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

Friday, December 14, 2007 Holiday Rush!

We're feeling a little bit of the "Holiday Rush" around here as we try to get ready to close down shop for an entire week!

We've never done anything like this before, but since WE need a vacation now and then, too, we've decided to shut down the office from December 23rd through December 31st.

The Spirit Blade Weblog will not be updated during those dates. We're also debating whether or not we'll do the podcast that week. Guess it'll be a surprise!

More than anything, Paeter's working extra hard to mix scenes for Dark Ritual so that the time spent off won't slow us down any more than it needs to. Paeter will also be taking a laptop and his copy of "The Pilgrim's Progress" with him out of town so that he can continue doing a little script work for our next big project. (Yeah, sometimes it's hard for that guy to REALLY take a vacation.)

We hope you're enjoying the Christmas Season and remembering the cosmic event that it's all centered around! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 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

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 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 

Friday, November 30, 2007 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!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 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

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 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

Monday, November 19, 2007 "Spirit Blade" On The Radio!

We have a VERY exciting announcement today!

"Spirit Blade", our premiere audio drama, will be broadcast this Tuesday night on CKDU FM in Halifax at 9pm Atlantic time. Several other Canadian radio stations will be airing it also throughout the week. For a list of these affiliate stations, visit http://sonicsociety.org/ and click on "Syndicate Stations" in the upper right of the page. And while you're there you may like to get aquainted with the sonic society if you're a fan of Audio Drama!

And if you'd REALLY like to help us out and you live within frequency range of any of these stations, give them a call or pepper them with e-mails after the broadcast and tell them you loved hearing "Spirit Blade"!

Friday, November 16, 2007 Just Like Magic!

Although there are still a few maintenance issues to resolve, we've been able to move forward again with mixing for "Dark Ritual". Currently we're designing new sound effects to represent a supernatural force that our heroes will be up against. The sci-fi and fantasy genres collide even more in this story than they did in "Spirit Blade", and we're enjoying the challenge of bringing a distinctly "magical" sound into a story that has, until this point, been dominated by sci-fi elements.

We're also counting down to our big price drop next week on the 23rd. Both the CD set and digital download for "Spirit Blade" will be reduced significantly in price, making it easier than ever to join the gripping action experienced by the Underground Liberation!

Lastly, we've added another free download to the "Media" section of www.spiritblade.net. It's a featurette comparing audio clips from the very first read-through of "Spirit Blade" to the final product! Paeter Frandsen(Merikk), Michael Tully(Raan) and Michael E. Bryce(Isaiah) were all present for this historic event and you can tell by listening that they had a blast not taking themselves, or the script, too seriously! You don't want to miss this candid look at the origins of "Spirit Blade"! Jump over towww.spiritblade.net and click on "Media" to check it out and listen in!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 Back on Track!!/Holiday Season

It's great to be back on track with mixing! Since I've been working through scenes in close to chronological order, I was able to listen to the whole story so far yesterday before jumping back in. Now I'll be delving into some new genre-bending sounds, ambiences and effects as our heroes are taken from their "sci-fi" environment and thrown into combat with what appears to be a group of dark robed wizards in the middle of a dense forest! Just what the frezz is going on here?! That's what Merikk, Raan and Vincent are all thinking right about now. Only time will tell!

I wanted to let you all know that there are some VERY exciting events coming up this holiday season! We'll start things off with another big (and permanent!) price drop for both the CD and digital download of "Spirit Blade", just in time to stuff the stocking of your sci-fi fantasy fan this Christmas! Watch for the price drop to happen November 23rd.

We'll also be making nearly half of "Spirit Blade" available to download in high quality audio format for free! That will be happening at around the same time, but we'll be sure to make an announcement.

Lastly, (and this is a BIG one!) right around Christmas we're gonna... hmm. No, I think I'll let that one be a surprise!

See ya!

-Paeter Frandsen