Sound Off

Though if I am being honest I could do with a few hours – there’s no shame in admitting that. I have had a hectic couple of weeks and all for the right reasons.

As we approach the end of year one of my Masters Programme there’s lots of work on assignments to get through. All gone pretty well this year and with one paper to complete I should be on track to pass overall.

The really good news though concerns a writing project I got involved in.

Spotted an opportunity to attend a 3 day screenwriting workshop with TAP’s at the BBC. To attend you had to submit a 1 page script idea. So in a mad scramble before the closing date I scaled down a short story I had been working on and submitted.

Got my invite and attended the workshop and I have to admit to being really inspired.

Screenwriting has never been an area I have considered, probably because I never really understood the structure. Anyway at the workshop we were given the opportunity to pitch our idea’s to the tutors and also received a 30 minute one on one session with a script editor.

The final phase of the process is to write your idea for a 10 minute short film and submit for evaluation – if successful through the next stages.....then who knows?

I have been working hard on this short screenplay and at the same time trying to educate myself on screenplay form. Being honest as a first attempt this opportunity has probably arrived too soon – but at the end of next week I will have completed a first screenplay and submitted to TAP’s for feedback.

Already have 2^nd and 3^rd ideas I want to follow up on.....So watch this space!!

The sound of D-Bridge and 'Wonder where'....
Now thats deep!!

Atmospheric with a sinister edge!

 Oh, I played the odd house party and the odd ‘proper gig’, but that’s
not why I invested my time and money into a set of turntables.

 In the beginning my decks used to have pride of place in our living
room as what was the point of moving them back upstairs when one after
hours Saturday night quickly followed the other.
Eventually Saturday nights out got further and further apart and the
1210’s moved upstairs into the ‘decks room’. This room then became the
spare room, followed by the baby room and then the decks moved to the
box room and took the spare room tag with them…..
Until last week – when in a fit of renewed energy I stumbled into the
box room and realised the treasures I had left to gather dust.

 Searching through old records and remembering when and where they were
purchased, which DJ inspired the choice and systematically in my head
linking which track would go with what.
A puzzle that needed to be figured out! How can I start with some deep
house and get to jungle in one session? What was the train of thought
that would inspire such genre hopping?
On the rare occasion that these mixes were recorded, to the trained
ear they probably lacked focus and a pre-meditated direction – but
that’s not what they were about.

 They were mixes inspired by the places the records were bought – Dr
Roberts and Backbeat in particular. Record stores that you entered
with an open mind not really knowing what you would come out with. As
you searched through the racks of a particular genre or sound, the
tunes playing and the atmosphere of the stores could lead you on a
totally different direction. Geographically maybe just to the other
end of the room – but in music terms this could be the difference
between a 4/ 4 and a breakbeat, a classic Blaxploitation soundtrack or
some techno.
But it all worked in these stores and my record collection is a
reflection of this.
So back to last week; with the spare room cleaned, the turntables
dusted it was time to get back in the mix. Let me tell you, like
riding a bike it was not!

 There were more than a few clangers, the delicate touch to adjust eq
levels was lost, obscure B-sides that would be perfect were forgotten.
Not to forget the personalised system of cataloging by sound or style
didn’t seem as perfect as I used to think.

 But in the hour spent in the company of ‘some old friends’ I did catch
the bug again. Great pleasure can be found equally in the chopping of
beats in a rhythm section or a key perfect melodic blend. Getting from
tune A to tune C via B requires different approaches to the music and
like a golfer he with the greatest variety of shots will win through
in the end.
So I am a ‘DJ’ again, well – a bedroom blender…..But that just sounds wrong!!