The Gardens Between

Imagine a game in which you can't actually control the characters you are playing - you can only move forwards and backwards in time to find out what they do and where they go.  Along the way, you may have the characters touch certain objects in order to subtly change the flow of time and enable them to progress along their pre-determined path.

This is the surreal and almost maddeningly passive world of The Gardens Between.

The feature that initially caught my attention as I was browsing the App Store was, as it often is for me, the beautiful and interesting graphics of the world within the game.  Each level is constructed of oversized objects of a child's play space, and encapsulates the imaginary world that the two children - a boy and a girl - spent together.  As they travel together in a treehouse in horizonless ocean, they move from island to island built with scenes such as a huge couch hidden by a blanket fort, giant dinosaur skeletons that break apart and tumble into the sea, and sewers draining into a whirlpool with log size soda cans swirling into it.  Each island progresses from gentle dawn, to rosy mid-day, to a terrifyingly dark storm world at the end as the worlds of child play begin to fall apart.  All this is portrayed without words or instructions, with a story that only opens up more questions until the very end.

Aesthetically, the game is unquestionably both visually stunning and unusual.  Although an incredible amount of detail is included in each of the scenes, with waving grass, paint splashes, etc., everything is somewhat pixelated with foggy edges, contributing to the dream-like atmosphere.  The children pause when the flow of time stops, their figures blurring in the frozen motion, but the island's breezes continue to blow and the streams of water continue to flow.  Flowers give off orbs of light that the little girl can collect in her lantern in order to progress through the level and finally solve it.  The little boy is able to touch chimes that can shift events or move a certain part of time backwards and forwards.  As each puzzle-island is solved, the scene turns into stars which collect in a constellation that forms the actual event that makes up the memory.  It's a unique and engaging method of game play that can be frustrating at times, but also very rewarding at the end.

Integrated seamlessly into this world are very subtle, similarly foggy sound-effects that often clue the player in to what is required in order to proceed in the game.  The characters' footsteps are gentle and crunchy, while the environment SFX are dedicated and understated with no reverb.  The overall effect is intimate and dream-like.

Likewise, the music is mostly atmospheric but contains layers of sound that seem to interact with each other and flow independently, resonating playfully.  Many of these layers seems to be built from the kinds of sounds that one would find at home - pots and pans, wind chimes, and of course a toy piano.  As the game progresses, the music changes from light and playful to dark and foreboding and, in the end, changes to dread as the characters send many levels of a dark, rainy cliff, finally emerging into a thunderstorm on top of the clouds, with reversed sound elements that imply the impending crumbling of their relations when the little boy moves away at the end of the game.  Interestingly, the opening screen of the game actually portends this moment of dread with its rainy scene.

Overall, I felt that the game is, like many of the "experience story" games I enjoy, beautiful and creative, with a somewhat simplistic gameplay.  It does become more intricate along the way, and the final scene, in the clouds among the lightning, has an exquisite amount of impact in the way the world crumbles and tumbles into pieces, with the sound effects of clattering stone kind of shocking and setting you up for the impact of the delivery of the final scene.  The music doesn't play much role in terms of story telling, but contributes to the overall atmospheric effect.

This game is definitely a unique and captivating experience, perfect for the casual player who wants to puzzle solve in different ways, with a simple but moving story that unwraps itself in unexplained ways.

2019 Hype Jam - A Game Trailer Jam

Hello!

This year marked the beginning of the annual Hype Jam - a game jam organized by Andrew McPherson and hosted by the Seattle Indies.  At this jam, game developers come together to create a trailer for a hypothetical game - in 48 hours!

This year, the event took place from August 2-4 at the beautiful Midtown 21 building in downtown Seattle.  The jam was sponsored by Amazon Game Tech, Amazon Games, and Twitch, and it included food for hungry game developers and outstanding aerial views of Seattle.

At the beginning of the jam, individuals conceptualized and presented ideas for a hypothetical game that could be created.  Groups formed around some of these ideas, with programmers, artists, sound developers, and storytellers teaming up together to make a trailer.

One young lady came with a fully developed story that seemed really engaging right off the bat.  I decided to join the team:

-Tessa Thurman (story development)
-Anabelle Decoret (editor)
-Erika McKracken (videographer)
-Bill Morse (character design/2-D artist)
-Grace Wallis (music and sound design)

Together, we worked to create a game trailer based around the story of someone who applies for a job...only to get blackmailed into becoming a gig-economy super spy.

I participated by recording voice-overs, designing the sound for the sets and sound effects, and, of course, preparing the entire music soundtrack.

