[IGDA-NYC-announce] Two game events on Friday 2/20

Thu Feb 19 20:41:19 EST 2009

Two (non IGDA) game events that may be of interest. One is tomorrow during the day and the other is at night. Here are the details, starting with the night-time event:

FRIDAY NIGHT EVENT

Narrative Games with Nick Fortugno  http://www.92y.org/_images/misc/misc_s.gifhttp://www.92y.org/_images/misc/misc_s.gifhttp://www.92y.org/_images/misc/misc_s.gifhttp://www.92y.org/_images/misc/misc_shim_8eb2be.gifhttp://www.92y.org/_images/misc/misc_shim_8eb2be.gif

Dancing with Dionysius: Narrative and Video Games
Are video games an empty entertainment or an emergent art form? If games are a form of fiction, where are its great works of emotional power? In this talk, Nick Fortugno, co-founder of  <http://www.rebelmonkey.com> Rebel Monkey, looks at the state of meaningful narrative and drama in digital games and explores the strange new aesthetic possibilities that games offer.

 <http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T-MM5FF06> http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T-MM5FF06

It’s tomorrow at 8pm, and it’s $10.

FRIDAY DAY EVENT

Game Audio Network Guild Presents:

"The Art and Business of Game Music"

What: Game Audio Network Guild - Symposium - 2/20 at Yale

Where: Yale University, New Haven CT.

When: THIS FRIDAY -- 10am-5pm

How much: Nothing!

Contact: 

Jay Wadley 

 <mailto:fomp at foproductions.com> fomp at foproductions.com

405-826-8863

For NYC: Take the Metro-North Line (East of the Hudson) from Grand Central to Union Station in New Haven.

The ride is about 90 minutes long and tickets are $28 roundtrip/off peak.

 <http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_form.cfm> http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_form.cfm

Schedule:

                •             ❑           10am     -              11:15am: The Art of Game Music

                •             ❑           11:15     -              11:30am  break

                •             ❑           11:30     -              12:30: "The Business of Game Music

                •             ❑           12:30     -              1:00pm Q&A

                                                                ------

                •             ❑           1:00        -              2:00pm LUNCH

                                                                ------

                •             ❑           2:00        -              3:00pm  "Triple A- Not required"

                •             ❑           3:00        -              4:30pm Demo Derby

                                                                -----

                •             ❑           5:30        -              ? GANG Hang

 <http://www.geronimobarandgrill.com/> www.geronimobarandgrill.com

I.             Morning Program: "The Art and Business of Game Music"

 -  A complete overview of the artistic and business practices in the interactive entertainment industry.

PANELISTS:

Tom Salta (Composer/Producer)

Tom Salta writes and produces emotionally charged electronic and orchestral music for film, television and video games. Combining his expertise in programming and mixing hit records with the highest production values, Salta creates powerful melodies and hooks with a hybrid of lush orchestral strings, hard-driving percussion and edgy electronic music. As comfortable with live orchestras and choirs as he is with synthesizers, computers, and the latest software, Salta’s epic orchestral score for the top selling Xbox 360 video game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) was nominated for “Best Video Game Score” at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). Furthermore, his contemporary and traditional Japanese musical score for Red Steel, Ubisoft’s exclusive first-person action title for the Nintendo Wii console, won IGN’s 2006 Award for “Best Original Score.”

Salta’s anthemic military-themed orchestral score for the award-winning Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) was the first time a Ghost Recon game featured in-game music. Recorded with the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra at the prestigious Bastyr Chapel in Seattle, he also fused electronic sounds into the score to capture the hi-tech aesthetic of the game. In addition to Salta’s MTV VMA nomination, GRAW was nominated for “Best Audio” at the 2006 BAFTA Video Game Awards and is a finalist for “Best Interactive Score” and “Audio of the Year” at the 5th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards.

Renowned for his versatility and prolific writing styles, Salta’s kaleidoscopic musical score for his next project, Red Steel, immersed gamers in modern-day Japan. To ensure the authenticity of the game’s soundtrack, Salta arranged and recorded traditional live Japanese instrumentation including Koto, Shamisen, Shakuhachi and Taiko. The score also features performances from conservatory-trained Japanese opera singers and distinguished violinist Lili Haydn. In order to reflect the diverse and Western-influenced soundtrack of fashionable Tokyo, Salta further embellished the soundtrack with a wide spectrum of music styles – such as orchestral, electronic, rock, hip hop, dance, easy listening, jazz, lounge, and Japanese pop – that truly embrace the game’s cinematic story and vibrant locations.

For Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW2), the latest installment in the smash-hit squad-based action franchise, Salta wrote a more aggressive and expressive original score to enhance the game’s intensive action and memorable, dramatic scenes, with only a few select motif references taken from the first game. To acquire the best performance of these tense and emotionally complex compositions for GRAW2, Salta recorded with the Hollywood Studio Symphony and the Page LA Studio Chorus on the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, a premier orchestra recording venue for Hollywood’s major motion pictures. Developed by Ubisoft Paris and Red Storm Studios, GRAW2 will be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP and PC.

Recording under the artist name “Atlas Plug,” Salta’s high-energy mix of electronica, orchestral, breakbeat and rock grooves grace many television shows, commercials and film promos including the Volvo S40 ‘Video Game’ commercial, “Making of Spider-Man 2” on HBO, “Making of Anaconda 2” on Cinemax, NBC's “Third Watch,” UPN’s “America’s Top Model,” CBS’ “Joan Of Arcadia,” and MTV's “Making the Video” and “Tough Enough.” His Atlas Plug music has also been licensed for numerous video game soundtracks such as The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Namco), Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft), ESPN Major League Baseball 2K6 (Take 2), Street Racing Syndicate (Namco) and RalliSport Challenge 2 (Microsoft Game Studios).

Other projects featuring Salta’s engaging and in-demand music include the Position Music Orchestral Series (Volume 1) created especially for motion picture advertising. Music from this collection was featured in the movie trailer for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (Warner Bros.), “Last Mimzy” (New Line Cinema) movie trailer, TV trailer, and featurettes, “Arthur and the Invisibles” (Weinstein Co.) TV trailers, and “The Da Vinci Code” (Sony) making of featurette and promotions. Prior to these composing ventures, Salta toured with and worked on releases by a diverse array of artists such as Peter Gabriel, Junior Vasquez, Everything But The Girl, Deep Forest, Mary J. Blige and Sinead O’Connor.

Tom Salta’s other video game scoring credits include original music and remixes for Full Auto 2: Battlelines (Sega), the main theme (co-writer) for Ghost Recon 2 (Red Storm/Ubisoft), the original scores for Cold Fear (Darkworks/UbiSoft), Still Life (Microids), and Sprung (UbiSoft); original tracks for Get On Da Mic (A2M/Eidos), and the cinematics for Need For Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts).

Tom Salta is currently scoring several new video games as well as writing the follow-up to his highly acclaimed debut solo album 2 Days or Die. Tracks from his forthcoming album have already been licensed for several video games. For more information visit  <http://www.tomsalta.com/> www.tomsalta.com.

Paul Lipson (President, Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), and VP of Business Development, Pyramind Inc., Composer)

For over a decade, Paul Lipson has refined his skills in management, strategy, consulting, and education. His career has taken him all over the world, and his passion for technology, games, and the performing arts has helped him advocate for advancement in the interactive entertainment industry.

Paul has honored a love of videogames, and he founded Hit Point Music - a development company specializing in music for games, film, and television - to converge his love of music and interactive entertainment. His teams at HPM and Pyramind Inc. has worked with a dazzling array of “A-list” clients like SCEA, EA, THQ, Microsoft, Harmonix, etc..

Paul is extremely passionate about arts and the advancement of interactive audio, and currently serves as the President of the Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) and the VP of Business Development at Pyramind, Inc. He has worked closely with the officers of G.A.N.G. to originate the industry-first Program Partnership Initiative, and was the mastermind behind the Guild Scholarship Award for Game Audio. Paul was awarded the G.A.N.G. “Distinguished Service Award” at the 2006 Game Developer’s Conference for his work in education and advocacy for the interactive audio arts.

Paul has also studied music for twenty-five years, with a focus on jazz studies and classical/orchestral music. He has enjoyed a longstanding career as a performer, leading his ensembles at venues across the United States, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Brazil. He has performed and recorded with world-renowned jazz musicians including Clark Terry, George Russell, Eric Marienthal, Bob Moses, Jimmy Giuffre, Gene Bertoncini, Mick Goodrick, John Abercrombie, Tim Miller, Bevan Manson, John McNeil, and Rick DiMuzio.

