The Traveler's Camp (Soundtrack)

This past Tuesday, despite us both being quite exhausted from crazy schedules, Larry was gracious (as always) enough to to sit down and record Caravan's music soundtrack with me. I absolutely love the results - they're every bit as much of the "bluegrass jam session beside the campfire" I had hoped for for the film, and I wanted to share some of the results with you here.

Tremendous thanks to Larry Larson for lending his talent to this film. You sir, are a continual inspiration.

Caravan "The Traveler's Camp"
by Larry Larson


Cheers,
Mel

A Cornucopia of Happenings

As you could imagine, the title of this entry exists purely for the ability to use the work Cornucopia. because everybody should, every once in a while. It's that awesome.

Despite being exhausted to the point of delirium, I'm chipping away at caravan as the semester ever-so-rapidly nears a close. As of yesterday, I re-edited the film's leica reel purely on timing and how it felt visually, finally scrapping my old scratch soundtrack in preparation for editing final sound. I managed to shave 6 seconds off of the film as a result, and I feel like the whole thing flows much more smoothly. Today, I'm meeting with Larry, hopefully producing the film's score as a result - step one (and I feel, as someone who is very creatively prone towards musical influences, the most important aspect) of getting the final sound down for Caravan.

This week's immediate to-do list:

• Edit Leica Reel for tightest timing possible. (DONE)
  
• Tie-down shots where Mia is getting yanked around so that they read as clearly as possible. (DONE)
• 1st Angry Ethan shot: tie down last few frames to force pose. (DONE)
• 2nd Angry Ethan shot: tie down last few frames to force pose. (DONE)
• Rough animate the girls dancing about the campfire (shoot reference on Wednesday!) (DONE)

I also entered Caravan's progress reel to compete for this year's Stratton Foundation scholarship, as they routinely, generously and quite enthusiastically, support CCS and its students. Here's hoping! :) Entry for the application required students to write two statement paragraphs, one for the artist, and one for the film itself. I thought I'd share those here.

Caravan

Caravan tells the tale of eight year old Mia Talbert's discovery of a band of eclectic Gypsy Travelers in the woods near her home. The Travelers' warm companionship and colorful lifestyle draw her back to their campsite from one season to the next, while, each night, she tepidly returns home to her rural, derelict farmhouse. When Mia's young Gypsy friend, Kelsey Kavenaugh, follows her home one day, the truth about her home life is revealed to a frightening degree of clarity, and Kelsey flees back to the campground for help. Mia, the victim of an abusive father, he addled with alcoholism that has consumed their family for generations, is spirited away by the Gypsies, and with them, she finds peace. This film, at is core, strives to show that one in no way has to be of means to make a tremendous impact on the life of a child in need. They simply have to take the step needed to do the right thing. Caravan is the senior thesis film project of Entertainment Arts major Mel Miller, currently in production, and scheduled for completion as of September 2010. The film strives to artfully combine hand-drawn and digital film making techniques, as a fully traditionally animated film, digitally colored in Adobe Photoshop, its special effects and final composite compiled in Adobe After Effects.

Mel Miller on the Creation of Caravan

Caravan is a short film rich in personal symbolism and experience for myself, as well as a reflection back on aspects of my family’s history, both positive and negative alike. Its creation has greatly become a form of art therapy for me. It has allowed me to reflect back on my own family’s generations-long struggle with alcoholism as a disease, giving me the opportunity to approach my and my mother’s childhood memories both objectively and on a very personal level, excising many long-buried understandings and misconceptions about that history, and coming to better understand my own roll in such a complex family disease. The film also, very ironically and unexpectedly, has allowed me to better and more positively face the homelessness both I and my parents have faced during months of its production, grasping all too clearly, much like the Gypsy Traveler characters within Caravan, the tremendous importance of the warmth, closeness and network of support provided by family; in times of prosperity of course, but all the more so when the material things in life fail us completely. This film has been a guide, a mentor, and a constant companion for the past year, and I look forward to continuing to grow through its creation in the coming months.

Thank you, Stratton Foundation, for your consideration.

-Mel

Score Recording Scheduled!

This is the part where I flail about in giddy excitement. I just got off of the phone with Larry Larson, and he's been kind enough to schedule a recording session with me this Tuesday to begin work on Caravan's official music track.

