Tag: fantasy

Sound Effect Listings

Legend of Aramelle – Episode 4 Sound Effects

Christy.E.S5 Comments

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for.

This is the first episode we recorded on the day and does have a few mistakes that we learnt from in other episodes – most notable that you can hear the pages of the script being turned in a few places.
I’ve edited them out where I can and the ones rthat are left, I’m hoping sound mostly like the background noise and are therefore only noticeable to me!

The cast for:
The three of them run out into the corridor, close the door behind them, birds can still be heard through the door. – Ep.4 corridor running, panting, door slam
The sound of birds gets quieter – Not technically a sound effect as I just changed the volume level and then upped it again once the Witch Princess opened the door.
Shouts of crew and the remaining real birds.- Crew background
Witch Princess claps her hands twice – 3,4,5 WP hand clap
Witch Princess claps hands twice one more time.– 3,4,5 WP hand clap
Orson gets down on the floor.– Ep.4 Orson
Captain squawks – Squawk
He hops about on one foot. We can hear his footsteps – Barry foot
Orson is fighting armour to try and get a sword – all done by George Coyne, I didn’t need to add anything.

Mixed Sound Effects:
Glass smashes, Birds fly in – Glass break, Impact glass – a repeat of the sound from the end of the last episode.
Witch Princess claps hands twice. clanking continues – 3,4,5 WP hand clap and Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Witch Princess tries again. clanking continues – 3,4,5 WP hand clap and Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Witch Princess claps hands twice. Armour stops – 3,4,5 WP hand clap and Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Sword hitting stone, armour turning and striking again, Suits of armour turning, Sword hitting stone, turning of armour – Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound. mixed with Weapon Sword Scrape on Stone from Adobe, Weapon Sword Remove from Sheath, Weapon Broad Sword Hit Stone and Weapon Sword Hit Concrete – This used a bunch of sounds from Adobe and Pro Sound plasced together and repeated over and over. It is meant to sound like the armour is walking round attacking and occasionally hitting the stone walls of the castle, as the main characters duck out of the way. I can hear that because of how many times I’ve listened to this while editing. Please do let me know if you can understand what’s happening in this scene too!

BBC sound effects for:
They open the door. – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut. (Bought) – Same sound from previous episode for the locking of the cell door. Split in half so the door is slammed shut at the moment that the bird sounds stop – Used again for Guard enters near the end of the episode once the Witch Princess finally gets the wool of bat and for Walks out of vault as they all rejoin the crew back in the main chamber.
Waves, ship creaking – ship – Thames Sailing Barge, Atmosphere Below Deck Under Sail, With Creaking Wood. (Recorded On Board S.B. Pudge.) (Bought) – That good old Thames Barge returns!
Ship runs aground – Grating Noise, As Of Boat Running Aground. (Specially Created Electronic Sound.) – BBC Historical – (Bought)

Adobe Sound Effects for:
Witch Princess pulls curtain aside – Foley Cloth Hit and Short Rustle Cloth – Surprisingly couldn’t find what I actually wanted which was the sound of a small curtain being opened like you might get at a museum – they were all big theatre curtains that squeaked and didn ‘t sound right at all
Unroll paper and reverse – Foley Paper Unroll – Persephone unrolls her letter and then I reversed the sound once she’s finished.
Orson hits sword at armour – Weapon Broad Sword Hit Stone – the same as the rest of the loop just turned the volume up high for peril.
Giant footsteps approach –Foley Footstep Cowboy Dirt Debris Walking – Originally had this done by the cast, but it didn’t sound like it was outside so I used this instead, put onto a echo track to make the footsteps seem bigger.

