Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel

Watched this documentary called Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel a few weeks ago. I recorded it from the TV broadcast. Watched it a few times since.

A segment from it:

I knew of Hans Zimmer quite early, as he was a customer of the Fairlight Instruments CMI I was involved in manufacturing then designing, but I see I really hadn't followed or seen all the movies he has done. I did see DUNE Part 1 in the cinema here, but all I remember was how loud some of it was!  Re-watching the DVD has been a different experience. 

One of the reasons he became one of "the" Hollywood composers is that producers and directors like talking to him. His manner/personality is very relatable. If he had been withdrawn, he would not have had the same success, no matter how great a composer he was. 

Have found his documentary quite inspiring. Play is important. The techniques he came up with, the rather "simple" approaches. A pulse for time, using only 2 or 3 notes, building by adding layers and repeating, octave notes rather than chords and sound design. He won an Academy Award for a soundtrack that is obviously Heavy Metal Guitars, Bagpipes and a women screaming at you, and that is really something.

He started very early with the "do it all with synthesizers myself" , of the home music producer. He gave the directors his "quick synth demos", and they didn't have to wait for it to be recorded with an orchestra, like most other composers did.  All very normal for us home recording people in 2023.

Han's success didn't come without a cost though.  This part was particularly unexpected. 

Hans soundtracks are said to be more textural than melodic. Been listening to the DUNE Part 1 soundtrack. Not the music only soundtrack, but the DVD with the sound effects and dialog.  Does all suite the movie, no doubt about it, but I do like a John Williams melody. 

I use much of the same techniques myself compositionally for my few soundtracks. Everything is ad libbed play. Nice to know it really works, and isn't just an unsophisticated hack I stumbled across by myself.

Have made an album of 11 (at the time of writing this blog post) very short soundtrack like themes, and put it on Bandcamp.

 

I have also made a few animations using these, such as this one.

All for my own entertainment of course. Not world changing in anyway, but I like them and that is all that really matters.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

A New Comic On Pen/Marker Concept Art & Artists

 

Concept art is a long held interest of mine. The pen and dry marker designs in the first draft page of the comic are my own originals. I learnt the standard techniques in the late 1980s and have often found them very useful. 

Concept design that is just pen, or with pen and marker is what I expect to focus on, so it will be mostly for older films and TV, rather than the more modern computer based movie or game concept design, that is all finished to a high (unnecessarily so?) standard. 

Starting with designers like Ron Cobb, Syd Mead and Moebius. But there are many, such as Derek Meddings and Mike Trim ( doing all those SUPERCAR, FIREBALL XL5, THUNDERBIRDS, CAPTAIN SCARLET, UFO designs in the 1960s), Harry Lange for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Walter Jefferies for original Star Trek.

Planning to cartoon the artists too, but many Japanese mangaka and designers have gone to a lot of trouble to remain anonymous. The GHOST IN THE SHELL mangaka kept his real name secret for the longest time, but still getting a reference image of Masanori Oda is difficult.  Some that haven`t:

I have a fare collection of books on the subject, just a few shown here:

But I am very aware scanning and using artwork is a copyright violation (even if my comic is likely to be only seen by 12 people total, ever), so I am thinking along the lines of my HEAVY METAL GARAGE comic, and do my own drawings of the works, "in the style of"... 

Like my other comics, I will make a .cbr comic file for it and make it a free download. Comics are just something I want to do, at the moment at least.

So what is the narrative thread through out it that will want you to keep reading it? Just the history of those times? We will see.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

ブラタモリ (BURATAMORI) Japanese History Lessons

ブラタモリ(BURATAMORI) is an NHK program where sunglass wearing ,TV celebrity, TAMORI and his assistant (who changes every couple of years, and is a young lady announcer) walk around towns in Japan discussing what part it played in history and how it may have geologically formed, and other pertinent information. I see it as a domestic tourism boaster for the towns mentioned. I usually find it interesting. 

Many towns were formed by a Daimyo, a powerful local ruler, Shogun or such significant figures. They always talk about the figure, but I find it difficult to keep in my mind the point in history they are talking about, as they say start of Edo, rather than 1603.  To make it easier to follow, I have started studying the relevant Japanese history, as this is taught at school here, and without it, you miss cultural  references everyone else knows. Who the main powerful figures were, in what era. 

