Freesound Forums

BIG NEWS...I've been working on a feature documentary about a drug addict poet for the past nine years or so on a shoe string budget.Just me and my wife as worker bees. I was almost done the fine cut when I was contacted by a jury member for a Canada Council jury that saw the project at the rough cut stage and apparently they were all blown away. Jury members can't contact applicants for a year.This was one month after the deadline for Hot Docs(The biggist North American feature film fest).
The jury member is a programmer for the festval and really wanted the film for the festival.I figured I was at least 4 months away from completion and I was going to enter next year,but I was given 1 week to finish the finecut and send it.It was accepted and I had one month to do the mix on protools LE.All hell broke loose and I did the worlds quickest audio mix.As an audio guy,I hate to see it go before it's perfect but I guess that's what the DVD is for.Due to CPU limitations and track limitations , I was doing bounces,mixs,deleting ,creating at a rate I never achieved before and not sleeping. I lost track of what samples were used and from where they came.I'm going to need help with this if I am going to attribute each sample with each member for the DVD release.There are many.I can nail down most of the users but as for which exact sample it will be quite difficult.
The film is 88min long so the current aiff mix is about a gig.Maybe I could upload a MP3 of it for the members to play locate that sample ?(for proper credits on the DVD sleeve) I had to submit the credits for the film a month and a half before I had finished the mix.So what I did was give Freesound a credit on the special thanks page.
Dark One screening times in Toronto Canada are
Friday, April 20, 2007, 11:30 PM (Bloor Cinema)
Sunday, April 22, 2007, 8:45 PM (Innis Town Hall)
There were 1800 enteries world wide + the chose 100 , 20 are running for best of Canada in the Canadian Spectrum. That's where Dark One is.Check this page out.
http://hotdocs.bside.com/?country=All&_view=_films&category=Canadian+Spectrum
Any freesounders in the Toronto area are welcome to come and I still have a few free tickets if anyone needs some.Warning...the film is extreme,disturbing and not for the faint of heart.Free tickets to Hell are in high demand.There going fast.Only a few tickets remaining. Contact Darryl Miller at icecubefactory@sasktel.net.
he film Dark One has now been invited to the Skopje Film Festival, largest film festival in Republic of Macedonia , and to be screened at UnionDocs, a non-profit documentary arts collaborative in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, USA.

We fear sensory deprivation, but instead find ourselves fearful and in terror of
sensory overload. We are immersed in the possibility of our own psychosis.
Bridges the gap between documentary and experimental: let yourself melt.

Dark One

“ But who would know how to do this but thee, Darryl, weaver of dreams,
and beautiful imagery. Capture my soul, isn’t that what true film is. “
Dan Biholar

Director Statement, Darryl Miller:

Audience distance or comfort zone is purposefully destroyed. This is not a film to be analysed from a safe distance. It is participatory. The barriers that hold back the demons and shadows are let loose. We must overcome our primal instinct to run, and instead
melt into the experience and remember our sanity will return when the lights come on.

SYNOPSIS:

Dan is a poet, a morphine addict, searching for spiritual enlightenment, spiraling into oblivion. Many documentaries on drug addiction present one dimensional cardboard characters with no interest in anything except their next fix, stereotypically drunken, homeless, skid row bums. Any complexities in their lives as multi-faceted individuals are reduced to a safe distance from our own almost acceptable make believe middle class lives. They are the hopeless. There is no salvation. We remain safe, pure, and exempt because there can be no possible connection between us. We can judge, but not understand or participate.
I met Dan over 20 years ago, in our late teens. Dan was a poet. I was a musician. We were both experimenting with drugs. My interest was LSD, MDA, Coke and whatever else I could get. Dan got into morphine and other hard core drugs. We were both on a spiritual quest. I became heavily addicted to these mind expanding drugs and started having bizarre hallucinations, seeing spirits and experimenting with telepathy. I became delusional like Dan. Six years later I sought help and went to Detox and treatment twice. The spirits went away. I directed my energy to my music and finally a film degree. I have remained a friend of both Dan and his mother Helen.
In the late 90's , I started a soundscape/poetry project incorporating Dan's words and my music. During the project. I realized that the concept could be better utilized in film. The result is the 88 minute film "Dark One", and 45 minute audio soundscape CD , also called “Dark One”. Both works feed off and augment the other and will be sold together as one package.
Dan at a young age modeled himself after William Burroughs, and now regrets it. Dan's poetry and voice quality reflect this influence. His voice is hypnotic and often has an unearthly tone to it, like a bad dream. Not only has his poetry taken on a stream of consciousness style, but his whole life, moving from concise idea to literary roughness that is often brutally honest to a fault, and often crude and uncultured. His experiences, stories, memories constantly alter with each telling. There are however consistent themes that weave in and out and form his life and this documentary on his life. William Burroughs, poetry and artwork, the quest for spirituality, his addiction are the most obvious. However his family, friends and search for love and acceptance are also critical. His treatment, by the establishment, as represented by the police and lawyers etc. has further molded his attitudes, demonstrating the hypocrisy of those in power. As a result of an institutional tendency to hide problems, lock them away, instead of trying to help individuals or accept the true reality of living with a life situation. The prison experience has become more than personal. The legal taxation of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes versus personal use of drugs demonstrates to Dan and his mother a blatant double standard. Dan's mother, Helen, struggles with Dan's addiction lifestyle , and her own dark memories about her husband's alcoholism and her experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp as a child. Lastly Dan's bird, a beloved member of the family, to Dan a symbol of freedom and unconditional love wanders about the kitchen, oblivious to everything but her toys and surrogate lover, a blue stuffed bunny.
Dan constantly attempts to achieve freedom: from society, from drugs, from himself. He has extreme moments of clarity and delusion. He has delusions of grandeur, thinking he can save the world, but then realizing he can't even save himself. He has been on the methadone program on and off, always getting kicked off due to abuse of the system. He has come to a belief that spirituality is his only means of redemption. Reading many controversial, religious and spiritual books , he has developed a personal and unique belief system that takes bits and pieces of different ideologies , mixing and remodeling them. Magic, demons and God co-exist in constant battle. "Dark One" explores Dan's life and enters the psychological time and space of addiction where reality is only a dream.

Producer’s Statement: Elaine Pain

When this film began 9 years ago I didn’t have grey hair and I had my own teeth.
Life has not been normal since. Darryl walks the dog and comes rushing back to get the camera because he saw maggots popping out of a dead gopher. Darryl films a dead crow because the light is just perfect. There are slugs on the bottom of the dog dish and I have to salt them while Darryl films them turning to white slim. Darryl films wasp and ant wars in our garden for hours, he pleads with me to make him stop. We both regret not getting the shot of the skunk with no head. Vacations are no better. Darryl films tent caterpillars and their webs for hours and I wander off in search of other exotic insects to film. We visit the hoodoos in Alberta and we each wander about filming. I leave before sunstroke gets me, Darryl does not. Darryl lies on a stony beach in B.C. happily filming creatures in a tidal pool. Whenever I travel I carry a camera to take pick up shots Darryl might like: graves, churches, nature, water etc. I have a shopping list in my head. We even make use of slides I shot 20 years ago in China and Japan. The need for images is overwhelming. I worry about Darryl’s health, he is a man driven. I do what I can. This project is critical for him to make and to his satisfaction as he purges his own demons. I visit family members 20km away, I think they might die of old age before the film is done. Darryl counts it as one of my many vacations. I realize Darryl is at the breaking point, I need to get him away from his edit suite, even if he believes he has no time. I make a picnic lunch for a day trip. We take the cameras. He happily climbs and films the stations of the cross at LeBret and religious imagery at the museum. He sleeps the deep sleep of exhaustion as I drive us home. I am happy I got him away from his film, well at least out of town.
Darryl Miller has worked as an audio post engineer and location sound recordist for the past 15 years. While working as an audio engineer in Regina Saskatchewan at Protrax, Twisted Pair and Talking Dog, he was involved in a number of feature films, Incredible Story Studio episodes, Mentors episodes and other made for television programs. Darryl has worked with his wife Elaine Pain on her last 6 films in a variety of key capacities including videographer, editor and audio post/location. Darryl is also a music composer whose original scores have appeared in a number of productions. Darryl received a grant from Common Weal in Regina to produce an audio CD documenting oral history, traditions and community issues in rural Saskatchewan. In recent years, he has received artist grants from The Canada Council of the Arts, The Saskatchewan Arts Board and SaskFilm for his work on feature documentary Dark One, nine years in the making.
Dark One is Darryl’s ie moneykube's first independent feature film.
Thanx again freesounders....
moneykube

This sounds like an interesting project.

