Spirit Blade Productions

Entertainment and Resources for Christian Geeks!

SPIRIT BLADE PRODUCTIONS exists to equip, encourage and inspire Christian Geeks to live in the freedom and purpose Christ offers.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Must...be...creative!

For almost a month now I have been itching to look at the bland waveforms and track files of my mixing software. Never before has taking two weeks off from work resulted in so much catch-up time afterward. I'm finally back to my normal pace of e-mails and other correspondence, but yesterday was the first time in almost a month that I have done anything creative for work. It was driving me nuts!!

And I still haven't satisfied my craving, so I'd better go mix some more audio or something!

-Paeter Frandsen

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Catch Up Week

Well, I had originally thought that I might post "In Search Of Truth" here today this week. But it looks as though I won't have the time this week. (Believe it or not, I've been doing nothing but answering e-mails and other correspondence for almost three full days now!) As of this moment, I'm about two hours from being caught up, which I should be able to do tomorrow. But that still won't leave me enough time for "In Search Of Truth" this week. Not only that, but a really cool opportunity has come my way for this weekend (not related to Spirit Blade Productions) that will prevent me from producing a podcast this week as well.

So my apologies to everybody, but the big announcements about what is coming this year from Spirit Blade Productions will have to wait until next week.

Meantime, I've got some more e-mails to answer. See ya!

-Paeter Frandsen

Monday, January 4, 2010 Back And Ready To Go! (Almost...)

After more than a week of vacation, I'm finally back and ready to go!
Almost.


 

I caught a cold at the tail end of my vacation and so am a bit low on energy
and blowing my nose a lot. I've also got a TON of e-mails and correspondence to
catch up on before I get to do much of anything creative. But I should be back
to my normal routine later this week.


 

I'm not sure yet if there will be an "In Search Of Truth" post
this week, though I'm hoping to do one. I'm still planning on the podcast this
weekend either way, and you can count on hearing about the big 2010 plans
coming from Spirit Blade Productions later this week, either here or on the
podcast!


 

Stay tuned!


 

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, December 4, 2009 Beat Collection

Well, I still can't say what the "Secret Project" is for 2010, but I can tell you that I'm FINALLY working on it again after spending half the week in a mountain of e-mails. That's what happens when I take a few days off, and it's likely fixin' to happen again! I'll be taking several days off next week, so I apologize in advance if I'm a little slow to answer e-mails.

Anyway, as far the Secret Project goes, I can say that I found some really cool beats this week for one of the songs I'm working on for it. Some hard, even nasty sounding percussion that dirties things up in a way that makes me feel all warm inside. Can't wait to start stitching the song together!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, November 20, 2009 Secret Project Starting Up!

If you've been to spiritblade.net recently, you may have noticed that there is a "Secret Project" due to be released during the first half of 2010. No, it's not the Spirit Blade Audiobook, but it's something fans of the Spirit Blade series will dig, and something I've been excited about doing for a little while now. 

 

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I've started working on it again as of this week (I've already spent some time working on it during the production of "Pilgrim's Progress") and it's coming along great! I've been through a few sound effects and musical ideas to narrow down the basic feel of what I want and today things started coming together nicely. My wife got a preview and it brought a wide grin to her face. Hopefully it will do the same for you in a few more months!

 

-Paeter Frandsen 

Friday, November 13, 2009 Spirit Blade Audiobook On The Horizon!

With the main thrust of my publicity efforts for "Pilgrim's Progress" slowing down, I'm finally finding time to give attention to the next project on my list: The Spirit Blade Audiobook!

 

"But wait a minute. We've got a Spirit Blade Audio Drama. Isn't an audiobook a bit of a step back?"

 

Not in this case. For one thing, this audiobook is actually the unpublished novel that I wrote which, after numerous changes and restructuring, formed the basis for both Spirit Blade and Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual! Far from a re-treading of what you've already heard, the Spirit Blade audiobook will be a very different story with new characters and plot threads you've never seen or heard before!

 

Like the "Pilgrim's Progress" audiobook bonus feature included with our latest audio drama, this audiobook will be enhanced with sound effects and a musical score, drawing some scoring from Spirit Blade and Dark Ritual to maintain a tone similar to those projects.

 

But unlike our previous projects, the Spirit Blade Audiobook will be available for free!

