In week 5 all the students got feedback for their first drafts they made for the animation task. From this process you can learn a lot about how to make sounds sound real, how much to use sound effects, loops and music. Specifically, for my task I realized that I have to create music that represents the environment my cartoon is taking place in, so for Pepe le Pew, I have to write music based on french style. Furthermore, I have to find a sound that a horse makes before it starts running, but I would like to represent that in an unusual way. Finally, I have to record some sounds with microphone to make sound effects such as kisses etc.

Of the other students’ work I really liked Daniel s cartoon which was clever and quite professional. Also, I liked the music that Nicky placed in his cartoon.

My top five for week 3 and 4

1.Perfect- Alanis Morissette

2.Blues Skies- Ella Fitzgerald

3.Master Explorer- Tenacious D (basically all songs in this movie..it s your fault Andrew )

4.Fell in love with an alien- Kelly family

5.Prison Song- System of a down

Composing music for animation is one of the most interesting but difficult tasks for many reasons.First of all you have to have patience and punctuality to achieve the desirable result.Secondly you have to create new sounds to describe things that in real life might not make any sound.Moreover,the music that is usually used for animation should be happy, not repetitive, with many organic sounds. For all the above reasons and many more ,it takes more time to create an atmosphere for an animation that can make the most difficult audience (children) enjoy what they see.

The cartoon that was chosen for this task is “Pepe le Pew” by Chuck Jones.The basic character in this cartoon is a skunk who speaks in French accent.He is in love with a cat named Penelope and in every episode he tried to confess his love for her!Because of his smell, he destroys everything around him and makes Penelope avoid him.I chose a scene where Pepe walks happily outside and wherever his goes something happens because of the smell!The specific scenes are perfect to use many effects and different styles of music.A great challenge for me was the smell where i am trying to discover a sound that can represent a really bad smell!

stay tuned!!!

In week 3 the lesson was focused on the tasks some students had created on the film “persona”.Some of them approached the film in a musical way and some of them used more abstract sounds.Most of the class used the intro of the film, including me.An impressive effort was made by Guseppe who chose another part of the film and gave new character to it.In the second part of the lesson we talked about how to use full strings in Exs24, where you can put on the keyboard the same instrument in different techniques,where each technique is activated by a different key.(staccato.legato etc.).

Barclay James Harvest – Mockingbird

Reading more about “Persona” i realized a little bit more about what Bergman was trying to say.To my disappointment, i couldn’t find the whole movie in the library because it is booked until 10th of October!!!So i tried to get into the hidden meaning and the atmosphere of this movie and compose an alternative version of the soundtrack!In the beginning i tried to synchronize the music with the movie but then i wanted to use more abstract sounds.With these abstract sounds, i am trying to give the sense of madness that those scenes create.I would like to experiment on that prologue with empathetic and anempathetic effects and add melody as the movie continues.

As i said last week , i am going to publish via this site my top 5 of my favourite music every week.After hard thinking i ended up with these great songs :

1.Blue skies – Ella Fitzgerald

2.Call me – Blondie

3.Mack the knife (still..)

4.Don Camillo’s revenge – Colin Steele

5.Moonlight – Paprika Bakanicus

ENJOY!!!!!!

Tony Seeger – The Messenger – Seraph Harp Guitar

Hello again,

This time i am going to talk about music for digital media , a module i have chosen for the second year in Anglia Ruskin University.From the first lesson i gained knowledge and enthusiasm about blogs, i have learned everything i had to know about what they expect from me all over the year (tasks,etc).Moreover, i am really happy to know that i am going to learn so many programs and techniques for writing music for films, advertisements and animation which is really helpful for me to find a job after university.I really wish that in the end of the year i will be able to use all these programs really well and have some projects in my hands that i will be proud of showing for a future job.I am also looking forward to learn more about other composers on films because my knowledge is limited on that even if i am great fan of films (i watch at least one film everyday!).I really believe that this module is really interesting and the creative part of me will be satisfied working on these tasks..

My music preference has changed from time to time. When I was 5 I used to like Michael Jackson and Madonna cause theirs was the only music I could hear everywhere that decade. When I was 8 I had an obsession with the band New Kids On the Block because I enjoyed looking at five handsome guys dancing around and singing with sensitive and girlish voices.

At the same time classical music education from my parents and traditional Greek music gave some quality to my innocent musical taste. In the summer of 1994 everything changed for me when I discovered two bands that I have loved ever since, guiding me through difficult times and improving the good times: Manowar and The Cranberries.

Finally a new path had opened, a path that led to the rock and metal scene. Throughout these years I have listened to so many rock and metal bands and different styles such as alternative rock, progressive rock, jazz-rock, epic metal, heavy metal, power metal, black and death metal and progressive metal. I loved bands like Deep purple, Kansas, Styx, Rush, Marillion, Cranberries, Oasis, The verve, Alanis Morissette, Melissa Etheridge, Patti Smith, Joan Jett, Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, Saxon, Manowar, Blind Guardian, Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, Paradise Lost, Haggard, Dissection, Dream Theater, Anathema, Opeth and many more! Also, during the last few years, I got into the jazz trip a little bit and into other experimental styles, but all the time never forgetting my love of rock and metal.

So I have decided to keep a weekly diary with a top five of my preferences, which will hopefully express my moods, my new tastes and the way I explore music now. I’m always wondering what will come up in the end of the year. What am I going to learn this year in Anglia Ruskin University? What am I going to learn from England, where it has always been a dream of mine to live, study and work?

And now….

My first top 5!

1.mack the knife – Robbie Williams (new version)

2.Rats – Tiger Lillies

3.Red Sector A – Rush

4.Anesthetize – Porcupine Tree

5.This is the day – The Cranberries