Hi! I make stuff. // VGM and Ambient music composer for hire.
Age 31, Male
Italy
Joined on 2/22/13
Glad to hear you're not limited to just submitting music! It's nice to be part of something greater than yourself, and to be part of a team.
Yeah, work-for-hire confidentiality... I had that working for consumer research, but it was just to protect the company I worked for, not the clients :\ I had to quit because I didn't want to lie.
Marketing is based upon deliberate lying. I think it's a form of improv comedy where the target is still the audience, but you're trying to sell something instead. Which is funny, considering the amount of crap that has been filling the market in the past few decades it's incredible. My approach with customers is pretty cautious at first because I don't want to give the impression I am willing to spend my time for something I'm not so enthusiastic about, or even worse, I don't see any return once my job's done. It has happened before, it will happen again I'm sure, but a professional also sets some standards beforehand in order to avoid such situations recurring over and over, and my standard is usually: ok, do you have any experiences in this field? My terms are these, do you agree with me? If yes, can you prove me you can fulfill those terms? If not, goodbye. We're all friends until somebody drops dead, if you know what I mean.
Sage advice, to be sure! I guess we learn by doing, and by working the other end of consumer research (used to be freelance videographer and a participant), I learned what you just stated, the hard way. There was definitely a wide spectrum of intelligences involved; corporate culture can really be vapid... aloof... emotionally detached. In my case, it was a mix of trial lawyers and big companies.
Yeah well, first times are rarely successful but that's the beauty of it, you learn the most during these times by failing. Like, I've spent roughly a year trying to get some people doing something and they all dropped what they promised to do while I did my own part. The worst part is that you can't do anything to defend yourself other than packing your own stuff and send them to F-land. Legal action? Yeah sure, wasted money. Eventually, you will find somebody worth a bit of your attention and while you do that, you build your own small niche of the stuff you know you like making and have no problem about it, in my case music but also other stuff I'm planning (a Conker fanfic in comic form, albums, possibly visual novels, who knows). There's a lot in the fray, I just need to be patient right now since my own personal situation isn't so bright. There's always something to learn, that's possibly the most positive thing about the whole deal.
Yeah, but since I came here... many years ago, I felt my creative side slip away, along with my second-hand equipment. I had started to find that niche, but after Bush II stole the election in late 1999, the market for my skills had dried up to nothing. And almost all of my work, is on Hi-8; not a bad tape-based medium, but defunct...
Even if I did continue, could I have gotten YouTube sponsorship? Not impossible, but kind of unlikely. It's really too bad NG has such a crappy and stingy Ad-revenue system... how to turn your talent into a bill paying ability, gets harder by the day :\
Yeah that's why you inevitably open new channels in other sites, to sort of compensate what you couldn't do in one and move into another place with other functions and features, but still... it's pretty much you get what you see. Honestly, I find Soundcloud to be more reliable in this respect, as the Pro plan is relatively cheap and can be either monthly or yearly and it still grants you a spotlight. I'm planning to try it this January so I get to use a full year. Youtube, well, it's kind of a hit and miss... It's probably better to have your videos linked through your channels instead of relying solely on your youtube, and the reason for that is simple: you'd have to spam to get views and do the attention whore all the time. So that means subscribing to anyone in range 'til you hit the daily limit, posting links to your channel everywhere on the internet, writing cheesy titles like "The most sad music you'll ever hear", and so on. Sad but true. Tags are useless in any site, as people click what they see on the screen without putting too much thought in their search, otherwise they use Google.
Speaking of ponying up cash for exposure... I imagine my Supporter Upgrade here is due for renewal, but I have no idea when that is! Luckily, Tom considers my old bones to be a valuable member here (or at least one who doesn't spout poop), and says the problem will be addressed... but is considering scrapping the NG Store :(
It's true, in the entertainment field of the internet, tags are pretty much useless - it's 'click the pretty pictures and/or descriptions' for most users. Even I had the best material I've made in the past online, I seriously doubt I could get regular subscribers.
Before I left high school in the late 80's, I read a short science fiction story about an Irish man who washed ashore here in America. America had become North Korea in its isolation, credit became a thing of the past (cash and carry only), and technology was king. The shipwrecked Irishman stayed with a father and daughter who lived near the shore, and ended up making a living (wait for it) making videos of his small shipbuilding skills... one he had enough viewers, he started to make enough to pay for his food and lodging. He ended up sailing away in his finished creation one night.....