 

Recording for the project is finished and production has already begun. So keep your ears open for this one in the next few months!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Powering Through Publicity

Although I had hoped to speed through my "publicity e-mails" for Pilgrim's Progress in a single day this week, my memory has not served me well regarding how long this sort of thing takes and how I want to approach it. It just takes time, plain and simple.

 

I'm still hoping to "power through" the bulk of my e-mail publicity stuff this week, but I'm interjecting some other work as well, to prevent me from going insane from the mind-numbing tedium of it all!

 

Some grand and distant day when I have money I'm going to be paying someone else to do this...

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, October 30, 2009 Marketing Is Lame, Audio Is Cool

If you've got a story or message you're passionate about that you want others to experience who have never heard about it, you have to engage in some form of marketing. But despite my passion for what I do and create, the marketing is my least favorite part of running this little company, second only to all the technical internet stuff I have to keep afloat.

 

The last few days have been filled with e-mail writing and e-mail sending. Not to folks I've interacted with before, but to folks with blogs and podcasts that I think might be interested in what we're doing or who might be willing to help get the word out. It takes me well outside of my comfort zone and I sometimes agonize over my choice of words in an effort to avoid coming across like a salesman. But at the end of the day, I've got a product that I think others will want. And if I want them to buy, I have to sell. A necessary chore.

 

Thankfully, mixed in with that has been my work on the Spirit Blade audiobook, which I have now been able to resume work on. I am about two-thirds of the way through recording it and am hoping to take two days next week and just barrel through the rest of it. Mixing the audiobook for "Pilgrim" took much less time than I had originally anticipated, and so I'm realistically hopeful that you guys will be able to start listing to the Spirit Blade audiobook before Christmas! I'm not positive what the release method will be, but I do know that it will be available free of charge!

 

It's also been really great to hear the positive and energetic responses from those of you who have listened to "Pilgrim's Progress: Similitude Of A Dream"! Your encouragement means a lot! Thank you!

 

Have a great, safe Halloween weekend!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Evaluating Options

Well, now that "Pilgrim" is out, I am finally emerging from my production cave to re-evaluate my online marketing strategies and how I can make the best use of my evaporating time.

 

I'm looking into Twitter, which I've avoided because the nature of the beast lends itself to sharing only short thoughts with little substance, and I'd much rather share ideas than tell you all that I'm eating cereal or mixing audio (in which case, I'm not really doing either because I've wasted time to stop and say that I am.) But I've learned that I CAN use Twitter to let folks know when a blog post has gone up or a podcast episode has been published, which sounds cool! And I think I've got it worked out so that I don't have to do anything extra to make that happen. I don't know, it's set up now, so this post will act as a sort of "test".

 

I'm also currently wondering about MySpace. I'm very hesitant to add anything to my "posting ritual", which already takes up more time than I'd like. I've been unable to find a tool that will allow me to simultaneously post blogs to Typepad, Blogger, Facebook, my two Ning groups and Myspace, so I currently manually copy and paste my weekly posts for both blogs into all of those places.

 

I'm looking for ways to subtract time from this ritual and I've got my crosshair on my MySpace web presence.

 

Is it worth it to keep a presence there? If so, is it worth it to paste my blog posts there? I get comments regularly on Facebook, Blogger and Typepad, but it's been almost a year, maybe more, since I got a comment on MySpace.

 

Should I just keep the two pages (one personal and one "Spirit Blade") with LINKS to my blogs but not worry about actually copying my blogs to them, or should I keep those blogs going on those MySpace pages, even though it's the same blog material you'll find on Blogger (Paeter's Brain) and Typepad (Spirit 
Blade Underground).

 

Recently, it was suggested that I try "Ping.fm", which I had tried a year ago. This free service allows you to update multiple social networks at once, but a year ago I didn't get any further than signing up because they weren't compatible with all of my social networks. So I tried it again today.

 

Ping.fm failed me again.

 

It lured me in with the promise that I could post to all of my social networks, but when I began to create posting groups (so I can post to some social networks and not others) it revealed that if I choose "blogging", my options are severely limited. It looks as though the only places it can send blogs to, among my social networks anyway, are Facebook, Blogger and Typepad. I can only microblog and do status updates at all the others. So again I am faced with what to do about Myspace and Ning. Especially Myspace.