You can view the completed video here on YouTube:

It was a lot of fun to put together with my teammates, and I look forward to repeating the adventure at next year's Hype Jam!

Fiasco Recording Session

Hello!

For the past ten months, I have been working on my master's degree in Film Scoring at the Pacific Northwest Film Composing program https://www.pnwfilmmusic.com

This accounts for why there have been no blogs in many moons.  Fortunately, I survived the program and emerged with a degree, so here is a sample of what I've been up to.

The "Fiasco" recording session, as it is fondly known in the program, is the final project for the program.  The students are asked to write a two-three minute "end credits" sequence for a hypothetical film, for a 52 piece orchestra, and then conduct and record it live.

My piece was written for the hypothetical film "Orion", about the legendary Sumerian hunter (passed down to us in the form of the Greek constellation).  It begins with the heroic, sparkling theme of Orion, has a romantic section about his relationship with Artemis (goddess of the hunt), and the returns with a bang to the theme.

This video was recorded and compiled by SFI student Malcolm Frankson, and he did an awesome job.  The final version of the piece was mixed and mastered at Studio X.

Thanks for listening!

Port Townsend Film Festival

Hello!

In September, I started my first quarter at the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring program under Dr. Hummie Mann.  For our first weekend, I and four other students in the program attended the Port Townsend Film Festival located in (obviously) Port Townsend, WA, on a peninsula west of downtown Seattle.  Our mission was to attend four films, two filmmaker panels, and a Q&A with film composer John Bayman, so it turned out to be packed weekend before returning for our next week of classes.

Port Townsend is a very "nostalgic" town that hosts many festivals throughout the year.  The main street, "Water Street", runs along the shores of the West Puget Sound, and contains various oddities shops, bookstores, and of course several theaters and museums that house the films that are screened throughout the various festivals.

Once a year, a film festival takes place here that features shorts and feature films submitted from around the world.    Documentaries and Narrative Documentaries are most prominent, with some dramas included.  In addition to the screenings, various panels are offered with discussions with the film makers, including the producers and writers.

Furthermore, my classmates and I were able to attend a Q&A with John Bayman, who scored an excellent 80-minute soundtrack for the 1926 silent film "Eye of the Totem", which is a story about Native Americans in Tacoma in the 1920's.  Sadly I was unable to attend the viewings, but we had an informative discussion about scoring films and the industry attached to it.

I watched four films over the weekend:

-Active Measures
-Don't Be Nice
-Of Dust and Bones
-The Drummer and the Keeper

In short, my responses are as follows:

Active Measures, directed by Jack Bryan, is a documentary about the Russian interference in the United State's 2016 presidential election.  It included backstory about the connections between the current administration's personal interests and the Russian KJB and their leader.  More interestingly, it added contextual information regarding Russian's interference with countries such as Georgia and Ukraine.  As this topic has become incredibly over-discussed due to omnipresent political news articles, I found the film to be wearying.  The score (written by...) was very appropriate, however, with ambient music that added to the tension without overstating emotions.

Don't Be Nice, directed by Max Powers, turned out to be my favorite movie of the festival.  It is a documentary about a group of Brooklyn poets who compete in "poetry slams", mainly highlighting African-American and queer perspectives and responses to the world's responses to their identities.  They are pushed by a dynamic coach/leader, Lauren Whitehead, who asks them to dig deep inside and expose their own vulnerabilities.  The score was minimalistic and soulful, with haunting, wordless vocals and plucked string sounds.  Ultimately the film ended up winning the "Audience Choice Best Narrative Feature".

Of Dust and Bones, directed by Diane Bell, takes place in Joshua Tree, California, a barren landscape to which a widow, Clio, has receded after the death of her husband in Syria.  His best friend comes to request the last remaining documentation that her husband took while in Syria, for publication.  The visuals were bleak and honestly appeared to rely too much on the wide land of the desert for interest, but the sound editing was quite good.  A similarly minimalistic score accompanied the film, but did not include enough background to make the film move faster or seem more interesting.

The Drummer and the Keeper, directed by Nick Kelly, was a film that I really would have liked to see win an award; unfortunately it did not.  However, I felt that the overall quality of the film, including acting, directing, plot, and cinematography, was theater film level, and could easily build an audience simply based on how interesting the film was.

There were several other films that I would have enjoyed seeing, but unfortunately there was not enough time to see them all, and often the tickets were all gone before we had the opportunity to get them!  Other films I hoped to see were:

-Soufra
-All the Wild Horses
-Sadie
-MadHattan
-Ayla: The Daughter of War

The festival had the feeling of a very energy-packed, see-it-or-miss-it opportunity, here in all its vibrance today, and tomorrow back to normal life.  I'd enjoy returning again next year to see new offerings from rising filmmakers.

