Nearly two-thirds of the Flashpoint student body joined a crew of Chicago film industry professionals today to begin principal photography on The Intruder. The production phase of our nine-month Production-in-Action curriculum component is a testament to a new and exciting educational approach that places students in the heart of the action, literally. Students were not only able to shadow the key department heads of set, art, camera, sound, G & E, and production office, but also shoot a film of their own [The Making of The Intruder] and operate several webcam stations capturing real-time low-res video that can be transmitted back to our main facilities at 28 North Clark.

It was as amazing to see the degree of collaboration between the crew and the students as it was to witness the level of professionalism by both.

Tomorrow, a new group of students will come on set while today’s group returns to 28 to begin editing, creating sound design, and animation for their footage as well as developing after-the-fact web content. Over the course of the next seven days of shooting, these two groups will alternate, rotating through one of the most engaging and alternative educational opportunities in any media arts program in the country.

In June of 2007, Mix Magazine published a great article titled Bring Down the Noise, advocating hearing protection and awareness for anyone in the audio industry. I brought that article to the readers of this blog, primarily my students and folks who can’t shake loose audio idée fixe, for one simple reason: Your ears are the most important tool you have as an audio professional and damaging them is irrevocable.

I thought it was crucial for the Rec Arts students at Flashpoint to understand that so we began the program last September with a guest lecturer, Michael Santucci, president of Sensaphonics, Inc., a Chicago-based hearing conservation company that provides audiophile-quality in-ear monitoring for hundreds of high-profile musicians and protection for anyone with a few bucks to spend on a lifetime of hearing safety. Now, a new group of students have started at FP and it seems appropriate to once again bring to the fore hearing conservation.

Stand on any street corner in the Loop and you’ll hear the roar of the city in which we work and live. Move from point A to point B using the city’s mass transit and you’re likely to encounter loudness levels exceeding accepted OSHA standards. Take a look ahead and behind and you’ll see a world of iPod users, donning earbuds that can produce sound pressure levels at particularly important frequencies well beyond what would be considered safe practice. Go to a club to “hear” a show and it’s almost a certainty you’ll need a day or two for the ringing to stop. The list goes on. And on. What it all adds up to is a recipe for disaster if critical listening is a job requirement. And if your hearing isn’t what puts food on your table, then at least consider quality of life.

The bottom line is that unlike just about every other major organ/part in your body, your hearing system comprised of the outer, middle, and inner ear does not repair itself if damaged. Ever. And very much like the things we as humans often seem to do even though it’s nearly effortless to avoid them, protecting you’re hearing isn’t that intrusive. In fact, it’s downright pleasurable to go to a show with -15dB earplugs in.

It’s really pretty simple. If you need them, protect them.

HEARING HEALTH RESOURCES
Sensaphonics, Inc.
Online Simulator – What Hearing Loss Really Sounds Like 
OSHA’s Occupational Noise Exposure Guidelines
American Tinnitus Association
House Ear Institute

Rob Fetters is a superbly accomplished musician and composer, and also a wonderful guest artist.

Not surprisingly, “Be nice” was his number one piece of advice for Rec Arts students during an all-day professional workshop last Friday. He told the story of a handwritten thank you note that led to years of work with network television and how the willingness to “Save As” a mix to try it different ways often leads to better creative results. He emphasized that all work today, whether it’s music for commercials, corporate films, or released on its own, is collaborative, and that the creative process never works if you try to control it on your own.

Rob brought the framework of a song he had written for his 11 year-old son into the Flashpoint recording studios with the intention of reworking some of the parts and letting Rec Arts students have a shot at mixing while Film students documented the event. During the morning part of the workshop, the students tracked several acoustic guitar parts, live drums, background vocals, and electric guitars. As Rob spoke to high school counselors and students about his career as a composer and musician in the afternoon, Flashpoint students broke away into four controls rooms and created different rough mixes. By 4:30, we were all back in the main music control room listening.

Thanks to Rob for a great day.

Michelle Shocked is a remarkably powerful singer/songwriter I’ve admired since her first major label record Short Sharp Shocked was released in 1987. Late Thursday evening I found out what an engaging and sweet person she is too. Yesterday, Flashpoint Academy was fortunate to witness that power, talent, and thoughtfulness up close and personal in the recording studios and on the directing stage at 28 North Clark.

I’d inquired months ago about the possibility of Michelle coming to FPA to hold a “master-class” of sorts, and just recently received word that she really liked the idea and wanted to explore options. She told us she wanted to record a song purposed specifically for the visit and to shoot footage for a complementary music video that would be uploaded to YouTube, her own site, etc. Needless to say, we were as excited about Michelle coming in as she was about working with the students in such an intimate and experimental way.