Hm, who knows how many other stories like that Irishman happen every day and we don't know... Well, the Supporter upgrade should enable you to surf NG without ads, and honestly I don't feel like making any judgement here, it's your choice. Too bad for the store, I guess, although I personally haven't bought anything in my NG history (I was KKSlider60 before creating this account).
Have you looked up over the internet about converting your 8mm tapes into digital audio, unless they're badly damaged? I think I saw something around once, but I'm not sure.
The kicker is, he was actually a spy for Europe, but not a political/industrial one :)
Oh, okay! Yeah, I remember you! Umm, no, but I'm sure the audio playback's fine (very robust), but the video didn't render correctly on Sony's legacy compatible Digital 8 camera/deck... it's Canon L2 footage, and Sony doesn't like them? Yeah, might try and find someone to convert it all, but I think with the sheer amount of footage I have in Hi8, it might just be worth taking a shot or two at buying a playback deck, and probably something to take the psuedo-digital signal, into the PC :\
You remember me :')
Hm, well, if nobody's available for that then yeah, go for a playback deck or, before buying, look up some forum boards on the internet to see if somebody else has your problem and if he/she managed to solve it. I honestly don't know much about physically converting audio/video to digital formats so that's all I can say without risking to be wrong.
It's the work-for-hire stuff I should've copied! All those impressive events and press conferences I shot, are in the hands of my former employers/clients... which means it's likely loooong since forgotten. Oh well, still have the memories and shot logs.
Ah darn it, I would have loved to watch them. What kind of events did you film? I'm starting to get curious now :) Don't tell me you've been in Seattle '89, the Metallica gig...
Ha, that was another one my bucolic blunders (hate commuting to NYC): working for Viacom, which owns MTV and some other TV stuffs. Had I stayed on, I would've gotten a pay raise and better management over me!
Shot commercials for: a cruise line, local car dealership (Lexus/Merc), travel agency, radio show/station. Had a few offers to do instructional videos, but they seemed to want it for nothing, and promised "some money on the side", if at all... bloody middle management :|
Tons of sporting events... from National to local schools (mainly for free, for Public Access Cable TV) Gotta love press credentials, but the downside was being labeled/listed by national security, credit rating agencies; almost all of industry/government was wary...... cowardly bastards.
That's quite a career :) I'd say sort of fascinating too, considering I'm a '90s kid and older TV files (don't really wanna use the word "vintage", they're not that old) kind of catch my eye every now and then. In fact I'm completely oblivious about old advertising, especially foreign since I'm not a native speaker and all I get are basically stereotypes from that era which is quite a shame. I'd love to have a chat on Skype if you'd like, sometimes. :)
It was a short career, but thanks for the compliments! It was nice not having to use my body to make money (blue collar work), for the most part. I actually preferred heavy cameras, so there wasn't any wobble. Steadi-Cam rigs are so expensive...
You might not be a native speaker, but your written English is impeccable! I'm still working off of my neighbor's WiFi connection (thanks to a .7 meter square aluminum foil reflector, not unlike how a satellite dish works), about 100 meters away, so the bandwidth might not be good enough for Skype... but I'm going to try it out someday :)
That's great, and thank you :) I was thinking of how media formats quickly evolve throughout the years and become collectors' items... When I was a kid I still remember VHS readers, the first CD readers and even floppy disks still roaming around. Then my older brother told me he witnessed many other things slowly disappearing in the market such as walkmen, stereos to rest on your shoulder, cassettes... Now I'm witnessing the total demise of CDs in favor of USB drives and Blu-ray disks, and DVDs will probably disappear too in mere years, I think. Heh, technology...
VicariousE
I haven't lurked your audio submissions here, as much as I'd like... have any made it into games or movies? That'd be a nice list to see!
ForgottenDawn (Updated )
Yes, the tracks "Plexus" and "Chronos" are in Rush Bros, a Steam game whom I helped getting through the Greenlight process. I am currently working on some game projects and I can't talk about them, but my role is diverse in that in some games I'd be only the composer while in others I'm also the art director, writer, sound designer and so on. Stuff that luckily keeps me occupied, basically.