Thanks very much, Port Townsend!

Monument Valley review

When I think of video games that I truly enjoy, there are a few unifying elements in my preferences:

1. Beautiful art
2. Puzzle solving
3. Story telling
4. Unique, progressive music and sound design

Often it will be the art presentation that I see in the demos that makes me interested in playing the game.  I like pretty colors, tidy organization, and fantasy environments, and when I see a game that promises these things, I immediately want to try it out.

Of course, this is how Monument Valley, an indie game developed by the London based company ustwo, hooked me as soon as I saw it in the App Store.  Created for iOS devices, the game utilizes the touch screen for manipulating the environment on the screen and guiding the main character through the Escher-like mazes.  As soon as I saw the pretty pastel colors and satisfying game play, I thought "Oh, I have to play this game!"  And so I did.

So, a brief review of "Monument Valley".

As stated above, the art design is beautiful throughout the game.  With a design based on isometric geometry, all of the sets are comprised of uniform-sized blocks, with color gradation schemes varying from level to level, as if the structures are created from stones of a single quarry.  The background usually both contrasts and harmonizes with the structures.  Among the beauty of the pastels is the player-character Ida, in stark white against all of the colors.

One of the most intriguing and enjoyable aspects of the game is the Escher-like impossible objects, created mainly by rotating objects on the screen until they lock into place.  This is made possible through the aforementioned isometric geometry.  Although a pathway may look as if it will end at a certain point, if the screen is rotated, suddenly the block aligns with another block that previously appeared to be one or more units higher than the original.

Gameplay involves manipulating the structure by means of rotational devices, levers, buttons, wheels, exiting and entering doors, and a unique character known as the "Totem" which comes in very useful to Ida when she needs an extra surface to utilize.  Although you are exposed to the entire process of the structure moving according to your directions, the blocks will always lock into place with rather satisfying sound effects (more about that later).  Ida's goal in each scene is to return an platonic solid object to a platform.


Another entertaining aspect of the gameplay is that Ida and the other characters (including the Totem and the cute but obnoxious crows) are able to travel not only on the upper surfaces of each platform, but also on the sides, upside-down, and curves.  This perspective challenges the player to consider each arrangement in a different way, and also to measure Ida's progress based on different strategies.

My favorite level happens to be the "Puzzle Box", which starts with a simple box, but as you open it it reveals multiple rooms and platforms, with Ida traveling between them through doorways.  You had to open the other rooms to find out where she ended up afterwards!

Ultimately the puzzles in themselves are neither too challenging nor frustrating.  They are fairly easy to solve with common sense (or rather reconsideration of common sense) and a little bit of experimentation.  They are very relaxing and satisfying to solve.  Indeed, the only frustrating thing about the game was its short length; immediately after finishing the original release I found myself purchasing the expansion pack, and subsequently Monument Valley 2.

The music, following the theme of the game itself, is exceptionally minimalistic, based on open octaves and perfect fifths with pure synth sounds that kind of float around like the unanchored structures.  Each scene features a different theme, and interweaves perfectly with the sound effects.  Since the music stays within the mid-range frequencies, any significant move in the game (such as discovering a new way in which the structure can be manipulated or revealing a new level or door) will result in a chord which expands both up and down an octave or two, giving a satisfying swell which then dissipates as the character continues the journey.

In addition, each manipulative device, when utilized, has its own characteristic sound effect, such as harp or marimba sounds, which harmonize with the score itself and are always consistent with the position of the blocks on the screen.  This becomes very entertaining when other characters (in particular the Crow People) are independently triggering events by walking over them on the screen, resulting in a symphony of sound effects like a musical score, yet completely randomized.



The music is always symbolic and appropriate, adding to the atmosphere whether it be colorful or somber.  It seamlessly integrates into the surrounding graphics and story.

Overall, I would say I loved this game, and would play it again along with any future installments to the franchise.  If you want a relaxing, beautiful game with a minimalist plot, this is a good game to play.

Gameplay: 9/10
Art: 10/10
Music: 9/10
Story: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

Doki Doki Literature Club! Review

Hello!  From today, I will start writing reviews of video games that I have been playing, especially regarding their soundtracks.

Today's game is the infamous: Doki Doki Literature Club!