Have you looked at your attribution list? It's on the left in the control panel section.

Even if you didn't use all the samples you downloaded, it should help narrow your search considerably.

I understand the extreme working conditions you must have been under, so thanks for taking the time to correct the attribution problems now.

We'll help as much as we can, but try the list first. If you still have the audio files, they will be named correctly and give you enough info to attribute them (Sample name, author, ID), unless you renamed them or threw them away.

-Halleck

Yes, the attribution list will help greatly and yes I was an idiot and renamed and deleted some files in my panic to complete the impossible deadline...I know for a fact that I used a number of dronetails renamed from Jovica....HE has a MILLION of them...they worked most excellently as accents and transition elements layered with other stuff...but they are very similar to one another...which ones,who knows...It may be easier just to attribute the members that contributed samples then each and every sample...It would turn the DVD cover into a book....Oh yeah, the DVD will have the 88min movie...a 45min audio poetry/soundscape version of some of the songs in the movie ,reordered with other poems to create a slightly different narrative....audio outs...video outs...and more. Got to fine tune the mix abit and get the DVD happening in DVD studiopro,after the festival...I figure that is a couple months away or so.I'm going to try to upload a few small clips of the film to a few places if I get a chance...and I got to figure out where to upload the soundtrack if neccessary
for attribution assistance.So much to do , and things are happening a year before I figured they would be....AAAAGH,WHAT CAN YOU DO.
moneykube

Lemme tell you something about drugs, mmnkay? ... mnnn... Drugs are bad, mmnkay?

I say that people who use drugs for enlightenment, or for artistic inspiration, are cheaters. that's right. using drugs is cheating. If you are like me and actually are insane, but I work hard to get to my current level of insanity. I don't need F***ing drugs to show me pictures I already see when I close my eyes. I don't need F***ing drugs to take away the pain of a life that really isn't all that painful, if you think about it. I don't need F***ing drugs to lead me to enlightenment, when I could just pop in a Merzbow CD and crank the volume of the scale. Masami F***ing Akita doesn't need drugs. I swear on evolution that Salvador Dali didn't need F***ing LSD to make his art. Da vinci didn't "hit tha weed", abraham lincoln was not a pothead, albert einstien had nothing to do with cocaine, and Reed Ghazala does not use any form of inhalants.

anyways, now that i finished my drug rant i must also say that i suspect jovica's dronetails are the exact same sample, only slightly detuned or something. oh well i suppose he just gets pleasure out of seeing his name in posts. I have no problem with the man personaly, and many of his samples are very useful and interesting to say the least (and I bet jovica ain't on lsd either). Anyway, I don't have the time to sift through 50 or so sample packs...

well this post isn't about jovica anyways.

what is it about? damn I forgot. something about drugs and sounds and "dark one" whatever that is... nah i'm just joking

but I'm sorry, I don't even have anything to say that is relevant! I don't know how i can help you. I probly can't...

good luck whiff you film though!

if you reply to this post, please make sure your reply took more than half an hour to type!

lincoln and da vinci were both known to some bud.

This film does not promote drugs...but it does very effectively enter the mind of an addict...It allows people not on drugs to experience an altered state experience like being on some drugs(I should know what it looks + feels like since I spent many years in much the same headspace...but not so extreme in nature....at least I don't think so...HMMMM) Problem is...the longer you do drugs , the more your brain deteriorates...I'm quite crazy now also...But... I may have gotten into drugs + booze because of the many odd and strange(hallucinations) I experienced long before I got into drugs....I believe drugs can open your mind enough to allow you to see things that are around us all the time(think of it as another demention,that most people refuse to acknowledge exists)....problem is drugs are addicting and eventually warp these perceptions....probably better to be a buddist monk or something....The spiritual aspect of life is important and many concepts many addicts struggle with in this regard...do have some merit....I believe there is a God,a devil,angels,and spirits...I've seen them!

