Robot Cousin Soundworks

Project R/’Recession: The Rock Opera’ is still being hammered out, note by note, instrument by instrument. I’m having a bit of difficulty with one of the pieces, as there’ll be a lot of orchestration from things like horns and strings, and those are some of the hardest to fake through virtual instruments. Also, my computer is choking. Yay for the ‘Track Freeze’ option (think “Flatten Layers”, if coming from the Photoshop side of things), but even then, you can only freeze so much and get away with it.

On the RPM side of things, I’m actually coming up with a lot of good stuff… which is a problem (for RPM at least). I actually want to turn these into real tracks. And I know that just because they’re for RPM doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, but I don’t think I could bring myself to put a song into two groups. If I actually had a record deal, and was making songs, b-sides would be b-sides, and the track list of an album would be that and only that, not songs from another place or anything like that. Billy Corgan has the same sort of hangup, so I guess I have him to thank for that way of thinking. I can’t help it! It’s a rule, but one I haven’t had to enforce just yet.

So I’m left with about 3 tracks worth of stuff I really, really like, and refuse to put towards RPM, even though I’ve come up with them, and recorded them within February. Will I finish my RPM album? Looks like no. Does this bother me? Not in the least.

RPM is doing what it was meant to do, and for that, I am thankful.

It’s out, it’s official; Project R has been announced. Check it out here.

The real name for it is “Bail-out! A Recessionary Rock Opera”. It’s a collaboration between myself, Chris Fulton, and Josh Linton, my friends from Fetal Films. I’ve worked with these two with both “Gamer’s Manifesto”, and more recently “Manic Chiropractic”.

I’m not going to give too much away, but I can say this: It’s going to be a short musical (it IS based on volunteer work through the NB Film Co-op, after all), and it will also be the first musical done through the co-op. It centers around one man’s plight with downsizing at his previously-well-paying job, all done through song! We’re planning on having about 5 songs in it, each about 3-4 minutes long, and I’ve already begun to write the music for it (rough demos, nothing polished yet. Drums aren’t timed up, nothing mixed, it’s all too loud, no vocals, it’s like everything is sonic drywall right now. Just the chords, and the melody-thus-far.) The lyrics are pretty much done, although up for tweaking if necessary

From the NB Film Co-op E-News…

Fetal Films and Robot Cousin Soundworks team up to rock the Recession in 2010!

The Great Recession of ‘08 calls up many colourful images; ashen, grey-suited hedge-fund managers fleeing AIG and Lehman Brothers like so many rats from a sinking ship; Red-faced right-wingers shouting “socialist!” in the faces of those who dared question the virtues of unbridled free-market capitalism; And of course, the sparkling, shiny bail-out greenbacks supposed to make it all just go away.

With such a rainbow-palette to draw from, Fetal Films (Photo of Chris Fulton to left by Jeff Crawford) (Chris Fulton and Josh Linton) and Robot Cousin Soundworks (Jordan Roherty) thought: “hey, why not set this hot mess to music?” And so a rock opera was borne…

“Bail-out! A Recessionary Rock Opera” – a unique musical film project in the history of NB indy film…

Fetal Films’ past work – the Silver Wave Best NB Comedy Award-winning films “Gamers’ Manifesto” and “Manic Chiropractic” – were films of modest ambition; few sets, a small crew, no pricey film-stock – films about slackers produced by slackers. So, to help them pull off the garish spectacle that is the modern musical, Fulton (Writer/Director/Co-producer), Linton (Lead Actor/Co-producer) and Roherty (Composer/Co-producer) are calling on some of the usual suspects to lend them a hand. From Moncton, Danny Thebeau on Camera, from Fredericton, Jen Chiasson rocking the Editing Suite, with other frequent collaborators having their numbers called soon. In addition to the familiar, Fulton and Linton will be rounding out the group with song and dance professionals, including a much-needed choreographer to harness and channel Linton’s raw, natural rhythm into a mainstream dance-style.

The Fetal Film folks are trying (Josh Linton to right) to bring something unique to the NB indy film scene, but will need support from the NB film community at large – we hope to feed off of your enthusiasm to push us through the process and hold us accountable to you, the NB film fans.

