Week 11 - Friday: Day 52

I'm so excited... which is why I'm still up.  (2 am now) and it's hot so I can't sleep anyways!
I wanted to do an Assassins Creed remix for so long and started it today. The song is so challenging because it has unusual sounds like synths and quick drums. I already had a song in mind to start which is from Assassins creed 3 and moved quickly to 4, to 2 and continues with the main theme from 3.
I luckily found a synth that sounded like the one I was looking for, and the BPM were still 120.
I listened to all the synth sounds and can actually use a lot from it which I didn't realize before. The drums were hard to find so instead I used a bass synth (altered it) and for the cymbal sounds I just used hi-hats.
I experimented some more though; I used a reverb and messed with the delay, but nothing happened. So instead I added the MIDI echo and that did the trick! It didn't sound like hi-hats anymore, but blended in.

I'm up to the main theme now and the quick drums are the biggest challenge. We'll see how it goes.
I also need to use the AC 1 theme somewhere in order to execute an idea for an AMV.

Week 11 - Wednesday: Day 51

Could go to the studio again. Man, I forgot what I did so easily, especially since my tasks switch so fast. So I don't know the order anymore, but the supervisor did look at my documents and will fill it in this week.
He showed me what work he would do at the KISS concert. I assume I won't be participating in it as his boss won't let me. Aw well..
We looked at the scripts for Streetmachine weekend and changed one or two more.
The majority of the time we worked on commercials. The 60 second commercial had to change to a 30 second commercial so he had to figure out what to leave out. Also the sponsors took over the majority of the commercial so we had to make multiple in order to name them all. He shortened the beginning of my voice as he made it sound like a-a-a-aare you ready? Now it's just: Are you ready which shortened it with 2 seconds.
He rewrote part of it until the sponsors got announced and stepped in the vocal booth. So much energy and he opens his mouth wide when talking. I understand now how important it is as it makes you help having better pronunciation. But gosh the speed of those commercials. I will get a hard time with that.
After he showed me again how he cleaned up his voice. He used the noise remover and had a certain setting ready (which I will learn later when I have the program!) He did have to delete a breath and after that maximizer was used and he had the treshold around - 18. I asked if it had to be a certain setting, but anything between -12 and -24 would do with the output to -2 otherwise it could peak. The treshold mainly depends on what knd of voice you have.  I don't remember the other slide anymore.
A reverb got added, A small hall or something? He added an amount and asked if it was fine this way, or if it should be lower or higher. I said that I didn't know what the right setting was because I found it too much reverb already. He understood my point of view as I don't need this in voice acting, but in commercials the reverb helps it stand out so quite an amount is needed (-38 I believe)
After that was done he imported it in adobe audition and duplicated the voices. The duplicated voice got a - 10 on output so it wouldn't be too loud. Now it was time to cut out the silences and make everything slow nicely. It was time for me to do something too. He showed me first how to do it, but honestly I didn't need the explanation because I had seen him do it a couple of times. I had to add in the sponsors at the end so that meant duplicating it and moving it so that it flows nicely. When saving the thing I did have to cut out the muted part at the end.
After exporting all of them we had to clean the complete commercial. It started with the maximizer again only the treshold was a lot higher now. Cant remember exactly, but something around -5?
Also an EQ got added to give it some better higher tones.

At the end of the day I tried to install that program, but it didn't work. It kept on erroring so I have to find a solution soon. In the meantime I showed the supervisor my commercials which I recorded for that acting competiton. He said it was too bad I had the accent, which apprantely meant I did good =D
But I agree, I wished I could get rid of it too. He said I had some different pronunciations so we analyzed a few words. For example: What. I just say: Wut, but I have to add an h.
I had to look more at the words and see what letters they contain. Also the word powerful was too mumbled . I didn't open my mouth enough!
Well soon I will receive scripts hopefully to practice with as sunday we will have to record the commercials for Streetmachine. Exciting, but I'm afraid it will be a letdown.

