So what's this then? Well I am literally weeks away from the end of my degree, and as with the end of every semester at this University, it has been a huge, mad dash to the finish to get everything done. Couple this with a deadline for a client I have for what seems to be the end of April, I have a busy, busy, busy calender. So this here blog is for posteriority, if anything.
I'll be creating a blog entry every few days, nothing too exceedingly regular, but enough to consider everything that's going on. So I best start off describing what I need to get done, in total...
Major Project
This is the most important aspect of my degree, as it counts for 25% of my overall grade. What is it? Well put simply, it is a concept album, of 15 minutes length, give or take a minute or two on either end, which has to be composed, mixed, mastered and published all by the final days of April.
The concept I have chosen for this is a book by Neil Stephenson called 'Snow Crash' which is a science fiction action thriller which he wrote in the 90's, which in itself has stood the test of time, as it to this day still seems both a plausible future as well as an enjoyable read, without even the slightest hint of a cliché.
How is it going? Well, I have a lot of compositions, which need to be tied up, but at the moment I feel I am lingering too much on the perfectionist side of the compositions, I need to get on and start composing for all elements instead of focusing on one particular element. I have broken the book up into three key segments, the beginning, which establishes the universe, the middle, which establishes the plot, and the ending, which..well.. ends said plot. In these sections I have pages in my little notebook (And it is a REAL notebook, not the notes app on the iPhone, with a biro in the ring binder and everything) which have keywords written down about that section, spider diagrams and a list of key points of the plot in that section, and it works mighty well.
Business Plan
I have done one of these before, back in College, so this is all very familiar territory. I have to do a basic outline of the goal of the business, a SWOT analysis, a financial prediction sheet and a whole load of other bollocks I'd probably pay some other poor sod to do for me if I were to do this for real.
What is my business plan? The implementation of physical gift cards aimed at high street consumers to be implemented into the Spotify platform. No I don't know either.
How is this going? Very well. I still need to do the figures, and revise the plan itself, and do the SWOT, and gather the information required on the subject of equipment and expenditure but on the whole it is actually going well, despite what I just said seeming a lot of work, but as I said, I've done this before.
Independent Study
This is an interesting one. Normally one would have to do a lengthy essay on some menial piece of literature or an unbiased, intellectual, academically credible study of some composer or works which are highly regarded by academics. However, I have managed to avoid this and instead I will be partaking in a piece of work depicting some music related work I did back at the beginning of the semester. So essentially, a piece of writing on work experience. This piece I cannot start though, as I still have not received the criteria for it. This is good, as there is potential for an extension, although I do not foresee requiring one, the option to appeal for one is there.
SCAMP
All you need to know for this is we are performing a concert for Javanese Gamelan, and we are teaching kids to sing along to it, so it is teaching experience. If I go into further detail it will confuse you, and I have finished this piece of coursework, so that is all I need to say. No I don't know what SCAMP stands for, and it is a stupid name.
Mastering
For this I have to compose a sound font (Which to those of you who don't know, is one of those things you get at the start of movies with all those companies logos, you know, the silly little jingles and synthy chimes that go over the flashy logo) and then I have to master it four different ways: I have to compress it, and make it sound loud, without it clipping, and remaining as clear and smooth as possible. I have to expand the mix, so to say I need to make the loud bits louder and the quiet bits quieter, I need to convert it to MP3 and retain the best sound quality possible, and I have to create a mixdown which is as small a filesize as physically possible, near enough 30kb. Madness!
Music and Media task
I have no idea what this is yet, as we have not been told, and will not be told until Monday the 29th of March, where I get four days to complete the task. *Gulp*
So that's it so far. I will be making another post soon, I feel the chaos hasn't even started. Well, if anything, some wine will help me through. Chin chin!