For anyone interested, I though I'd post my notes and thoughts on a section-by-section breakdown of what I've been considering for the film's music so far, including tracks to reference in terms of tempo and feel. Here's all that:

Here are links to the songs I have mentioned in the list below, so you can check them out:

• "Dueling Guitars" by Kaki King
• "The Smoothie Song" by Nickel Creek
• "Polly Come Home" by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

Note: The sections of the list below with "***" in front of them are parts I'd like to record music for.

• *** The first 40 seconds of the film, where Mia stomps out of the house angrily, heads off on her walk to school, and is startled by the Gypsy in the woods, before going into the woods after her. I love the simple, building opening to "Dueling Guitars" by Kaki King, and think that that simple, slowly elevating sound would be a nice sort of vibe to have for this section.
• I'll probably use the very opening of Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - the harmonica bit - for the title card, unless Larry'd like to re-record it for the film.
• 0:50-1:20 I plan on using the same sort of creepy echoed humming you hear in the leica reel. That little tune (and the humming) are both created by myself... a tune that's been stuck in my head since I started working on the film. I've just dubbed it "Mia's Song." So, that part is taken care of.
• *** 1:28-2:50 takes us through the entire campground montage where Mia meets the Travelers. I've used Nickel Creek's "Smoothie Song" for this section, because I absolutely love the sound, and its vibe is excitably happy, yet fun in its slightly bluesy feel. I'd love to do something similar for the "official" caravan music.
• 2:50-3:05 will be silent, focusing on environmental sound effects.
• *** 3:05-3:26 I've been using the slow, weighty guitar parts from Robert Plant and Allison Krauss' "Polly Come Home" for the scenes in the film where Mia has to run home and stand in front of the farm house. This is the first of those two sections, and it may be nice to have a similar bluesy, slow paced sound for those sections.
• *** 3:27-3:49 more of the same from "The Smoothie Song" by Nickel Creek, as Mia runs back to the campground. This part is a little more aggressive then the part of the song used to introduce the Travelers.
• *** 3:49-4:09 More of the slow, heavy guitar strumming from "Polly Come Home" as Mia finally pushes her way back into the farmhouse.
• 4:09-4:20 Another silent section that would focus on environmental sound effects as opposed to music.
• *** 4:21-5:10 In this section, Mia is hauled into the house by her father, and Kelsey runs off to get help, before returning withe her father and his friends to put Ethan in his place. Of all sections, I am least sure st to what I would like for this part of the film in terms of music. It should be something, like the rest of the soundtrack, with a sort of bluegrass-country feel, and should start out being quite foreboding in seeing Ethan on the porch, accelerating in fright as things become violent, and become energetic as Kelsey runs for help.
• The rest of the film, I've basically gotten taken care of already. The flashback scene as well as the following scene where Charlie decides not to give into Ethan's violence will be more of that eerily hummed "Mia's Song," and the closing scene utilizes Larry's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

So, in total, I'll need about 4 minutes of music (3 minutes and 52 seconds, give or take.)

Other songs that has a similar feel to the style of music I'd like for Caravan:

• "Ritual Dance" by Kaki King
• "The Inlaw Josie Wales" by Phish
• "Little Martha" by The Allman Brothers Band

And for the fun of it, what I've been considering Caravan's "theme song" lately, "Not Fade Away" by the Rolling Stones

I'm quite excited for this ^_^
-Mel

Sound Design In Progress

This semester, I had the opportunity to finally take Sound Design. I'd saved it for my senior year specifically in the hopes to be able to apply what learned directly to my thesis film. My professor, Aaron Gelman, was kind enough to allow me to use my final project for the class to begin to build a Foley database for Caravan's eventual final sound mix. The sound I've edited to parts of the animatic below is not by any means finalized, but it's a good, rough start for certain, and is beginning to establish the audio mood and feel I'm looking to project in the film.

Of note: The humme dtune in the backdrop of both of these clips is, in fact, myself. The tune itself is "Mia's Song," - a lullaby of sorts I've had invading my thoughts routinely while working on this film. Also, the guitar/harmonica tune of The Edmond Fitzgerald in the second clip is by the awesome mister Larry Larson, who has been kind enough to agree to work with me on the final musical score for the film in January.

Clip 1:

Clip 2:


♥Mel