Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Dark Ritual FX

I've started mixing scenes for the character "David" this week. As some of you may know, Michael Bryce Jr. couldn't be used again for this character since in the story, only six months have passed since the epilogue of "Spirit Blade", and Michael is now a Junior in high school with a very baritone sounding voice.


I re-cast the role with a boy who is actually a year younger then Michael was when he recorded for David in "Spirit Blade". Although I believe our new David will be wonderful, I had some concern over the slightly higher pitch of his voice, until yesterday when I experimented with pitch manipulation.


Too much, and his voice would sound funny, but I discovered that if I lower the pitch of all of David's lines in "Dark Ritual" by one half step, it slightly thickens up his sound, simulating a boy's voice that is changing, but doing so slowly, as mine did, without all the cracking and breaking in tone. So that was a very fun discovery.


Raan is also more cybernetic than ever. I've dug up more servo sounds and even created my own using various household appliances. I also blended some pre-recorded sounds and my own original servo effects to create "walking" sounds for Raan. I drew some inspiration from the sounds of Robocop as he would walk around in the first film.


Today, after creating a few more original foley effects, I'll be settling in to work on a high octane action sequence that I think will be very memorable, but will take a good amount of work.


When I'm finished, it will be a scene that I will definately preview on the podcast.


Hope you're all having a great week!


-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, September 14, 2007 Merikk vs. Vincent?

Today we mark the first week of post-production editing on "Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual" and we're making good progress! The scene currently being worked on is a "training" sequence that pits Merikk Scythe against Vincent Craft in wild "Spirit World" combat!

The scene will be the first of several crazy and imaginative action sequences in the project. We're making every effort to bring you an even more action packed and intense experience than we did with "Spirit Blade", and although we've got our work cut out for us, we're enjoying the opportunity for a challenge!


If you missed last week's podcast, be sure to go back and check it out! We previewed the very first scene for "Dark Ritual" on the show! Of course we can't give EVERYTHING away on our podcast, but stay tuned in the weeks to come for more scene previews and other goodies!


Have a great weekend!

Friday, September 7, 2007 Upgrades!!

It's been an exciting and productive few days here at Spirit Blade Productions!

I'll be the first to tell you that I'm constantly learning when it comes to the computer/software side of what I'm doing. Just yesterday I finally figured out how to properly use my editing software to record audio. Until now, I've been using a rinky-dink $20 program from 2001 to record all of my audio, but yesterday I finally figured out what I needed to do so that I can record from inside "Sonar", the program I use to edit and mix my sound files. I also purchased an mp3 encoder for "Sonar" so that I can work with high quality mp3 instead of wav, which will allow me to save up to two-thirds of my hard drive space without sacrificing any sound quality.

I've also (nearly) finished work on the introductory scene for "Dark Ritual" and am picking up speed. My goal is to complete three scenes per week, on average. I may be setting the bar too high, but I'm going to give it my all and see how things are looking at the end of this month. At that time, I should be able to project a pretty accurate release date and re-post the countdown ticker for "Dark Ritual".

It's exciting to be getting better at this and learning from my mistakes. This project will have its fair share of challenges, but my desire is to make each Spirit Blade Productions project better than the one before it. I'll let all of you be the final judge, but I'll tell you right now that I'm predicitng some exciting improvements!

Once I've got a few more scenes completed, I will preview some of them on the podcast. So if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the time to get on board! New epsiodes are posted weekly on Saturdays. 

Have a great weekend!

-Paeter Frandsen

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 Being Productive

This week I'm trying to organize my work schedule a little more. Now that the main cast is finished recording(and it will only be a few weeks before I have dialogue from supporting roles as well), mixing has become my primary concern. But at the same time, I see the ever increasing need to network online, establishing a presence for Spirit Blade Productions on sites like MySpace, ThyWorks and other networking systems.

I was telling my wife yesterday that it's very difficult for me to leave something undone. Particularily if it's a creative effort. The most recent example is the work I'm putting into the Spirit Blade Productions MySpace page. It's coming along slowly. And it was very difficult to stop working on it on Monday. But I know that if I keep working on it until it's done, I'll slow production on "Dark Ritual", which I refuse to do.

So this week I'm trying to plan my work days a little more so that I can put a project(like the MySpace page) down, knowing exactly when I'll be picking it up again. This kind of planning and organization is not my strength, but I'll probably sleep a little better at night after mapping a few things out.

You'll notice the countdown ticker to "Dark Ritual" has been removed. I'm also hoping to have a better handle on knowing when "Dark Ritual" will be available, and streamlining my work schedule will help me to do that. The countdown will return, and hopefully without a dramatic change in time-table. But I wanted to remove it until I have a strong idea of the release date.