Week 11 - Monday and Tuesday: Day 49 and 50

I worked home on both days and as I wanted to pick up composing again I decided on working on that and improve my skills. I wanted to start a remix, but I couldn't figure out the right beat so I started randomly with a few drums. This set the base immediately for a song and I started expanding it.
I worked 6 hours on it on monday. It couldn't be much longer because I had biblestudy and because it was the last time we stayed quite long.
Thanks to having a break I came up with an idea on Tuesday. I wanted to try to add a piece that would sound a bit like Vergil's battle. I at least wanted to try to add those drums and similar cellos and work with the choir. How the rest would go I would see at that moment.
On tuesday I spent 9 hours on the song and finished it o.o I did have one long break. We did have to do grocery shopping at 5 and we were home at 7:30. So that could clear my mind a bit.
Because of what I have seen at the studio I could also apply this to my work. How the drums were set up helped a lot  already. I used to work with only bass drums which sounded crappy in the end; I left the snare and gongs and cymbals completely out.
I do use bass, snares, toms and cymbals now and that shapes a song a lot better. It was also easier for me to change the drums which I struggled with a lot at the beginning.
I also applied the maximizer in the mixing process. Could be I used it wrong, but I never used it before.
It gives the song a much better sound and is a lot louder overall. So I do still have to learn working with settings when mixing.

A lot more music will come. I have many days off these two upcoming weeks and I also got asked to compose music for an audioplay!

Here is the song:

https://soundcloud.com/finalcrystine/we-wont-give-up

Week 11 - Sunday: Day 48

This day I practiced voice acting. It was a submission for an acting competition, but at the same time I also practiced for the studio. We had to turn song lyrics into a monologue. Man, it was already hard to select a song because everything was in the male perspective, or it rhymed too much or it was too cute etc.
Eventually I chose a song from Sonata arcticaas I could show my creepy side. The end of this chapter was the song!
After that I worked on the commercials. We only had to select two and I had my eyes set on a few, but instead I recorded a lot more as I wasn't sure. Which resulted being torn between four commercials.
I actually didn't do that bad. My enunciation could be better, but I tried to have energy in there and avoided being monotone. Mixing wise I picked up what I have seen at the studio. Having two rows of voices so you can move around some things and get rid of breaths. On the slow commercial it wasn't really needed that much, but it was on the faster paced one. It had a better flow this way.

The immunity lyric round listen was this night and I actually got chosen for immunity together with someone else out of the 6 people who submitted. The judges said this was my best performence in the competition and that I kept improving. Now I am in the top 10 and this is the furthest I ever got in an acting competition.
So I don't need to worry about my commercials, though I am so curious about their feedback.The feedback I receive I will have to add to future commercials in the Studio. No matter I will show the supervisor my submission so he knows what I do with it.

Week 10 - Friday: Day 47

I worked in the car today as the supervisor had to drive around for an upcoming event. The supervisor wanted to hear the demo traxx and wanted to change it. While driving he gave advice and when walking to clients I fixed the parts.
He named a few songs he wanted to shorten, but when the demo still stayed quite long we cut all songs.
We only showed a verse now and part of the chorus depending on how long it is. We also deleted a few songs.
Some songs we cut out the intro with a few beats even though the vocals started soon, but this way we shortened the demo with at least 7 minutes. The supervisor wanted to cut off some more parts from a song, but I gave the advice not to do it due to second voices going on and he chose that song based on those second voices. I had to work on my fades a little. It required a good timing. Some songs had to come in faster than what I did, but by messing around with the same songs multiple times and making them blend multiple times I got the hang of it.
The end result is a lot better. It's not that long and huge chance people won't click it away that fast. Besides it's not even about the artists but about the results that can be offered in the studio.
Now only thing that is missing is my intro voice which I will record over the weekend.

Week 10 - Thursday: Day 46

I was home at Thursday and worked on the demo traxx. I selected a part from every song that would do and made them blend together. I wasn't sure what part to take and how long it could be. The total thing was 15 minutes already, but the supervisor had said to use a verse and chorus.   I used mostly the intro and cut off at the chorus which made some songs quite long.
Some songs didn't start with vocals right away, so I cut off the beginning in order to let some of the vocals shine. I also made a list on what we could do for advertizing.

Week 10 - Wednesday: Day 45

My voice is nearly gone T.T It's so annoying. I don't know if it's because of the slight cold, or if it's another infection. Don't know if it has to be treated, or if it will go away. Meh, decisions.

