil some longer and put it on 1 instead of lo.
 The next day (Sunday) I actually succeeded. The rice was fluffier xD But I made way too much for myself to eat, so I had to keep left overs.
Other than that nothing really exciting happened. Was just gaming and my roommates got home so I briefly spoke to them before they headed to bed.

Week 4 - Friday: Day 16

Today not much happened other than trying to get the videos to work, but we failed. I had to re-render videos many times again to a smaller size and we both only got more frustrated.
I had two hours off and then i got picked up again to listen to the songs we recorded of the orchestral bands.
The teacher was choosing the right version and told us her wishes, like getting the piano louder and the brass a bit softer. that was basically it.
I actually expected to do or see some editing, but there wasn't any time for it.
I did get homework so I had to work on that this weekend!

I was planning on making rice for dinner, but instead I decided to grab hamburgers as my lettuce and onions are getting old. I ate two and boy I feel full after that, but I start to get the hang of cooking.
I know now what setting to use and when to turn it down. So I'm happy I am learning by myself and don't have anyone to tell me what to do. I do think I will also cook with my roommate once so then I'll learn a lot as well, hopefully can take some new recipes home. We'll be sure to BBQ soon because the weather is just staying nice.

At 1 am in the morning i met another roommate who comes in once in a while. She stays for one or two nights and will be gone the next morning. We briefly talked and only had an introduction and then we went our own way again. Have only seen her that night. The next day she was gone already.

Week 4- Thursday: Day 15

I had to start at 9 this time as I would take a look at a set up for a certain event. My supervisor had to install lights. Sadly the crew ran behind so we had to sit and wait outside in order to start.
It was quite hot that day and of course I forgot my sunglasses. I met more crewmembers and one girl was really hyper and friendly. She also knew Dutch. The problem I am still encountering is that I don´t introduce myself, but the supervisor does it for me. This is something that I have to change in the future. Just going out there, saying Hi, I´m Christine. Nice to meet you.
I hardly spoke to them at first though. I had some comments, but that was it. They were talking about things I couldn't talk about. I went inside as it got too hot and had to help measure the light distances. Other than that I couldn't do much, but watch. It was quite a process. Two crewmembers were sitting up high to tie some stuff so they could get the lightbar up.
It took two hours total, but then we got invited to go for lucnh with the crew. The supervisor declined at first, but later did want to go so we drove to Mr Mikes.
I briefly talked to the girl who knew Dutch and she said that  Icould call her anytime and that I could join in some activities like rock climbing or camping as she knew how it is to be in a different culture.
Later we got escorted to the table and I ordered Mini Mr Mikes as I didn't want to have fries as lunch.
It was so good and also free as the leader of the crew paid for us all. So nice!
Sadly I didn't talk all at the table because they only talked about work at first. Kind of felt awkward sitting there, but I kept smiling.

After lunch we hurried home as the supervisor still had a lot to do. We tried to get the music videos working on the website, but of course that didn't happen. He spent hours on fixing that and got frustrated more everytime it failed. I had some suggestions, but at 7 pm I was also out of ideas.
When I got home I quickly warmed up Fettucine with cheese sauce and didn't do much the rest of the night. I gamed with a friend online and recorded auditions.

Week 4 - Wednesday: Day 14

I didn't do much at work today, only I did get to watch. The supervisor had to make a poster for an upcoming event so I could take a look.
He started with a black background and the only notes he got were: Use colors and maybe that picture.
He posted a picture of a car in the middle and showed me how to mask it. He cut off the ground by double clicking on the border he had and just dragged it up to where he wanted to get rid of the ground.
It looked fairly easy! He wanted to have the pink smoke some higher and I tried to explain that it might work with the smudge tool, but somehow it wouldn't work so he had to improvise.
Instead he grabbed the title from an existing poster he made two years earlier and pasted that above the smoke. He also copied the sponsor list and copied the activites which would happen,, but as that was a whole list he had to bring the car picture up. The title eventually overlayed the picture and the dates of the event were underneath it in the smoke.
He gave the top block with the title a pinkish color as he tried to match up the smoke (There must be an easier way to match up the colors, hope I can figure that out too)
The dates got a red color to distinguish it some more and then it was done already. Didn't realize it could be this easy. Well, it looks easy anyways. If I have to try soon I will take a lot longer.
From what I've seen is that there should be a picture related to the event somewhere in the middle. The event name and dates on top. The description in the middle or slightly below. And the sponsors very small below in a seperate box. Mix it up with colors. Mix black with any color to make it stand out.
A white background could work but it doesn't draw as much attention as you want.

