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.
The Spirit Blade Underground Alliance is pleased to present their newest audio drama:
Voyages Of The USS Sasquatch: First Flight
A young graduate prepares for her first space-faring assignment aboard an unusual ship with an unorthodox crew. But danger doesn't wait for preparations, and soon the crew of the USS Sasquatch holds the fate of many in their hands.
Just a heads up that christiangeekcentral.com is temporarily down. We were recently the victim of credit card fraud. Our compromised credit card has been deactivated and I didn't realize that CGC was due to auto-renew (using the now deactivated card) on 7/6/14. Great timing, huh?
The good folks at GoDaddy tell me that the site should be back up in 30-60 minutes, or up to 24 hours on the extreme long side of things.
So sorry for this oversight on my part. Thank you so much for your patience!
-Paeter
This week I finished work on Scene 9 for Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows, putting me over 1/4th of the way complete in mixing the entire project. (Well, much more than that if you factor in the work on the songs I've completed so far.) That may not sound like much, but to me it's halfway to halfway!
Scene 10 is a short but fairly heavy scene between Saolos and Merikk. Sean Anthony Roberts, who provides the voice for Saolos in both "Dark Ritual" and "A World Of Shadows", brought his A game to this scene, which makes it a great pleasure to work on, but also a real challenge to edit.
Sean is such a fantastic performer that he usually requires very little direction. He also tends to give me multiple, fantastic versions that are different yet equally appropriate to the moment in the script. As I sat editing scene 10 today I thought, "I want people to hear ALL of these takes!"
In the end I choose, as best I can, and then resolve to let the other takes be heard sometime later in a behind the scenes feature.
Already it looks as if I'll be able to finish Scene 10 before the week is over, which would be very gratifying. At the same time, I've begun praying that Yahweh will allow me to have peace and contentment regarding my pace and productivity, resting in his sovereign control over events and ultimate wisdom regarding what should happen when.
Either way, I hope to keep taking a break now and then to keep you updated. Stay tuned!
-Paeter Frandsen
Just a quick heads up. We're having an internet outage that looks like it will last at least until late Sunday afternoon, so the podcast may not be up until Monday or later.
Using my smart phone hotspot, I managed to upload my video review of "Edge Of Tomorrow", which you can see right now at christiangeekcentral.com. But for some reason, my upload client doesn't like it when I try to use my phone to upload the podcast.
I will get the episode up as soon as I possibly can. In the meantime thank you so much for your patience.
-Paeter Frandsen
It's a miracle!
The summer has begun at the Frandsen household, which means both of our boys are home and full of energy. For a guy who tries to do much of his work at home throughout the day, the thought of this season is something I have dreaded. "Prepare to watch your productivity plummet, Paeter. Just assume that you won't make much progress on AWOS ("Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows") until August."
What I wasn't prepared for was the social dynamic between my boys, and how it's actually helping me to get MORE mixing time into my schedule than I had during the school year with only our youngest at home most days.
Our youngest boy is the extrovert of the family. This means that unless he is interacting with someone, he's not happy for long. Which makes being alone with him all day very challenging if I hope to get any work done.
By contrast, our older boy is more like me. Highly imaginative and content to play by himself much of the time. When I only have him to worry about, keeping up with my work day isn't too difficult.
With our oldest now home from school, the little guy has someone else he can suck the life from *Ahem!* I mean- PLAY with. And when our oldest prefers to play alone, The Destroyer (as we often call our youngest) is often content with his new favorite hobby... playing in water!
So the water bill from our sprinkler may be on the rise, but so is my productivity on AWOS, to which I've so far been able to dedicate at least 1 MORE hour per day than what is normal during the school year. And often even more than that!
I'm sure the schedule will require tweaking as the summer moves forward, but this is a VERY encouraging and exciting development!
For those curious, I'm currently mixing scene 9 out of 38 (not 39, as I thought last time), which means that when I'm done with the current scene I'll be 1/4th of the way through the project! That might seem like a small slice, but for me it means I'm about halfway to halfway! Woohoo!
Here's hoping this momentum will continue!
-Paeter Frandsen
Well, that certainly isn't exciting to type. I'd much rather be on scene 38 of 39! But as I've been reminded lately, slow and steady wins the race.
Yesterday and today were a couple of mixing days with little excitement in them. I'm not working on a terribly complex scene. So it doesn't have a load of complicated sound cues. But neither does it have the creative excitement of some of the "bigger scenes" in the project. On the other hand, it's also not just a scene with two people talking. Those kind aren't flashy, but at least they can be put together quickly.
