Sound Arts Graduates Paul Stoughton (Class 68), and Travis Naas (Class 62), were a part of the sound team on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

If you haven’t heard of the Call of Duty video game franchise, you probably live on a different planet. The first-person shooter franchise has sold upwards of $25 million dollars¹ worth of it’s hit game on a variety of consoles, including XBOX, Playstation, Wii, PC, and more. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was met with critical acclaim and has broken every sales record imaginable. The audio team, including Sound Arts Alumni Paul Stoughton (Class 68), and Travis Naas (Class 62), were recently nominated for several awards for their work on the game, including the following:

• Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences:
  Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
• MPSE Golden Reel Awards: Best Sound Editing – Computer Interactive Entertainment
• G.A.N.G. Awards: Audio of the Year
• G.A.N.G. Awards: Best Cinematic/Cut Scene Audio
• G.A.N.G. Awards: Best Dialogue
• G.A.N.G. Awards: Best Interactive Score
• BAFTA

¹Sales statistic from: www.vgchartz.com

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All Access caught up with Paul Stoughton (Class 68), and this is what he had to say about his experience at Ex’pression and working on Call of Duty: MW3.

Ex’pression (EX): How did your education at Ex’pression College prepare you for the work you’re doing in the game industry?

Paul Stoughton (PS): The Ex’pression College Sound Arts curriculum covers a lot of ground. I think the layout of the program is designed so that you get exposure to the many types of audio production that could lead to a viable career. Getting started in the game industry as an audio assistant or intern, you’ll need a strong foundation made of basic audio skills that can be quickly built upon. Some of the most useful ‘Ex’pression forged’ skills that I utilized in the first years of game audio were editing in Pro Tools, studio setup and maintenance, sound design, linear audio post production, audio engineering for recording sessions (foley, sfx and vocal), and networking/interpersonal skills. The first year in games is really a sink or swim experience. You are given little time to learn the full spectrum of audio basics if you don’t already know them. I felt that my Ex’pression education was the best preparation for this that I could have gotten.

EX: What was one of the biggest challenges working on COD: MW3?

PS: In a game like COD: MW3, the battle with dynamic range is always incredibly tough. Throughout the production cycle, it was necessary to create sounds on countless occasions that had to be the loudest, most ‘in your face’ sound design possible to complement the epic set pieces. After a short journey down this road, you realize that everything is so loud all the time that nothing can be made loud by comparison. You’ve destroyed your dynamic range, just like the ongoing loudness wars in much of modern music. The only way out is to do a complete remix. You drop the levels of everything to give yourself some headroom, then start the mix all over. You make sure to be very careful what you make loud at any given moment. The more dynamic range you can introduce to a game like this, the louder the big moments sound when you really need them, and the less fatigued the listeners ears will get over time. Though it hardly ever happens, the best way to avoid this problem is to set hard limits for the relative levels of sound categories (guns, explosions, vehicles, etc.) at the beginning of the project and never allow yourself to break them.

EX: Do you have any additional advice for current students?

PS: Education aside, I also have to give HUGE credit to Shiloh and the entire Industry & Career Services department at Ex’pression. They are the best in the business, and I would not be working at my dream job in the industry of my choice without their help. If you are a current student, head over to their offices and introduce yourself!

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If you’re interested in exploring ways to develop a career utilizing audio for video games, mobile devices, and more, RSVP for the upcoming Interactive Audio Fair on May 3rd, 2012!

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Ex’pression Session with Atomic Roger
Friday, April 27^th at 7pm, in Meyer Hall

featuring:
Mike Abraham on guitar
George Ban-Weiss on bass
Eric Garland on drums

Ex’pression is proud to host the premiere incarnation of Atomic Roger! Prepare yourself for music that’s beyond categorization; come take a trip through fields of jazz, rock, blues, and beyond! The members are widely known in the Bay Area for appearing with the following groups:

• Mike, George, and Eric previously made up the backing trio for Mads Tolling the fusion violinist. They also play together in the Sylvain Carton Quartet.
• George and Mike also play together with the Mitch Marcus Quintet.

Interview with Mike Abraham

RSVP here » and bring friends!

Learn more about Ex’pression Sessions and watch past performances at: www.expression.edu/sessions

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The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit 501(c)(3) state-of-the-art mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility. In its fifteenth year, with the very newest technology and gear, the Bus continues to be dedicated to providing young people with tours of the studios and participation in free songwriting and multimedia production workshops.