Pro Sound for:
Witch Princess picks up jewel + Witch Princess throws jewel to Aramelle who catches it. – Coin Flip and Catch, Ringing Spin, Slappy Impact on Hand – Originally didn’t have this in, but the Witch Princess’s “Catch it” gets swallowed a bit b hy the sound of the armor approaching and I wanted it to be clear Aramelle ended up with the jewel. Also gives a good gleam noise at the beginning that allows us to ‘see’ the jewel when it’s first picked up.
Suits of armour footsteps getting louder and closer + Clanking gets louder then stops – Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Birds and clanking of armour in distance – Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound. Originally I had it so there were still birds in the background, but that led to too much going on in the scene, so now the squawking stops once the vault door closes. I purposefully set this so that it starts just after the Witch Princess says “You probably don’t have this though,” as it sounds a bit like a drum beat and it’s only clear that the characters can hear it when Orson asks. I then increased the sound higher until the armour stops and begins to attack.
Witch Princess rips page out of book – textbook rip page – If I had the dexterity I may well have recorded this one myself but couldn’ty quite manage it as I am still doing physiotherapy after my injury in January, so this did great instead!

Free Sound for:
Last few birds squawking, crew loosing them out the windows – water bubbling by ultraaxvii — https://freesound.org/s/591151/ — License: Creative Commons 0 – Decided to switch back to the cauldron to clarify that all the magic birds have now gone away and that everything had returned to how it should be.

Music:
Persephone arrives – Persephone’s Theme – asked Jean to make this sound similar to Grim’s theme as Persephone is there to do the same job, but lighter and different enough that it will be obvious from the sound that this isn’t Grim
Giant Country – Originally Giant Country was going to be Grassland sounds and gigantic animals in the distance, but this theme works so well at telling us where we are that it was all I needed in the end.
Aramelle’s Castle – The music from Episode one makes a reappearance to tell us we’ve gone back to Aramelle’s lands where her father is.
The Village Stem – Krumhorn– and this returns us back to the action performing the same function as it did in episode 3 to switch between plots happening simultaneously.

Sound Effect Listings

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Three Sound Effects

Christy.E.S1 Comment

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for.

This is the first of four episodes where George Coyne wasn’t present at the recording. Kate stepped in on the day and we recorded George’s lines remotely. This meant I had to include an extra step in the editing to put his lines in place of Kate’s. I think it worked out quite well!

I also had to work out how to do echoes on Garageband for the line that gets repeated by the Witch Princess’s eavesdropping. In order to do this you need to make a new track just for the echo as you can’t do it to one region specifically, but can add the effect to thw whole region.

Mixed sound effects:
Impact glass crash on metal small 01 + Impact glass debris fall to cement 02 (Adobe sound effects) mixed with Glass cracking (Pro sound) – Used this for the breaking glass, it’s not quite perfect as I ideally wanted numerous windows being smashed at once, but combined with the sound of Glass cracking from Pro sound, it gives enough of a sense of how many birds are at the window.
This was always going to be one of the hardest sounds for me to edit in. The cumulation of birds flying into the room, plus glass breaking is a big noise. I left out the flying sounds and went for squawking as it was a bit easier to mix together.
Water dripping in cave (Freesound) mixed with Witch Princess Gamelan Melody Stem -Atmosphere for an ancient dungeon is also surprisingly difficult to find in sound effects. I found this cave effect and mixed with part of the Witch Princess theme from Jean it gives the right atmosphere for the dungeon and won’t be the last time I use this mix in the series!
Wings on glass – Bird feather rustle – crow groom feather with beak pluck mixed with Tapping on Window short bursts then Singles – This was another one that was hard to find. I wanted the rustle of hundreds of wings on glass, but couldn’t quite find it. The tapping works if it’s beaks on the window instead of wings and mixing it with rustling gave the desired effect of there being hundreds of birds outside the window.
I’m not quite sure it works, as it sounds a bit like it’s Orson’s clothes rustling rather than bird feathers, but it works better than the beak tapping worked on it’s own!

The Cast for:
Squawk – Various squawks were recorded for me to use throughout the series whenever Captain Liam needs to speak.
Crew are all birds – Recorded all the cast making bird noises that could be used to show what happened to them under the spell.
This was also tricky to decide how much of this to use. Using it all the time would be too distracting to have in the background, not having it at all wouldn’t work either, so the crew conveniently only squawk when someone pays attention to them!
Orson and Aramelle check if they’re birds – Ep3 – O and A pat down
Fortune teller pulls Aramelle’s hands through the bars – Ep3 Fortune and A Hands – If I had a bigger budget I would have found a eay to record the sound of metal bars, but this works jsut as well.
Aramelle pulls hands back – Ep3 A hands back


BBC sound effects used:
ship – Thames Sailing Barge, Atmosphere Below Deck Under Sail, With Creaking Wood. (Recorded On Board S.B. Pudge.) (Bought) – This is the same sound i used in the previous episode – now just being a good indicator of when the scene is on board ship versus land.
Door opens, closes – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut. (Bought) – Same sound from previous episode for the locking of the cell door. Just minus the lock noise, this time around.
BBC Historical birds flying – Crew fly away – this sound did take quite a bit of searching as most of the sound I could find was for one bird flying rather than multiple, and was going to leave it out completely. Eventually found this on the Pro sound website.


Adobe Sound Effects used:
object on ground – reversed– Hat pick up – used for when Aramelle picks up the Captain’s hat.
multimedia internet cd-rom flash electronic – Spell – this is the same sound from the previous episode for the spell taking effect.


Freesound used:
Water bubbling – Cauldron bubbling – Surprisingly difficult to find. Needed something for the background of the Witch Princess’s room. I do have some music for the Witch Princess from Jean, but went with this for this episode.
water bubbling by ultraaxvii — https://freesound.org/s/591151/ — License: Creative Commons 0
Cauldron stirring itself – Stirring bowl (Link needed) – Needed early on, so Witch Princess can tell cauldron to stop stirring and we can hear it happen. This ensures that we know later on, whern Aramelle reads a spell out that she’s made a spell happen…
stirring bowl.wav by dynamique — https://freesound.org/s/554557/ — License: Creative Commons 0

Pro sound used:
Rifling through bottles – glass jars baby food – This is the sound for when the Witch Princess is looking for wool of bat. Most sounds found were for one bottle at a time which didn’t work, hence the baby food jars.
Footsteps clanking – Armour footsteps 2 – Tried a few different versions of this before settling on this one. Most of the ones I rejected sounded like soldiers rather than suits of armour, so I needed to search for the sound of metal!
Parakeet bird moves around cage chirps – Captain hops onto Orson’s shoulder – Again I nearly left this out, for not being able to find a sound that worked. It was slightly difficult to visualise what was happening in the scene without it though, so glad I found it!

Music:
There’s quite a lot of back and forth in this episode as Orson and Aramelle aren’t together for a large chunk of it, so the scenes flit between them. Decided early on that the best way to signify the action going to another character was with the Krumhorn Stem from The Village music in episode one. The only time I don’t use this to change the scene is the first time we go to the Witch Princess before Orson and Aramelle are separated.

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Three
The Legend of Aramelle

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Three

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Deep in the Witch Princess’s lands, sailing through darkness…

In this episode:
George Coyne played Orson
Georgia Faye played Persephone
Liam Harkins played Liam, Guard and Fortune Teller 2
Tayla Kenyon played the Witch Princess and Fortune Teller 1
Mariana Sa Sousa played Aramelle
Am Stubberfield played Fortune Teller 3

Social Media:
Show email: thelegendofaramellecasting@gmail.com
Writer: Christy Sago: Bluesky: @christywrites.bsky.social
Producer: Kate Delong: Instagram: @kate.delong.creates
George Coyne: Instagram: @jorge_pereira8890
Tayla Kenyon: Twitter: @taylakenyon
Liam Harkins: Instagram: @liammharkins
Mariana Sa Sousa: Instagram: @marianasasousa123
Am Stubberfield: Instagram: @brumble_hag
Composer: Jean Loup-Pinson: Instagram: @jlpinsonmusic

Sound effects:
Jean Loup-Pinson composed the theme music, scene change music and Grim’s theme.
His website is: www.jeanlouppinson.com/
Sound effects for this episode are from BBC Sound Effects Library, Adobe Sound Effects, Freesound.org, Pro Sound Effects and the cast themselves.
Full credits for the sound effects as well as more information on the writing, recording and editing of this episode can be found here.

Turnatus, Altre, Shunt.* Please be advised to put headphones over the ears of any suits of armour in your household before listening to this episode or episode 4.

Thank you for listening!

Sound Effect Listings

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Two Sound Effects

Christy.E.S1 Comment

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for.