Anyways, I started working later than usual and the first thing I worked on was the business card and demo cd for L.A records. I had to make the logo pop on the red background. Tried a few methods like adding a black border and I wanted to smooth it out, but couldn't find an option.
I also tried to add a black border and transparant it, but it couldn't go into a circle. I tried using a smudge tool as the black border was too distracting and I wanted to fade it into the background, but the smudge tool is so different from Photoshop. This doesn't smudge at all, it only extends the logo with hard edges.
I went back to experimenting with a lot of transparant styles, but the supervisor said: Get rid of the black border.
Eventually I found the option to use a shadow. I could change the color, size and where I wanted it.
This helped, it does give a subtle black circle on the background to help the red logo stand out.
The size was a bit too big so I had to adjust it, but now it's fine. The supervisor added a small hairline around the white text and then it was good.

I also had to work on the demo cd. Selecting songs from artists and selecting a 30 second snippet.
We only selected the artists so far and the supervisor let me know the order he wanted it in. I had to listen to the previous one and got told I will get to voice the intro! When my voice is back of course.
I will have to work on this today or tomorrow. It at least has to be finished this week.

We left it and moved on to the graphic design. I changed the names and functions on the business card and we changed the cd lable. I let him know I liked the simplicity of the cd as the colors are doing its work, but he wanted the names on there. As there were too many names and uneven total he changed his mind about the purpose of the demo cd. Instead of focusing on the artists, it´s more about the production.
We added contact info and that was that. The lable was done.

Week 10 - Tuesday: Day 44

I'm at work again, but I thought I would feel better than this. Now I've got a bloody cold! Not surprising though, but I rather had it on thursday instead of jumping behind my illness.
I got picked up at 11 and the first thing I did was calling out names for the magazine and he had to crosscheck it, but as he had other things to change my job was getting useless.
So instead I focused on my internship documents. Yup, still not done, but nearly though.

During writing I had to do some small tasks for the magazine like rewriting an article from the previous magazine so we can just paste it in the new one.

After I was done writing my documents (still have to re-read them a few times before sending them off)
I had to remake a poster as we couldn't change the date. It had to look alike only the background and fonts can change a bit. I luckily found the option to transparant objects, that makes a poster so much better! It also looks more like the original one now.

I added in the sponsors, but forgot to do the orange lines. Turned out I was overthinking and that I just had to make a small long square and duplicating it. I also should group text! I always forget that!

Week 10 - Monday: Day 43

Still at home, but I am starting to get better! Only a light cold going on at the moment, so I can go to work tomorrow again.
I was talking with my dad for a long time and now I am focusing on the interim evaluation. Yesterday I managed to finish the first part of my documentation, but there is still another part to be done. Luckily it is easier as I only have to state what I have done and learned.
And luckily it's due this week, but the week just started so I'm done quickly and not doing something last minute for once. =D

When it's done I have to do some voice acting for the act it contest. It would be a shame if I have to drop out so I am still going to give all lines a shot.

Week 10 - Sunday: Day 42

Gaah.. still not better. Voice still gone, dizzy no, headache, jawache?. Balance problems and I start sneezing (even on my glasses XDDD)  o.o
I am still planning on finishing my documentation today, but I'm still pretty tired. *sigh*

I also hope our dog is fine. I don't really have a bond with him and I dislike him most of the time, but he is still part of the family. The thought of him being ill or maybe dying does make me sad.
Our dog lost all his front teeth gradually and we thought that happened because of his sneezing.
But it turns out something is wrong. My dad heard banging on the door today and when he was taking a look the dog was unconscious in front of the door.  =( He woke up, but he was bleeding all over the place and had a lot of foam around his mouth. Our thoughts were that he had an epileptic attack.
A few hours later it happened again and now thinking about it, it must have happened months ago too as I heard banging earlier. As a result I was angry at him as when I was in front of the door he sounded fine and I didn't know this. But according to my dad he found him in a deep sleep outside too. Maybe he had an attack before and fell unconscious? Yeah it's time to go to the vet. It didn't sound like an emergency when we phoned the vet, but we do have to take a look. Having two attacks on one day is certainly off.
I bet he has some damage to his head now too. Poor doggy. I should give him some more attention when I get home.

