A fan made production released

[jarkkoh]

The first episode of the fan made web-series based on the popular video game series Splinter Cell is out! A Companion Pictures production and original score by yours truly.

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhrrCNdvumk

[Denny S.]

Wow, incredibly professional score! Very well done!

[jarkkoh]

Oh, thank you Danny! Glad it's on par with the amazing visuals the guys pulled off.

[Jesse]

Sounds amazing! Movie looks great as well, good job!

Which instruments did you use on this score, only EW?

[jarkkoh]

Thank you! Actually I had so much problems with PLAY that I ended up using millions of other libraries, but I'm sure theres EW somewhere

There's a lot of percussion from Tonehammer, towards the end a lot from Vir2, orchestral instruments are mostly LASS and Vienna. Most of the electronic beats are free samples from music mags and such (great resource!), some Heavyocity stuff here there, a lot of Sound Logic stuff too.

[Jonathan120]

Espionage genre is one of my personal favourite kinds of music and your score is excellent. Really well done.

[CaseyEdwardz]

Yeah man, this was awesome! I wish I had played the game, but I just never got around to it. The music fit really well and this is a great production I think. Congrats!!!

[jarkkoh]

Thank you all, we're so glad you like it! I have to admit, I never played the games myself either, haha.

[tedreedy]

Yooo Jarkko!!

Like this film, the production music/sound quality is just really great. The sound in your score is excellent and fits the genre well. I feel like at times the score is mixed too loud, especially when it's competing with some dialogue. But in other places the loudness is fine.

The rhythm/percussion-based score really gives the film movement, especially when not much is happening, so kudos! The film looks and sounds great for the most part, but it's a little long and drawn out for all that really happens (sneaking up and killing a few people, capturing one guy, although the final action sequence is pretty awesome) -- so I think your score helps tie it together and move it forward. Having said that, I feel like there was almost too much rhythm/beats in some places and made the film feel more like a music video than a dramatic narrative (but maybe that's what the filmmakers wanted, who knows :-) )-- here you might try phrasing the action on screen more instead of playing through it. 4:08-5:13 is an example, you have this constant beat going on, which is cool, but it just sort of stays and then when he kills the guy it's like a rock song going into the chorus... felt like the tension could be built and released more dramatically. Same kind of idea for the scene after, 5:43-6:00 -- man, I'm telling you I love this music! -- but it's taking all the drama away from the big moment, Corbin's encounter with the bad guy. 8:42 I really like, I think it works, it's highly dramatic but if anywhere in the film is appropriate this is the place -- I think it would be even more effective if earlier segments were toned down or removed since those cues had a very similar vibe.

Again I think your sound is great and works well with the film overall. Hopefully you score the next episode! If so see what happens if you play around with phrasing the drama in a few places rather than playing through with a beat. Great work man.. these shorts can be exhausting, especially when the music provides so much of the character and when nearly the whole thing is scored.

[jarkkoh]

Excellent feedback Ted! I agree with everything basically. I won't go into detail but the plain simple reason for the overall loudness of the music and the fact that its really FULL of it, even too much, is that this first episode is such a big promo thing for me and the guys at companion pictures. They wanted me to make something that stands out and they just love a lot of music. That in the end was the biggest problem the production then had. I got too free hands and I even mixed the whole thing. So I took a little too much freedom in expressing my music and at the same time I think I felt that I just respected the picture in that way, making it more big or epic.

Thinking about it now the 1st episode is more like a big introduction video to the series, but at the same time an introduction to our skills. ALL this will be taken into account in the next episode, where the plot goes more close to the characters and the music gets toned down more serious/dramatic.