#i was like 'oh boy i get to play as krystal again yay'

[taffywabbit]

i've been playing through the leaked N64 prototype build of Dinosaur Planet (that rareware game that got turned into Starfox Adventures on the gamecube later) over the past couple nights and i gotta say... i think people gave the gibberish alien voice acting in Adventure a bit more hate than it deserved? like don't get me wrong, it WAS hilariously awkward and impossible to take seriously, but i'd take that shit ANY day over having to listen to... a handful of british people doing the most inscrutable attempts at racist accents i've maybe EVER heard in a video game??? like holy FUCK it's bad y'all. in fact the entire chunk of the game in Swapstone Circle is pretty much fully unsalvageable. the music, the iconography, the way the NPCs talk and are dressed, the literal most basic tropes of the storyline itself in that area... good grief, it's no wonder that entire chunk of the game was cut from the final product. absolutely wild that anyone at Rare thought that shit was okay to include, even 20+ years ago

[out-of-this-dimension]

Some Star Fox Command Dialogue Analysis

Hey all, I was looking over some SFC dialogue for fic purposes and I stumbled across a few lines that kind of rocked my world.  It’s been pretty much a decade since I’ve played Command, so a lot of the details in the dialogue were a little hazy.  So I figured I would share some neat re-discoveries with you guys along with some speculation.  

The first one is if you go to Fichina.

SLIPPY: That doesn't sound like the Lucy I knew! FOX: She was a real tomboy! Always wanted to become a pilot. FOX: But I guess she became a teacher instead.  SLIPPY: Wasn't she good friends with Krystal?  SLIPPY: She might know how to track her down. 

This is actually kind of interesting because, given that Lucy’s debut is Command, we don’t really have much to go on with her interactions with the team members.  I definitely LIVE for the idea of Lucy and Krystal being best girl buds, though.  Imagine them sipping mimosas and roasting Fox.

There’s a little bit more on this after the mission “Oikonny Strikes Back”

LUCY: So, Fox, let's talk about Krystal. You really screwed that one up! FOX: Um... SLIPPY: Oh, by the way, Fox... Lucy and Krystal got to be pretty good friends. SLIPPY: Maybe I should have warned you... LUCY: Yes, Papa thinks of her as a second daughter.

So a few things here-- 1. Peppy pseudo-adopting Krystal is adorable af.  2. Lucy and Krystal as somewhat sisters is great.  3. It seems like their closeness happened after Fox booted Krystal from the team, which makes sense especially if Peppy sort of took Krystal in. 

This next bit is if you stick with Lucy and do the Corneria defense mission (the Lucy and Krystal ending route).

LUCY: Krystal! You've come to help us out! KRYSTAL: Let's see what we can do together! KATT: Pleased to meet you, Lucy! I'm Krystal's partner. KATT: My name is Katt!

Honestly, when I was digging through the dialogue, I was looking for interactions with Katt and Krystal because I realized I remembered virtually nothing about them meeting.  I actually backtracked pretty much the whole game from this point to see if the two made any appearances together and... pretty much there’s no otherwise context on this route of the two being partners or whatever that means.  I’m still sifting through dialogue at this point, but honestly I can’t... recall anything else about these two ever being partners in any of the other timelines.  I mean, Katt seems like she’s bopping around by herself otherwise and Krystal is either with the CDF or with Star Wolf, so I find it curious that they’re “each other’s partner” and I wonder to what context Katt is referring to (I’m assuming it’s probably not intended to be romantic due to the game releasing in 2006 and Nintendo honestly not being historically super progressive when it comes to stuff like this but honestly, my heart screams for Kattstal validation.  As a note, Krystal doesn’t seem to be with Star Wolf in this route and while she’s dating Panther in certain routes that have her with the CDF, it’s possible she isn’t dating him in every route, if that makes any sense).  I wonder what the context of this is?  Is this Katt and Krystal being over Falco and Fox respectively and just like... doing their own thing?  I’d be so down for a game focused on those two’s shenanigans tbh.

This next bit is more or less humorous to me because I’ll admit I’ve been pretty harsh on SFC’s dialogue in the past but this interaction with Slippy, Fox, and Peppy cracks me up.

SLIPPY: Oh yeah? Well at least I have a girlfriend!! PEPPY: Slippy, that's the most ridiculous thing-- FOX: It's true. Slippy's fiancee is on Aquas. PEPPY: Are you serious? My goodness!

I can’t believe Peppy lowkey roasted my boi like that.

This next bit is an exchange between Bill, Falco, and Slippy.