I'd love to have your prayers as I work through optimizing my efficiency. I want to give my time to the people and tasks on God's agenda, not just the checklist on my agenda. And determining the difference between the two is a constant challenge.

Thanks for all of your support! I hope you're doing well and living life on purpose!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, August 31, 2007 Thanks For Your Patience!

It's been an exciting week for Holly and Paeter, although you may have noticed that things slowed down here at the Spirit Blade Underground. You can still count on the podcast to be up this weekend and starting this Monday we'll be back on track with our weekly look at the Gospel Of John.

Last weekend marked the end of submissions for supporting role auditions. We're looking forward to going over them at the beginning of next week. If you are cast in a role, you will be contacted by or before September 7th. And if you don't hear from us, don't be discouraged! After Dark Ritual we will launch into a new project, nearly finished being written, and your voice may be perfect for what we need!

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 I Hate Baby Pictures

I've never been a fan of babies. I'm still not. Even the "cutest", most "adorable" or "funny" baby pictures sent to me by family members provoke little more than, "Yep. That sure looks like a baby."

However, you may notice the strange, upside-down baby picture that I posted. This particular baby is our son, Asher. He is our first child and we brought him home from the hospital on Monday night. And, of course, I absolutely love him. Although I still have zero interest in other babies. (I suppose I've got a soft spot for my older sister's kid, but that's blood. You can't do much about that.)

It's no surprise to me that I love my son and still have little tolerance for other people's "crap factories". But I think the reason why is interesting.

Last night, my dad told me that he asked my older sister once why she loved her little boy, but not some other little boy across the room. Her answer was fairly predictable. "Because he's mine."

Dad reminded me of the simple truth this common familial love demonstrates. God loves us not because of anything we've done. He loves us because we are his.

In fact most of the time, a little like my son(although he hasn't fussed much), we cry and complain and demand, thinking only about our own needs, while producing large amounts of crap for other people to deal with. But God still loves us, because he made us, and we're his.

So although I'll maintain a comfy distance from other people's noisy little rats, when I look at mine I'll hopefully be reminded of a powerful truth.

And now... I'm off to bed!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, August 24, 2007 Mixing and MySpace

With the main cast finished recording, we turn our attention to mixing this week. Specifically, mixing scenes. The opening sequence for Dark Ritual has a temporary mix completed that includes an introductory monologue from Merikk, like the first Spirit Blade, and some music and a brief credit sequence that gives the project a dynamic start.


The deadline for supporting role auditions is tomorrow. Hopefully soon thereafter we'll be receiving audio files from those cast in supporting roles, although most scenes can be mixed immediately.


We're always looking for new ways to network and get our name out to the public. To that end, we are FINALLY working on a MySpace page for Spirit Blade Productions. If you're clever, you can probably find it right now, although we're still working on customizing it. We've registered with MySpace as a "Band", which will allow us to put our own music and audio clips on the page. However, band MySpace pages are more difficult to customize than normal pages.


If anyone would like to volunteer some time to help us, we'd like to try and customize the background of our MySpace page using the image from the Spirit Blade CD cover, or something along those lines. We'll keep plugging away and let you know when we've got something worth looking at, but if you've got some know-how and are interested in helping us out, send an e-mail to paeter 


As always, thanks for your continued support of what we're doing!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Primary Cast Finished!!

Randy Hesson stayed late the last two nights of recording so we could finish a little early. (In case the baby comes before our due date.) So as of 10pm last night, principle recording is FINISHED for "Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual"!


I still have to record about half of my lines, but that doesn't really count in my mind.


I also still need to cast about a dozen supporting roles and receive recordings for them. Just a reminder that if you're interested, the audition deadline is this Saturday the 25th.


In news that isn't near as exciting, I'm probably going to need to bump the release date to "Early Spring" instead of the previously aimed for "Christmas Season". But don't let that get you too down. I'm planning to have a significant price drop for "Spirit Blade" that will take effect sometime in November and make it easier than ever for you to bring your friends along for the ride! We'll also have a lot's of cool free downloads to add between now and Christmas.


Once I've spent a few weeks mixing scenes, I'll have a better idea of the new release date for "Dark Ritual", but I don't anticipate you all having to wait much longer than you were already planning on.


As always, thanks for your support and prayers for this endeavor. We're very excited about "Dark Ritual" and the effect we hope it will have on people's lives.


See ya!


-Paeter Frandsen

Thursday, August 16, 2007 Randy Records!

Another exciting week as Randy Hesson completed his first recording session. After 2 or 3 more sessions early next week, the character of Vincent Craft will be prepared to re-enter the world of Spirit Blade.