 

Should I continue to copy my blog posts there, or just put a referral link on the Myspace page and hope they check out my Typepad blog?

 

Any web geniuses out there that have this problem solved?

Saturday, October 24, 2009 "Pilgrim's Progress" Available Now!

Hi Everyone!

 

 

 

It is my pleasure to announce the release of Spirit Blade Productions’ latest audio drama, “Pilgrim’s Progress: Similitude Of A Dream”!

 

 

 

Based on the classic allegory by John Bunyan, this re-imagining retains the rich layers of philosophy and theology contained in the original, while repackaging it in the form of a mythical fantasy adventure. Monsters, magic, danger and discovery all await your ears and imagination. The epic story of one man’s journey may just be your story as well!

 

 

 

To listen to the trailer, get more information or download it now, visit www.spiritblade.net!

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

Paeter Frandsen

Friday, October 23, 2009 Finishing "Pilgrim" On Website

I can almost taste it! The final comments from my test listeners have come in and they all say this project is ready to go! I did my final test listens yesterday and after putting together a brief "Read Me" file for the project download, I will deliver the folder to my tech guy today. Keep checking back here! I may be announcing the availability of "Pilgrim's Progress: Similitude Of A Dream" any day now!

 

And while you're waiting, you can listen to the trailer on our home page (www.spiritblade.net) and read a little bit about the development of the project(click on "Projects" in main navigation)! FYI, I will be updating the website as well today and tomorrow. So if you come across something that looks unfinished or a link that doesn't work, that's just me slaving away behind the scenes!

 

Stay tuned!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Monday, October 12, 2009 Back On Wednesday

Although it goes against my instinct, I'm taking a little break today and tomorrow to go camping with my family. So our "search for truth" together will have to wait until Wednesday.

 

When you work for no one but yourself it can be really hard (at least for me) to take time off. Especially right in the middle of crunch time before a product release! But the time off will be good for me and will actually have very little impact on the "Pilgrim" release.

 

Thanks for your patience, everyone! Be back soon!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, October 9, 2009 Almost Done!

Well, I've been holed up in my cave all week working hard and fast to finish "Pilgrim", and the time and effort is paying off!

 

I had estimated the audiobook portion of the project to take around 1 or 2 weeks, but I ended up recording and mixing the entire thing in just over 48 hours! I think it will be a great compliment to the audio drama version and scratch the itch for some you "purists" out there.

 

Tomorrow I have an actor coming to record the opening and closing credits, along with some lines for the "Pilgrim" trailer, which I will put together next week. Meanwhile, I'm handing out copies of the project to test listeners today and should be getting the "cover image" from my graphic designer this weekend or early next week.

 

I am surprisingly optimisitic about an October release! But we'll see!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

 

4 comments:

  1. Jessica GarciaOctober 9, 2009 at 9:03 AM

    Yay!! Can't wait!

  2. PaeterOctober 9, 2009 at 2:40 PM

    Me either! Thanks, Jessica!

  3. Nathan J. NormanOctober 10, 2009 at 8:02 AM

    I'm really, REALLY looking forward to this Paeter. I think the inclusion of the audiobook can help bridge the non-scifi fans into this project. My wife's not a sci-fi fan . . . and she's looking forward to the project because of the audiobook! Thanks!

  4. PaeterOctober 10, 2009 at 2:34 PM

    Cool! Great to hear, Nathan! In case it makes any difference, you can tell your wife that the audio drama will be firmly set in the "medieval fantasy" genre, as I think the source material lends itself well to that type of setting. No sci-fi involved in this project.
    Either way, I hope she enjoys the included audiobook version! I really enjoyed putting it together!
    Thanks,
    Paeter

Friday, October 2, 2009 "Pilgrim" Primary Mix Finished!

As of today, my primary mix for "Pilgrim's Progress: Similitude Of A Dream" is finished! I am now writing the script for the opening and closing credits which will be recorded sometime next week. Meanwhile, I will begin recording the parallel audiobook material to be included with this release.

 

The audiobook portion of the project will be MUCH easier to mix and I only anticipate it taking a week or two. (Though you all know what my estimates are worth.) I will only be sending out the primary mix to my test listeners, trusting my own ears to polish and master the credits and audiobook. I received very few notes on the mix for "Dark Ritual" at this stage, and so I'm confident I can handle those portions without testers. This will also cut at least two weeks off of the production schedule.