I've uploaded some more pictures to the Dark One page...they should be up in a couple hours. I will also upload a trailer and a link to a few of the narrative/poetry/soundscapes that are either in the film or on the audio soundscape composition.The address again is...
http://hotdocs.bside.com/?_view=_films&category=Canadian+Spectrum
Here are links to two variations of Poem/Soundscapes from Dark One...
http://minorcrisis.net/users/DarrylMiller/133019/
http://minorcrisis.net/users/DarrylMiller/133023/
moneykube :evil:

LS: Really?

money: PS= no offense ^^' I just get worked up about that stuff.

but I'm sorry, I don't even have anything to say that is relevant! I don't know how i can help you. I probly can't...

no probs flowers...just thought I better sent the record straight before people got the wrong idea...It's all good...You are supposed to get worked up...That's the point. The film portrays drug addicts as often quite nightmare enriched and very self absorbed...There are moments of insight though... And you are right...It is cheating.
moneykube

Yaaa!!!

right, I suppose films like this are made partly just to get people to talk about that, get opinions out and stuff I guess.

^^

Interesting trailer, it's hard to get the full effect in a tiny compressed FLV though.

I like the soundscapes you put up there. I'm partial to stuff that is a little rythmic and not just random noise. Plays out a bit like ambient chill poetry or something, pretty nice.

Ya...it's even harder to see when they f@#$ up the resolution...I'm fighting with B-Side right now to get it better....They even cut off the end of the trailer...2Days of emails and they finally acknowledge a problem...GRRR.Makes it look cheap.I uploaded another trailer and maybe they'll get them both up and looking right soon...6 days till the premiere...not good.Glad you like the tunes...the poetry soundscape thing was the original idea and then it sort of evolved into what it is today(there are 17parts that run together as one audio piece)....partially from lack of work at one time....the situation at the home there was interesting and thought it would make a nice film...not so nice though....kind of dark.
Try http://hotdocs.bside.com/?_view=_filmdetails&filmId=15410845
in the morning (maybe) to see the 2 trailers....Damn I hope they do it soon.
thanx
moneykube

They have problems(Bside)...they seem to be quite unprofessional and do work when they feel like it...not like some of us don't have better things to do...I went out on my own(not that I should have had to)and uploaded 2 better resolution trailers and higher resolution pix on a file sharing site for everyone if they want.Man...nothing in this film project has been easy.Here they are...
Higher Resolution trailers for download at this address- http://www.box.net/shared/6n4zprbjf4
Higher Resolution photos for download at this address- http://www.box.net/shared/0poiqzsl5e
Thanx again freesounders for the support.
moneykube

Ah yeah, it can sometimes be a pain. Those look much better!

Creepy. I like the compositing. What's the whole "weaver of dreams" thing about?

Weaver of Dreams-Don't really know...he sometimes says some odd things.I suppose it's in reference to the way I arranged some of his dream stories in the soundscape...finished the poetry/soundscape CD in 2003...but I even used as base tracks some early recordings in the 80's with Dan an then arranged them(old crappy cass 4track recorder)Cleaned up for the film and CD project.Mp3#1 is pretty much what we did on the 4track in the early 80's...in the film I've augmented it with other words+sounds.
Pretty mad about the promo site....I'm glad you made me aware of the quality issue.
Thanx...and yes,most of the film is rather creepy and uses alot of trance inducing ambient sounddesign....I used to fall asleep to some of it....does strange things to you.
moneykube

Well I'm back from the HotDocs film festival...Although nominated for best Canadian feature documentary...Dark One won no awards. I'm waiting to hear if it will be accepted at SilverDocs in Washington....There has been interest from across the world, and I sent a wack of DVDs out...so we will see what happens. Check out the Dark One blog page for links to clips,songs+more.
http://icecubefactory.blogspot.com/
---or---Go direct....
4 songs from the Dark One audio CD- http://www.box.net/shared/847hxa528t
YouTube Playlist-5Trailers- http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=27D4CD23890CC9A7
TRAILER#1-6min- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEVDrdS5sTg
Trailer#2-5min- http://www.motiono.com/watch.m?o=OruoucMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkNHD558v7g
Trailer#3-2min- http://www.motiono.com/watch.m?o=CmuoMeNs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLRG_77Lkb8
Trailer#4-1min- http://www.motiono.com/watch.m?o=rsuoMRRi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcrIXS2Zo2A
Trailer#5-1min- http://www.motiono.com/watch.m?o=iEuoMoiN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sOaCU3qA3w