WARNING:  Spoilers

Created by entirely by Dan Salvato, who described it as a reaction to his love-hate relationship with anime, this game has earned a cult following and reputation for its distinct deconstructionist vibe, since it sets up a standard hentai harem visual novel plot and then systematically dismantles it.

The feeling is very similar to the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, in that it causes you to question the invisible wall between fiction and reality, and reconsider expectations and how they are (or aren't) fulfilled.  The main difference, however, is that within a game environment, you are directly connected to the decisions and consequences of the main character, and so your control over the situation (or lack thereof) has a more direct impact on how you relate and react to the story.

So it sets up the story in the standard way: You're (assumably) a standard male high school student with a cute female friend (Sayori) who invites you to join her after-school literature club, which consists of three incredibly cute girls (Yuri, Natsuki and Monika) with standard personalities: genki girl, goth girl, and perfect class leader.  By writing "poetry" and sharing it with each member, you shape the plot to determine which girl you will get in the end.  Honestly, for the first hour or so I was pretty bored, since you are actually supposed to discuss the poetry with them for what seems like an eternity of fluffy conversations.

But then, of course, things start to unravel a bit.

First, you find out that Sayori is suffering from depression.  In an attempt to comfort her, you can decide whether or not to tell her you love her...or whether you will always see her as your best friend.  Unfortunately, whichever choice you pick will result in this:

So not so fluffy anymore.

But don't worry!  Monika has figured out how to make the game all better.  She decides to erase Sayori's existence in the game, including any reference to her and any save points you had in the game already, and then the game restarts without Sayori.  If her absence in the story is notable, the screen will glitch and text is replaced with unreadable script.  Okay, but now you have to go through all the maddeningly non-ending poetry discussions...again.

Well, the second time around starts changing up a bit, though.  First of all, it seems that Natsuki and Yuri have started a bitter feud, which becomes so intense at one point that Monika intervenes and erases the entire section so you don't have to deal with it.  Also, you walk in on Yuri, who is already pretty goth as it is, actually cutting her wrists - this disturbing image fades into a superimposed image of Monika, as she again erases the image.

At this point, art, plot, text and music are slowly eroding.  The screen starts to shift and glitch, text appears in hyper-bold script, and you get screens where you are either presented with a choice where you only have one choice ("Just Monika"), or you're given a screen with just "Yes" and "No" on it.

Ultimately Yuri ends up stabbing herself to death after confessing her love to you, and Natsuki vomits when she sees the corpse and runs away.  Monika ends up intervening by erasing these two girls...

...And takes you to a dimension wherein she destroys the fourth wall, starts talking to you as the player not the character, about how much she's always wanted to spend time with you but the other girls got all the attention, etc, so she had to make them so unlikeable in the game that you would abandon them.  She also goes into a diatribe about the "uncanny valley" - about how if something is just so slightly off, it is much creepier than if it was completely different from how you expect (game self-reflection).  She tells you how easy it was to erase their data and then proceeds to give you exact instructions on how to do so (pay attention!).  After that she says she just wants to stare at you for a long time...

And proceeds to do so, without giving you any way to click out of the screen.  If you try to save the game, she tells you "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere!"

CREEPY.

So if you've been paying attention at this point, you should know how to go into the game files and erase Monika.  Then you can restart the game again with all of the other three girls, but no Monika.  Eventually, Sayori ends up confessing to the main character that she wants him/her all to herself, and Monika intervenes once more, thus ending the game entirely.

Okay, so that's the gist of the game play itself.  Honestly it was more psychologically disturbing than any number of zombie games I've seen.  Even though some aspects of it are fairly obvious to anyone who has studied deconstruction theory, the fact that you are an actor, not just an observer, ties you into the plot more deeply and creates more investment in the story.

Onto the music.

In addition to writing and producing Doki Doki Literature Club!, Dan Salvato also composed the soundtrack.  It is fairly upbeat and minimalist with standard synthesized string, guitar, glockenspiel, and drum tracks, and the typical I IV V I chord progression.  Especially at the beginning, it fits right in with the visual novel soundtrack, which can bear endless repetitions but perhaps purposefully gets very tiring after awhile.  There are separate tracks for various activities and settings, such poetry reading, cupcake making, etc.

Although honestly the melodic and harmonic construction is pretty much deafeningly dull, the synthesized orchestration and balance is fairly well done.  There were times when I wanted to rip my headphones out and fling them across the room, but possibly that was the point.

As the story itself becomes darker and the screens start to glitch, the music also follows suit, beginning with a more somber tone as Sayori explains her depression to you and cries in your arms.  While still standard and with a painfully tonal harmonic structure, it at least portends the darker tone to come.