 

Ryan Emenecker, the designer for both Spirit Blade CD sets and our main website, will be adding text to an image for "Pilgrim's Progress" on the website. We're going for an understated look, but one that I think will represent the project well.

 

That's all I've got for now!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, September 25, 2009 Paeter The Dragon

I am officially mixing the final scene of "Pilgrim's Progress: Similitude Of A Dream"! It involves a dragon (I'll reveal no more) and I spent some time looking for dragon type roars in my sound effects library and a few places online, but couldn't find what I needed and didn't feel like spending money.

 

So I grabbed some household items to help expand my vocal resonating space and recorded a series of vocal noises that I then layered, altered pitch for and added reverb to in order to produce what I believe with be the dragon noises used in the final product. The process has been a lot of fun and is not over yet, so we'll see! But just in case it works like I hope it will, I used some screen capture software to video document my experience creating the effects that you will hopefully see in a few more months!

 

There is still some other work to be done, too. I need to write up and have an actor record the opening and closing credits, and I also need to record my reading of the original material from John Bunyan's classic, which parallels what we cover in this installment of the series. Mid-October might be pushing it, but I'm working as hard as I can to get it all finished and in your ears!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Monday, September 14, 2009 My Real Job

(No podcast this weekend, so no "In Search Of Truth" today. But check back next week!)

 

There just isn't enough time. I think I feel it most when I'm nearing the end of a project and have self-imposed deadlines that I have shared publically. But I also happen to know that my last two weeks have had an unusual number of "things" that need to get done that have nothing to do with mixing, which is what I'd REALLY like to spend all of my time doing at this point.

 

It's at times like this that it's really challenging for me to remember what my job is. My job is not to churn out audio dramas on a conveyer belt. Audio dramas are a huge part of my job, but they aren't what primarily defines Spirit Blade Productions and the goals I have for my life and our little company. My job is to share biblical truth with "my people": The geeks. The ones that the church doesn't seem to know how to talk to or what to do with, or that she even judges and turns away. The ones who love exploring new concepts and discussing ideas too otherworldy, philosophical or abstract for "normal people".

 

Even though it's difficult to feel behind and frustrating to encounter obstacles and "to do lists" that ultimately delay the release of our next project by hours that turn into days that turn into weeks, I do my best to remember that the most important work is still being done, little by little, every day that I remember what my real job is.

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, September 4, 2009 Pushing Through

As excited as I am to finish "Pilgrim", there are still days when work is work and I just have to push through. Maybe I don't feel like mixing dialogue when it's time to mix dialogue, or I don't feel like hunting for an effect when it's time to do that. It's not uncommon for me to talk to myself out loud, saying things like "Just do it, Paeter. Just DO it!" as I force myself to get out of my chair and set up the microphone to record a sound effect that I really don't feel like creating myself.

 

I had a couple days like that this week, but it hasn't slowed me down much. I'm almost done lining up dialogue for scene 10 (out of 11) and will likely be finishing the scene before the end of next week.

 

-Paeter Frandsen

Monday, August 31, 2009 Getting Home And Catching Up

We made it home last night and I am now back in the saddle for the home stretch on "Pilgrim's Progress: Similitude Of A Dream".

 

The "Just Plain Folks" award show in Nashville was a great experience, and although we didn't win in our category, our nomination still represents the most widespread recognition we've ever received and it was an honor to be included in the largest music awards in the world. (In all categories combined, a massive total of 42,000 albums were entered for consideration.)

 

Our trip to Nashville also gave me the chance to connect with some old friends and spend a little time with family. I was also honored to spend the afternoon with Winston Crutchfield of "Critical Press Media". Winston has been a huge supporter of Spirit Blade Productions and it was a real treat to spend the afternoon with him. (Even though I managed to get us lost at least three times in the maze-like highway system of Nashville.)

 

But after a great trip, it's time to get back to reality. Though not too much. For the next several weeks I'll still be spending my time in a far off land of fantasy and adventure as I push to get "Pilgrim" out to all of you ASAP!

 

As always, thank you so much for your continued support of what we're doing! Talk to you again soon!

 

-Paeter Frandsen

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