No, Scene 7 is in the middle ground. It's mostly people talking, but it has numerous sound effects cues that have to be carefully and thoughtfully timed in order to tell the story well. They are also sound cues that, if I do my job right, the listener will not pay direct attention to, but that are still vital to the scene.
The chief challenge is Raan Galvaanik. If I were talking about making a movie, I might say that Raan is an "expensive" character, much like Green Lantern was expensive to put on screen, since even when he was just sitting around he wore a costume entirely made of digital effects. Likewise, Raan is a cyborg, and so always has some minor servo sounds whirring and clicking around him as he talks and does even simple tasks in a scene.
Although things seem to be moving slowly with this scene, I know there are others that are shorter, or that will not take as long. I'm currently aiming for a pace of one scene per week. You're welcome to do the math and estimate a release date, but be sure to add on a month or two to polish up the songs and another month or two for the score and final polishing of the whole project. (While you're at it, go ahead and add six months for the weird stupid crap I won't see coming until it hits me in the face. Lol!)
Finishing scene 10 will put me 1/4 of the way done, which will be exciting. And as more of the project is finished I will likely gain more momentum and greater willingness to push myself. Right now, though, I'm still in those early grindy stages that I can't wait to break out of. Hopefully that will be pretty soon!
-Paeter Frandsen
That's what I have come to call the scene I am currently working on for "Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows". I'm certain it is the single most complex sequence I have ever conceived or produced for audio drama.
It involves a one-man-assault on a room full of bad guys with an electronic-industrial re-mix of Mozart's "Dies Irae" blasting in the background as underscore.
To start with, rather than using purchased underscore for this scene, as I usually do, I created this version of the music from the ground up: Had friends help me record the choral vocals, designed and produced the instrumentation, adapted a similarly themed song from church liturgy to serve as my "verse" structure, so that in addition to being underscore the music would function as a song on its own.
After creating the "radio version" of the song, I then had to re-cut it and add entirely new material in some places so that the intensity of the music matches what is happening in the scene. This results in two very different versions of the same song: one "underscore" version and one "radio" version.
Having completed that I was finally ready to add in the sound effects for the scene. And there are a TON of them! The action is fast and brutal, with hard hits, flesh rips and blood squirts, intermixed with defensive gunfire and the sounds of someone supernaturally whipping back and forth around the room as he takes out a handful of bad guys in just a few seconds.
The final primary stage of mixing is to adjust fade-outs, stereo panning and volume levels for each of these numerous effects, so that the right effects and musical moments can be heard when I want you to hear them. It's similar to the way written dynamics of a choral piece will instruct altos, sopranos and basses to sing softly for a phrase while the tenors momentarily carry the melody before handing it off to the altos. In this scene, prominence in the mix needs to be quickly and purposefully handed around to multiple sounds, giving each a quick chance to shine before falling into the background again.
The end result, I hope, will be an almost dizzying auditory experience that listeners will be taken off-guard by, and that begs for repeated listening.
Of course, with a scene this complex, even this close to completion, there is still plenty of work to do. So I better get back to it!
But if you'd like to hear how it turns out, consider supporting Spirit Blade Productions by becoming a Spirit Blade Insider! The next bundle of goodies I send out will include the "state of the mix" on The Infamous Scene 4 and I think it will be a fun treat!
-Paeter Frandsen
AnonymousApril 19, 2014 at 3:23 PM
Too poor to be an insider, but will definitely be getting the album when it comes out.
The idea of "focus" has been on my mind a lot lately. Maybe it's the first whiff of mid-life crisis, but I'm becoming increasingly mindful of the fact that I have a very limited number of years in this life to apply myself to serving Yahweh. So with that in mind I'm looking at multiple aspects of my life in an effort to put myself to the most effective use possible.
I'm re-evaluating which relationships I prioritize, what projects I take on and what goals I set for myself. My vision for Spirit Blade Productions has always been far greater than my abilities. And I'm not assuming now that some of the big dreams I have will never happen. But I am resolving to put myself to work more in the areas I'm equipped for, and less in the areas I'm not.
I've toyed with the ideas of designing and producing games, both tabletop and video games. I took a Spirit Blade themed card game well past what I think the halfway point is in its design, but had to set it aside to continue progress on the Spirit Blade audio drama trilogy. I may pick up that project again in the future, but if I do I'm convinced it will only be with one or more allies.
I've imagined more than once creating a Youtube channel updated weekly with original video content that I create. But I figured out very quickly that doing so would likely require me to learn video editing skills that would eat up a large amount of time even after I conquer the immense learning curve. This still isn't out of the question, but I'm very hesitant, knowing that pursuing something like this will mean sacrificing something else very significant.
As you may already know, I've also concluded that after Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows, I will no longer produce music to be included as a storytelling element in future audio dramas. While I'm happy with the "out of the box" nature of that original creative decision, I also recognize that a number of listeners aren't interested in journeying that far outside the box with me. And the process of song creation and production takes an enormous amount of time and creative energy to yield such questionable results.
In some ways, I mourn the creative endeavors I simply don't have enough years to see through. Sometimes I wish I had a knack for writing novels, penciling comics, designing games or making movies. Instead I seem best suited for audio drama, an art form that is far from mainstream (but that I hope will grow in familiarity as digital audio media continues to gain recognition). Even so, if podcasting, community building and audio drama are what I'm best equipped for, than I have to resolve to be the best podcaster, community builder and audio fiction creator I can be, and rest in knowing that an eternity of wide-ranging creative endeavors await me when the frustrations of life and my own weakness and limitations are finally left behind.
(1 Corinthians 15:40-43, ESV) There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
-Paeter Frandsen
10 years ago the pastors and elders of Red Mountain Community Church in Mesa, AZ took a chance and not only allowed but encouraged and supported the production of a live, "action/sci-fi/musical/audio drama".
I originally wrote the story of "Spirit Blade" as a novella (of which the free audiobook version may be found here), then adapted the novella into an audio drama script which also included songs in the techno/industrial genre, performed by the characters in the story.
Directed by Michael E. Bryce (The voice of Isaiah Daniels), the live show was performed in much the same way classic oratorio is delivered, with readers standing in a line at the front of the stage, stepping forward to read their dialogue or sing. Custom artwork created for the project was occasionally placed on a large projection screen to further set the tone or provide images of what the scenes and characters looked like. Lighting and fog effects further enhanced the atmosphere, but the booming sound effects, cued live in rapid succession by a sound person, were undoubtedly the driving artistic effect of the experience.
"Spirit Blade" had surprisingly great attendance both nights it was featured. Surprising given the violent, bizarre nature of the project and the fact that it was performed at a church. The response from those who attended was enthusiastic and the leadership of the church encouraged me to do more projects like this one.
As happy as I was at the time with the live version of "Spirit Blade", I knew that the storytelling potential had barely been touched, and that far more could be done if told through an audio recorded format rather than a live format. So just a few months after the live event, I began scheduling actors from the live show to come to my home and record their performances, in many cases reproducing what they had done in the live performance and in some cases taking their performances in significantly different directions.
Over the next two years, while also leading the worship ministry of Red Mountain Community Church, I directed, mixed and produced the original recording of "Spirit Blade" in my spare time, with a few small adjustments to the script to pave the way for at least one sequel, and likely a trilogy.
In 2006 I stepped down from my position as the worship pastor of our church, and launched Spirit Blade Productions, LLC with the release of the original production of "Spirit Blade" (which has since been re-mixed from the ground up as "Spirit Blade: Special Edition"). Now, almost 8 years after the launch of Spirit Blade Productions and exactly 10 years after the premiere of the live version of "Spirit Blade", I am hard at work on post-production for "Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows", considering myself extremely blessed to have the chance to finish this trilogy and tell the end of this tale.
To "Mickey" and the rest of the original cast of "Spirit Blade", thank you so much for taking a chance on being involved with this strange project. To the leadership of Red Mountain Community Church and all of my supporters there, thank you for partnering with and encouraging me. To my wife, who also lends her voice to Ebony Ravenloft, thank you for your commitment to me and the vision of Spirit Blade Productions. Thank you for the countless hours you invest in work you have no passion for, so that I can pursue the passion I've been given for this ministry. And my greatest thanks to "Yeisou Kreeshtaya", "The Only"... Yahweh God. You frighten and fulfill me. You instruct and inspire. Please help my vision always conform to yours. And equip me for whatever you bring about in the next 10 years.
-Paeter Frandsen
I've had to cancel this week's episode of The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast due to some computer repairs I'm having done (on my laptop, not my audio production PC). The repairs themselves are nothing serious, but the need for them appeared suddenly and can't be ignored or put off.