Paul has served as the Chief Academic Officer at Expression College for Digital Arts, and previously held the post of Director of The Learning through Music and Technology Initiative at the LCG (Boston). He also spent time as an instructor at Berklee College of Music, has conducted master classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Conservatory of Pernambuco in Brazil, and was a founding teacher and Director of Technology at the Conservatory Lab Charter School (Boston),

Paul holds a BM and MM with highest distinction from the world-renowned New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He is a member of the International Game Developers Association, The Music Educators National Conference, BMI, The Recording Academy P&E Wing Advisory Council, and the Game Audio Network Guild.

Brian Schmidt (Founder, Brian Schmidt Studios)

Brian Schmidt, is a 20 year veteran of the game audio industry. Brian uses his blend of hands-on composition and sound design experience combined with deep technical knowledge to push new boundaries and further the state of the interactive audio industry. Prior to leaving Microsoft in February 2008, Brian was the program manager for Xbox and Windows game audio and media at Microsoft. While at Xbox, he was the driving force behind bringing interactive Dolby Digital to video gaming, setting a new bar for game audio. He was also the primary architect of the Xbox Audio Creation Tool (XACT) and was responsible for the overall design of the Xbox 360 audio system. 

Brian started his life-long career in game audio in 1987, although it could be argued he started his career long before that, pumping quarters into pinball machines wherever he could find them. After graduating with degrees in Music Composition and Computer Engineering, he began work as a composer and programmer for Williams/Midway with a dream job writing both music and software for the pinball machines and arcade video games he loved to play. After leaving Williams in 1989, Brian created Schmidt Entertainment Technologies, working freelance as both a composer/sound designer and technical consultant.  With a client list including companies such as Sega, Sony, Capcom, Electronic Arts, NAMCO, and QSound Lab, Brian designed and created content for interactive audio systems including Capcom's arcade game audio system and the sound system for Sega Pinball.  As a composer, he has personally composed music for over 120 arcade and console games, including JOHN MADDEN FOOTBALL, DESERT STRIKE, JURASSIC PARK, STAR WARS TRILOGY, and the award-winning Crue Ball. His theme from the original NARC arcade videogame was later covered and recorded by The Pixies.  Brian has been contracted for custom game music compositions from Aaron Spelling, Michael Jordan, and Joel Silver, and his work has been shown in both television and film. In 1998, Brian left the freelance world to work at Microsoft, where he set the direction for game audio technologies for Windows and Xbox for the next decade before deciding to return to independent consulting in 2008.

--

II.            Afternoon Panel:  "Triple A Not Required"

A discussion on how to transition from student to the job market, and all the steps in between

PANELISTS:

Tom Salta (Moderator)

Duncan Watt (Founder/Composer - FastestManInTheWorld)

Fastestmanintheworld’s founder/creative director, multiple award-winning composer Duncan Watt has many digital game, TV, film and music projects to his credit - as musician, composer, engineer and/or producer. Watt founded Fastestmanintheworld in 2005 to focus on composing, voiceover and audio for digital games.

Sean Beeson (Composer for Media)

Sean Beeson is a young award-winning media composer featured primarily within the video game industry. He is also the founder and owner of Sean Beeson Studios LLC located in Westerville, Ohio, and is represented by Bob Rice of Four Bars Intertainment. Sean is both a video game composer and a general media composer. His characteristic sound can be heard across many video game systems and medias from XBOX 360, Wii, and casual PC/Mac games to television, films, both animated and live-action, and film trailers.

Sean’s most recent work can be heard in Disney's revolutionary MMO Pixie Hollow video game. He also composed Big Fish Games’ Hidden Expedition: Amazon, the first casual game to feature a full-length live-orchestral soundtrack. Other recent credits include Assault Heroes 2 (360), Eternity's Child (Steam-PC/Wii) and the casual games Planet Busters, Fairway Solitaire, and Hoyle's Enchanted Puzzles.