BILL: Now, I don't know all the details about what went down between her and Fox... BILL: But is seems she was pretty shocked. Hurt, too. FALCO: Fox, you idiot... BILL: I heard that she started datin' someone else. BILL: Fella's a part of the original Star Wolf team. SLIPPY: Star Wolf?!

Mostly pointing this bit out because Bill calls Panther part of the ‘original Star Wolf team’, which is blatantly not true.  I’ll have whatever Bill is smoking.  This coupled with the next dialogue Krystal says is why I think a lot of people take SFC’s dialogue with a grain of salt as it directly clashes with past games along the same timeline.

KRYSTAL: After Andross fought you, he dedicated his remaining days to planet Venom. KRYSTAL: He wanted to leave some sort of legacy. That's all.

First of all, I will never stan the idea of Krystal defending Andross, who is pretty much implied to have destroyed Andross.  I found that bit really weird and I’m not sure if this is like details falling through the cracks between studios developing games or what the deal is.  I also find it really weird that Andross is implied to have survived after he fought Fox?  Unless she’s referring to him as a ghost between SF64 and Adventures?  But I wouldn’t... necessarily say in Adventures he was dedicating himself to Venom-- he seemed to be dedicating himself to revenge if anything.  So this entire section just feels weird and like the writers just wanted Krystal to argue for the sake of arguing.

The next bit is a lore piece I didn’t know, so yay!

ROB: We will soon arrive at the Parlak Sector.

ROB says this when arriving to Fichina as he and Fox search for Star Wolf.  Apparently Fichina is located in the Parlak Sector.  Neat!

This is from a mission on Solar with Falco, Fox, and Wolf.

ZOLDGE: You! Who do you think you are? WOLF: We're Star Wolf!

This... is pretty much a direct callback to Star Fox 64, where, as the Carrier boss is dying, he says, “Who are you guys?” and Fox replies with “We’re Star Fox!”

Next is a one-liner from Octoman on Aquas.

OCTOMAN: Mighty Zako! Destroy the puny humans!

Note, this is in reference to Amanda and Slippy, who definitely... are not humans.  The next line literally calls them frogs as well, so I’m... not sure what was going on with writing that scene.

Anyways, that’s a wrap on some things I found interesting.  I really wish I could find my DS charger so I could play Command again.  As zany as some plot points are and as bad as some of the dialogue gets, it’s... not actually a terrible game.  But I’ll write more on that later.

If you want to experience Command’s story without playing the game, I would suggest looking at this site, as it has all the game’s dialogue written out.

[mikaelarobertscollective]

Week 4

This has been a shit show week (for lack of a better term, but also sums it up really well).

Me:

Richard Grant | Collaboration with Krystal

Monday we received feedback that really focussed on the flow and juxtaposition of the visuals. The question was how the audio can continue to build and increase attention throughout. Shaun and Darrin both spoke to ‘Soviet Montage’ and how the juxtaposition on two images can create a new meaning, and how this could be an interesting take on the project. When researching further, there where a variety of different styles within soviet montage, but the overall idea was to take two completely different objects and create a new meaning. In a video essay I watched,  they used the example of an image of a man then cut to a bowl of soup = hunger. But then use the same image of the man followed by a lady laying on a couch seductively = lust. I can see how this could have been a very interesting take on this project, however later in the week Krystal decided to take a different approach to the footage entirely. See below a sketch:

This meant changing focus. I think with the new idea I don’t know if I’m going to be able to build the music concrete piece like I was hoping, or not in the way I first considered, due to the repetitive nature of the piece. I’m still going to attempt to do it, but shift my focus slightly. Due to this, I ended up contacted James Harris from last semester’s audiovision class, and spoke to him about a project he worked on that looked at different frequencies and how these can relate to different shape and space. He also sent through his essay that helped to explain this theory in more depth. This got me thinking about how I could play with the juxtaposition of shape and colour in the Richard Grant videos. As you can see below in a new test video, I’ve attempted to use different frequencies of noise to relate to the different shapes, so the more organic imagery has lower frequencies and the sharper images have a higher frequencies. I then added a saw wave to match the red. I do want to look further into colour theory and see what wave forms will work best with red. But in relation to Krystal’s idea, and looking to keep attention, I’m thinking that as the images split more, the frequency gets higher in pitch and get layered, therefore playing with the space and the sound. I’ll have to wait until Krystal gives me a bit more footage to work with, but I think this might work. My only concern is the stagnant nature of using white noise and if it’s just going to be exceptionally dull.

Note: After all this work, I got an email from Krystal late Saturday afternoon saying she had changed her mind again completely! I understand collaborations are hard, but how does one emphasise the need to communicate and the importance of sharing. Just feels like I’ve been railroaded and I’m just a token sound designer who’s just told to slap on a track. So this was meltdown two of the week! YAY!