The Dark One blog page also contains the current list of samples I used in the movie from Freesound....I'm still figuring it all out...got most of them I think...Here is the list so far...
#01-I used many dronetails by Jovica.Which ones?Who knows?I renamed them.Sorry about that Jovica-You have many good samples-good for transitions.Thanks
#02-24175_patchen_dropping
#03-25075_FreqMan_whoosh07_with_pan
#04-14308_wingz_prayBahai
#05-14308_wingz_prayBahai
#06-14310_kostasvomvolos_Waterphone_1
#07-15488_djgriffin_tibetan_chant_4_colargol_2
#08-19029_sazman_060501_ezan_yeni_camii_complete
#09-23722_milo_ship2_bergen.wav
#10-27160_Piero_Pepin_Ethiopian_Xmas_in_Addis_Abeba_07_01_2006
#11-28282_genghis_attenborough_Imam_May_04
#12-7527 _jesges_alien_factory

Keep Rocking...Or something...Thank-You Freesound

I've uploaded DarkOneTrailer#6-4min to the following...
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=27D4CD23890CC9A7
http://www.motiono.com/watch.m?o=sCuTSNiU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o6grKqFIJ8

If anyone recognizes a vocal sample that was used from this site...that is not listed above...please let me know so I can give it a credit.Same goes for the other trailers. I think this will be the last trailer for awhile...I'm going to fine tune the mix a bit and move on to the DVD mastering shortly.
Promotion...Promotion
Thanks again Freesound

AAAAGH...NO ....I guess the list is on the previous page and not above.OR you can find the list of samples at....http://icecubefactory.blogspot.com/
Thanx again...

Sorry, I've been away for awhile...I've been sending DVD's all over the world and updating my blog site while dealing with some major personal issues....My Mother has cancer and is undergoing chemo, and my loving dog Bear passed away at an age of 17...I miss him so much...anyway, yesterday
I finally had a chance to do some mixes of the music used in my film Dark One, that may contain freesounder samples. I have nailed down a few samples I used...they are posted on page one of this post and my revised web blog at http://icecubefactory.blogspot.com/
I've uploaded about an hour of mp3s to http://www.box.net/shared/7bz88d6gl6
The works in question are DarkOneFilmMusic 1>14. I know everyone is quite busy, but I want to give credit where credit is due...so if you have time check out these mainly ambient works...let me know what you think...and if you notice any samples I've missed in my list...PLEASE let me know as the DVD release will likely be in the next month or two, and I would really like the credits to be correct. I've added more Dark One links to files on the blogsite. I also added another poetry/soundscape piece here. http://www.box.net/shared/847hxa528t
If you are interested in seeing some of the film, there are six trailers at
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=27D4CD23890CC9A7

Ok...This is it ! My last film plug ??? Ha Ha :grin: Any FreeSound members in the Regina Saskatchewan Area in Canada can come watch my film at the Regina Public Library(2 nights only)
Dark One: Feature Length Experimental Doc, 88 min.
Regina Public Library Screenings-
-Sept 13 - 9:00 PM
-Sept 14 - 7:00 PM
$6.00 for Adults / $5.00 students/seniors
DARK ONE
A drug-addicted poet searches for spiritual redemption as he cooks up morphine at the kitchen table with his Auschwitz survivor mother and pet bird. This brilliant, hallucinatory immersion into the psyche of Dan Biholar, a soul spiraling into oblivion, pushes the medium of the moving image about as far as it can go. Biholar vacillates between moments of acute self-awareness, disturbing darkness, tender sentiment, lyrical inspiration and delusions of grandeur. Award-winning experimental filmmaker and sound designer Darryl Miller was once in Biholar's shoes. With unsettling accuracy, Miller sculpts a sensory overload of hypnotic soundscape and half-melted psychedelic imagery that submerges us in Biholar's altered states. There is no safe distance from which to observe this visceral blurring between art, psychosis and reality-let's hope our sanity returns when the lights come back on.
Director/Producer: Darryl Miller
Executive Producer: Elaine Pain
Production Company: Ice Cube Factory © 2007 Cupar, Saskatchewan

For more information about the film go to http://icecubefactory.blogspot.com/
ops:

Hey...Just noticed a review for my film showed up under critics picks New York Times movie section
http://movies2.nytimes.com/movie/395705/Dark-One/overview
I like it !!! Damn...the reviews are all good, but no one wants to buy...Too extreme for distributors.
Oh well...on to the next project :roll: