Mac Tragakis

Cam Bilodeau

Preliminary Research

‘Docutape’

Music in the future is going to become so much more complex, but not harder to create instead easier than it is today with more complexity focused into the technology to conduct the music itself, I am judging this on my personal experience, what I have researched, and what I have observed. Throughout my multiple years of creating music there have been many shortcuts, midi devices, and technologies to advance music in easier ways. For instance MIDI devices or, Musical Instrument Digital Interface allows users to take a keyboard based device that can be linked to an infinite amount of sounds a user can create within a DAW. These are otherwise known as Digital Audio Workspace. With DAWs and MIDIs allow a user to make any music they please, as long as they have a simple DAW. MIDIs are cheaper than acoustic instruments, but with this price sacrifice the user cannot obtain the same quality as a real instrument. This simplicity opens a broader spectrum of people that have accessibility to creating a culturally influential song. Given, people need talent and an understanding of music theory, but with some practice and study a person could a very talented musician. The addition of the internet to the world will eliminate the need for record labels in the coming years, because getting music to the world today is all in the click of a few buttons, with things like SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music. MIDIs in all their technological complexity, allow for a really simple user experience to create music. Although MIDIs today are far from the pinnacle of digital interfaces the idea of them is growing intently. Through some research and personal experience as well, I have learned that these MIDI technologies can be applied to a lot of devices that were not meant, or not yet meant to be used for creating music. Nick Garzon and I created a MIDI interface by linking as well as mapping the buttons and joysticks of an Xbox One controller to allow us to use the controller itself as a drum machine, including having loops of four bar harmonies and melodies. This was a really interesting way to produce new music. With a few more weeks or months of work to perfect this idea we might be able to create a really cool game that is music based. The capability to feel music change as you click different buttons on a video game controller is a new experience that many people should try. The user can almost feel the music as they are creating it. This one day will become so advanced that we will use movements in our bodies to create music. Music could be implanted within us and we could use our bodies as a drum machine, or something similar. Advancing towards different mediums for creating music is inevitable, and virtual reality could be a huge link between the progress of future music and interfaces in which it is created. There are music videos that encapsulate a 360 degree view, and augmented reality applications that enhance the experience of advertisements and marketing campaigns. This technology will eventually be used to create a fully immersive experience for an artist, in which the user will be able to control a whole studio for a fraction of the price of a real studio. Again, this will obviously sacrifice quality, but give the user experience as well as teach them and help them learn about all the different devices, mixers, and speakers in a real professional studio setting. Along with the use of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality in music production, there will also be wearable technologies that create/transform the way music will be created. Humans will become the instruments… and not only wear the music, but again feel the music in a different way than ever before. 

As we advance technology to benefit the human body, we will also be creating music entirely separate with the use of artificial intelligence. There is a website called MuseNet, that has created an AI program that has the capability to play a few songs in many different styles, for instance Lady GaGas Poker Face in the style of Mozart. It can create the Godfather theme in a Disney style, which is really interesting to figure out and understand what the algorithms are doing. This idea of computer based learning, producing, and publishing will definitely become a growing part into music production in the very near future. AI could be able to discover patterns so complex beyond human capability, or simply help humans create new sounds entirely. I personally have not experimented with AI in my own work, nor have I seen it become advanced enough in a DAW program to really assist the artist in making the music, but I can see that the possibility of AI being added to DAW programs in the near future extremely possible and hope that AI does become apart of music production in different ways.

In order to make a good documentary, you need to do a lot of research on the topic. Finding out a couple things about your subject could lead to many questions to ask your subject to get even more out of them to get as specific as possible.

Examples:

Gimme Shelter

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

Green Book

The Searcher

Making a plan is the most important part of making a successful documentary; without a plan, the final outcome will be sloppy and look rushed. Figuring out the primary focus is very important because you don’t want to waste valuable time with your subject, asking them questions that don’t relate to the focus of the documentary. Figuring out what to ask in order to get the good information that will keep the audience interested is one of the hardest parts of the process. 

Having an idea of what kind of shots to take for the best visual representation of what I’m trying to get across is important, because when the time comes to film the subject it helps a lot to already have a plan of what kind of shots to get. Whether it’s for b roll or actual shots of the subject talking, because the specific angle and direction of the subject could change the way the viewer looks at the subject. I plan on using two cameras at a time so I can switch between shots while the subject is saying the same line to make it more interesting.