 A recent episode about the Japanese JAXA Rocket Base on the island Tanegashima, went on about 1543, when Portuguese introduced guns to Japan there, and later, their manufacture, and of course, another domestic battle, or two.  

Last weekends BURATAMORI #239 was at the location of  関ヶ原の戦い (Sekigahara no tatakai) , the Sekigahara Battle. Unsurprisingly it was at Sekigahara in Gifu.

This was the biggest battle in Feudal Japan with around 7,500 soldiers each side, in the middle of the country, as the Tokugawa army from the east, clashed with the Ishaida western army.  Each army was composed of various helping clans. 

The battle field was in a valley on a main route east to west, and the show looked at all the significant locations, conveniently marked with flags for tourists.  

The battle was over in a few hours, with one of Ishaida's support clans swapping to the Tokugawa side part way. The Ishaida family and supporting clans were mostly executed in the period following and the resulting Tokugawa Shogun started the Edo period of history and ruled for 260 years, 1603 till 1868.

This book has helped a bit, but when you need details, I end up in Wikipedia. It isn't consistent with dates and the many many figures mentioned need additional info.  I write additional notes with dates in my copy. So, Siege of Osaka was June 1615, when Tokugawa attacked Osaka Castle to destroy the remaining Toyotomi clan. 

This makes BURATAMORI more understandable.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

The Collected Music, Cartoons and Video Works

Here are links to our cartoons, comics, animations and music. The music and comics are free to download.  

We work on a few different kinds of creative project, AND finish them! Finishing things is so important, and became ingrained into me through my project based working career.

2021 was about writing and recording songs for us, inspired by Freak Kitchen.  That is songs that say something. Distorted Drop Tuned seven string guitar, bass and synths with vocals. One I even call Metal-Pop.  Other tracks go back over 10 years.

The end of 2022 was all about music animation. Did over 16 minutes as 5 episodes on YouTube. Put the music on Bandcamp as well. It was a very interesting experiment for me, even if it hasn't had many views. Part 2 did get around 100. Nothing by YouTube standards, but conversely, that means it isn't the Lowest Common Denominator that requires. 

Mid 2023 has seen us do the Spirograph Album with many Ambient Soundscapes, short rocking synth and sometimes guitar themes. Also with a few supporting videos of YouTube. That album started with inspiration from seeing a documentary on Hans Zimmer and his approach. Not that any of my stuff sounds like Zimmer, even if I use some of the same techniques.

The last few years have also been an interesting time for us to work out our approach to doing comics. The first one I did, Terraform, had panels drawn pen on paper, took many months to do on weekends, and has story issues.  The second last one, the Sci-Fi  In The Next Dimension is full color, mostly vector, but does have a few nib pen on paper backgrounds and shows my current way of having episodes of 8 or so pages, with a book made of multiple such episodes. I try and put humor in everything.

Our Music On Bandcamp  Synths and Heavy Guitar. Unless an Ambient Soundscape. Some real songs, with singing, too.

Our Videos on YouTube   Animations and illustration slide shows.

Our Comics on our Website  Comics to download as .cbr files. 

Car Cartoon Strips on our Website free to read Heavy Metal Garage

Our Illustrations on our Website  Samples of our commissioned works.

These links can also all be assessed from the front page of our website.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

THE Problem with Social Media...

 

Human nature is such that those that know the least about "something", will be the most vocal and confident about that "something".    A knowledgeable person will never be as confident about "something" as a NO NOTHING ,(know nothing).

Partly explains why Social Media is terrible as it usually is.  

The recent Musk Twitter is even worse than previous twitter with the algorithmic changes made.  Blocking and Muting is part of the solution but it still leaves it full with the trivial, shallowness and stupidity from much of the user base.  

Useful/Interesting use of time spent on Twitter has plummeted greatly, but that makes it easier to not bother to go there.  Anything I post there (mostly a cartoon, an illustration, video or music I have made) may get noticed by 2 or 3 friends, unless I post a picture of our cat, which will get many many more.  That cat pictures get noticed much more just indicates to me it is a waste of time being there. 

