LostFight! Fight Thread

[jack]

i can see huge improvements from last week. i can see you sticking around awhile.

Last week?

that was randy talking. randy has a bad habit of comparing people's performances with their past performances that he's liked, instead of just judging them on their own merit.

for what it's worth, jack thought you did a killer job. maybe best in show.

[Kamakura]

Southwest Statistic has my vote very, very closely followed by The Hip Cola. MC Jack's would make a perfect Twilight Zone piece, and J$ get's kudos for not having seen the show. Abcdarian used vocals, and they put me off.

[c hack]

So I'm doing reviews here, and then it hit me that I can't exactly give away the winners before the voting's over, especially because I'm taking the voting into account. So I'm gonna hold off on posting my reviews till the ballots are closed. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. Great stuff, guys.

[thehipcola]

Big shout out to everyone who submitted, all of the entries are awesome. I'm not ignorifying this thread, but rather scrambling like a madman to try and get a redcar entry happening for this week's fight.

Reviews to come soon....

[thehipcola]

reviews are all done while watching the intro to an episode of Lost. For testing purposes I'm using the first episode, and starting from the Lost title sweeping in. I'm looking for fit. That's it.



ABCD
Interesting sync at times. Intended or not, hard to tell. I'm not sure I like the music to set up this kind of show. I do love the music though. It's very emotive, great harmonies, and the ending is kind of tv. Maybe not Lost, but definitely has a tv feel to it. I don't think I'd pick it for THE theme, but I'd definitely include it on the soundtrack CD.

Johnny CHACHINGpoint.
This has great moments of sync, and actually works very well with the sound up as well on the Lost premier. It fades at an opportune time with some audio coming in nicely on the episode. I was not inclined to buy the arpegiatted synthy stuff, too electronica for me, but you sold it to me by the end. I like your guitar useage, same idea as mine. You lose points for blatantly not adhering to the rules for your submission length. That said, this is very very good. Nice mix, nice elements. Good job, possible vote.

Jack Shite
This feels kind of Lynch-esque to me. I'm not sure the fast-paced feel works as the main theme, maybe a tension building bit for during the show. I give props for the appropriate length, it works well with the episode's beginning. Only sync that worked for me was the end. I like the pumping breathy sound throughout. Nice job on creating a musical stamp...definitely works for tv. Just maybe not Lost.

SWS
The first 20-30 sec. of this is very well done. Feels nice for the intro to the episode. I don't like the Gangsta's Paradise choir action though. Not sure if it's the choir sounds or the arrangement, but I can't shake the GP reference. It's a bit bold for my tastes as a theme for this show. Same goes for the heavy bit, while very well done, and rather slick sounding, it doesn't jive with me for this show. The choir and heavy seem to come from out of nowhere. I found myself wanting to see faster video edits to accompany this music. Points are lost for disregard of the time requirements. This has great diversity within it, but then that is easier to do when you aren't restricted by time. Having said that, it does show versatility and could be used as a construction kit for the show's soundtrack moments. Nice bit of music, but not for Lost.

TheHipCola
I found the 30 second requirement really tough to work with. I wrote the full length piece first and then tried to pare it down, which just meant compromise after compromise. I much prefer the full piece, and the sync is better with the intro bit, which is my electronic idea of a jet decompressing before it falls apart. IThe 30 second bit doesn't sync well much of anywhere, so I failed on that part. (well, didn't write to sync, but I'm guessing no one did..) I like the mood I was able to set up, but having now compared everyone's entries, feel I could have introduced more tension and drama, though I felt my intro from the full length and outro of the 30 second bit were the best. It was a blast to do this however. What a great show.


And I'd like to say that everyone's entry deserves a bit of a win, because they're all very very good. I'm keeping them all. Thanks everyone! I will be voting for Johnny Cashpoint. That is all. nice work Johnny!

[jack]

reviews are all done while watching the intro to an episode of Lost. For testing purposes I'm using the first episode, and starting from the Lost title sweeping in. I'm looking for fit. That's it.

Jack Shite
This feels kind of Lynch-esque to me. I'm not sure the fast-paced feel works as the main theme, maybe a tension building bit for during the show. I give props for the appropriate length, it works well with the episode's beginning. Only sync that worked for me was the end. I like the pumping breathy sound throughout. Nice job on creating a musical stamp...definitely works for tv. Just maybe not Lost.

yeah. mine's too frenetic for the intro fade sweep of the word "Lost"....

so here's how i'm shooting my theme........