This episode is the first time I had to do some mixing, such as mixing the cast with sound effects to get the desired effect.

These are the mixed sound effects:
1. Mix of Adobe and cast: Orson and Aramelle splutter and splash in the river. Liquid water water splash movements 04
The cast did a great job of making it sound like they were splashing around in the river, so I only had to add some splashing movements at the beginnning so it sounds like thy’re getting their bearings after going over the aterfall at the end of the last episode.
2. Mix of Adobe and cast: Aramelle lifts Orson, puts him on driftwood. Liquid water water drip strand up drip 01. Impact metal wood impact short 01. Aramelle heaves.
This one took me a while to think about. Quite simply, how much would water move if time was stopped? I couldn’t work out if it made sense for the impact of Orson’s armour hitting the driftwood would be the only sound, or if the water would drip off him. I went for hearing the water, as it leads well into Grim restarting time when they leave.
3. Mix of Adobe and cast: Orson and Aramelle lurch forward with the boat and hit the cell door. – Ep2 O and A cell door. Foley footstep hard sole dress shoe stumble on wood platform 02
This combined a sound we recorded on the day with some stumbling footsteps. The footsteps aren’t my favourite, but they work for what’s needed.
4. Mix of Adobe and music: Grim Reaper takes soul of captain – weapon broad sword slide off sword 01. Grim Reaper Music
Using Jean’s music for the Grim Reaper and combining it with rhe sound of a sword gives the desired ‘reaping’ effect for soul taking. I did search for ‘scythe sounds’ but couldn’t find any!
Mix of different cast sounds: Liam holds Aramelle over the side of the ship at sword point. – Ep2 A upside down x3. and Aramelle scream from Ep.1. Ep2 O and A cell door.
This one mixes some sounds we recorded on the day – with the upside down noise being the wall of the recording studio being hit, alongside the scream for episode one (I told you it would be back) and the grunt from Orson and Aramelle hitting the cell door reused.
Finally, though it’s not really a sound rather than the absence of sound, I did have Grim Reaper stops time in the script. This reminded me to remove all the sounds of waterfalls and flowing rivers, so Grim and Aramelle can have their conversation without Orson hearing. Once Grim leaves, the sounds restart – loud at first, then going back into the background.

This was also the first time I’ve cut some sound effects. This was mainly due to me realising in the editing that it was possible to follow the story without adding in these sounds and didn’t want to use sounds where they wern’t needed. They were useful to have in the script though, as it allowed the cast to know what was happening next, and allowed me to give myself clear editing points.
I cut:
Pirate ship comes closer – They’ve just said there’s a pirate ship then the captain starts talking to them. If I had better mixing software I might have tried to find a sailing ship noise and alter the volume through the scene – but it works well enough without this.
Aramelle shuffles over to starboard – this was in originally and comes just after Orson’s line of “you should stay to starboard”. I put the shuffles in before realising they were superfluous and it’s easier to imagine that Aramelle just stays where she is.
Ship veers to the side. Orson and Aramelle thrown forward again. – this was a whole part where Orson and Aramelle hit the bars for a second time as the ship veers during the mutiny. I wrote it in because it was going to be the end point of the mutiny. However, it didn’t really serve as showing that in the edit, so I took the section out and just had one last loud gunshot before a period of silence when Aramelle asks “Does that mean the mutiny’s over?”
Aramelle kneels – this is where Aramelle kneels to pledge allegiance. Again I could have added something in here, but it didn’t seem necessary for the audience to hear her kneeling to know that she as.
Aramelle stands back up – as such I didn’t need the noise of her standing back up either.
Liam shakes her hand – this is another one I had in at first, but as no-one says they’re shaking hands it wasn’t obvious what was happening as works just as well without.

