Week 1
This week I am going to make spotting notes on gameplay video of the dungeon level of the Wwise Adventure Game, as this will give me great insight into what music must be composed over the course of this final project and what purpose it must serve within the game. I am also going to being my initial research on subjects such as non-linear composition and analyse video game music which relates to the style of music I would like to compose in for my project. By the end of the week I would like to have a strong idea of what I would like my music to sound like within the game and how it should accompany the gameplay. I am also going to compose a mood board for inspiration on theme writing when composing my music next week, as this will help me capture the general themes present within the video game level. This week I initially planned on going to the library to pick up some books for video game music, however most of these books are either outdated or not relevant to my area of study. Therefore I am using google scholar sites to help me study my research subjects.
Week 2
This week I am going to begin composing the music for the 1st music block of gameplay within the dungeon level of the video game, this music will play when the player initially plays the first room within the level. I am planning to start this composition by experimenting with harmonic chord progressions and improvising a melody on top. I will then modify and structure my ideas into a solid musical idea. I am also going to begin research on different instrumental characteristics of the different pitch registers of instruments within a standard orchestra. This will help me learn how to compose for different instruments such as the harp and violin for my video game music. In terms of research this week I am also going to research thematic writing for locations and characters, as this will help me write music that personifies the video game environment and the characters present within it.
Week 3
I am going to spend the sessions in college this week arranging my musical composition into a more harmonically based piece of music, as I have learned through my reflections that the melody draws too much attention to it’s self within the music therefore taking the attention away from the game its self. To help me draw less attention to my music I am going to research techniques used in ambient music, as this will help me understand how to make my music blend into the gameplay rather than standing out from it. By the end of the week I hope to have finished composing my music block for the 1st room of gameplay. Due to the second room also being similar to the first room I hope to keep the same musical motif of the 1st music block running through and instead layer the theme with some more instruments such as woodwinds or percussion. Therefore by the end of the week I also hope to have finished the music for the 1st and 2nd music block as it should not take too long to compose for the second room.
Week 4
Last week I finished composing for the 1st and 2nd music block, therefore this week I hope of begin composing music for a stinger block music which will play when the player picks up the hammer in the dungeon level of the game. As a stinger is only a couple of seconds long it will not take me all week to come up with an idea, therefore I aim to only spend one whole day experimenting with ideas and eventually coming up with a final idea. Therefore I will spend the rest of the week catching up on written work and getting ahead of it. Before composing my stinger I am going to research into this video game music technique and do a small analysis on a stinger, as this will help me understand how they are composed. Furthermore helping me compose my own original stinger idea. At this point in the project I have not yet finished my research pages on ‘Adaptive music’ and ‘Instrumental characteristics’ . Therefore this week I plan on finishing these pages and then commencing a research page on digital marketing. As this will help me understand how to effectively and professionally promote my own independent music projects, as in my last final project I just posted my promotion material only hoping they would be seen by the public.
Week 5
At this point in the project I have composed music for; a stinger, music block 1 and music block 2. However now I need music for when the player is engaged in combat with small plant enemies, this music will take longer to compose than the stinger music block as it will include more instruments and be longer in length. After this week we are also breaking up for the easter holidays, therefore it is important that this music block is done before then as I cannot composed at home. This is because the Logic I have at home is a newer version and the saves do not transport to the older version at college. To make sure I do not fall behind on practical work I am going to be keeping my research to a minimal and catch up on written work during the easter holidays, however I am going to research into musical composition techniques used in action music to help me understand how to compose my own original action music for the game. However after that I am going to focus on composing the music block for the rest of the week.
Week 6
This week I am going to download and import video game footage of the level play through into Logic Pro, as last week it was decided that learning how to programme music into the game has a very long learning process which would take too much time out of my project. I am also going to arrange my music to blend with the actions within the game, within the initial musical cues I initially intended for the music to go into. Once I have done this I am going to begin composing music for the final boss fight within the game, and hopefully be near the end of the composition by next week. Through this project I have also experienced some issues with the instrumental quality of the Logic virtual instruments, therefore I plan to research into this subject matter for some context into industry standard instruments I can invest in for future projects. As the Logic instruments are of very poor quality for string and brass samples. This week I also plan on collaborating with Paul Holmes (digital designer) during my afternoon session on Thursday. This is because in my project I would like to have an end credit screen at the end of my showcase in order to credit people I have collaborated with and to also promote my social media account. Therefore I plan to discuss with him, my ideas and plans for the credits screen. The final thing I plan to fo this week is to research mixing techniques for orchestral instruments, as next week I plan to begin mixing my track. However currently I do not know how to mix orchestral instruments, therefore I hoping researching into this subject matter will also help me independently mix my own track.