Well, I'll stop writing as I am nearly falling asleep. At this rate I can't even go to work tomorrow =(

Week 10: Saturday - Day 41

Thank god, Starting to feel slightly better. It's not perfect, but my sore throat is less painful.
I do hope my voice will come back fully soon as people are in need of my voice o.o

As I am feeling better I could also start on my interim report which is mandatory when you're halfway your internship. This week I have to finish it, but as I missed some days I decided to finish it all in two days and show it to my supervisor on Monday to edit some things.
I have to write about the organization within the business. I can basically be very short about it as it's not a big company so there aren't really a lot of employees. So far I met one who does have quite some tasks to do for the company. I also have to write about how I experienced the first half of my internship.
My supervisor and teacher will read it. Based on my reports I will be evaluated and hopefully it will be good enough. *bites off fingernails* I'm not too worried yet. I only don't know what my teacher is looking for.

Week 9 - Friday: Still home

Had to stay home again. My throat started swelling up, my voice disappeared and my neck muscles got so sore and stiff which leads to a headache. I'm positive I'm developing a faryngitis at the moment. I don't have a cold or anything, only throat and head plus muscle problems.
I got out of bed at 2 as I couldn't sleep at all at night *sigh* Didn't do much yet today.
Ate a mini pizza and talked to my dad. Don't know what else to do.. I'll just lie down on the couch and watch a show or something.

I am quite happy with how helpful everyone around me is. My supervisor offered to take me to the doctor or get some medication, while my roommate is offering supplies. Thank you for that =)

Week 9 - Thursday: Home

Sadly I couldn't go to work. I was so tired in the evening and went to bed at 12 (because I slept 3 hours I didn't want to risk going to bed too early) But, thanks to my neck and headache and overthinking I couldn't sleep until 4!
That sucks so much. My neck still hurts like hell and my head likes to bother too.
I did stay in bed until 12:30, but my neck starts to hurt more if I lie down for a long time. x.x
Still tired too, but I am glad I made the decision to stay home. i am only missing a day now; hopefully I can go to work tomorrow again.

Week 9 - Wednesday: Day 40

My day didn't start that well. I couldn't sleep at times. Had a nightmare which scared me and got me temprorarily afraid of being in the dark (this rarely happens o.o)
And I woke up with sore muscles at my shoulder and neck which results in a headache, sore throat and my stomach hates me. I got picked up at 10 though, but in the car I noticed how crappy I felt.
He offered to take me home, but I said no. I just want to count this as a day and do at least some work. I can always go home earlier. I would hate to lie back in bed early without having done anything.
We drove around first to get some cartridges for the printer and he dropped me off at  the studio.
My job was to print lables on the cds and I had to edit the brochure about  music and vocal lessons and add in extra information. The supervisor took over so I popped in some more disks to print.
The supervisor had to leave, but quickly folded the cd covers for me so I could put it in the cases.
I had to stay with the computer, pop one disk in. Shove in a booklet. Get an empty disk, pop out the disk and repeat. It actually takes long and isn't a fun process, but it's something that has to be done. 50 disks had to be ready!
After I was done I started working on thinking of a character for the immunity challenge for the Act it competition. I guess this also counts as work as I will need to think of a concept for a character (as a children's toy) and write my own lines. 1 intro, 2 greeting, 3 play with me line, 4 anything, 5 effort noise, 6 anything, 7 goodbyes.
I thought of a pirate, Arrr! Who will mention wanting to go find treasures and she is showing how obsessed she is. I also had to add in the pirate language. Now the challenge is to speak that accent o.O
Well I looked up some videos and did learn I have to overreact at the RRRRR sounds and have a gruffy sound. Also talk energetic and emphasize some words and vowels. The problem is it sounds so much better at a male voice than female. I'll try this out when I'm feeling better ^^  If this fails I have to think of a different character.

I held out until 3:30 at work and got brought home as the supervisor saw I wasn't feeling well. I immediately went to bed and slept for three hours! Did have nightmares and encountered so many different kinds of monsters from chainsaw guy to zombies chasing me and etc. Didn't feel much better while cooking but now I am a little more awake.