We also had the chance to ask Hans Ages (Tanner), Class 76, how his education prepared him for life on the bus.

Q: How did Ex’pression College prepare you for life on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus?

Hans Ages (Tanner): Definitely in the areas of time management and work ethic. Working on the bus is a complete trip for many reasons. One of those is due to the fact that you work, play, study, talk, tour, and grow all in this one contained area. In a normal life, most of those things are separated into different locations. But with the bus, you have one relatively tiny area where all of those things occur. So because you have the ability to always be working- we almost always are. 12 hour work days are the absolute minimum, and Ex’pression absolutely helped in preparing me for that. A strong work ethic is something that going to Ex’pression absolutely requires, and the bus looks for Ex’pression grads specifically with that quality. I was also working 3 jobs outside of school; so properly managing my time between working, playing, and studying was essential. With the bus, one of the things I’m still grasping is when to stop my day of work and dedicate my time to other things. It used to be surfing for me, but now it’s just getting a chance to go to a gym or do some kind of workout; something outside the bus. Learning to dedicate that time is another skill that Ex’pression helped me understand.

The ability to communicate with many types of people was another key area Ex’pression prepared me for. Being an international school along with the different degrees brings a ton of diversity into the school’s culture. I personally had the experience of getting to know a student from Brazil. I took some of the lessons I learned with him and have effectively used them while interacting with the variety of people I meet on the road.

Ex’pression College has had over 25 grads who have worked or are working on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus!

Founder:  Brian Rothchild 

• Jeff Sobel - Class 12
• Ryan L’Esperance - Class 69
• Hans Ages (Tanner) - Class 76
• Seamus Harte - Class 54
• Tyler Winick - Class 42
• Suzanne Eliott - Class 13
• Andrew Glassmacher - Class 31
• David Layne - Class 32
• Joseph Delsohn - Class 38
• Todd Cooper - Class 38
• Benjamin Hazen - Class 66
• Herminio Quiroz - Class 3
• Robin Linvingston - Class 4
• Justin Trujillo - Class 9
• Michael Jessup - Class 11
• Micah Gustafson - Class 12
• Joel Fazio - Class 13
• Robert Healy - Class 13
• John Trinh - Class 17
• Rob Crockett - Class 19
• Ben Hayes - Class 20
• Galen Panosh - Class 22
• Mike Walti - Class 27
• Leonel Beas - Class 31
• Joseph Tenebaum - Class 31

This video is just one example of the creativity that’s paramount on the bus. Inspired by the I’m On A Boat viral hit, here’s I’m On A Bus from the JLEB crew!

www.lennonbus.org 

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Ex’pression College Zine

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Ex’pert Series event with Colum Slevin,
Vice President of Lucasfilm Animation

Colum Slevin signs the Wall of Fame at Ex'pression College

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Students in the Advertising Concepts & Strategy 2 class in the Motion Graphic Design program recently created commercials for the Doritos brand as a part of the annual “Crash The Super Bowl” advertising contest.

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Congratulations to the multitude of Ex’pression College Alumni who worked on Captain America: The First Avenger!

Many of our Animation & Visual Effects alumni worked as stereoscopic rotoscope artists for The Base Studio, converting this movie from 2D to 3D. In all, The Base Studio converted about 1000 shots from 2D to 3D! Alumnus Dylan Jutt, Class 65, is also the Resident Maya Generalist at The Base Studio. Check out his company bio on their website. For more info about the 2D to 3D conversion process for Captain America: The First Avenger, read the article with Jordon Freda, Producer at The Base Studio, on ComicBookMovie.com. The Base Studio is located in Foster City, CA.

For many of the graduates that worked on this film, it marked their first feature film credit. We caught up with a couple of them and this is what they had to say.

Melissa Flores:

“It was amazing just knowing that something I was working on millions of people would be viewing. I consider it a great stepping stone for my career in the industry.”

Airyque Ervin:

“Stereoscopic rotoscoping is a little different from traditional rotoscopoing. Typically when we roto, we go 1-2 pixels inside the silhouette. Stereo roto is 1-2 pixels outside the silhouette. Speaking of “silhouette”; that is the name of the program we used. It was a little challenging learning the new software, but thanks to the education from Ex’pression, I was able to adapt and learn it very quickly. Through much hard work and my diligent efforts on the project, I was able to land my first official credit on a feature film.”

Ex’pression College Graduate credits on Captain America: The First Avenger

• Nick Alixopulos, Class 57
• Alyson Asami, Class 78
• Taylor Blete, Class 86
• Edward Brugge, Class 70
• Nicole Burch, Class 86
• Kathy Carlston, Class 80 (uncredited, Evil Eye Pictures)
• Nathaniel Chung, Class 83
• Dominic Constantine, Class 74
• Airyque Ervin, Class 77
• Anthony Evans, Class 74
• Olivia Fernandez, Class 82
• Aaron Fetherkile, Class 64
• Melissa Flores, Class 64
• Travis Gorman, Class 80 (uncredited, Evil Eye Pictures)
• Scott Gudahl, Class 78
• Sebastian Guerne, Class 86
• Warren Hirsch, Class 76
• Alex Kasten, Class 67
• Brian Malmstrom, Class 70
• Nereyda Pimentel, Class 83
• Brian Salcedo, Class 84
• David Schrijn, Class 75
• Jonathan Scion, Class 78
• Phillip M. Shaw, Class 85
• Keith D. Simpson, Class 74
• Ryan Soule, Class 77
• Matthew Suggett, Class 86
• Thomas Sydnor, Class 81
• Barry Tuttle, Class 74
• Jeanette Vera, Class 76

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The Motion Conference is an annual event held in Albuquerque, NM, highlighting the best the motion graphics and visual effects communities have to offer. At the conference, seasoned professionals mingle and present alongside students and aspiring visual artists. Since it’s inception, Ex’pression College has sent students of the Motion Graphic Design program to the conference to network and learn about current trends in the industry.

This year, Ex’pression MGD students Andrew Bauer, Charles Lee, Lauren Patterson, and alumnus Lydia Baillergeau showed off their stop-motion Jello™ masterpiece. The students were asked by the conference organizers to produce a motion graphics piece that embodied the feeling of “celebration”, as this was the 5th birthday of the Motion Conference. They chose to use famous, historical graphic design compositions (Piet Mondrian’s “Broadway Boogie Woogie” and El Lissitzky’s “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge”) and “break” those design rules, to emulate how designers need to get together and break the mold sometimes. They presented their piece on the main stage at Motion, and were part of a Q&A panel with the other presenters from the segment of the conference, entitled “Now THAT’s Creative!”.

Ex'pression Students at Motion 11'

Student Charles Lee’s highlight from Motion ’11 was listening to William Lebeda¹ from Picture Mill speak about failure in the industry and how to turn that into a positive. “Overall, it was really insightful to see how professionals deal with clients, their design process, and other aspects of what it takes to be a working motion graphics artist,” said Charles.

Creating the jello inspired video took 2 weeks to complete and presented some unusual challenges. The jello would melt under the hot lights or it would become crisp when exposed to cooling fans for too long. The group also was mentioned for their work on the popular CGNews blog!

Portfolio sites:

• Charles Lee
• Andrew Bauer
• Lauren Patterson
• Lydia Baillergeau

¹ _{William Lebeda spoke at an Ex’pression College Ex’pert Series on May 23rd, 2011.}

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Ex’pert Series with 21-Time Grammy Award Winner Al Schmitt

Brooklyn-born Al Schmitt, a 21-time Grammy-winning engineer and producer, possesses a work ethic that consistently produces pristine, innovative and inspiring recordings, spanning four decades, with no end in sight.

Schmitt has worked with some of the industry’s most legendary artists, representing a variety of musical genres, such as Henry Mancini, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Jefferson Airplane, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Steely Dan, Barbara Streisand, and Madonna. Today, Schmitt is perhaps best known for the sonically exquisite recordings of Natalie Cole and Diana Krall.

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Al Schmitt with Shiloh Hobel, Sr. Director Industry Relations - Sound Arts

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Congratulations go out to Ex’pression College Common Core Course Director, Eric Arvai. Eric won an Ohio regional Emmy Award for his music scoring work on the film, The Last Dance. The Last Dance is a documentary film about the sculptor and artist, David Hostetler. The film was completed in 2008 and became well known after airing on PBS stations in 2010. The collaboration was an extension of work Eric had done at the School of Dance at Ohio State University in partnership with his mentor, concert pianist Andre Gribou, where he provided live improvised piano accompaniment for modern dance classes. Producer, acquaintance, and Ohio University faculty member, Keith Newman, immediately thought of Eric when it came time to score the film. The Last Dance is available on Amazon.com and periodically airs on PBS.

Film website and trailer:

www.hostetlerfilm.com

What’s your background in music?

I started taking piano lessons at age 5. I formally studied music at Berkelee College of Music for one year. I also play the bass, trumpet, drums, and didgeridoo.

Future projects:

Scoring Rick Giachino’s documentary Forgiving God for submission to the Sundance Film Festival.

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Not sure what dubstep is? Read this article from Spin Magazine:
Dubstep 101: A U.S. Primer.

Antiserum, the Bay Area’s very own leader in the dubstep movement, will be killing it live at Ex’pression College on Wednesday, October 19th. Guests will be given a rare sneak peak inside the creative process and production techniques that Antiserum implements. In an open forum with Q&A, Antiserum will demonstrate live how he sculpts his bass sounds using a hardware synth. After the Q&A, he will play exclusive new unreleased material followed by a hot student DJ performance.

Antiserum also colloborates with friend and Ex’pression College instructor Vince Santora (a.k.a. Vinja). Together they have released music on the True Score Theory label and Stop/Start Records. They are currently producing material in a variety of styles and will be divulging information about their collaborative process at the event. Vince will also be moderating the Q&A session. Connect with Antiserum on Facebook.

See you on the dance floor!

• Antiserum | Ex’pression Session
• Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
• 7pm, Meyer Hall
• RSVP

Listen to more Antiserum tracks on SoundCloud.

^{A vital contributor to the San Francisco dubstep movement, Antiserum’s Bay Area roots emerged through the fog in 2008 when he produced one of the top 10 best-selling dubstep tracks of the year. His most recent release, The Swarm EP, (on Excision’s Rottun Recordings) topped charts within the first week, putting him on worldwide rotation. Widely known for his innovative and meticulously crafted sounds, rich euphoric beats, and vast futuristic soundscapes, Antiserum’s style of West Coast bass music truly resides in a class of its own.}

We recently sat down with Antiserum to answer a few questions.

Student reaction:

Sound Arts student, Tosh Ridgeway, first discovered dubstep during renegade forest raves near Nevada City, CA, in 2005. Tosh first heard Antiserum slay the crowd in New Mexico in 2008 and was impressed by the sets extremely energetic and dark vibe. He’s excited to have the chance to hear some oozing bass emanate from Meyer Hall and see one of his music idols.

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Brian Andrews

Now in its 38th year, SIGGRAPH is the premier international event on computer graphics and interactive techniques. Program Director for Animation & Visual Effects, Brian Andrews, visited the esteemed SIGGRAPH conference this year in Vancouver, BC, along with instructor Joe Daniel, to represent Ex’pression College and to participate in the industry and conference events.

Brian’s highlights from the conference were (in no particular order):

• The Foundry’s Geek Fest. Geek Fest was held in an old Chinese movie theater turned night club and presentations were made on the new developments for Nuke, WETA‘s deep compositing platform, and the Mari texturing application.
• Cory Doctorow, editor of the popular Boing Boing blog and online free speech advocate, talked about sensible changes to copyright that support the artist.
• Pixar‘s amazing short La Luna screening and panel discussion.
• Disney Animation Studios education summit where they shared insights and resources for placing graduates with their company and a critique of successful job applicant reels.

^{*click images to view large}

Brian personally exhibited at SIGGRAPH in 2005 in the art gallery with a series of photo composites made from human and veterinary images creating hominid creatures (pictured above). He is now using those same images as concept art in an upcoming AVE Group Project Class; making a fully modeled 3D short film.

Brian Andrews is a contemporary artist, critic, and visual effects supervisor currently living in San Francisco. To learn more visit: brianandrews.org

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Daniel Brunt 2nd Place in the Verizon competition for his video, “Steve Flies Faster”.

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Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s high school Summer Camp! The projects all turned out amazing! Stay tuned to the Ex’pression website for information on registering for the 2012 Summer Camp!

Watch more Summer Camp projects here.