Adobe Sound Effects Used:
1. Ambience waterfall exterior 03
2. Liquid water river flowing water 02 – These two sounds are the background sounds in the first scene.
3. Orson falls beneath the water. Aramelle tries to lift him back out of the water. adobe Aramelle drops him again. A Splash. Liquid water water dunk and rise hands in water 02: – This sound works well for cutting so I could use it for Orson falling under the water and then the second half for Aramelle pulling him up.
4. Grim Reaper restarts time. Ambience waterfall exterior 03: Liquid water river flowing water 02 – The sound restarts as soon as Grim leaves.
5. They kick with their legs in the water and swim forward. Liquid water water feet splash in water fast 01: Had to trial a couple of these as some of them were super fast! This one works well in the background though, so you can hear what they’re doing but it doesn’t get louder than the river.
6. Waves in background, seagulls, shouts of a ship’s crew. Ambience ocean shore 01: This one was going to be a mix. We recorded the crew talking in the background, but while editing, I thought the waves and seagulls were enough of an indicator to the scene being in open ocean. I did put the crew sound effect in the outtakes at the end though.
7. A cannonball is aimed at them but misses. Drops in the ocean. Weapon cannon fire 01. Liquid water water dunk and rise hands in water 02: This was one action in the script that needed two sounds in the edit. The cannon fire sound on its own and then the liquid dunk noise from earlier being reused. I did search for a sound that would be like a cannonball being dropped in the ocean all in one sound, but resorted to mixing them.
8. Pirate captain leaves. – Foley footsteps hard sole dress shoe walking on wood platform 01: This sound doesn’t quite work as they’ve just walked to the ship’s prison without us hearing the footsteps (It would have been too much to listen to, what with rhe ship and their conversation). However, this sound was needed so we know the captain has left before Orson starts talking about him. Plus, the captain leaving and going to speak to Liam is the catalyst for the mutiny, so it had to be heard. As a bonus though, the sound that sounds like the captain closing the door at the end of the footsteps was actually just a noise that appeared naturally in the “creaking ship” sound that serves as background noise!
9. Gunshots from deck, sound of fighting on sbip above. – weapon gun pistol 9mm glock single shot interior shooting range short 01: This sound was tricky to work out the levels of. I wanted the first and last ones to be louder than the others, but wanted them all to be different volume levels to give the feel that fighting was breaking out all over the deck.
10. Liam unsheathes his sword. – weapon sword remove from sheathe 01: This is the same sound from episode one.
11. Orson unsheathes his sword. – weapon sword remove from sheathe 01
12. Liam takes Orson’s sword. – weapon sword pick up from ground 01: This one was again tricky to find. Ideally I wanted a sound of a sword being taken out of someone’s hands, but had to settle for the ground.
13. A spell hits the ship. – Multimedia Internet CD-Rom Flash Electronic 01: There were various sounds I went through for the spell sound. I eventually settled on this one because it sounds a bit glittery – and in my opinion there is not much in the world that can’t be improved with glitter.


BBC sound effects were used for:
1. Ship creaking: Thames Sailing Barge, Atmosphere Below Deck Under Sail, With Creaking Wood. (Recorded On Board S.B. Pudge.) (Bought) – This sound works well as a shift between the open ocean with Orson and Aramelle on driftwood to them being below deck.
2. Cell door unlocked. – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut. (Bought) – This is another sound that will work in a variety of places. I just needed the sound of a lock turning and then a heavy door slam to signifty they were being locked in.
3. Orson and Aramelle are locked in the cell – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut.
4. Anchor – Boats: Cruisers – Dropping anchor without speech (reprocessed) (Bought) – This sound is used for immediately after the “Land ahoy” line and is the catalyst for Orson and Aramelle hitting their faces on the bars when the ship stops.
* As an extra here – One thing I have learnt during editing this episode and this list is to Rename Downloaded Sound Effects. The sound effects I downloaded just gave me lists of numbers, which works fine for me actually editing, as I only need the sound. However, if I want to find the sound to re-use in another episode or find it online again for any reason. The numbers aren’t helpful. I’ve since renamed them as what the file name is online, and going forward will do it immediately in download!


Free sound was used for:
1. Grim Reaper pulls out ticking clock.
2. Grim Reaper puts ticking clock away.
NistuGgner pocket watch: Both these sounds were the same as in Episode one.
https://freesound.org/s/706551/ — License: Creative Commons 0


The cast for:
1. Aramelle heaves. Aramelle heaves: This was used multiple times in the first scene as Aramelle variously lifts up Orson and drops him again.
2. Liam pulls Aramelle back up. – Ep2 L pulls A up: This is used right at the end as Liam agrees to Aramelle’s conditions. I had to put something in, so it was known that she had in fact been pulled up and not left hanging over the edge of the ship.