Week 9 - Tuesday: Day 39

I started quite late: 11:30 because the supervisor was away, but when I arrived we started right away on script writing for Bert & Macs again.
We both looked at the list the client wanted to have added and the supervisor started explaining how we could built it up. The script was about a school's out sale for their bike and accessories collection.
The supervisor said we could start with a boys' voice and he asked me what that boy would say.
Honestly I didn't know even though it was that simple xD I said that he wants a bike?
Well, that was not to what he meant. He asked me again and I said: He wants to buy the bike at Bert & Macs? I was getting closer, but a kid wouldn't say it like that.
He meant that the kid would be excited leaving school as he would have time to bike! So something in the lines of: I'm going to bike all summer!
He asked me again what the kid would say and again I blanked and said: Oh boy!
It's good he keeps asking questions like that, so he knows my chain of thoughts and can give shape to them.
In the end he was hoping to hear: Alright, school's out! Now I can buy my bike!
To be honest I wouldn't have thought of that as the kids in my country don't yell out loud when they're done with school. At least when I was that age I can't remember. But Europe and America are different in that I guess.
So the first line changed into: Now I can buy my bike at Bert and Macs!
Then the announcer starts to explain what's for sale. We started with the bike announcements and moved to accessories and bikeracks last. The ending was easy, we only had to add the company's name.
It's really hard, you need to think of the intro and the ending and the rest has to link together. You've got to find a balance in it.
My next challenge was to write a script for a car company. I had no idea how to start at first, but then I just copied the text of the ad in the magazine and copied a line from their web page to use. Searching info was a good thing I did as the supervisor worked that way too. My stuff didn't work as we couldn't find the engines on the official site so I had to get rid of that and the price. Instead I listened to the previous commercial that had already been made and combined the first two lines. The rest of the commercial stayed the same.

We went through other scripts but concluded we will leave it the same. We were in the middle of editing a script, but the supervisor was busy phoning clients so we forgot about it. In the meantime I caught up with my blog. Writing a page takes longer than it seems.
After the Dutch speaking rigger colleague dropped by and we exchanged facebook.
The supervisor went in the vocal booth to record his Bert & Macs script, only it didn´t fit the 30 second mark. I noticed how important that is. I once competed in a voice acting competition and I had my 30 second commercial 40~seconds. Instantly kicked out and I´m sure it was because of that.
The supervisor decided to make two commercials instead of one and have one about some accessories and the other about the remaining stuff. I got to listen to how he recorded it and every time he started he recorded the first line different. He also mentioned to how many ways you can say a line and you´ve got to experiment in what works best. In his case he had to redo it because he wanted the word bike to stand out more than the rest. I noticed we left out a line and mentioned it when he was nearly done, so he quickly changed it. Then it was time for me to go as I had to go grocery shopping.

We ate at Costco and we ordered a hotdog and I tried out the Canadian dish: Poutine. French fries with gravy and melted cheese. Not a big fan, but it wasn't bad either. The gravy was actually good, but I rather avoid the cheese XD
We then headed to Superstore and I had quite some things to buy and spend 75$... Oops..
Well, at this rate I dont have to do shopping for 3 weeks.  At least not for meat and cheese xD which were the most expensive things ($10 each)
We also took a picture at the superstore as my roommates put on a Canadian hat and were sitting down. I said I wanted to make a picture of them. Of course I had too and so I got Canadianized xD On July 1st we will be celebrating Canada Day so I'm quite excited for that too.

Week 9 - Monday: Day 38

Gonna skip Sunday cause I was lazy the whole day.
On monday I started at 10 something and we were diving in the commercials right away. I had to open the script list and had a list next to me. I had to check which companies were already in the documents with scripts. After crossing off I had to add in the missing companies and received a stick with four commercials.
I had to listen to all those commercials and write down on the sponsor list in which commercial they were: 1,2,3 or 4 so we can still manage the same 'order'.