Although the majority of Sean’s pieces are composed for video games, he has also successfully composed music for various independent films and other media. Two of these films, Fused and Just One Thing, were nominated for BAFTA’s “60-Seconds of Fame” Award. An animated short, Emelia, was the #1 downloaded iTunes short film during a span in late 2006.

Outside of composing, Sean prefers to be active within the online video game composing community. He is currently the Secretary and Resource Manager of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) and was a panelist at the 2008 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. At the 2008 G.A.N.G. Awards, Sean was recognized with the "Distinguished Service Award" for his previous contributions as Resource Manager.

Sean is also active within the local music community as he takes pride in challenging himself and inspiring other young media composers. A graduate from Capital University in 2007 with a Bachelor's of Music in Composition, he is now on the other side of the desk teaching the craft of media composing. Sean is currently serving as an adjunct professor at the renowned Conservatory of Music for his alma mater located in Columbus, Ohio.

In addition to being a media composer, Sean is also a skilled producer, engineer and programmer of sample libraries. Sean is also the creator of the commercially successful libraries TAIKO and Action Drums: Taiko Edition, both published by Nine-Volt Audio available for purchase worldwide.

During his spare time, Sean enjoys cooking, video gaming, cryptozoology, playing keyboard in St. Paul's Catholic Church Praise & Worship Band, and spending time with his friends and family. 

Mike Worth (Founder, Game Music Inc.)

Mike Worth is a composer and sound designer for video games, whose music has been called "epic" and "haunting". Mike began composing in rock bands throughout high school and college. By the time Mike had graduated college, he had recorded two albums with the progressive rock band, Population 3, and had begun to establish his trademark energetic, melodic sound. After college, Mike attended New York University's Film Scoring graduate program, while assisting veteran musician and composer Scott Healy in his Manhattan studio. While at NYU, Mike studied under award winning composers Ron Sadoff, Sonny Kompanek (The Alamo, Hudsucker Proxy), and Mike Patterson (Tiny Toons, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles). Initially working in film and television, Mike's credits include an original irish jig for New Line Cinema's Rush Hour 3, and orchestrations for the Emmy award-winning television show, Wonderpets.

Mike is known for writing epic, emotionally powerful orchestral music, and for bringing the pulse and energy from his rock and film scoring backgrounds to his projects. As an avid gamer, Mike understands the specific music and audio needs that game developers have to make their games exciting and emotional. Currently, Mike is designing sounds for the Xbox Live game, Fittest, and composing music for Divergence, a science fiction MMORPG. Mike lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Katharine. He is active with the Manhattan Producers' Alliance, Audio GANG, the IGDA, and the IASIG.

Steve DiGregorio (Audio Director, Turbine Inc.)

Steve DiGregorio is currently the Audio Director at Turbine,Inc and has worked on many popular international  MMO releases. While primarily an in-house composer, his tasks also include sound design, audio engine coding and managing all aspects of game audio for Turbine. In 2007 Steve spearheaded and created the first MMO Real Time Live Music System for Lord of the Rings Online. Steve is a graduate of Berklee College of Music where he studied film scoring and music synthesis. He currently has over 255 in-game compositions and is working on a variety of new recordings for game and film.

III.           Demo Derby

Students present 60 seconds of their best work for review by a panel of industry experts

PANELISTS:

Tom Salta

Paul Lipson

Brian Schmidt

Sean Beeson

Demo Derby Guidelines:

Students are urged to participate, and present their best work for discussion and review.  

-              Participants must provide a standard CD containing 60 seconds of their best work.  This can either be a cross-fade mix of a few pieces, or one piece.

-              CD must cue to track 1 only, as panelists will not spend time hunting for specific tracks.

-              Particpants name must be clearly marked on the front of the CD and the jewel case/envelope

-              Participants should hand in their CD 15 minutes before the start of the panel, and the play order is first-come, first-served.

IV            Audio/Visual Requirements

For all panels, please provide the following:

-              LCD Projector or Screen for laptop PowerPoint Presentation

-              DVI or VGA cable input

-              Stereo Speakers/Amp with mini 1/8th inch plug adapter for laptop

-              Standard DVD/CD player (optional)

-              Mics for Panelists (optional)

-              Water

Cheers, 

Wade Tinney

Coordinator, IGDA New York City Chapter

CEO, Large Animal Games

http://largeanimal.com

http://twitter.com/largeanimal

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