Me:

CrashCourse 2017, Soviet Montage: Crash Course Film History #8, YouTube, viewed 12 August 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RtBAa4YCgo>  

Lindborg, PerMagnus, and Friberg, Anders K. "Colour Association with Music Is Mediated by Emotion: Evidence from an Experiment Using a CIE Lab Interface and Interviews." PLoS ONE 10.12 (2015): E0144013. Web.

Peterson, Joshua, and Stephen Palmer. "Emotion Mediation in Audio-visual Correspondences among Natural Sounds, Texture, and Art." Journal of Vision 15.12 (2015): 855. Web.

Caivano, Jose. (1994). Color and Sound: Physical and Psychophysical Relations. Color Research and Application. 19. 126-133. 10.1111/j.1520-6378.1994.tb00072.x.  

Lewis, James W, Jochen Kaiser, and Marcus Johannes Naumer. "Audio-Visual Perception of Everyday Natural Objects – Hemodynamic Studies in Humans." Multisensory Object Perception in the Primate Brain . New York, NY: Springer New York, 2010. 155-90. Web.

ACMI | Collaboration with Putri

My first meltdown of the week goes to my ACMI collaboration.

Me:

Following Monday’s feedback I completely understand the need for some form of structure. Going into feedback I knew there wasn’t much to run on and early days in the collaboration didn’t give me much. But this still feels the same now. Although Putri has given me her concept/story: “good things in life and being young at heart”, I’m still very much confused and STRESSED, about where to take this. She did a demo video to a piece by Kyle Nixon and Michael Stein (Stranger Things), and with her request for something abstract I’m thinking we can run with a Kraftwerk and S U R V I V E tonality. My major meltdown has come into play with not know what the hell I’m doing or where to start, when it comes to composing. I think this stress comes from my massive fail last semester in my attempt to compose, and now this anxiety is festering with this project. But after emailing Darrin, he suggested playing around with samples from abelton and noiiz and also putting some Kraftwerk to Putri’s visuals. At least this will give me a sense of BPM and also a start.

I also watched a video interview with Kyle Nixon and Michael Stein, which just explored the creation of their score for Stranger Things, and the big thing I took from them was finding themes within the video and keeping that as rules and boundaries. They also spoke about the differences they gave between high energy moments, which uses more atonal pads and percussive hits, and mysterious moments, which used more ambient tones.  

Vanity Fair, 2018, Stranger Things Composers Break Down the Show's Music | Vanity Fair, YouTube, viewed 18 August 2020 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIrBQim8dzk>

MTC - The Turn of The Screw | Collaboration with Me, Myself and I.

Oh boy, speaking of mental health… let’s dive into paranoia.

Below is a test to see where I could take things (see MTC - The Turn of the Screw test)

“A psychotic disturbance characterized by isolation from and suspicion of others and, in more severe forms, delusions of persecution and/or grandeur not amenable to reason and often resistant to all forms of psychiatric treatment.”

John M. Last ; Miquel Porta. (2018). paranoia (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Zoja, Luigi, author, & Hunt, Jonathan. (2017). Paranoia : the madness that makes history. Routledge.

My biggest quest is to find a tonal palette for this piece. I want my piece to feel like a thread. How it catches and you think, “I’ll just pull a little bit” then its unstoppable. How the thread itself is an element, but the garment that it is held together is an element itself. So I’ve started looking at building the musical/tonal foundation with different wind SFX and seeing how another musical gesture (SFX of radio static, clock and pulling gestural noises) can introduce the unravelling and play with how to two intertwine.So far its just sounding little messy. I think I need to play with pauses and a bit more silence.

As I feel like my piece with Krystal is going down the shitter (or at least not going to way I was hoping), I think I might take the opportunity to do music concrete with this piece instead. I think it lends itself to this style more, as it allows you to play with pauses and the unknown… like what sound will happen next… and also allows one to sculpt something more experimental. I also want it to feel like the apprehension engine (RIP that I can’t use the RMIT one)… how it creates this strange uncharacteristic unknown. I want the to audience to feel on edge too, like the are feeling or witnessing a moment of paranoia. My ideas remind me of Thembi Soddell’s work, more specifically her “Love Songs” (2018). There is this pain and horror in the work, and this pure intensity. I’d like to achieve something like this.

I know I need to get my butt into gear with this one, because I’d like to have it somewhat completed before I start procedural worlds, which gives me two weeks.

Soddell T 2018, ‘Love Songs (2018), Thembi Soddell, viewed 15 August 2020 <https://thembisoddell.com/love-songs-2018>

[medea10]

My Review of Beyond the Boundary