Defiant
Heeey there Pendulums. Thought I would write up a post on Defiant now that episode 60 has aired. Before we recorded the commentary, I remember asking on Twitter if there was anything people wanted us to cover or any questions to be answered. Given the nature of the episode, we really didn't get to any of the questions so I thought I would answer some here.
I guess I'll repeat what I said on the commentary in that I had a blast working on the Defiant. It was this time last year that I was freaking out going, what have I gotten myself into? I had only done Atom Man and episode 33 of Vegas and here I was, suddenly directing one of Pendant's biggies. But Jeffrey had faith, Panda had faith, and Susan was there being awesome and helping me out (and even making foley sound effects for me, thanks seester!)
Before I started directing, I listened to the entire run of the show. I tried paying extra attention to the atmosphere and the sfx. I made mistakes in the early episodes, but I think (at least I hope!) I got the hang of the Trek sfx as the season went along.
I guess I can do a quick breakdown of each episode? And answer the questions that were asked as I go along? Those can be bold I guess... I still have all my files, and I'll share tidbits from each.
Episode 51: History
- For the opening monologue, I had the music and had to ask for Jeffrey's monologue. I listened to various episodes to make sure I'd place the monologue and opening title in the right place. After that, I had an Audition session file and all I would do is swap out Bruce's title read.
- One of the very first things I did for the show was the Tutors scene, right after the opening monologue. I got extremely nitpicky but I think I pulled it off. The 3 actors came off extremely in sync and it was in working on this scene that I started having the inkling of a feeling that maybe I might want to do sound work as a career. It was tedious work, but I enjoyed it.
- I had fun in the underground scene. Was extremely tempted to throw in Bowie's "Underground" from Labyrinth just for kicks. But of course I didn't.
- 51 is the only one that had Panda starting the commentary. I was too terrified to do it, as it was only my 2nd commentary. After that, I started each commentary
- Lyn made an appearance in 51 as Cal. She'll eventually become assistant director, and replace me as head director.
- Really happy with my music choices within the episode, especially in the Underground Town scene. Music: Signs, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Dante's Peak, and Prince Caspian
Episode 52: Cat & Mouse
- Holubiak's line of "Calebel? Bloody hell!" makes me chuckle every time because it rhymes.
? Favorite scene -The final scene transition with Billy Joel's "Always a Woman" is my favorite sceneI did for the series. It's the first time I edited a song. I cut out verses, repeated the beginning piano verse, and jumped to the end... sorry if this sounds egotistical, but it was darn close to flawless. So much time was spent on that song but it was well worth it.
- Music: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Super Mario Galaxy, Reservation Road, The Punisher, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and Twilight: New Moon
Episode 53: Memory
- Panda had suggested for me to play Alice. We went with Bernadette and she did a marvelous job, great choice I say! :p
- Tom and Alice's scene was a joy to direct. The two characters had great chemistry.
- Music: Reservation Road, Big Fish and Resurrecting the Champ
Episode 54: Conundrum
-The Holodeck scene is also one my favorite scenes. Kristen and Jack's acting along with the music choice just blended so well. Really could sense their excitement in seeing all the different star systems.
- I geek out alot over the Azha Parliament scene. One second, you hear a Guild Master shouting through the door, Judah storms to the door while you hear the Captain speaking and as Judah opens the door, the Captain's voice becomes clear. Awesomeness I tell you. *pats self on back* Also, the Guild Masters have more booming microphones than the one that the Captain and Judah speak into. It's the little things :)
- Music: Wonder Woman, Avatar, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (Odd I know! But the track I found was perfect) The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Episode 55: Return of Gothos
- How intense is the end of that first scene? It's one of my "ooooohhh yeeeaaah" moments :D
- I did all the scenes on the Defiant. All the awesome Gothos stuff, credit goes to Paul.
- I threw in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" after Panda let me know that's how he got Trelane's student name (Mickey). The music sting is yet another of my geek out moments.
- Final scene was difficult to score. The emotion of the scenes jumped, understandable since Trelane is in there. I ended up using 5 different tracks.
- "You invaded MY SPACE!" is another one that makes me chuckle. Trelane is into social networking?
- Magas' eyes being fixed? Kat, your acting there is spot on. Heartwarming.
- End of this episode is definitely one of the most lighthearted in the season.
- Tom had a Kirk-like blooper :) It'll someday make it unto a blooper reel.
- Music: Wonder Woman, Modern Warfare 2, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Twilight: New Moon, Pushing Daises, Dante's Peak, Batman: Gotham Knight, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Episode 56: Journey to Olympia
- Welcome to the crew Lyn!
- The TANGLED EPISODE! I had just gotten the soundtrack and used it whenever it fit a scene.
- The time phase sound took me several tries. " Sound FX - Time-phase sound. I'm thinking either something watery, or something that sounds like a mechanical clock."
It's a combination of the track "Forward to Time Past" from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and "File Select" from Super Mario Galaxy. Both tracks were reversed and sped up, an idea of Susan's.
- Music: Hancock, Casino Royale, aaaand TANGLED
Episode 57: Wednesday Night Regatta
- Working on this episode had the song in my head for days.
- Walsh's voice drop in "Honor of Cardassia" is another chuckle moment.
- The end scene has an uplifting music sting, probably my favorite in the series (though that may be a major bias since it's from Harry Potter).
- I LOVED the solo section in W.N.R. and couldn't fit it into the episode, so it became the music underneath the credits
- The editing of WNR is another one of my proud moments. Still feel "Always a Woman" is better, but it was another job done well.
- Music: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Harry Potter & the Order Of The Phoenix
Episode 58: Law
- I think my favorite scene is Rael's and the Captain's fight scene. Their banter and chemistry is awesome. That and I also can't help but imagine Susan kicking Jeffrey's ass in their living room :p
- Sorry I don't have much else to say on this episode.
- Music: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Episode 59: Machine Language
- The opening scene gave me chills. It had such a Trek feel to it that I personally feel I never quite achieved in my mixing. Lyn totally freaking rocks.
?Hardest scene- I mixed only one scene and it was with the machine. It's the one scene that I started over with 4 times. I had a distinct vision when I read the script and it was really hard to get the scene to come out like I imagined. In the end, I was somewhat close but couldn't quite achieve it. I wanted to go with 2 actors. I didn't want to do what was done with the Tutors and just have the lines overlap. I had a vision that this sentient being, having just downloaded a brand new language in the matter of seconds, experiment with it. The concept of tone, inflection, gender was all new to it. In deciding to use two actors, I wanted to express the Machine experimenting with the english language and trying new things while having a conversation with the Captain. Did it come across? Maybe. If it wasn't for a deadline, I'd probably would have tweaked with that scene further. Though I really am happy with the part in which Suran is performing the mindmeld.
- Music: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Episode 60: Balance of Honor
- The big one. My final one. The one where we leave with a bang, or as Lyn pointed out, TWO bangs.
- I wrote the trailer to this episode! My first experience in writing trailers. Since then, I've been helping Panda write the Twilight trailers.
- Without even discussing it, Lyn and I accidentally ended up using a lot of the same music from the newer Trek film. I changed all but one of my scenes.
- I still have the post-it in my notebook for the Rael/Captain scene. It reads "It's the ONLY scene with Rael and Capt. Make it heartwarming and wrenching. Music MUST BE PERFECT" Is it perfect? Susan's and Jeffrey's acting, hell yeah. My scoring, it's up to you. It was the scene that went through the most changes.
-God the acting in this episode. Heart breakage all over the place. With one word, and the whole world seems to lose its color (I'm looking at you Jeffrey! The way you read "Rael" when the McCambridge got lost in the blackhole
- Music: Green Lantern: First Flight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Star Trek
And this has become much more massive than I imagined. I left out a lot of things because I mentioned them in the commentaries, though I know I repeated myself on a few things. No one came after me with pitchforks saying "You ruined Trek!" so I guess it was a successful season.
Lots of talk on Twitter and the list after 60 (well, in comparison to lack of talk in all the other episode releases) and all were positive. Really feel honored to be part of the show for a season. The cast is AMAZING, Panda is a phenomenal writer no matter what he thinks, Lyn is going to kick ass and Paul does amazing work. Speaking of which, I don't feel *as* guilty admitting it now, but I always gave Paul the big space scenes because A) He was kickass at them and B) I really really really really really really sucked at them. Big time. Was terrified of directing them. I stayed away from explosions. The closest you hear me go towards one is the first scene in 55.
Though now I work with scenes with 18 sound effects cues and, well, that's a discussion for another day :) If you stuck around for this long, GO YOU! If you have any questions, I shall answer them and do so briefly! I promise! No novels in the comments from me, though feel free to write one yourself :D
I guess I'll repeat what I said on the commentary in that I had a blast working on the Defiant. It was this time last year that I was freaking out going, what have I gotten myself into? I had only done Atom Man and episode 33 of Vegas and here I was, suddenly directing one of Pendant's biggies. But Jeffrey had faith, Panda had faith, and Susan was there being awesome and helping me out (and even making foley sound effects for me, thanks seester!)
Before I started directing, I listened to the entire run of the show. I tried paying extra attention to the atmosphere and the sfx. I made mistakes in the early episodes, but I think (at least I hope!) I got the hang of the Trek sfx as the season went along.
I guess I can do a quick breakdown of each episode? And answer the questions that were asked as I go along? Those can be bold I guess... I still have all my files, and I'll share tidbits from each.
Episode 51: History
- For the opening monologue, I had the music and had to ask for Jeffrey's monologue. I listened to various episodes to make sure I'd place the monologue and opening title in the right place. After that, I had an Audition session file and all I would do is swap out Bruce's title read.
- One of the very first things I did for the show was the Tutors scene, right after the opening monologue. I got extremely nitpicky but I think I pulled it off. The 3 actors came off extremely in sync and it was in working on this scene that I started having the inkling of a feeling that maybe I might want to do sound work as a career. It was tedious work, but I enjoyed it.
- I had fun in the underground scene. Was extremely tempted to throw in Bowie's "Underground" from Labyrinth just for kicks. But of course I didn't.
- 51 is the only one that had Panda starting the commentary. I was too terrified to do it, as it was only my 2nd commentary. After that, I started each commentary
- Lyn made an appearance in 51 as Cal. She'll eventually become assistant director, and replace me as head director.
- Really happy with my music choices within the episode, especially in the Underground Town scene. Music: Signs, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Dante's Peak, and Prince Caspian
Episode 52: Cat & Mouse
- Holubiak's line of "Calebel? Bloody hell!" makes me chuckle every time because it rhymes.
? Favorite scene -The final scene transition with Billy Joel's "Always a Woman" is my favorite sceneI did for the series. It's the first time I edited a song. I cut out verses, repeated the beginning piano verse, and jumped to the end... sorry if this sounds egotistical, but it was darn close to flawless. So much time was spent on that song but it was well worth it.
- Music: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Super Mario Galaxy, Reservation Road, The Punisher, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and Twilight: New Moon
Episode 53: Memory
- Panda had suggested for me to play Alice. We went with Bernadette and she did a marvelous job, great choice I say! :p
- Tom and Alice's scene was a joy to direct. The two characters had great chemistry.
- Music: Reservation Road, Big Fish and Resurrecting the Champ
Episode 54: Conundrum
-The Holodeck scene is also one my favorite scenes. Kristen and Jack's acting along with the music choice just blended so well. Really could sense their excitement in seeing all the different star systems.
- I geek out alot over the Azha Parliament scene. One second, you hear a Guild Master shouting through the door, Judah storms to the door while you hear the Captain speaking and as Judah opens the door, the Captain's voice becomes clear. Awesomeness I tell you. *pats self on back* Also, the Guild Masters have more booming microphones than the one that the Captain and Judah speak into. It's the little things :)
- Music: Wonder Woman, Avatar, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (Odd I know! But the track I found was perfect) The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Episode 55: Return of Gothos
- How intense is the end of that first scene? It's one of my "ooooohhh yeeeaaah" moments :D
- I did all the scenes on the Defiant. All the awesome Gothos stuff, credit goes to Paul.
- I threw in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" after Panda let me know that's how he got Trelane's student name (Mickey). The music sting is yet another of my geek out moments.
- Final scene was difficult to score. The emotion of the scenes jumped, understandable since Trelane is in there. I ended up using 5 different tracks.
- "You invaded MY SPACE!" is another one that makes me chuckle. Trelane is into social networking?
- Magas' eyes being fixed? Kat, your acting there is spot on. Heartwarming.
- End of this episode is definitely one of the most lighthearted in the season.
- Tom had a Kirk-like blooper :) It'll someday make it unto a blooper reel.