I apologize for the break in schedule and look forward to having a brand new episode for you next week if that is part of Yahweh's agenda. Until then, you're invited to check out some of the great, free audio content you may have missed or forgotten about at spiritblade.net/freestuff! There are also a number of videos you can check out at spiritblade.net/videos! Finally, don't forget about the other great podcast in the Christian Geek Central Network!
Thank you,
-Paeter Frandsen
Still in the thick of mixing "Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows". After some annoying computer problems last month I've made some great progress mixing the first few scenes. I've also returned to "Day Of Wrath", the song that will accompany Vincent Craft as he... let's just say as he does some serious damage to Atlantis Incorporated.
The mixing process continues to be possibly the most enjoyable part of production. Especially mixing scenes. When I'm writing I can sometimes do little more than stare at the floor thinking for long stretches of time, and progress seems slow. But while mixing a scene there is almost always something I can do to move things forward, even if I'm not feeling creatively inspired. And since I have a clear vision for what scenes will sound like when I'm finished, I can begin to "hear" the finished product even early in the process, and as each element is added to a scene the story comes more and more alive.
Despite scenes being so enjoyable to mix, I've enjoyed returning to "Day Of Wrath", a song which uses a combination of Mozart's "Dies Irae" and an old liturgical setting of the same Latin poem. With the help of some wonderful singers from my college days, I've been able to construct a full choir for Mozart's material, contrasted with a grungy electronic voice singing the dark, minor key, liturgical music. The result is becoming the kind of music I've always wanted to hear from other artists but never quite have, which makes the process very musically fulfilling for me.
That said, it's still early on, and my pride keeps me very selective regarding who I allow to hear the current mix of the song. Even allowing The Spirit Blade Insiders to take a listen will be difficult. But for now I'm still very excited about where things are going!
-Paeter Frandsen
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Finally back to my normal schedule after almost a month away from it! Two weeks I took for vacation and the other two were spent doing undistracted "off-grid" work on Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows.
At long last I am thrilled to say that I have begun mixing scenes! I've spent the last 6 months working on the songs for the project, which are now all at the point where they are either 80% complete or as far as I can take them for now. (For a couple I'm waiting on instrumentalists to record.) For all songs, however, the bulk of the uphill creative work is done, which is a huge relief. This means its time to take a break and work on scenes for a few months before I come back and finish off the songs with fresh ears.
As I continue making progress, I plan to make some videos of my work sessions from time to time that I will share with you on the Spirit Blade Productions Youtube channel. I also plan to present some behind the scenes videos of recording sessions with Michael Tully, Randy Hesson, myself, and even Holly Frandsen, the voice of Ebony Ravenloft (and also my wife), who has successfully dodged interviews and video cameras... until now. ;-)
In the meantime, I've posted a new video on our channel, featuring Michael Tully (Raan Galvaanik) who helps me present a video tour of my work space.
Enjoy!
-Paeter Frandsen
Just a heads up that I will be out of my office from Thursday, December 12th through Monday, January 13th. Yep! That's a whole month!
I've never taken this kind of time off before, but not all of that will be vacation time. The time off is in part to help with the expected time crunch that always comes with the season and also to help me make some extra progress on work for Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows. (I'm currently hoping to have it released in time for Christmas next year, which I think is doable, but will require some extra time and effort whenever possible.)
The good news is, my time away from the office will primarily affect only those who e-mail me or who wish to order a physical product from our online store. Digital download orders will still be processed automatically and the podcast will still be releasing new episodes each week until the end of December.
So stay tuned for more of the podcast as we head further into the holiday season, and have a merry Christmas!
-Paeter Frandsen
40% OFF!!
Now through December 2nd 2013 everything in our online store is a whopping 40% off the regular price! Downloads, song bundles, CDs and combo sets are all available at a fraction of their normal cost!!
With a potential price increase in 2014, our prices may never be this low again! So whether shopping for yourself or someone else, now is the time to get the best deals on all of our products! Support Spirit Blade Productions, the Spirit Blade Underground Podcast and Christian Geek Central while getting something cool and fun for yourself at the same time!
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I'm currently in the middle of editing the track for the final of seven songs for "Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows". This is very exciting for me because I set the goal for myself to be "done" mixing all of the songs before taking Christmas vacation this year.
In the past I've been notoriously bad at predicting when certain phases of a project will be complete or when a project will release. So the fact that I am so close to target this time is very satisfying. I'm sure much of my ability to more accurately predict progress is owed to the new schedule that my wife and I have been trying out this fall, which we both continue to be very happy with.