Week 7
This is the final week that I am going to be working on arranging my music, as last week I achieved my goals to compose a battle theme by the end of the week. However this week I intend the improve the rhythm of the timpani in this boss theme, this should not a full session to do. Therefore I will do this first thing on Monday, after I do this I will begin to compose music for the final cinematic of the game when the player/character believe they have taken down the boss, however they have only set it free. This week I am going to experiment with victorious and triumphant melodies/harmonies to reflect on the theme of success the game presents after beating the boss. Once I have completed composing for the triumphant theme of music I am then going to experiment with a different harmonic progression that represents the return of the evil presence of the game. After I have compose these two melodic/harmonic I would like to also begin composing the music for the final credits scene. For this credits scene I am planning on brining back the main boss theme motif at the end of the music, I want to do this to reflect on the boss’s presence on screen after the plot twist on screen. After I have done composing all the music I am then planning on beginning to mix my project using mixing techniques such as; volume balancing, EQ, panning and automation. This will make the music sound much more lifelike and professional.
Week 8
Last week I achieved my goals in composing all the music in time for the final college showcase, meaning this week I am not going to busy with composing music anymore. This week I am going to be busy rehearsing for the final showcase with my; mock rehearsal, dress rehearsal and final showcase. This will give me no time within college to do written work due to the busy schedule, therefore I will be doing some of my written work at home this week by writing up past evaluations and refining them.
Week 9
In my previous two weeks I have finished composing my music and performed at the final showcase, leaving all the work I need left to do written work. Therefore this week I am going to focus on finishing all of my evaluations and reflections, as well as finish my unfinished research pages. I plan to finish the majority of my written work this week so that I may give myself time to read over it next week.
Week 10
In this final week of the project I have completed the majority of my written work however there are still a few things left to do before finishing. This list consists of; final evaluation, product evaluation, writing up planning and production, adding in text citations to my research, adding a little more context and finally reading over everything. I plan to prioritise my Viva Voce and adding context as missing these areas of written work are my weakest points on my digital space at the moment.
Action Plan Timetable
What went according to plan?
During this project many things did go to plan, which allowed me to maintain a effective and strict time schedule for my project. One thing I planned at the beginning of the project was to complete all my initial research on video game music over the course of two weeks, this was a big task for my research. However following my action plan I got through the heavy workload, giving me more time to focus on practical work. Another thing that went according to plan was my self assigned deadlines for my compositions which was 1-2 weeks, this was something I believed would not go according to plan due to the risk of writers block. However I avoided writers block by moving away from one idea if I could not get it to work, furthermore making me more work efficient and allowing me to complete my weekly targets.
What did not go according to plan?
On thing that did not go to plan was not uploading my composition to Soundcloud, I initially planned this in my proposal however after reflecting on the music I decided it changed to much with the gameplay and was heavily based on the visuals of the gameplay footage. Furthermore I thought uploading the music to Soundcloud without the footage would be very confusing for the listener, due to the use of the stinger block and quick musical transitions. Another thing that did not go to plan was not sending a public survey out to pin point my target audience, as in the end I already knew my target audience and did not need much more research on it. As I knew that my main viewers would be gamers and people interested in video game music, I believed sending a pubic survey out would not help me find a target audience any more effectively. During the final project I also planned to make an action music block for the combat areas in the first room, however after importing gameplay into the Logic project I realised there was no space for the music block I composed. Therefore this did not go to plan as I had wasted time on this composition, thinking it would be present in the final product. The main event in this project that did not go to plan was in-able to programme my music into the video game, as learning how to do this was a much bigger task than I first anticipated. However this issue was solved by instead composing pre-recorded gameplay, I have talked about this more on my problem solving page. The final thing that did not go to plan this project was not releasing my music as a stand alone track, later in the project however my music began to take a very long linear form. Therefore it would not fit a stand alone form of music due to the how reliant the transitions are on the visuals of the gameplay, therefore I only released my music along with the gameplay and visuals.