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Leslie Ann Jones & Performances by Lowell Trio

Saturday, July 9th
SSL 9000, Ex’pression College
Presented by our student AES chapter

Grammy-winning audio engineer Leslie Ann Jones (credits include Apocalypse Now, Dead Man Walking, video games God of War 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Infamous 2), hosted a seminar on classical instrument recording techniques. The event featured a discussion of the approach to classical music recording that she has developed as both a successful independent recordist and head of Skywalker Sound‘s Recording & Scoring Department. This was followed by a performance and recording of the Lowell Trio (piano, oboe, and cello), where attendees had the opportunity to compare the live experience to the recorded balance created by Ms. Jones. The intimate event was attended by 20 plus Sound Arts students and Ex’pression Alumni combined.

Leslie is no-nonsense when it comes to her craft. It was educational and equally enjoyable just watching her work and recount some of her experiences. The music was wonderful, accessible, and educational, too. Classical music isn’t always portrayed to be as exciting as say rock n’ roll or hip-hop, but as future audio engineers, our students still need to critically think about some of the issues in this genre as they may very well be working on a project in the future that calls for it.

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Rick Schmidt

Ex’pression College is home to a host of industry veterans like Rick Schmidt, a walking history book of filmmaking whose work has influenced countless numbers of Hollywood hit-makers and film students across the globe. Most notably is Rick’s book titled, Extreme DV at Used-Car Prices: How to Write, Direct, Shoot, Edit, and Produce a Digital Video Feature for LessThan $3,000. All incoming students in the Media Sound & Visual classes have the opportunity to learn with Rick.

Rick Schmidt has written, directed, shot, edited and produced more than twenty award winning features since 1973, which have been screened at over 50 film festivals world wide. Rick has received four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for his film works. His feature, A Man, a Woman, and a Killer, directed with his then roommate Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club, Smoke, etc.) won ‘Director’s Choice’ at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and secured him an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker’s Grant for his second feature, 1988:The Remake (London Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Channel Four/England, etc.). His fourth feature Morgan’s Cake, made for just $15,000, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival/Dramatic Competition, Berlin International/Panorama, New Directors/New Films, San Francisco International Film Festival, and others.

^{Kevin Smith, director of Clerks, endorses Rick’s work.}

You can find Rick’s books on Amazon and learn more about his consulting at lightvideo.com.

“It’s not the equipment that makes a good movie, it’s what you do with it. [With Extreme DV] Rick Schmidt shows filmmakers how to use these new tools to realize their visions.”

– John Lasseter: Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Principal Creative Advisor, Walt Disney Imagineering

“I wish I could have read this book thirty-five years ago, before I made my first low-budget features.”

–Vilmos Zsigmond, cinematographer, Deliverance, The Deer Hunter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Crossing Guard

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“All Access” recently sat down with current Ex’pression Audio Engineering Society Student Chair, Ian Duran.

I got involved because I had been an AES member for a while and the campus chapter wasn’t currently active, so a few of us teamed up to start the chapter again. It’s a nice way to get professionals to talk about their expertise and network with students.

We are looking for more post-production and interactive audio events in the future. Leslie Ann Jones from Skywalker Sound will be here this Saturday from 1-3pm followed by a performance from the Lowell Trio. There will be a Dead Kenny G’s performance workshop on July 16th.

In this photo: Spencer Roberts, Brad Christenson, Jackie Minor, Dale Jurie Smith, John Cheatham, Alex Petersen, Ian Duran, Lauren Heminez, Will Squire-Rogers, Andy Hendriksen

AES Ex’pression section members at a Meyer Sound tour in Berkeley, CA. (photo)

Recent and upcoming events:

You can keep up with the Ex’pression AES chapter through their Facebook group.

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Kai Tang wins Zooppa.com contest!

Zooppa.com held an online contest in celebration of the 10th anniversary of THE WEEK. Contestants were asked to create a video or print advertisement for a chance to win a cash prize and year’s subscription to the magazine. The top 5 video and print entries were awarded. Ex’pression College Motion Graphic Design student, Kai Tang, placed 3rd in the video category.

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Ex’pression College is an Apple Authorized Training Center, Gold Level. Get certified today with Ex’pression Pro.

Posted via email from expression’s posterous

 

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Philip Shaw created this reel at Ex’pression College in the Animation & Visual Effects program.expression.edu/​animation_visual_effects

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