The supervisor had to leave so I had to work on banners for Youtube. That was a B*tch as Youtube screws us over with their stupid lay-out. I pasted in the banner but it had to be a bigger size, a size that didn;'t make sense as you have a little area on top and that was nowhere near the size we had to upload.
It turns out it is taking the middle part for the small banner on your page. What? That doesn't make sense! The size has to be big only to fit on the tv?
I had to keep changing the banner in order to fit the right size, but I didn't know there was a help list with measurements somewhere. When I finally had that banner in place I had to work on the Productions one.
Only having the logo in the middle was boring so I took the pictures from the profile picture on Facebook and pasted those on the background. By the time the supervisor got home I was done, but he didn't like what he saw so he took over. He tried stuff which I knew of it wouldn't work as I worked on it for quite a while, so in the end we left it. I bet we will have to change it later again though.

I also had to work on a description for our Facebook about music lessons. I got the information and had to change it slightly so it would flow. My words got changed again though and only a little bit of what I wrote remained. It sucks on one hand, but on the other it opens my eyes on how I could do it too.
At 6 I got brought home because of Bible study.

I quickly ate Spaghetti and joined my roommates to go to the biblestudy. Cara was sure happy so that fueled me too xD We were there quite early, but luckily there were two others too. One of the guys was really good in playing the piano so I kept listening to that. He played a familiar evil sounding song that is from either Beethhoven or some oteher old guy, Ah, I found it: Toccata and Fugue in D minor from Bach.
Next to that he played: My heart will go one from the Titanic, Two towers trailer song, Don't give up from Josh Groban and two more songs I didn't really recognize. More people started walking in and we started with a game again. Someone had to sit in the chair blindfolded and holding a pool noodle and the others had to sit quietly around it. Keys got dropped underneath the chair and now it was the blindfolded person's jobs to slap away the person who tried to steal the keys. It looked so hard but some people managed to take the key in time. I tried to look away from the leader, but it didn't work. He pointed towards me. I nearly got the keys but got hit last moment so I had to sit in the chair. I felt so silly, also because I failed at hitting the others xD People were laughing. I know it's not about me, but about the situation, but not seeing anything sucks. =P

Later we could grab a piece of cake (yum) and started with reading from the bible and it was about the end of the world. I couldn't focus anymore when we started the discussions as some people asked difficult questions and I didn't understand. Next to that I am not that religious as they are. I never read the bible intentionally and they do. They look up verses right away.  But I at least participated in the group and didn't back out. I felt quite confident in the group and wasn't afraid to talk.
At 9 we were done but we stayed until 10:30 to talk in a small group.
I stayed up until 2:30 mainly because of a competition episode I really wanted to here. It was so intense! There were 25 people and 5 got cut. I didn't win the one on one battle and was in the elimination round, but in the end my name got called LAST.. Gosh, what a horrible feeling. Glad I didn't get cut though.

Week 9 - Saturday: Day 37

We left at 7:20 and headed towards the Power 2 the Pavement race in Medicine Hat which was two hours away. We stopped for an egg mac muffin at mac Donalds in Taber and then headed on to Medicine Hat. WE arrived before 10 as that was being told, but it turned out it started at 12! Gaah. I only stared for two hours because I couldn't do anything. I only set up the camera and had to wait till 12. We were in a nice small building though on the top floor so I could look down and my supervisor could announce.

When things started I was ready with my camera. I filmed the first few cars, but then decided it would be fun to change things around and zoom in on the light or zoom in on the cars. I zoomed in one a tire and guess what. The other car crashed against the wall and I missed it AGAIN.. Just like the motorcross.
The only part I do have filmed shakily is that he bounces back from the wall and people start running towards him. Luckily the man was alright, but was shaking on his knees for quite a time. He also dropped out the race. Can't blame him as you race with more than 100 km / hours in a small distance.

The supervisor even announced that the cameragirl missed the crash and that I zoomed in on another car. But that it happened in videoland. Still I felt stupid, but on the other hand I couldn't have known that it would happen.

I paid more attention and filmed more than an hour. I went down a level where it was quiet and you could hear the announcing through the speakers. In the end I filmed the burnouts too, the cars coming closer and I got quite some shots. A few hours later I got my supervisor and I a bag of chips so I had to walk around the track which was a perfect opportunity to film on the other side. I joined the stand and walked passed the vehicles that were lined up. These were shakily though as I didn't have my tripod.