Music:
Grim Reaper leaves – Grim Reaper music: This is the music made for the Grim Reaper arriving and leaving.
Aramelle’s castle beginning for scene change music: I put this in at the beginning of this episode to signify time passing and the scene changing. I didn’t need to use it again as the ocean ambience worked well enough. Plus, not as much time passed between Orson and Aramelle climbing aboard the ship as it did when they were swimming out to sea.

The Legend of Aramelle

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Two

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

After surviving the waterfall, Princess Aramelle and Orson find themselves in the middle of a pirate mutiny.

In this episode:
George Coyne played Orson
Georgia Faye played Narrator/Persephone
Liam Harkins played Liam
Tayla Kenyon played Pirate Captain and Crew mate (Clive)
Mariana Sa Sousa played Aramelle
Am Stubberfield played Grim Reaper
Persephone – Georgia Faye

Social Media:
Show email: thelegendofaramellecasting@gmail.com
Writer: Christy Sago: Bluesky: @christywrites.bsky.social
Producer: Kate Delong: Instagram: @kate.delong.creates
George Coyne: Instagram: @jorge_pereira8890
Tayla Kenyon: Twitter: @taylakenyon
Liam Harkins: Instagram: @liammharkins
Mariana Sa Sousa: Instagram: @marianasasousa123
Am Stubberfield: Instagram: @brumble_hag
Composer: Jean Loup-Pinson: Instagram: @jlpinsonmusic

Sound effects:
Jean Loup-Pinson composed the theme music, scene change music and Grim’s theme.
His website is: www.jeanlouppinson.com/
Sound effects for this episode are from BBC Sound Effects Library, Adobe Sound Effects, Freesound.org, Pro Sound Effects and the cast themselves.
Full credits for the sound effects as well as more information on the writing, recording and editing of this episode can be found here.

I do not accept any responsibility for any pirate mutinys that occur as a result of this episode.

Thank you for listening!

How To Become a Freelancer – April Update
Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – April Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment
The Legend of Aramelle as it shows up on Spotify
Legend of Aramelle on Spotify

Intro:
Nearly, finally recovered from my burns – with only one factor still preventing me from a return to work.

The Legend of Aramelle is now live! And can be listened to here on WordPress, on Apple podcasts, Spotify or Pocketcasts.

The first episode has turned out well and new episodes will be available every other Saturday for the next few months.
However, I am hoping to re-record the credits as the levels went wrong and they’re barely audible for episode one! I should be able to do it no later than episode four, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Most of this past month has been focused on getting the first episode of The Legend of Aramelle ready. However, I am nearly ready to submit Troy into Oxford 42, and should be able to do that before the end of this week.

The time-travel script went into Scribe Lounge Elevate and I have made notes for a re-write on my script called Last Witch in Swanage; it’s about witches in Puritan England. Have been having trouble with this script for a while, knowing the story I want to tell, but it not coming out right when written down. Now, I have been inspired by Wednesday on Netflix, (being off work means I am finally making some headway on my watchlist) and have realised that I can tell the story better if I change the tone to a more contemporary one!

I will be making a short film – working title Grand Hotel – for the final term of my film course. I have the Easter break to organise actors, call sheets and production budgets etc. It’s a story inspired by the first line of a Regina Spektor song – also called Grand Hotel – with the first line being “Somewhere below the Grand hotel, there is a tunnel that leads straight to Hell.” There’s still some editing I want to do on the script, but it’s almost there.

Finally, I am trying to work out which of two short film scripts – the first being Billy Frankenstein, also originally written for the film course and the second being my second choice for this final-term film, entitled The Master’s Boots – to submit to the Large Format Films competition. The Master’s Boots was only voted down at the film course for production budget reasons, as it is set in the early 1900s, and needed Edwardian costumes, three locations, a certain number of extras and ideally a plane. However, the Large Format Films first prize is £5000 towards making your film, so I am heavily considering that one instead.

