Wednesday, March 26, 2008 What Are You Doing?

I've been asking God this question for awhile. Those peaks and valleys we experience in our journey with God can make for a wild ride. We can go from depression to a state of re-energized purpose.

My pastor once said that although God can really use those dramatic moments in life to speak to us, one skill vital to the Christian walk is "learning to plod along". Staying focused on the work without counting on those miraculous "pep talks" from God.

God has certainly done his share of miraculous things in my life, but right now I think he's teaching me to plod along. To be content with the direction he gives only in his word, instead of hoping for a miraculous sign. I'll admit, it's pretty tough on me. Nothing like some valleys I've been in before. In fact, I wouldn't really call this a valley at all. But there's a real challenge for me as I encounter God's "silence".

It's nothing new. The psalmists often ask God, "why are you silent", or "why are you hiding"? God's not afraid of our doubt or confusion. He just doesn't want us to stay there. In Psalm 13, David expresses his feelings to God. He feels forgotten and abandonded. But his feelings don't change the way he thinks. By the end of this short prayer, David commits himself to trusting in God because of who God is. He focuses on the truth to keep himself anchored.

The theme of God's silence has become so significant to me recently that I scrapped one song for "Dark Ritual" that I had ideas for, but wasn't working, and am now developing a song with the theme of God's silence. I think it will be a great addition that will aid the story in Dark Ritual and I'm looking forward to praying my way through the creative process on it as well.

So there's my "deep thought" for the day. Hope you're doing great and living life on purpose!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, March 7, 2008 Back In The Game

After a week of fighting "the crud", Paeter is nearly back to 100% and has jumped into mixing again. Our goal is to have one more song and one more scene completed before the end of next week.

We're also planning to have a trailer completed for "Dark Ritual" before the end of April. As always, we'll keep you posted on that as it develops.

That's it for now! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 Emerging From The Pit

This morning I can feel myself slowly emerging from "The Pit Of Creeping Crud". Last Saturday, right after finishing the podcast, I noticed the first symptoms of a cold coming on.

Things pretty much snowballed from there and I got some drugs yesterday. (A "Z-pack", I think. Which my pharmacist wife said is really cool.) I don't get sick very often, but when I do it can sometimes be pretty rough. The most frustrating part has been being at home all day but with NO energy to work on "Dark Ritual"!

I'm feeling a little better today, and so hope to get a few things accomplished. "In Search Of Truth" has been bumped until next week, but we'll still have something valuable and thought-provoking for you on the podcast this weekend, so don't miss out!

Hope you all are having a good week and for those of you in school, Spring Break is just around the corner! Push through those mid-terms, you can make it!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, February 29, 2008 A Week For Songs!

It's been a great week for songwriting! Paeter has fleshed out the chorus track for a key song in "Dark Ritual". The song uses an Electronic/Epic sound that incorporates strings, orchestra samples and choral voices to create a sweeping, haunting backdrop for Mike Tully's singing.


There's still the verses to complete and then alot of polishing, but it's exciting to see this song come together after only thinking about it for the better part of a year.


That's all for now. Time to crack the whip and get Paeter back to work!


Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Stuck In A Loop

I found a cool website recently that any aspiring songwriter should check out. It's called "looperman.com" and basically acts as a hub for people to share sound/music loops that they have created. Registration on the site is free and so are all the loops. They can be used privately or commercially, with only a credit required.


Of course, since virtually anyone can upload loops, you'll find some things that are useful and some that are not, but as I've skimmed the surface I've so far found most loops to be of good quality, if not always what I'm looking for.


Currently, I'm looking a for a little electric guitar material. I've got a friend who did some great guitar work on one song in "Dark Ritual" already, but when I need something short, simple and repetitive just to "fill-in" the sound some, loops are a quicker and easier way to go.


Currently I'm working on a song for Dark Ritual called "Death Come Quickly". Like one or two other songs in Dark Ritual, it has an Epic feel, so I'm looking for authentic sounding strings and will also add choral voices using a mix of samples, synth and my own voice to create the final sound.