Regarding the completion of the songs, though, I should note that I put the word "done" in quotes earlier because I'm not truly planning to be finished with work on all of the songs, but rather to be finished making significant changes to them for the most part. I usually need several months away from working on a song to be able to hear what it really needs to polish it up and give it the finishing touches. But the roughly 80% of work leading up to that is creatively the most difficult, and so reaching that 80% mark feels much like completion to me.
The songs are taking an interesting stylistic turn this time around. In Spirit Blade: Special Edition the songs are strongly electronic with a bit of a techno-industrial vibe to them. Dark Ritual brought a few eastern ethnic sensibilities and a bit of rock to the sound. In A World Of Shadows, I'm bringing to the forefront more of the epic and orchestral sounds I often tried to incorporate into the previous two projects. I'm also dipping into some obscure hymn sources again, and the contrast of ancient and future sounds clashes even more in this project than in previous ones.
As with the previous two projects, there is also at least one song in AWOS that "is not like the others" and stands out a bit. In Spirit Blade I think that song was "Deadly Game" and in Dark Ritual I think it was Veritas. My "experimental" song this time around is called "Running Out Of Time" and uses rhythmic elements composed almost entirely of clock sounds, both digital and mechanical. Despite the experimental nature of the song, however, I think it's more approachable than a song like "Veritas". Of course the listener will be the final judge.
-Paeter Frandsen
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A number of new reviews have been posted at Christian Geek Central over the last two months. As I've mentioned before, it looks as though The Spirit Blade Underground will be going through another transition as a blog. From this point on, you can expect to see all of my reviews, as well as the reviews of some great contributors, at Christiangeekcentral.com.
Since reviews have constituted a fair amount of the content for this blog, I imagine I will be re-evaluating the purpose of the Spirit Blade Underground to better provide what readers expect when they visit here. It will still be the home of the Spirit Blade Underground podcast and updates on projects for Spirit Blade Productions. Beyond that the content and frequency of posting that you can expect are up for grabs right now.
But in the meantime, if you want to get caught up on some reviews, take a look at the latest from Christian Geek Central!
Okay, so actually I'm having the opposite of "fun with computers". The laptop I do most of my day to day work on has had a noisy fan lately and finally gave me a startup error that prevented me from using the computer any further. I spent yesterday afternoon finding out what options will NOT help the problem, and also began looking into repair scenarios.
Today, after a little more troubleshooting, the fan seems to be working, and working quietly. No startup errors. All the same, I've been updating my backup of everything I need and will be working off my external hard drive for awhile until I see if anything blows up.
This is just one more reminder that I really have no business attempting to do what I'm doing. Internet ministries, businesses or endeavors of any kind ought to be run by folks who are much more knowledgeable than I am when it comes to computers. But I'm convinced that, for some reason, God is directing me to what I'm doing, despite it taking me out of my skill set on a such a regular basis.
Yes, I know. There are numerous examples of God doing the same thing with so many others in scripture. And it makes sense. What better way to show how powerful you are than to purposefully use inept people to serve you and thus stack the odds against your success? (I think Raan Galvaanik made that observation in Spirit Blade or Dark Ritual, or maybe it was the Novella.) But here, in the moment, it's still frustrating. Still a challenge to trust God and be content with the situation he has placed me in for the rest of the day or week.
I can't help but wonder, though, if it may do me some good to break from my normal routine and have a little extra breathing room to see what Yahweh might be saying or giving me opportunity to see right now.
In the meantime, I will at least be trying to get the content prepared so that I can put out the podcast this week, although it's possible that either this week or next there will be no episode posted if complications persist. (Some of the estimated repair times I've been getting for this issue are in the neighborhood of 2-3 weeks.) I'll keep you posted, though.
KimOctober 21, 2013 at 12:56 PM
Oh, crap, Paeter, that sounds just like the death throes of my own system! Yes, back it up ASAP and prepare to get taken to the cleaners on the repair. I sympathize completely.
Paeter FrandsenOctober 22, 2013 at 3:43 PM
Thanks for the sympathy! All backed up now. I've managed to "troubleshoot" things back to normal for now, but for at least the next 3-4 weeks I'm basically just using the laptop as an interface to work off my external hardrive. I almost hope that the problem resurfaces and can't be "troubleshot" away. Nothing more annoying than taking a car or computer in to get fixed and they can't do anything because the problem won't manifest for them.