After just a few minutes re-aquainting himself with the character, Randy began producing a sound that gives an even darker edge to Vincent's voice than he had in the first project! We know you'll love it!


Paeter also made great progress on mixing a song for "Raan". A mystical sounding ballad using middle-eastern flavors blended with electronic sounds. It's still in the infant stages, but we're excited about trying out some new sounds and styles!




Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007 ...and that was the last we ever heard from him.

Hopefully, you won't be able to say that of this post, but I thought I should let folks know that if posting gets off schedule here, at "Paeter's Brain" or the Podcast, it's because my wife and I will be having our first baby very soon. Although I will take a week off when the baby arrives, I will plan to at least keep the blogs and podcast going with little to no hiccups during that time. But should something be a day or so late sometime soon, you'll know why.

We're very excited to turn our "Dynamic Duo" into a "Terrible Trio", but we'd also really value your prayers. We'll let you know either here or at "Paeter's Brain" as soon as "the package has been delivered".

See ya!

Saturday, August 11, 2007 Be A Part Of Our Podcast!

Help us create the Spirit Blade Underground community!

HERE'S WHAT WE NEED:

1. Your answers to our weekly "Coffee House Questions".

2. Tell us how we can make the podcast and blogs better or more interactive!

3. Become an "Underground Correspondent"! Record a review (books, movies, t.v. shows, ANYTHING!) for us and you may just hear it on the next podcast! (Please limit message length to 3 minutes or less.)

HERE'S HOW TO DO IT:

Record a message with your ideas, reviews or other thoughts at: http://paetersbrain.blogspot.com or http://paeter.libsyn.com/!

Or e-mail Paeter at paeter@spiritblade.net. Don't forget to include your name so everyone will know how awesome you are! (Names will be withheld upon request.)

We hope you'll all be a part of our exciting future!

Friday, August 10, 2007 Could Use Some Help

We've had a great week here, finishing up the track to one song and starting on another. We've had to re-schedule Randy Hesson's first recording session because he grabbed a small cold and needed to get better in time for the musical he's performing in currently. His first recording session should be coming up next Tuesday.

We could use a little help from you! We'd like to have a way for you and our podcast listeners to leave messages for us to play on the podcast. We've tried both Odeo (which seemed to have some problems on their site) and Evoca (which would force us to spend more money) and haven't had any luck yet.

We'd like to avoid giving out Paeter's cell phone number or spending any money. Some blog widgets will allow you to record a message, but then only send a link to a flashplayer containing the recording. We need to be able to save the audio file for use on the podcast.

So if you have any ideas, we'd LOVE to hear them! 

Friday, August 3, 2007 Bad Guys With Lasagna

It's been a great week! Two more actors came and recorded, bringing us ever closer to the post-production phase, where the world of "Spirit Blade" will have life breathed into it again.


Paeter also began recording his lines for Merikk Scythe.


The highlight of the week was undoubtedly recording a "flesh eating sequence" this morning with actor Krystofer James VanSlyke. Cooked lasagna noodles were involved and the results were chilling.


On that note, have a great weekend!

Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Love this stuff!

For a full-time job that isn't adding anything to our house-hold income yet, I LOVE what I do!

I get to tell stories and journey to incredible worlds. I get to interact with other artists and creative people. I get to share what God is teaching me and learn from others at the same time!

Sure it's not all perfect, and I have some crappy days I'd love to forget. But I wouldn't trade what I'm doing for any other job out there!

As always, thanks for your prayers and support as Holly and I continue cutting a path into unknown territory.

Speaking of unknown territory, our first baby (a boy!) will be arriving/emerging toward the end of this month. We'd love your prayers for a safe and incredibly fulfilling birth.

Take care,

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, July 27, 2007 Open Auditions!

After a great weekend of recording with Sean Anthony Roberts, this week we jumped into preparations for "Dark Ritual" open auditions.


We'll be submitting the audition notice on several voice acting and audio drama message boards and you're invited to audition, too!


We have several supporting roles left that will be a lot of fun to play! So don't be shy if you're interested in trying out!


All you need is a microphone that can record clearly and the ability to send us files of your voice recordings in WAV or high quality MP3.


If you're at all interested in getting more information about the audition process and parts that are available, send an e-mail toinfo@spiritblade.net with a subject line reading "Audition Info", and we'll send everything you need right to your inbox!


As always, thanks for your prayers and support! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 A Great Weekend!

My friend Sean and his wife were in town this last weekend so that he could record the part of Saolos for "Dark Ritual". Although we worked a lengthy and intense schedule for a day and a half, we had a lot of fun and his performance is incredible.

After we finished recording, I sat down with him for two different interviews. The first is a spoiler free conversation about recording for Dark Ritual, and the second is full of spoilers about the story and his character.