Anyway, that's all for now. Back to work!


-Paeter Frandsen 

Friday, February 22, 2008 Past The Halfway Point!

We're thrilled to announce that we are officially more than halfway finished with the primary mixing of "Dark Ritual"!


Paeter's schedule will begin to free up after a couple more months and we expect progress to come more quickly when that happens.


We also don't anticipate the mastering process to take as long for "Dark Ritual" as it did for "Spirit Blade"(which took around 4-6 weeks). So once the primary mixing is complete it will be a sprint to the finish!


We've learned alot from our experience making "Spirit Blade" and believe that the production quality of "Dark Ritual" will be a significant improvement and refining of what we accomplished in our first project. We hope you'll agree!


Thanks for your support and stay tuned for more updates as we continue to move forward! 

Thursday, February 14, 2008 Freak Out!

We had a little adventure this week when Paeter thought he had forgotten to record three very crucial lines with Mike Tully when the actor was here last summer.


Although prepared to "get creative" and find a solution that could be written around the missing lines, we felt very lucky to have found the original lines tucked away on a mislabeled sound file. (Whew!)


Paeter is currently mixing an action scene that leads into a MAJOR cliffhanger around the middle of "Dark Ritual". It's a big moment because of its intensity and because of the length of time we make the audience wait before the cliffhanger is resolved. Should be fun!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Mixing Mike Tully

I've finally finished work on a scene with a lot of dialogue that required several layers of "mood-enhancing" sound effects in order to be interesting. Although I've had other things competing for my attention the last couple weeks, that scene was easily one of the longest to mix.


Yesterday, I started work on a "Mike Tully scene". Mike does the voice of Raan and it's always a ton of fun mixing his stuff. When he came into town for a marathon recording weekend last summer, we had so much fun and alot of our screwing around was captured in the recording sessions. So as I'm listening to his takes, deciding which ones to use, I'm often exploding into laughter as I listen to Tully and me just messing around and having fun. (Rest assured, I will be putting together a special feature centered on Tully and his behind the scenes gags.)


With Dark Ritual, I've experimented with using actors who can record their lines and send them to me from across the country or even across the world. It's been a cool way to expand my casting options, but I can't imagine casting long-distance actors in the really hefty lead roles. As a director, I think I value too much the time I spend with my actors one-on-one in a room together. Artistically and socially, there's just too much I think I'd miss.


Anyway, back to work. I wonder what Tully's gonna say today...


-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, February 8, 2008 Slow Week

Unfortunately it's been something of a slow week.

Paeter has had some other work to do that's kept him from working much on "Dark Ritual", although he was able to finish work on a "dialogue-heavy" scene that he's been editing for over two weeks now.

We're hoping to have the next part of Paeter's "Spirit Blade" Commentary finished this weekend or next, so keep an eye out for that on the "Media" page of our website.

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

Wednesday, February 6, 2008 Control Freak!!

Audio drama may just be the perfect genre for an artistic control freak like myself.

In live theatre, the actors can mess up, the sets can fall apart and the props can go missing. Light cues might be late, sound cues completely lost, and an actor may not deliver his line in "that perfect way" that he did the night before.

As I'm editing scenes for "Dark Ritual" however, I have an insane level of control. At times, my actors deliver the perfect line in one shot, and other times, I'll hack and slash and assemble a version from six completely different takes. As an actor, that might drive me nuts to hear, but as a director, sometimes it keeps me sane.

Then again, it's also good to let go a little now and then. Sometimes I'll get through listening to all of an actor's takes and think "Why didn't I direct them to do it more like THIS?" Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, right? But despite the initial frustration, something neat happens after I realize I'm "stuck" with a certain variety of takes to work with. The character is taken out of my hands and out of my mind and lives and breathes a little on its own.

