Over the course of 2020, I decided to make a mini "visual guide" to the world building and characters of my recital piece, "Gradient". It includes original concept art, in universe laws, discussions of themes and narratives and much more. This guide helped me to navigate the world I created when writing the script; to know what information is needed and what isn't relevant to the episode. Even though it's not in the script, thus doesn't mean it isn't "canon" to the world of Gradient. It's a lot of work but I'm confident that it's significantly helped me ground no only the world building and characters, but also the identity and feel of the piece as a whole.
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Here is a rough guideline for the timeline of my recital!
The script for my recital depicts an urban fantasy setting where spirits exist alongside humans in Yurahi, the modernised city of spirits built in a valley. These spirits are heavily inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's spirits from "Spirited Away", with the world building particularly inspired by "Naussica: Valley of the Wind", with the exception being that it's a more modern era. The character dynamics were inspired by "Avatar: The Last Airbender", with two high school students being gifted the powers of the spirits of balance - Yin & Yang - so that they may carry out their duties as Spirit Hosts to balance upset / corrupted spirits. Our main protagonists are Chase Withers and Asim Essa. When creating this story and world, these two characters were the first thing I drew and fleshed out. Chase Withers is a snarky, high school loner, and since she isn't the smartest cookie and comes from a poor family, she gets quickly defensive around her peers . However, at home, she has a strong family life. She asks her little sister, Mei, for help with her homework and encourages her with her own academic endeavours. Not only that, she has hobbies outside of school such as training in martial arts, which is supported by her Aunt Jackie. Here, we see her relaxed and warm, especially with her little sister. This dichotomy between her home life and school life serves to directly contrast our other main protagonist, Asim Essa. Asim Essa is smart, charming, and wealthy, making him very popular at school. He's confident, if not a bit arrogant, and often has to be lectured by his more emotionally mature boyfriend, Yoshizumi (AKA Yoshi) when it comes to social tact. However, this completely changes with his life at home being quiet and cold. We find out that he is his father's carer and that due to his mother's fame, he rarely sees her. This striking contrast helps Asim and Chase be fantastic foils for one another when they are forced to work together in the narrative, and helps them help each other. They are not opposites; they simply balance out the other, as Yin & Yang do. Throughout the script, the trio of Asim, Chase & Yoshi try to figure out how to calm down the Spirit of Manners, who has taken to possessing the school students and staff after being corrupted by Chase & Asim's arguments and rudeness to one another. This plot and premise allows me to draw many musical parallels between the characters, spirits and setting without overcrowding the episode and I'm excited to tackle the score! Overall, I'm proud of the work I've done with the script, characters and world building as I feel like I've taken what I loved from all the anime inspired media I consumed as a kid and distilled it into something new and original that I made. Image by Robin McMahon (Chase & Asim's older 2020 character designs) - if you're interested in their art, look up their instagram tag @hollowchimes. Full script PDF can be found just below!
Link to my sound mastering assignment to master an "EP" including one of my own reocrdings / Mixes (for which I re-recorded "Close For Comfort" with live string players).
Sound Mastering EP Assignment 2021
Here is the first draft of the dialogue between Yoshi, Chase & Asim (our three main protagonists). The recording of Asim & Chase has been recorded separately in the sound studio on the 27th of May 2021 with two waapa students providing the voices. Yoshi's lines were originally recorded back in January 3rd 2021 and I'm planning to re-record his lines so that the actor can match the energy that Chase & Asim's actor's are providing.
The soundcloud link can be found just below: Gradient Scene 5 Dialogue Draft 1 My 3rd year recital presentation, describing my animatic with a live score performed to it and the process of working with the animators and writing the script & music / sound. Below are the rough drafts of the technical and logistical requirements for my recital in the Richard Gill Auditorium. The proposed night is Friday the 19th of November alongside Remal, who's composition recital will be using a similar set up to mine with the projector and an ensemble.
Due to the COVID lockdown during mid semester, we had to postpone / cancel many of the sound spectrum concerts, including the ecuatorial concert I was going to perform my piece at. I rehearsed with Raph, Belinda and Hanae for a Piano, Clarinet and Viola trio called "Young Truth". This piece is an extended character theme for one of the main characters in my recital named "Yoshizumi". Of the three main characters, he is the level headed and emotionally mature member of the group - the "literature driven, emotionally chill drama kid" as my visual director for my recital.
We were forced to record in a rehearsal room as when I showed up for my sound studio booking, the grand piano was removed from the room. So I had to improvise and ask a favour from the loan store guys at WAAPA, as they provided me an interface, two XLR cables, two microphones and two microphone stands. We were very lucky to find an available rehearsal room during study week on such short notice and the recording went very well, especially with Ethan Bellhouse's help in setting up and packing down. What was really cool about this is that the animators were finishing the final character designs for Yoshi when I was finishing the compositional piece. When we had our next discord meeting, we shared our files and were pleasantly surprised with how well the visuals of the character and the soundscape matched up. You can see the character design here (including the animators notes on how to avoid drawing harmful stereotypes when drawing characters of diverse backgrounds). Soundcloud Young Truth |
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Artist SummaryI'm a WA Fremantle based singer-songwriter / composer. Here, you can have a gawk at my studies, compositions and performances. Archives
August 2022
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