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!

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


http://spiritblade.typepad.com

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!

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!

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


http://spiritblade.typepad.com

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

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!

Paeter= Raan?

If cows ever learned how to fly, snowball fights became common in hell and Spirit Blade was ever made into a major Hollywood movie, I think I would petition very strongly to play the part of Raan.


You might think that's odd, since I do the voice of Merikk in "Spirit Blade". However two things lead me to playing Raan:


1. Merikk is the "leading man", and they'll want someone willing to do more sit-ups than I am for a part like that. (This is still Hollywood we're talking about, after all.)


2. I think I might have more in common with Raan than any other "Spirit Blade" character. At least Raan as he is in "Dark Ritual". I don't know anything about technology, but as Raan struggles inwardly with self-doubt, as he escapes the pain of life by fleeing inward to solitude and his imagination, I feel a unique connection to him.


It probably sounds obvious for me to say I feel "connected" to the characters I'm writing a story and dialogue for, but sometimes I forget that these characters came from my mind. They take on a life of their own and at times I feel like nothing more than a spectator.


Of course, if all I do is watch, then their story will never be told! So I'd better get back to mixing!


-Paeter Frandsen

Prolonged Torture

Although I've started into some dialogue scenes that require fewer sound effects, I've discovered that one of them still may take a fair amount of editing.


Merikk Scythe finds himself being brutally tortured by a sadistic captor. Sean Anthony Roberts gave me so many great options to choose from that it's taken some time to narrow down the best of the best. Likewise, I spent a great deal of time screaming, weeping and moaning into the microphone over the summer and now have to narrow down the most appropriate levels of pain and anxiety for Merikk to be experiencing based on Sean's performance in the final edit.


The process still doesn't take as long as an action sequence to mix, but there are certainly elements I'd forgotten to factor in. Nothing that will get us off schedule. Just enough to remind me that I'm always learning something new in this game!


(You can check out my interview with Sean Anthony Roberts on the "Media" page of www.spiritblade.net!)


-Paeter Frandsen

Steady Pace

Progress on "Dark Ritual" is moving forward at a steady, even pace. Out of some 30 scenes we've now completed primary mixing on nearly 12, putting us between one third and one half of the way to completion. We've also finished mixing on nearly three songs for the project.


As we head into the Christmas season and the extra activity that always brings, we're very excited to be on schedule for our spring release of "Dark Ritual". Hopefully you're excited along with us!


Have a great weekend!

Yay For Dialogue!

Can I just say how wonderful it is to be working on some dialogue centered scenes?


Granted, in audio drama, dialogue is the center of almost every scene, but as the artform has entered the modern age, sound effects have become more complex and the audio experience more layered than it ever was during the golden days of radio drama in the 30's.


We aim to be a production company that pushes the complexity and layering of audio effects even further. More of our action scenes are being expressed through sound effects alone, with little or no dialogue to "spoon-feed" visual descriptions to you. It makes for a great challenge that requires a lot of thought and time spent editing. I think the result is well worth the effort, but even so, I'm thrilled to have reached a few scenes in a row where people are in rooms having conversations. Although, does it still count as a conversation when one person talking is also being tortured into feverish, puking, delirium? Hmm... Maybe this scene won't be as simple as I thought.


Now where did I put that "vomit splattering" sound effect...


-Paeter Frandsen

Another scene done!/BIG Price Drop!!

Finished another big action sequence today! This one was a lot of fun. Cyborg blasters verses magic spells! The next three scenes I work on will be dialogue centered, which will be a nice change of pace and they will probably be completed more quickly as well.


I was thrilled to discover that www.spiritblade.net is #2 in the Yahoo search results when using the term "Christian sci-fi"! We've also now made it to the first page of results in google using the same search term. (And of course we're number one when searching with the phrase "spirit blade".)


If you've stopped by our website this week, you may have noticed that we've dropped the price for both the CD and mp3 download of "Spirit Blade"! The CD set (originally $15.00) is now just $7.99 (shipping is still free!) and the mp3 download (originally $10.00) is now only $5.99! We've also made the entire first HOUR of "Spirit Blade" available to download for FREE in high quality mp3 format.


With everything going on, it's never been a better time to visit www.spiritblade.net!


Have a great Thanksgiving!


-Paeter Frandsen

18 Seconds Of Awesome!!

After the monotony of cutting and pasting dialogue for two days, Paeter spent Thursday afternoon working on a sequence no longer than 18 seconds, but so layered with action and sound effects that it proved to be one of the most complex sequences yet!


Although we won't spill the beans on what exactly is happening, we'll say that alot of very nice people are being hurt very bad by someone very good at what they do.


"Dark Ritual" is proving to be more brutal in its action sequences and this is one that may have you wincing a few times while your ears try to keep up with the action!


Have a great weekend and don't forget to join us at the podcast! (http://paeter.libsyn.com)

He's Leading Me

This week Paeter finished the rough mix on another song and from here will either be picking up scenes again, or tackling another song. (Wherever the creative winds take him!)


The song completed this week uses the working title of "He's Leading Me" and is based on the classic hymn of similar name.


Michael Tully, as Raan, lends his vocal talents to the haunting melody(now in a dark minor key), while the track settles into an Eastern flavored groove.


This song has been something of a stylistic experiment and will continue to evolve as we get closer to our target release date in the first half of this coming Spring.


If you haven't checked out the new free downloads on our media page, don't forget to jump over to http://www.spiritblade.net/site.cfm/sbp/media and enjoy something different in your i-pod this weekend!

"Dark Ritual" Preview!

The week has been a good one. Scene 9 is finally complete and will be previewed on our podcast this weekend, so be sure that you don't miss it! It's one of the more complicated and intense sequences from "Dark Ritual" and we think everyone will really enjoy it.


After finishing scene 9, Paeter picked up work on one of the songs again, instead of moving immediately into work on the next scene.


Although we're not ready to give an accurate release date for "Dark Ritual", we expect to release it sometime in the second half of January or the first half of February. A digital release will come first and based on our funds and demand, a physical CD release will follow.


That's the latest! Have a great weekend!

Almost there!/Similitude of a Dream...

Scene 9 is almost complete! We were really hoping to premiere it on this weekend's podcast, but Paeter had to take some paying gigs in the second half of this week that will likely force us to delay until the following weekend.


On the upside, while earning some extra change as a substitute teacher, Paeter has been able to take a little bit of work with him. Not for Dark Ritual unfortunately, but Paeter has been able to continue script adaptation for "Similitude Of A Dream", Spirit Blade Productions' next big project after "Dark Ritual"!


It's in the infant stages of development, but "Similitude" will likely have a flavor very different from the Spirit Blade saga. We're not sure yet if we'll say it's "based on" or just "inspired by" John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", but at the very least, our story will aim to be faithful to the messages and life lessons found in the classic allegory. More as that project develops!


Have a great weekend and don't forget about our podcast! New episodes go up by end of day Saturday, every week!

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

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!


The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast: http://paeter.libsyn.com

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 at: paeter@spiritblade.net !


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

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