Suddenly, I have to re-evaluate who the character is in light of the actor's performance. And when the product is finished, I've got a group of people that surprise even their creator now and then.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a certifiable control freak and will take the version matching "my vision" over the alternative any day. But there's a certain charm in the unknown that helps to keep this fictional world "alive". And that's pretty cool, too.

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, February 1, 2008 New Commentary Up!

If you've never checked out the "Spirit Blade" Commentary Series that Paeter has been producing, jump over tohttp://www.spiritblade.net/site.cfm/sbp/media

and listen to Paeter as he talks about the secrets and stupidity behind our first full-length feature!

Part 5 of the commentary series was added just this week. Paeter takes a break from focusing on technical issues or sharing behind the scenes stories, and expands some on why he wrote Spirit Blade and what some of his core philosophies are that the project aims to represent.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 Creating With The Ultimate Artist

Some of the most enjoyable creative moments I have are the result of my own incompetence or what some might call "accidents".


It's in those times that I have to give credit and my thanks to God for partnering with me in the creative process. 


It can happen any number of ways. Maybe I forget to have a visiting actor record a line until they're out of town again. Maybe I accidentally put a different effect on a musical track than what I intended. Or sometimes an idea will simply pop into my head that I can't imagine how it logically could have arrived there.


Now, that's not to say that every "happy accident" becomes something that works perfectly. After all, God is still leaving the bulk of creative work in my hands to screw up as I may. But since I'm not the type to believe in luck, I have to give credit for the "golden mistakes" to whom it belongs.


I'll give you one real example. In "Spirit Blade", there's a big continuity error regarding which arm Raan lost in the attack from the Atlantean Shock Troopers. Do you remember which one it was? In two different scenes a different arm is referred to as being lost. 


Too late to back and re-record. So if I want to make it work for those perceptive listeners and die-hards that notice, I have to explain it somehow in "Dark Ritual". I'll leave the explaination for how Raan loses BOTH arms for you to hear when "Dark Ritual" comes out. But the need to fix the error brought about some wonderful opportunity for Raan's character, who is becoming increasingly cybernetic and decreasingly human. It will be one of the emotional centerpeices for "Dark Ritual" and an element that would be less effective or possibly even absent, had I not made the mistake I did in the script for "Spirit Blade".


And that's just one example. If I kept track more faithfully (which maybe I should), I'd have a lengthy record of God's grace toward my creative efforts, along with multiple stories of God cleaning up my messes.


Of course, that's the story of our lives, isn't it? Our natural tendency is to make a mess of our lives and everything in them. Thank God, he's interested in cleaning up and being a part of every little thing we do. From the sin that destroys me, to a little "sci-fi thing" I'm working on. God's a part of making it all new. And he loves being a part of MY life! (Psalm 18:19)


Wow...


-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, January 25, 2008 Are you Glitched?

Although this has been a great week for mixing scenes, we will temporarily be focusing more time on developing and mixing the songs for "Dark Ritual". A few of Randy Hesson's(Vincent) lines were discovered to have recording errors in them and so we are currently making an effort to get him back to re-record.

Only four very short lines need to be redone, so we're confident we can work out a time to have him back in. Meanwhile, it seemed like a good excuse to take a break and work on music again.

Speaking of music, we're using much more "out of studio" production music for "Dark RItual", which we believe will result in faster production and higher quality! Paeter enjoyed the scoring he did on "Spirit Blade", but since he doesn't consider it his strong point and would rather spend that time improving songs for "Dark Ritual", it looks like a "win-win" scenario!

That's all for now!

Friday, January 18, 2008 Spirit Blade Productions on MySpace

We've now begun work on scene #16 out of a total number of 36 scenes in "Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual". At this point, our second major antagonist is being introduced and one of our lead characters begins his descent into darkness.

If you haven't scene our MySpace page yet, it's because we've never talked about it! But we've finally gotten into the habit of updating it in synch with this weblog. So although there's nothing new for you to see if you're already connected here, we'd love it if you made us one of your "friends"! Just do a search in the "Music Category" on MySpace using "Spirit Blade Productions". You'll also find an early mix of "Necromancy", one of the key songs from "Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual"!

