AUS230 - Final Blog

As the end of my Bachelor of Audio Trimester 5 is here, I can say that this was the best tri I’ve had at SAE. I learnt a lot in these last three months and did some really exciting projects, all thanks to Dave Turner, our supervisor and mentor. I appreciate his commitment and thank him for some really cool learning opportunities like the Tape Project, Song Exploder and Music Production using a smartphone project. I’ve never had so much fun in any tri before whilst learning some real-world practical skills. I loved attending guest lectures by industry professionals like Joseph Carra and learning about the processes and tools that they use and the general outlook that they have towards working in the audio industry.

I did a lot of work this tri, some from SAE and some from outside.

For the Post-Production project, we were given a short film to work on called ‘Things left unsaid’. When we first got the project, it was all over the place. The location sound was very bad and noisy and our group had a lot of work to do. We worked hard and were able to make something good out of that project. Our project supervisor Tristan Meredith was happy, in particularly with my Pro Tools editing skills and attention to detail while Dialog Mixing.

The Song Exploder project was a unique experience. It feels great to have been able to research and emulate the production techniques of someone you’ve admired for years and whom you look up to; in my case, Kanye West. I also enjoyed working with Elly Thompson, fellow engineer and friend, and thank her for helping me out by featuring her vocals in this project which sound awesome.

The Tape Project was such a great experience as well. Visiting Soundpark studios was an exciting experience and I will never forget that day. Seeing the Tape Machine in action for the first time was a memorable moment. I always enjoy working with real musicians and the band that we recorded that day, the White Vans, were very talented and a pleasure to work with. I’ve never learnt so much in a single day. Thanks again Dave Turner for ensuring the survival of this great project.

Mastering was another great aspect of this Tri and I was always so excited about it. I had to wait for 4 Trimesters to get this opportunity to learn Mastering so I ensured that I was fully focused during classes and the wait was all worth it. It was a great experience learning and using all the high-end gear available to us in the Mastering suite. Learning how to operate the Manly In/Out routing and using a combination of analog and digital processors and EQs to Master a song was important. The latter being very important as most of us will be Mastering in-the-box.

Other important things that I learnt this Tri was using the Rednet Systems in the S6 studio which turned out to be not as complicated as I thought it was. It was also very exciting to see what my classmates and friends produced over this Trimester and I thank them for always being such good sport. I could never stop learning from you guys.

Freelance

Over the earlier 4 Trimesters before this one, my freelance work consisted of projects related to audio only. This is because since moving to Melbourne in the last year, I have found a good clientele here and people are actually liking my work. This ensures that I keep getting regular work, most of which is paid. Things got a little different this Tri since I chose Post-Production as my specialisation for this degree. I was told that my Freelance work should be more Audio-Post-oriented. I was a bit worried at first as I didn’t know a lot of people associated with Films and/or Games in Melbourne. Luckily, Tristan came out with an opportunity for me as the Tri 5 Filmmaking students needed Audio-Post engineers for each episode of their Film Web-series titled ‘Craig was here’. I was given the task of Dialog editing and clean-up, recording Foley, sound design for SFX and adding Atmos. The project was very challenging because of time restrictions. I was handed over the project files in Week 12 on a Wednesday which was one day later than the day scheduled originally which made things worse as I had to reschedule all my plans for the week. What made things even more challenging was that I had another Freelance film which came up two days before ‘Craig was here’.

Watch 'Craig was here - EP 1'

So, in short, I had about a week to do Audio-Post for two short films which were 8-minutes in length each.

The film that I got from outside SAE required me to compose music as well which I always tend to enjoy. I received this project through a mutual friend of Sammy Gill, a very popular Indian social media celebrity who was working on a Punjabi drama short-film called ‘Separation’. I got a call from the film’s director and he asked to see my previous work. I showed him my Tri 4 Kung Fu Panda trailer and this Tri’s Post Production film. I got the job almost instantly.

This one wasn’t paid of course, as it was very outward facing and Sammy Gill is a popular name within India and Indians in Melbourne. I was happy at first but also a bit nervous as the coming week was about to be the most demanding and tiring week that I’ve ever had. I was sleeping approx. 4 hours a night as I commuted to and fro different studios, classes and my wonderful job as a food delivery driver. My wife has started to hate me because we’ve hardly had any talks in these last 8-9 days.

But, I’m happy to say that it all worked out well in the end as Sammy agreed to release the film on Youtube and Facebook before today as a part of our deal so that I’ll be able to document it in this blog. The response that we’ve got so far is incredible. The client is very happy with my work and has offered me to work on the next part of this film which will be shot in January next year.

Watch 'Separation' here

I did another freelance music production project for a Melbourne-based Hindi singer called Kiran K who likes covering popular bollywood songs. This song/video got pretty popular as well.

Here's the video

'Craig was here' hasn't been published yet but the filmmaking students and Tristan seem to be very happy with my work. Everything was submitted on time.

To summarise, I would like to say that AUS230 and the assignments and projects associated with it are very well designed. The course as a whole has been getting better and more exciting with each Trimester and I’m glad that I’ve been able to work hard and absorb so much knowledge and experience under the guidance, influence and supervision of Dave Turner and my fellow students who are very talented and able audio engineers in themselves.