The whole day took quite long. I was done filming at 4 because my batteries were nearly dead and 1+ hours of the same footage is enough, but I didn't want to miss a crash this time. You can guess it didn't happen again.
At 8 everything was finally done. I can't help but say that ut started to become so boring after 5.
Being hungry and getting tired didn't help much either. There was also oil on the track so that delayed the race for another 30 minutes.
The prizes got handed out after 8 and we could finally go. It was a fun day, but too long. Because we had to wait two hours prior it lengthened the day quite a bit.
We stopped at Mac Donalds and I got two hamburgers and small fries. It was storming so bad on the way back! So much rain, it got creepy as the car slipped away a few times. But we made it back at 10.
The next day I had to get up early for church, so I went to bed a bit earlier than normally.

Week 8 - Friday: Day 36

I honestly didn't do much today because things were going wrong and that had to be fixed. I posted something on the records facebook and part of the official website was accidentally deleted so the supervisor needed my laptop to replicate it exactly because I opened the page before it all went wrong. I was early home too, but I was glad as there was a long day coming tomorrow. 

Week 8 - Thursday: Day 35

My day started late due to the supervisor not feeling well. I feel as if I'm getting a cold or something so I also stayed in bed until 11.
We started by looking at the magazine. The supervisor was testing me to see if I still remembered what the curves were and I still remembered. We sent it off but something was wrong. Page 8 and 9 didn't work. I said I could fix it as I read about the non printable layers, but that wasn't even the problem. We left it like that and I had to clean up vocals for another singer I had made a cd cover for. The vocals were recorded in a different studio and it came with a hiss.
The supervisor showed me how to do the first one and then I had to do it.
I simply had to open the project, go to EQ and go to parametrics and choose the third option which says hiss removal.  The settings were already on the right place.
Right after it was time to burn 50 copies, I had to unpack Cd cases and change the disc everytime it popped out. There were two computers going on at the same time so it should be going faster, but one computer failed on me so it took longer. In the meantime I watched a DVD from Metallica on how they started their first album so it wasnt too bad. Quite interesting to see their recording process.
After that I posted two more posts on Facebook about two artists and I got pulled into the recording booth.
I had to whisper:Are you ready?
My first 7 takes were bad, but luckily the last one worked. My problem was having a sore throat so it felt like something was stuck there. The supervisor recorded his lines and added mine in the commercial at the start.
Yay, I'm in a commercial ^^ It's a short line and you can't really hear it's me, but oh well. I at least have experienced this. This commercial will air on the radio too.

It was a 60 second commercial and the supervisor was cutting all lines up and put it on two separate tracks. I first wondered why he did that, but he explained that he could cut out the breaths and silent parts so he could slide in the next part a bit closer to make it faster paced. In the end he cut out 10 seconds of silence in between all lines.

Week 8 - Wednesday: Day 34

Today I started at 10 again and we looked at the banner which I made yesterday. my supervisor wanted to change the album cover of Pieces of Red as it wasn't a square album cover yet. We tried fixing it, but cutting a piece out looked stupid so instead I had to make a whole new album cover for them.
I first had to start with a background. I couldn't find one quickly, but my supervisor said I could use the red and black one. Then I had to paste in their group picture and get it in the center and right part.
As the picture stood out too much on its own I had to add a border by going to effects -> creative and vignet. I had to choose rectangle out of the four options and move the slider. It only works on a newly imported picture, so an edited one won't work.

Of course we also needed text and had to find a nice font. This was my job alone. In the other parts I had assistence, but this was my own decision which was kind of scary.
I went through a hundred fonts and picked six out of them. The supervisor asked me which one I liked best and I said the font which looks broken. It reflected back on their band name: Pieces of red.
The font color would be red obviously. The supervisor added another duplicate and made the borders a bit thicker and made it white on the background to make it stand out.
One bandmember was really happy with the design and was thanking me even though I didnt do much with it. The font was only my creation a little. Ah well. I did learn from it! I know what my options are.

We uploaded the picture on Facebook and then started writing a text introducing our company, what we do, what people can expect. Etc. We added a picture, but it was way too big. I deleted the photo and wasn't aware the whole text would be gone too. I didn't copy the end result! So we had to start over, but luckily we both remembered what was in there so it looks close enough. After that we posted about what packages we offer. Someone dropped by to talk about the Street machine weekend so I was drawing.
I'm trying to pick it up slowly and right now i'm practicing with shadows on a body. The pose is from posemaniacs, but I am trying to make different characters.
This one is the 16 year old Crystal =P I start with the skin first and when I am satisfied I will add the clothing and hair.