Regular updates will be posted on the e-news feed. Will be holding auditions in the months to come, so look for alerts in the e-news and on Facebook.

Anyone interested in dropping a line of encouragement, or for more info, you can reach Chris and Josh of Fetal Films at: recessionrockopera@gmail.com

Thanks!
Chris, on behalf of Josh and Jordan.

Winning films “Gamers’ Manifesto” and “Manic Chiropractic” - were films of modest ambition; few sets, a small crew, no pricey film-stock – films about slackers produced by slackers.  So, to help them pull off the garish spectacle that is the modern musical, Fulton (Writer/Director/Co-producer), Linton (Lead Actor/Co-producer) and Roherty (Composer/Co-producer) are calling on some of the usual suspects to lend them a hand.  From Moncton, Danny Thebeau on Camera, from Fredericton, Jen Chiasson rocking the Editing Suite, with other frequent collaborators having their numbers called soon.  In addition to the familiar, Fulton and Linton will be rounding out the group with song and dance professionals, including a much-needed choreographer to harness and channel Linton’s raw, natural rhythm into a mainstream dance-style.

The Fetal Film folks are trying to bring something unique to the NB indie film scene, but will need support from the NB film community at large – we hope to feed off of your enthusiasm to push us through the process and hold us accountable to you, the NB film fans.

Regular updates will be posted on the e-news feed.  Will be holding auditions in the months to come, so look for alerts in the e-news and on Facebook.

Anyone interested in dropping a line of encouragement, or for more info, you can reach Chris and Josh of Fetal Films at: recessionrockopera@gmail.com.

Silver Wave 2009 has come and gone, and it was a crazy time. I was nominated for Best Sound Editing and Excellence in Music Composition, both for the same film, “Manic Chiropractic” by Fetal Films (website pending).

There was another short there, “A Dark Radius“, and I must say, it’s score was really, really good. I want to use a bigger word here, but none are coming to me. It was involving, intense, and very, very fitting. Kudos to Ralf Bindels and his work there. Very well done. I bow down to his incredible talent. Something for me to shoot for, definitely.

Another meeting for Project R is going to take place tomorrow, and we’re all in good spirits about it. If you’ll notice, on the page I just linked to, Chris Fulton won Best Comedy (as well as Gia Milani for Best Drama). He was awarded $1,250 worth of equipment rentals and services from William F. White. I believe we already have plans on what aspect of Project R this will be applied to.

Man, I can’t wait until the lid is blown off of this. And I also can’t wait until we get it all done. I mentioned it to my dad and he wanted to know if he could have a very small part in it. Perhaps!

I would also like to take this moment to recognize two other very talented people. Travis Grant won for Best NB Student Film for Crossing the Great Divide (check it out here), and my future brother-in-law Ryan Barton was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Comedy for his work on Travis’ other short film, Wise Guys in the Park (currently not online). I really want to share the last one with everyone, and will do so if they upload it online. It was, for me, the highlight of Friday night’s screening, and should’ve been included in Saturday’s screening instead, as it would have been enjoyed by a much larger crowd. Of course, Ryan is also featured as the lead in “Crossing the Great Divide”.

In other news…. there is none. If you aren’t listening to the Curtis and Tara show, then you may be listening to something else. It damn well be better, otherwise you’re just wasting your time. Hopefully Curtis and I will collaborate on another project and submit it to next year’s Silver Wave Film Festival.

That wasn’t really other news. All in all, there were some really stellar films shown, and I’m sorry I couldn’t catch them all, but I’ll sincerely do my best to get a copy to check out from the film co-op sometime in the next few months. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Here’s some weird trivia: Last year, the two films that ended up garnering the most awards were the two I was involved directly with (sound editing for “A Lion’s Tale” and music for “Gamer’s Manifesto“). This year, again, the only two I was involved with in any capacity (Manic and Radius) also ended up getting heavily recognized. I am in no way saying that I’m the reason they cleaned up the way they did, I just seem to end up being a part of really, really excellent projects.

I certainly hope that trend continues. Man, I know some really talented people.