The first one will be part of our show this week on the Spirit Blade Underground Podcast, so be sure you check it out. The second one I'll hang onto and put on the website with spoiler warnings sometime after Dark Ritual's release.

Thanks again, Sean, for a great weekend and for work that will be very memorable to all of our listeners!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, July 20, 2007 Music and Misc.

This week started off with the completion of various odds and ends and then produced the bulk of its productivity in the realm of music. Both "Veritas" and another song called "Used" were given some attention this week, the latter gaining the most ground.

We're seeing some good patterns so far with website traffic up recently and a dozen or so listeners to the last couple of podcasts.

We're hoping the podcast will help us establish a community a little more and provide something both fun and faith-building for sci-fi and fantasy fans. And although we don't spend much time talking about Spirit Blade Productions on it, we hope that listeners will come see the rest of what we have to offer. If you have any ideas on how we might improve or add to the podcast, please let us know! You can comment here or send an e-mail with your thoughts and ideas!

We would love it if you would consider one or two people this week that you could e-mail a link for the podcast to. We'd love to have more people involved both there and here on the weblog.

Thanks, everyone, for your continued support! Things are going great!

Have an awesome weekend!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 "Like Finding Moses' DVD Collection"

Yesterday I spent most of the day and some of the night working with an orchestra. Not a synthesizer, but an orchestra. Of course, I've never met any of the players and can't imagine that I ever will. But I'm still using them as much as I can.

What I actually spent my time working with were two music products. One was a CD of orchestra samples. Meaning that some guy got an orchestra and a microphone together and said, "Violins, play middle C!- Great! Okay, now Trumpets, play the G above that!" After recording a multitude of single notes, combined notes, short notes and sustained notes, all at various volumes and intensities, he organized it together into a CD product for people like me to edit into our music however we'd like.

The other product is a CD containing musical phrases played by a live orchestra in a variety of cinematic styles. These files I can either use as they come, or spend time (like I did yesterday) chopping them up into smaller bits to use as samples, giving me more control over the final product.

At least one (and probably more) of the songs I'm working on for "Dark Ritual" will use a blend of dark electronic beats and sampled orchestra. I'll also be using a blend of live and sampled voices to create a men's chorus and mixed choir when appropriate.

I've always loved mixing together elements that seem opposed to each other: Extreme Violence and Christian Fiction, Sci-fi mixed with Fantasy, and now a Classical music sound blended with Electronic.

I'm certainly not the first. Far from it. Danny Elfman has been littering his film scores with electronic production value since "The Planet of the Apes". The bands "Evanescence" and "Red" have both combined hard rock with emotive strings.

It's something I've wanted to do before, and even imagined early on for song concepts (that had to be put aside) in "Spirit Blade". But two things have brought me back to the idea. First, I've grown in my ability to create and mix tracks, making it the right time to stretch myself in this area. And second, the story of "Dark Ritual" calls for an element of the ancient. Our main characters spend most of their time in a world of ancient tradition and dark mysticism, so I'd like the music to reflect that.

Hopefully, when you hear "Dark Ritual", both the scoring and the songs will help transport you to an ancient and mysterious place filled with both power and dread.

Friday, July 13, 2007 Seduction, Songs and Schedule Changes

This was a very active week for us at Spirit Blade Productions. Events of note include:


Our evil villainess for "Dark Ritual" recorded her first session of dialogue with chilling results. I think listeners will love to hate our mysterious female antagonist.


We also made significant forward motion on the sound design for a song titled "Veritas". It will be less melodic than the rest of the songs in Dark Ritual, using a chorus surrounded by various spoken audio clips instead of verses.


Finally, one of our chief players ran into a schedule conflict that will bring him into town for recording NEXT weekend, instead of this weekend.


The next episode of our podcast will be online tomorrow. Things continue to look bright for the future and new possibilities for our company continue to present themselves. As always, when there's something we have to share, you'll find it here first!


Have a great weekend!

Friday, June 29, 2007 Craig Herrman Jr. finished!

We're pleased to announce a wrap for principle recording on the part of David, for "Dark Ritual". Craig Herrman Jr. did a wonderful job and we know you are all going to enjoy his performance.


One of the most intense moments of the production surrounds the character of David, and Craig's work compliments the scene wonderfully.


Also, this week marked the first episode of our weekly podcast! Follow the link at the top right of this screen to check it out, or just jump over to http://paeter.libsyn.com/ and use the player on the right side of the page to start listening right now!


And if you haven't tried out "Paeter's Brain" you can follow the link to that page as well and see what strangeness has been on the mind of our insane leader lately.


Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday for Chapter 8 of our study in The Gospel of John!