Take a look at our updated channel. Please like, we need it xD
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LA-Records-Media-Distributing/513463515367608?ref=hl

Week 8 - Tuesday: Day 33

I worked home on the banner today and uploaded a few versions on facebook. At 4 I got picked up to go to work after all. We drove to the printer to take a look at the magazine. A few changes had to be made, but other than that it looked good.
After we drove home we met the singer who was ready to re-record the vocals. I just sat there and looked at the process. This time he sang in the whole song instead of small pieces. They chose a few parts to redo though. That whole process to record main vocals takes two hours already including the practicing.
After the vocals he wanted to add another guitar part.
I got also asked to give my opinion, if it fitted in the song or not, but I agreed on it sounding clustered. In my opinion the song was done, but the singer wanted to redo something. Eventually we just left it like this as a normal listener wouldn't spot any mistakes.
The singer drove me home and I was back at 8 without knowing. I thought it was way earlier!

Week 8 - Monday: Day 32

Time to work on a new magazine. I had to import pages into the 2013 project which wasn't too difficult to do. It was just importing, grouping (ctrl g) and center it (p)
After that I had to get rid of a few things so the right pages were left to be edited for the next edition.
Soon after that a singer dropped by and listened to the new version. After that he got put on the website, but there was a limit in adding names. I figured out the number should change and it actually worked xD

I also got the title: Publicist. Which means I will be working on updating facebook and youtube. My first task was to write about the singer Stephanie. I had the information from the website plus an article about her competing in the voice of mac Donalds.
It was hard to find the right words, but the supervisor said I actually did a nice job. We only changed a few words as that would be more fitting, but other than that the content sounded good.

You can read it here on Facebook: Please like the page if you would like to be updated!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LA-Records-Media-Distributing/513463515367608?ref=hl

After that I got asked to do the background vocals for one song. We listened to the song, but then we decided to do something with the vocals later. I showed my other covers and also a song which I wrote my own lyrics for (Tetris =P) He liked it! He then mentioned the instrumental project with my coworker and there will be a possibility I can compose two songs and my coworkers will play it in with the real instruments!
Looking forward to this.

At the end of the day I worked on the banner for facebook. I gathered a lot of album covers to use,  (You can view it in the link already), but I could finish it at home. I would have the day off the next day so that would be my homework. 

Week 8 - Weekend!

Well.. I slept in as I slept late so my day started at 12 basically. I believe I have recorded another bard song for the mod interesting NPCs. Done the laundry, cooked rice and worked on the last mission from my DMC3 dub.
So glad that is done now. It was fun, but also time consuming.
I read stories the rest of the time >.> Not even halfway yet as there are 100 emails to read :P

On sunday I woke up at 7:45 as it was time for church. Ibarely slept so I couldn't focus on the sermon, but turns out my roommate barely understood it either xD The music wasn't as nice as last time because there were old people singing this time and they didn't sound that professional.
I did know one song which is called in Dutch:  Dit is mijn vreugde, but the lyrics were completely different in the English version.

We got home at 10:30 and I decided to download a game.. well okay games as it's a collection.
Got the game at home for ps2, but wanted to show them my roommates as well.
Been reading stories the whole freaking day. I got no life when I'm reading those! I was so tired, but I kept going. I had the chance to go to work, but I nearly fell asleep on the couch so I decided not to go.

In the evening my roommates came upstairs to try out devil may cry 3. And they gave up at mission 2 already. Hm.. Maybe I'm the only one to play it again after all. =P But then again, normal mode is quite hard at the beginning with barely having health and one weapon. Hope they will try again later!

I went to bed at 12:30 as I got pulled into a listen from a show I participated in. I made it! Woot. I got declined the first time as my monologue of Anne Frank was too ready and there wasn't any emotion. But they said I improved so much on my second take. It was less ready, I took the pauses. I only slurred a little, wrong pronunciation at some words and I could have changed some emotions a little bit more. But it was at least enough to go through to the first round.

I am participating because of the feedback they give, it's so helpful and I would love to improve my acting and English.