- Music: Wonder Woman, Modern Warfare 2, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Twilight: New Moon, Pushing Daises, Dante's Peak, Batman: Gotham Knight, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Episode 56: Journey to Olympia
- Welcome to the crew Lyn!
- The TANGLED EPISODE! I had just gotten the soundtrack and used it whenever it fit a scene.
- The time phase sound took me several tries. " Sound FX - Time-phase sound. I'm thinking either something watery, or something that sounds like a mechanical clock."
It's a combination of the track "Forward to Time Past" from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and "File Select" from Super Mario Galaxy. Both tracks were reversed and sped up, an idea of Susan's.
- Music: Hancock, Casino Royale, aaaand TANGLED
Episode 57: Wednesday Night Regatta
- Working on this episode had the song in my head for days.
- Walsh's voice drop in "Honor of Cardassia" is another chuckle moment.
- The end scene has an uplifting music sting, probably my favorite in the series (though that may be a major bias since it's from Harry Potter).
- I LOVED the solo section in W.N.R. and couldn't fit it into the episode, so it became the music underneath the credits
- The editing of WNR is another one of my proud moments. Still feel "Always a Woman" is better, but it was another job done well.
- Music: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Harry Potter & the Order Of The Phoenix
Episode 58: Law
- I think my favorite scene is Rael's and the Captain's fight scene. Their banter and chemistry is awesome. That and I also can't help but imagine Susan kicking Jeffrey's ass in their living room :p
- Sorry I don't have much else to say on this episode.
- Music: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Episode 59: Machine Language
- The opening scene gave me chills. It had such a Trek feel to it that I personally feel I never quite achieved in my mixing. Lyn totally freaking rocks.
?Hardest scene- I mixed only one scene and it was with the machine. It's the one scene that I started over with 4 times. I had a distinct vision when I read the script and it was really hard to get the scene to come out like I imagined. In the end, I was somewhat close but couldn't quite achieve it. I wanted to go with 2 actors. I didn't want to do what was done with the Tutors and just have the lines overlap. I had a vision that this sentient being, having just downloaded a brand new language in the matter of seconds, experiment with it. The concept of tone, inflection, gender was all new to it. In deciding to use two actors, I wanted to express the Machine experimenting with the english language and trying new things while having a conversation with the Captain. Did it come across? Maybe. If it wasn't for a deadline, I'd probably would have tweaked with that scene further. Though I really am happy with the part in which Suran is performing the mindmeld.
- Music: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Episode 60: Balance of Honor
- The big one. My final one. The one where we leave with a bang, or as Lyn pointed out, TWO bangs.
- I wrote the trailer to this episode! My first experience in writing trailers. Since then, I've been helping Panda write the Twilight trailers.
- Without even discussing it, Lyn and I accidentally ended up using a lot of the same music from the newer Trek film. I changed all but one of my scenes.
- I still have the post-it in my notebook for the Rael/Captain scene. It reads "It's the ONLY scene with Rael and Capt. Make it heartwarming and wrenching. Music MUST BE PERFECT" Is it perfect? Susan's and Jeffrey's acting, hell yeah. My scoring, it's up to you. It was the scene that went through the most changes.
-God the acting in this episode. Heart breakage all over the place. With one word, and the whole world seems to lose its color (I'm looking at you Jeffrey! The way you read "Rael" when the McCambridge got lost in the blackhole
- Music: Green Lantern: First Flight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Star Trek
And this has become much more massive than I imagined. I left out a lot of things because I mentioned them in the commentaries, though I know I repeated myself on a few things. No one came after me with pitchforks saying "You ruined Trek!" so I guess it was a successful season.
Lots of talk on Twitter and the list after 60 (well, in comparison to lack of talk in all the other episode releases) and all were positive. Really feel honored to be part of the show for a season. The cast is AMAZING, Panda is a phenomenal writer no matter what he thinks, Lyn is going to kick ass and Paul does amazing work. Speaking of which, I don't feel *as* guilty admitting it now, but I always gave Paul the big space scenes because A) He was kickass at them and B) I really really really really really really sucked at them. Big time. Was terrified of directing them. I stayed away from explosions. The closest you hear me go towards one is the first scene in 55.
Though now I work with scenes with 18 sound effects cues and, well, that's a discussion for another day :) If you stuck around for this long, GO YOU! If you have any questions, I shall answer them and do so briefly! I promise! No novels in the comments from me, though feel free to write one yourself :D