"intro fades in to stedicam tracking shot in the jungle. sort of a first person perspective. someone, or something is walking forward, picking up pace, until they are running. towards something. from something. it isn't clear. running into a light. and when they reach the light, they are out of breath. and the logo dissolves in. fade to black."

[thehipcola]

heh...good idea Jack.




Maybe we could take this one step further and have everyone edit themselves an intro based on their music, culled from the show itself. A sidefight spinoff videofight fight. Huh?

[c hack]

Now it's time to announce the winners! But first, the reviews:

Abecedarian: The chorus in the beginning sets the tone nicely, but it falls apart when the singer starts with "here I have failures and regrets." The chorus should have more tracks (voices) in it. Sober did a choral piece that sounded really real, and everyone was all "wow, that's so amazing," and he was like "dudes, I just recorded myself 20 times." The beginning could almost come off like the beginning of Buffy, except Buffy rocks out, and you just sing a little. I can't picture this as a theme song to anything as it is, but maybe if you worked on it more. Also, you lose points for just recycling a portion of the song you were doing for SF that week anyway.

The Hip Cola: Love the beginning. It's like a plane crash sound.The next bit is a little too sci-fi for Lost, IMO. But the next (last) part is a little dissonant, a little unnerrving (I don't think I spelled either of those two words correctly), which is perfect. Nice work.

J$: This could easily be the theme song to Alias. In fact I think it's better than Alias's current theme song. I like the weird sounds in it, they fit the tone of the show. But overall, it's way too techno/sci-fi.

Jack Shite: more techno! The scary melody works great, but again, it's way too techno/sci-fi. Lost is a slow-paced show, in the jungle with almost no technology. This again sounds more appropriate for Alias.

Southwest Statistic: aw yeah, this is what I'm talking about. What did you use for those tribal drums? This is totally the equivalent of the Buffy theme song. Not sure I like the rock out, but it fits, and it'd probably be great for TV. You can tell that the chorus is pads; it'd be cool to do a real chorus (or at least yourself on 20 tracks).


So now for the winners. Don't forget here, prizes are on the line:
The Prizes: The 1st place winner will chose one of these:
The Ultimate Survival Guide
John Locke: A Very Short Introduction (or something similiar)
Firefly (season one) (on DVD-R)

Well, they all sound professional except for Abecedarian's. So he's out first. Jack's and J$'s are great, but too techno for this show. Which leaves The Hip Cola and Southwest Statistic. I think both would work well as the Lost theme song, but I imagine that Southwest Statistic's would pump me up enough to keep me excited through the first commercial break. So...

Southwest Statistic is the clear winner!

SS, PM or AIM me with your choice of prize. Thanks for playing, everyone! It was great fun! I'll have to do another one when I'm not bogged down in the middle of a big contract with a looming deadline.

[thehipcola]

Awesome!

Congrats SWS! And a big thanks to C Hack for organizing what was for me a super cool sidefight. 8)

[j$]

Aww it's a fix. C Hack just didn't want the cost of sending that Firefly DVD-R overseas

nah, good stuff, SWS, congrats. It's still too long for a starting theme, but it does rock. I think any of the songs here would sound great as a theme-tune to something (mine, obviously, being a documentary about John Carpenter's film music :p )

j$

[c hack]

Aww it's a fix. C Hack just didn't want the cost of sending that Firefly DVD-R overseas

lol. I'll make sure to include that as a prize next time so you can have another stab at it

[Southwest_Statistic]

Oh wow. I won. That's awesome. This calls for a headbanging emoticon.

I pick "The Ultimate Survival Guide". I'm always in need of ways to save my ass. Thanks CHack. Did I ever write reviews? Crap, shame on me. Will-do in the morning, just so I don't feel so guilty.

[mico saudad]

Also, you lose points for just recycling a portion of the song you were doing for SF that week anyway.

Good honest review. Just fyi, though, I had been trying to think of a lostfight song and I saw the 'failure and regret' title that so fit the idea of 'lost' and wrote the song to fill both, it wasn't at all like the lostfight was an afterthought.

[c hack]

Also, you lose points for just recycling a portion of the song you were doing for SF that week anyway.

Good honest review. Just fyi, though, I had been trying to think of a lostfight song and I saw the 'failure and regret' title that so fit the idea of 'lost' and wrote the song to fill both, it wasn't at all like the lostfight was an afterthought.

Okay, you get half the points back

[JonPorobil]

ABCD had the right idea when he listened from the perspective of a television producer, IMO. And not to undermine anyone here creatively, but the only one whose audio fidelity came even close to TV theme caliber was Southwest Static. Unfortunately, his piece was nearly three times the suggested length. I don't think that was a reasonable restriction to begin with, though, because most TV themes are cut versions of longer pieces.

Now that the ending has been spoiled...

THC - You had a fun little dance groove going, and there's nothing in particular wrong with it, but it doesn't seem relevant to the show at all. Ironically, you're the only one to use the current theme-noise, but it feels really out of place.

ABCD - I can't understand any of the words - are they in Latin? Your self-review made you sound like you know what's going on on the island, but I doubt that's actually the case. I heard the full-length version of the song a while back, but i don't feel like queueing it in now. Word to the wise - there was probably a better excerpt you could have picked.

J$ - Too homemade sounding for TV, but I've already covered that, haven't I? There's something about the piece as a whole that seems to clash with the way I see the show. It might have something to do with all those stacattos.

mcjack - Wild and crazy, but not Lost. Your synth tone bugs me, sorry. It's way to frantic for a theme song to Lost.

SWS - I think this one falls off big time when the electric guitar and rock drums kick in. The primal beginning with the more subdued drums coming in was a good way to start it off, and I even think that it's a nice touch to hold the guitar chord for as long as you do to let it unwind, but the rock elements seem to work against the nature or the show. Fortunately, your submission was way too long, and can easily be retooled if necessary. My vote is cast.

[EDIT: no, wait, my vote is not cast. The polls closed. And it's a tie. A tie I could have broken! Hmm... Sorry about that.]

[EDIT 2: Oh, so then I get caught up on the thread and see it doesn't matter. Hope someone enjoyed my opinions, though. I'm just bored is all.]

[thehipcola]

Hey thanks for your listen Generic, but as you are the 2nd person to say I used some sound from the show, I just want to say that I didn't. Could you tell me which noise you are talking about? The beginning or the end? (only two things I could imagine you are referring to)...either way, a happy accident is all that was.

Also, what are you talking about when you say "audio fidelity"? Did you monitor with some pro-level equipment you've recently acquired? I guess I take 'audio fidelity' to mean the actual sound quality of the recording. What you listened to were mp3's...., not exactly a video post calibre format... so maybe you meant something else? If not, how could could you tell much about the fidelity of those tracks? Just curious really....

Thanks again for the reviews tho, better late than not at all. Bored or not, they're still appreciated.

[j$]

And not to undermine anyone here creatively, but the only one whose audio fidelity came even close to TV theme caliber ...

Reality check?

[jack]

And not to undermine anyone here creatively, but the only one whose audio fidelity came even close to TV theme caliber ...

Reality check?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

generic is the new benchmark for quality audio production.

[JonPorobil]

There's a reason I didn't compete...

Well, that reason is because I didn't start watching the show till after the deadline, but still. You don't need to be a great producer to tell whether something would sound good as a TV theme or not.

Come on, guys, all in fun.

[JonPorobil]

Also, what are you talking about when you say "audio fidelity"? Did you monitor with some pro-level equipment you've recently acquired? I guess I take 'audio fidelity' to mean the actual sound quality of the recording. What you listened to were mp3's...., not exactly a video post calibre format... so maybe you meant something else? If not, how could could you tell much about the fidelity of those tracks? Just curious really....

Thanks again for the reviews tho, better late than not at all. Bored or not, they're still appreciated.

You're right, I should have just said "recording quality." Sometimes I just feel like I'm parrotting out the same phrases over and over again, but fidelity is a whole nother beast. My bad.

[mico saudad]

Your self-review made you sound like you know what's going on on the island, but I doubt that's actually the case.

I am mad but north by northwest. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

[Southwest_Statistic]

Wahoooooo. I got me a 'The Worst Case Scenario "Servival Handbook"', much love C-Hack. Now I gotta repay the SF! community by making a cool little sidefight sometime.

Sorry I didn't get back to this sooner. I was apparently out of town when I got this cool little book. C-Hack sent me a PM asking me if I had gotten the prize yet and so I went and asked my mom if I had gotten anything, and behold. A very cool little yellow book.



Love, peace, and the greater good of mankind.





ROCK!!!