After that we tried to put our rendered videos online. The supervisor showed me the program he uses for webdesign and showed me how easy it is. When he presses on the example page it will lead you directly to the correct code. Sadly we couldn't make the video work as we overlooked something. We managed to make it work only there wasn't a pause button! Now we have to restart the process, but we'll do that tomorrow.

When I got home I cooked potatoes, baked two sausages and carrots. This time I succeeded, haha.
No uncooked food, but just right (maybe the carrots could improve, or they are supposed to be that way.. Mom cooks better carrots)
After food I quickly did some research on LED go 900 lights and white balancing a camera. Couldn't do it for long as my roommate came home from school and we had planned on playing resident evil and because they would leave the day after until Sunday we just had to do it,
Instead of her playing all the time her brother tagged along as well and took over. He didn't play it seriously at first, but did seem to enjoy it later on as he screamed like a girl when he got excited. XD We ate some chocolate icecream and then it was time for bed. Well for them. I still had to send in lines, but boy I wanted to sleep as I had to wake up an hour earlier than normal. 

Week 4: Tuesday: Day 13

Another work day after a long weekend! I was so tired but when I got at work it all faded away.
The whole day I focused on the music video. The singer from the video would drop by and take a look =D Sadly I had a lot of problems when rendering. Then I did something wrong in the audio and then it suddenly glitched. But no matter the singer got to see it and he was happy with it ^^
He especially digged the black and white part which was something I had doubts about.
I eventually gave up rendering and joined in the conversation between the supervisor and him.
They were exchanging ideas for an upcoming music video. The singer was full of ideas, but sadly the supervisor had to slow him down with that.
I also talked briefly with the singer and he's a spontaneous friendly guy. I will probably see him again when working on the music video. From what I understood I will have to do camera work and eventually edit it. This sounds cool! As this is actually a video with a story and not live footage.
Next to that I got homework. I will have to listen to the full album and have to pick a song. Then I have to think of a concept for a music video and draw it out on the storyboard. But before I do that I will have to do some research and watch music videos and stock videos. But that will be something for tomorrow as it won't be such a long day at the studio itself.

At 5 I got brought back and immediately went shopping with my roommate. (her brother stayed home) We ate a hotdog at costco. (only 1,50 including drinks and refill!)
After that we quickly went through the store and headed to another supermarket (superstore)
I had a list ready, but as always I buy something more. Instead of the frozen veggies, chicken and rice stuff I also bought icecream, cheese and pasta's which are easy to make.
During the shopping and car ride we got to know each other even better.

Sadly my bank card didn't work so had to pay with credit again while I only have a 100 dollar limit left. Luckily there was a cashpoint where I could get some money, so I immediately got 200 so I can at least get easily through this month.
I've done the laundry and played a game online. Thats how you'll fill the night quickly.
Should go to sleep now as it's 12. Bye.

Week 4 - Monday: Quick recap

Hello! Sorry I didn't update, but honestly there wasn't much to update. I didn't work on friday, saturday and obviously sunday. And today I'm off as well. I forgot what I did friday, I think I just played games and watching videos and stuff and my first attempt of making spaghetti!
Luckily it succeeded xD On saturday I went to the supermarket for some bread, but it's so expensive there that I rather wait and shop at Walmart. I did buy some cookies and chocolate (for Renze) and candy oh and toothpaste and that was 15 dollars already. At night I tried out my handheld recorder which is normally good for sound effects, but voice acting works good as well. Besides the plosives it has a high quality! So I couldn't resist in auditioning for the mod Interesting NPCs. Luckily I got the part so that meant editing lines.