Then the are corporate SHILLS and trolls for anyplace you have been or  had to mop up the mess from their previous contract. Mentioned a big contractor that wins many government contracts in Australia in twitter once, that I had seen how poor a job they do, and got someone representing immediately gaslighting you.  😡   Block, Block.   

Twitters "clout-chasers" are an unpleasantness too.   Are they also the ones that follow, then do the unfollow to build followers I wonder?  Seen accounts with big opinions with lots of followers do that.  That blue ticks will now get paid for views interactions is the end of the site. Outrage will rule, as that has been proven to be the most effective at getting followers (and so payment).

Facebook, for me, is now just about the groups, as it doesn't show anything I post to my friends or anything they post to me.  Some groups are interesting for your special interest, but you will still get the "no nothing" commenting when they shouldn't be commenting at all. ROI for time spent there is better than Twitter.

Instagram, for me, is about keeping up with what a couple of friends and my daughter post. The rest is time wasting garbage.  A waste of time me posting anything at all there, as 99.9% of the time no one will see or notice, even worse than Facebook.

Mastodon hasn't proven itself at all. I still hate the time wasting INFINITE TIMELINE, where scrolling to "the end" will more often than not, not show anything to make it worth the effort.  Posts I make will more often than not, not be noticed by anyone at all. 

There is much of the trivial I don't care for. Just random insignificant chat on whatever random thought someone had that morning. Boiled eggs vs poached? If that is your thing, they have you covered.

Many there are there for inconsequential small talk chat. This chat is where you can get someone reply to you if you join in. I'm not Swedish, but don't care for chat.  Never have. A Mastodon Art admin was asking people to do their version of various topics, e.g. CAT MONSTER EATING SPAM, and that would be all in the art feed. That is not the art I care to see or do. 

The only way to find people posting with like interests on Mastodon , are through adding hashtags to posts, and searching for those hashtags.  But it seems to me, without any supporting evidence of any kind, those post hashtags aren't shared throughout the fediverse servers.  Any original post I make, rarely gets any recognition that it was seen by anybody, very much like Instagram.  Found lately more people just posting their fav music clips from YouTube, and not their own creative works.  So I find I have now zero incentive to post, or visit there.    

I'm on BLUESKY now. Too early to tell, but where the main people I followed, and interacted regularly with went to. Comics related for the most part. Was briefly on HIVE, but it didn't work well enough to be useful.   

YouTube is similar for me. I have a channel, that a few friends will notice something uploaded.  Shorts are about the only thing more than 30 people will see if I upload.  It is also a place where someone will talk about something for 30+ minutes that should have been a short one paragraph blog post you could read in 60 seconds.  The algorithm encourages this excessive padding, and time wasting.

Then there are the YouTubers with "unbiased" reviews, all shilling X Corporation's "new thing", or artists new Album, exclusive, early, all at the same time, saying how great it is. ( Like for example, Steven Wilsons new Harmony Codex Album). Of course that free trip to Japan didn't influence anything either. Love Ola, but he has done that too, which completely destroys any credibility.

Same deal with all those  YouTubers reviews and likes in comments for the Osmose synth. It must be an impressive product, really works, but doubt very much, just like the Roli Seaboard, they will not be around very long, unless bought out by a much bigger maker.  

LinkedIn. Hate that site with a passion. The survivor biased "10 things successful executives do in the morning", and all the rest of the HR centric crud. But I am there so people can find me if they need. It was originally just resumes, but is now trying to be social, but it is still awful. The 100s of Google staff that were axed without warning, then posting their love letters to Google, was the epitome of  sucking up to the employer that abused you, with out the decency of a normal redundancy process. 

People I knew on Twitter have gone to different places. A few stay on Twitter. Some to Bluesky, some set up their own Masterdon server, and others to Threads.  Less interaction anywhere for me.  "Working the room" isn't for me, never has been. 

So, it seems, Social Media is far less useful/interesting for me now than it was. Will it all go the way of MySpace I wonder? 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology