Some ideas apply in lots of different ways

"If you want your prose to sound like poetry, treat it like poetry. There should be a rhythm to it…it can’t all be grand arabesques. In information architecture you can only have about 10% of the text deviate from the norm with bolding or italics without losing the effect of the highlighting. The showstoppers should underline the big thoughts, not hide them. You need the plainer prose to throw the pretty stuff into relief."

Found on a writing blog.

So I read this as part of a longer piece about how even when you have a "smart" character don't just throw in every big word you know. And it was all good, but what I was struck by was how much what she said sounds exactly like what I said to some students recently about why they have to have headroom in their sound design. If everything is just loud then when you need to have something be louder than the rest you have no room left to make it different enough to sound loud.

It's only the first

How is it only the first and yet I look at November and think I'm in trouble?

Sound design and Production design

So this afternoon I'm watching Barton Fink for my sound design class. I get why this was on the list for that class, but what I'm really noticing - besides the fact that's it's 4x3 instead of 16x9, probably because it's set in 1941, because certainly in the 90s people were shooting widescreen - is the production design. The sets, the props, the costumes are all perfect. Once you've got that environment it practically shoots itself. At least from a visual standpoint. I'm finding the story a bit slow, to be honest.

It's for school, honest

I dropped a bit of money today on "school supplies." A new hard drive for editing class, some new camera and sound cards just because you never have enough and I was in the right store, and a set of surround sound speakers. I'm taking a sound design class, I have to have decent speakers. Yes? Seriously, yes. But I still feel like I'm getting away with something.

Sound Design might be the winner

Had my 4th class today, Sound Design. I think this is going to be my favorite class for the semester. It's a technical class, so slightly more suited to my temperament than the writing class. It's project based so it will involve a lot of fun stuff like running around with a mic and recorder to create sound effects. And for homework we'll be watching (listening to) films like the Lord of the Rings, and Wall-E. I should go to Best Buy and get myself a decent pair of speakers.

I think this class will just be fun, but also I think there's a lot to learn. It's a long time since I took Fritz's radio 1 and radio 2 classes. The physics of microphones hasn't changed, but all the digital tools are new. I'm really looking forward to this one.