Plus, it has the added benefit of being inspired by something I learnt about my own family this week: That is, that my Great-Grandma had an argument with her mother about whether she was going to work as a servant in a big house nearby, or with her friends at a local factory.

Things Learnt:
Have been trying to get my head around the various different podcast services, so can advertise Legend of Aramelle as much as possible. Lots of the services do have lessons and articles in various topics, that I am slowly working my way through.

Have also learnt a bit more about which type of microphone I want to buy once my savings have recovered from my sick leave. Also, that the levels I might hear in a Mix-Pre3 Sound Mixer don’t necessarily translate easily to Garageband on my laptop!

Book Reviews

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home (Catherine M. Valente) Review

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

5 stars.

This is the fifth book in the Fairyland series and I think the last. At least it is the last following these characters anyway, but the ending does such a good job of tying up September’s story that I don’t mind at all.

“The Land of Parents is strange and full of peril.”
The last book in the series followed the changeling children Hawthorne and Tamburlaine and I did find that the writing style which I usually thoroughly enjoy started to annoy me a little in that book, however, that must have just been down to the characters or the story, because the writing style in this book read to me like the first one and is infinitely quotable all the way through.

“Today I shall be a wicked murderous tyrant and crush something nice under my heel.”
We meet September as she is the Queen of Fairyland, but all the previous monarchs of Fairyland are also present and they all want to rule, so The Cantankerous Derby is set in place and whoever can find The Heart of Fairyland will rule. The derby takes up most of the rest of the book and The Heart of Fairyland, while possible to be anything is of course only possible to be one thing really, and once you know what it is it’s obvious and very fitting for not only the Fairyland series but every fairytale about magical worlds.

“All librarians are members of the Catalogue. That’s what you call a coven when it’s made up of Librarians instead of witches.”
I would say that while I do have my favourite books of the series and less favourite books of the series, as a whole the series does work extremely well and I know this will not be the last time I read the whole series through.

Book Reviews

Book Review: To Kill a Kingdom (Alexandra Christo)

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

“Technically I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.”

This book is loosely based on The Little Mermaid, but is a darker retelling of the story as instead of a mermaid the main character is a siren turned human for punishment. In order to redeem herself she must take the heart of a prince in her human form.

“Love is a word we scarcely hear in the ocean.”

The book is a joy to read, as both the story and the writing style compliment each other well and it seems that the surface of the world created in the book has barely been scratched, as there are a hundred kingdoms and we only visit a handful.

“Is that what it means to be human? Pushing someone else out of danger and throwing yourself in?”

The book is a standalone so the ending ties everything together well but could have been done over more than a few pages and any other books set in this world, but following different characters, would be interesting to read to find out more about the hundred kingdoms.

“I died once and I haven’t been able to do it again since.”

For a debut novel or for any novel, the story is compelling and the writing style unique, and I will definitely read whatever story Alexandra Christo tells next.

5/5.

 

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

“In Faerie, there are no fish sticks, no ketchup, no television.”

The Cruel Prince is the first book in a new fantasy series by Holly Black and it certainly sets up the future books in the series well. The first chapter is a prologue where we learn how the main character of Jude came to be a mortal living in Faerie, and the book shows the darker side of Faerie lore from the beginning.

“I can no more guess the assumptions that go along with glittering sneakers than a child in a dragon costume knows what real dragons would make of the cooler of her scales.”

At the beginning of the book I thought I understood where it was going to go and how the story was going to play out, but reading further you start to have suspicions that all is not as Jude thinks in the world of Faerie. There is more than one plot twist in the book and while I guessed one of the main ones, I did not guess the one at the end, which is always refreshing for me as I have a habit of guessing endings.

“‘Nice things don’t  happen in storybooks,” Taryn says. ‘Or when they do happen, something bad happens next. Because otherwise the story would be boring, and no one would read it.'”

A lot of this book is set up for the next one in the series and while the set up does need to happen, the first half of the book does drag a little, but the second half more than makes up for that as Jude learns to use the weaknesses of Faerie to her advantage and the book ends when Jude’s plan is just starting to be borne out.