Before entering the studios, Michelle talked to the students about her highly-successful, but turbulent career in the music industry, her life-long desire to change social stratification, her devotion to an African-American church in South Central Los Angeles, and what was particularly opportune for Flashpoint students, balancing the creative and technical with commitment, discipline, and passion. She told us the recording and video of A True Story would be the first part of a much larger project she is working on with her fiancé and fine artist David Willardson called HEART or HEAR THE ART.

As she rehearsed the framework of the song with the students and staff who served as a rhythm section, it was clear that this was a special moment in the humble beginnings of our small school. By the time she was ripping through lead vocal overdubs with all the heartfelt passion of the genuine gospel singer she is, we were mesmerized.

It was a real treat for the Rec Arts students to be able to record and Film students be able to roll cameras on such a seasoned professional. The resulting recording, video, and archival documentary footage is testament to FPA’s hands-on, immersive learning. The experience and memory is a gift for committing to the ground floor of Ric Landry’s vision.

Great news from Florida! Tiffin, a film directed by Chor Ai Lene, won first place in the Narrative Shorts category of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Last month [Oct. 2], I blogged on my work as Sound Designer for this beautifully photographed story “that traces the changes in the landscape, hearts and minds of vibrant Malaysia over the span of a decade.” Congratulations to the Ai Lene and the crew.

Ai Lene is also working with Flashpoint as Editor on Paula Froehle’s short film, The Collector, which is currently in postproduction.

Last week I met with a potential student for the fall of 2008 who is trying to decide which discipline to select at Flashpoint Academy. I began as I always do in this situation, asking just one question: “Of these four creative areas, can you identify where your passion lies?” He started with detailed descriptions of his love for filmmakers and sound designers from the Czech Republic, “You’ve got to check out Daisies by Vera Chytilová,” he said. “It’s got an amazing soundtrack for a film from 1966.” He went on to say he’s planning a trip there next summer that will last three weeks, starting and ending in Prague—one last jaunt before school begins. He told me about the music he’s making, the videos he’s shooting and editing, the animation he’s messing around with. He also told me about his recent wanderings—to the East Coast and back—trying to find something that works for him. Finally, he said, not any one of these disciplines seems to speak louder than the others.

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FLASHPOINT TAKES DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS EDUCATION TO ANOTHER PLANE AND GC PRO IS A KEY PARTNER IN PUTTING THE SCHOOL AT THE CUTTING EDGE

— As a GC Pro Education Partner, Flashpoint students receive great discounts and sound advice —

AES SHOW, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 5, 2007 – When it opened in September, Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, set out to change the way media technology is taught and learned. The school’s four main areas of study which include Game Development, Visual Effects and Animation, Film, and Recording Arts, literally converge rather than exist separately from each other. In order to remain focused on that goal, Flashpoint turned to GC Pro, the outside sales division of Guitar Center, to equip much of the school’s Recording Arts program. Through GC Pro, Flashpoint acquired a vast array of technology platforms and equipment from brands including Digidesign, Shure, Neumann, Sennheiser, Apple, Argosy, Tascam and Soundelux. The comprehensiveness with which Flashpoint accomplished outfitting its audio needs underscores the benefit of working with GC Pro, which has the largest range of professional audio gear under a single roof anywhere in the world.

Flashpoint was designed to be different from the start, and it would be the first new higher-education facility in the Chicago area in nearly 50 years. “Traditional schools that have digital media arts studies break them into separate departments that, because of politics or bureaucracy or just antiquated teaching philosophies, don’t communicate with each other,” explains John Murray, Chair, Recording Arts, at Flashpoint. “What our approach is based on is collaboration and workflow – the way the real world works. Today, when a major film is released, there is often a computer game version of it and a soundtrack released at the same time. The world is no longer linear, and neither should education be.”

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 Making History…

 It was an emotional morning as the entire faculty, staff, and administration of Flashpoint Academy gathered together at our new home, 28 North Clark Street, for one final meeting before opening day. Through the welled-up eyes, thank you’s, and appropriate applause for all those who have done so much hard work to make Ric Landry’s dream a reality, there was an underlying vibrancy and excitement the likes of which I have never felt before in 17 years of education and 25 years in the audio industry. It was truly moving and I am so proud to help carry the torch of that vision to the people it was meant for, the students of Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences.

In less than 48 hours, the inaugural class will not only walk into the best media arts college in the world, they will engage in what Paula Froehle rightly describes as the changing face of media arts education. We have said it many times in many ways, but come Monday it will begin—total immersion, learning-by-doing, hands-on, PRODUCTION-IN-ACTION. September 17, 2007 will be a defining moment on the timeline’s of film, game, visual effects, and audio training, and soon it will be hard to imagine how it was done before Flashpoint.