After Sayori hangs herself, the familiar welcome screen music starts to distort, with the pitch wavering and bending, and the instrument selection becoming more minimalist with single-hand piano, glockenspiel, and obviously synthesized vocal "Ahhh..."s.  When Monika erases her data and restarts the game, the music reverts back to the original songs, but as events start to trigger glitches in the game, the music itself also starts to glitch, including the following elements:

-"broken record" effect
-bit crusher
-intermittent white noise
-rewind effect
-equalizer and reverb

Monika's final two songs, when she takes you out of the game dimension into an uncanny valley reality, are exceptionally atonally minimalist, and utilize more SFX synthesized sounds.

At first I was unimpressed with the soundtrack.  It rarely has any interesting harmonic progressions, and the instrumental choices are all sounds easy to create and use synthetically.  However, upon viewing this video my opinion changed.  There was a lot more consideration that went into the music elements than I originally realized while playing the game, mostly regarding how the creepy elements were created and used.

While I deeply enjoyed the deconstructionist perspective on this genre, the game did so in a very simplistic way overall.  There are very few choices for the player to make.  It relied almost entirely on breaking the fourth wall for its impact, and the art, sound and story were left lacking in interest as a result.  The game is a statement, an interactive film perhaps, and while I enjoyed the experience the first time, I wouldn't play it again.  It's worth a recommendation for people who can appreciate deconstructionist theory.

Gameplay: 3/10
Art: 6/10
Music: 9/10
Story: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

Seattle 48 Hour Film Project - Team Shenanigans

From July 13-15, 2018, I had the honor of working with Michelle Shadday's "Team Shenanigans" (originally Team Estrogen), for the third time.  

The 48-Hour Film Project is a nation-wide festival in which teams of amateur film-makers write, film, and edit an entire 4-7 minute movie for submission - all within a single weekend.  Not only is it a great experience with your friends and a lot of fun to put together, it is also a good opportunity to push yourself to complete a project and have a finished product.  Afterwards, all teams who completed their projects participate in a film-screening at SIFF Uptown (for Seattle teams).

On Friday evening, each team pulls their category from a hat, and all teams receive items that the film must include:  1) a name and occupation of a character,  2) an object, and  3) a line of dialogue.  The writers begin on the script as soon as possible, and (typically) by the next morning, the crew begins filming.  Post production includes editing, sound effects, and music.  By Sunday at 7:30pm sharp, all films must be submitted or they are out of the running.

Our team this year consisted of:

-Michelle Shadday (producer/actor)

-Sandra Geldenhuys-Scragg (director)

-Bilal Young (associate director)

-Chen Yu Hsu (associate photographer)

-Nicole Pouchet Skuba (screen writer)

-Christopher Chambers (actor/editor)

-Yvonne Velez (actor/editor)

-Natasha Clarette (actor)

-Colleen Kelly (makeup)

We unfortunately lost both our director of photography and editor shortly before the festival began, and thus several members of the cast had to step in to fill their shoes.  This resulted in a rougher process than usual, and a true "48-Hour" experience for Chris and Yvonne, who both acted and edited.  

Our category for the film was "Romance", which turned into a romantic comedy called "Speed Date".  Nicole wrote a cute, punchy script depicting a rather ill-attended speed-dating event with two women and one man.  Humorously, it is the two women who develop chemistry with each other, and leave the sole man alone with a glass of wine at the end.

As the composer for the score, I found a new challenge with this film.  Since the script was essentially one long scene and dialogue sequence, I couldn't just write individual pieces of music.  Nor could I write one long piece of music, because I wouldn't have the opportunity to view the movie until after it had already been submitted.  I could only approximate the necessary material based on the script, and give it to the editors to add pieces in as they put the film together.

I attempted to solve this problem by creating a puzzle-piece score.  I created several themes that could be looped, truncated, fit together, or layered in any number of combinations, hopefully without losing the interest of the audience:  

1. Pizzicato string quartet intro

2. Bassoon addition (character theme)

3. Light percussion track (dates)

4. Pizzicato + percussion track

I made sure that each of these pieces had identical tempi, filters, reverb, and complementary instrumentation.  In addition, I created two "romance" tracks that were meant to warm up the romantic moments of the film and add an extra layer of cheese.  Finally, I created several short moments which could be used to punctuate the sillier actions in the film.

After finishing the film, I created a suite from these pieces for a full soundtrack:

(photograph taken by Chen Yu Hsu)

For more information on the 48 Hour Film Project, see the festival's website below:

http://www.48hourfilm.com