On Sunday I finished editing those lines and sent it off and she already released the video o.o
I also went to the family Dam at 2 o clock to still celebrate Renze's birthday. Raymond also dropped by who I havent seen in years. We ate cake, hamburgers and we were sitting outside and playing outside as the weather was so beautiful. The youth started tossing a football and someone in the middle had to try to steal it. At 10 I was back home and accidentally went to bed at 2:30 in the morning.

More to write

Week 3 - Thursday: Day 12

I started at 10:20 and this whole day I focused on finishing all three music videos.
I added colors to the other two videos. I decided to keep the blue-ish color as it complemented his clothing. I also changed one scene in the last music video. One video was going on too long and the switch to a certain angle looked odd also because of the change of colors. The supervisor gave me the advice to add the ground shot because that has a more yellow-ish color because of the lighting. That way the color change from the perfectly colored front shot to something more blue wouldn't be noticed as much.
After that we had to work on the logo's after the videos. The supervisor was happy I knew how to move the album covers in place. This process took long though, not because it was hard to do, but transfering files took so long x.x

When I took a break my dad sent me a link with a studio bundle which got me hooked. It has headphones, microphone and an interface plus software: cubase 6 and editing vsts.
The supervisor also said it was a great deal for the price and I should get it. The brand focusrite is one of the best and is very professional he said. After that he showed his interfaces with pride. They were only A LOT bigger and a lot more expensive.

The supervisor also edited my lines I voice acted for yesterday and quickly applied maximizer thing again and an EQ. He added some more high tones.

The music videos are done! We rendered the right audio and I had to add that at home. Now we only need the render the music videos and put them online on the company's site and of course the singer's website! So cool that my work will be online on two websites. At 6 I got brought home.

Now this is done I will focus more on new techniques in video editing. We will be working on 3d-ish commercials and so I have to learn after effects. Soon I will also be working with the green screen.

Week 3 - Wednesday: Day 11

I started a bit later as the supervisor had a long day with the concert so I started at 11:30.
But I had to leave at 11 in order to walk the whole way. It didn't start out too bad until I was halfway and had to walk up little hills in the park. Then I could feel my legs already; which reminds me how poorly my condition is. I did make it and the pain in my legs disappeared when I arrived xD Today I didn't do much on the video this time, but I got to learn things about voice acting.
Before I started he explained how the business goes when you have your own company. You will have to deal with competition; people who try to shut you down by saying we are doing things for free. He explained that you should educate the client instead of badmouthing other companies.
Explaining why an other company says he does it for free, but then you still have to pay 400$ for the production costs while we can offer a commercial for 350 for example and you can explain the differences between the company like my supervisor does all work by himself while in another company the job can be sent back and forth between people.  You've got to let the client think about their actions and that way you can mostly win the client back.
Sometimes you need to be overconfident in those cases and have the attitude: Look how great I am. But only to advertize your company.
Very helpful information.

Then I could start voice acting. We printed out the script and I could sit in the booth and put my headphones on. The supervisor set up my program and explained me how adobe audition worked.
Then I could proofread the first character and he corrected me immediately!
I didn't say the 'h' in the word human. I never even realized I said it wrong so I was glad he pointed that out. Next to that I have to work on th words, but that will be a long process.
I did my thing and somehow we ended up doing english accents as I said I wanted to try one for a character xD he tried to teach me how to pronounce words. Sometimes I got it, but I still have to work on it so he recommended me a movie to watch. We wrapped things up and tomorrow we will edit the lines.

At home I installed some games on the ps3, talked to my parents and then already had to cook.
I made a sausage with potatoes and carrots, only I don't understand the stove yet. (it has 10 levels so I just messed around with it)  The sausage was good, but my potatoes and carrots could have been better. (were not cooked through enough =P)  I also made a bit too much to eat so I know I will have to prepare less food.

After that I cleaned up, started the dishwasher, played resident evil, showered and went to bed at 11.