We'll be closing things down this Monday for Civil RIghts Day, but will have "In Search Of Truth" available on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, January 11, 2008 Raan's The Man!

This week, Paeter finished work on a few "torture scenes" and enjoyed working on a new scene featuring Raan Galvaanik.


Raan has become even more "cybernetic" in this story and the ramifications of his lost humanity will play a big part in his running subplot. 


Lastly, one of Raan's songs is being re-worked to add some more intensity and "dramatic flavor" to the sound.


That's our week in a nutshell! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 Deadlines and Release Dates

As I make every effort to establish "Spirit Blade Productions" as a quality brand, I'm re-thinking some ideas about "release dates". Don't worry, I'm not projecting any major lag in the release of "Dark Ritual", but if it ends up taking a "summer release" to produce the quality I'm demanding of myself, I certainly don't plan to rush things to have a mediocre product out "on time".

Given that I report each week on both this blog and our podcast regarding production work updates, I'm considering no longer placing "release dates" on any projects until they are no more than a month of being ready.

There's a precedent for this kind of "release date neglect" with companies like "Blizzard" (the producers of the Diablo and World of Warcraft pc games) and "Fantasy Flight Games" (producers of "Descent" and a ton of great sci-fi fantasy boardgames). However, I'd like to get your feedback on this idea.

Would you prefer I place release dates or estimates on our website at the risk of not meeting the deadline, or should I simply list a year for a project's release and refer web surfers to our blog and podcast for updates? You also may have a different idea. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks everybody!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, January 4, 2008 The Year To Come

Taking a look at the year to come, we thought we'd share with you some of the items on our agenda for 2008!

1. Spring- Completion and release of "Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual"

2. Spring- Outline and adaptation of "The Pilgrim's Progress" into a new script.

3. Late Spring/Early Summer- Begin development of a short (30 minute) sci-fi audio drama for a possible Fall 2008/Spring 2009 release. (This untitled project is still under consideration)

4. Summer- Finalize "Pilgrim's Progress" adaptation and begin casting for the project. ("Similitude Of A Dream"- working title)

5. Fall- Finalize casting for "Similitude" and begin recording for a 2009 release.

We're very exicted about the new developments coming this year, and this short list will only be the tip of the iceberg as new opportunities present themselves along the way! Please be praying for us and for God's guidance as we work hard to represent the truth in thrilling and imaginitive ways!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 Back Again!

I'm back in the saddle again after some time off for Christmas.

I had the opportunity to spend some time with Colin Snow while I was out in Pennsylvania with my wife's family. Colin has been a fan of "Spirit Blade", a cast member in "Dark Ritual", and I'm now proud to say, my friend. Thanks for a great afternoon, Colin!

Today I'm mainly playing catch-up, but tomorrow will be full steam ahead again with mixing for "Dark Ritual".

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

-Paeter Frandsen

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 Buttons!

Ryan, our Graphic Designer, just made these really cool animated buttons for the Spirit Blade Productions website! I've got one of them at the top of this page and I've been geeking out finding other places to use them.

Ryan did a really great job, so if you want to help spread the word about Spirit Blade Productions, grab one of the animated buttons to use on your website, blog or podcast site!

You can find them at http://www.spiritblade.net/site.cfm/sbp/media

Monday, December 17, 2007 A Christmas Present From Us!

Hi Everybody!

In celebration of Christmas, we're GIVING AWAY free high quality mp3 downloads of our entire feature length (2hrs 25min.) audio drama, "Spirit Blade"!

To get your FREE download of "Spirit Blade", all you have to do is send an e-mail to "info@spiritblade.net" with the subject "Free Spirit Blade" between December 16th and January 2nd. (One free download per person. We will not sell or give your e-mail address to anyone else.)

ANYONE is eligible for this, so if you haven't experienced this sci-fi action epic, consider it our Christmas gift to you or someone you know!

Merry Christmas!

Paeter Frandsen