The Final Countdown! (sung in vocal style of Joey Tempest from Europe)

One week from today, I will be submitting everything to the Graduate Studies office. One week from today. April 28th. Just a few months ago, I thought this day would never come and now I only have seven days to get there… crawling and dragging across the finish line… drenched in sweat and utterly parched. 

I have replaced the VO scratch tracks that were in my first and second rough cuts with the formal voiceover bits. Mooney added the cassette tape sounds I was looking for and adjusted some levels. He also recorded the formal voiceover and everything sounds great. All of this resulted in a fairly strong third rough cut that I am pretty pleased with. Things have come together. I am close to the final version of the piece.

But here’s the struggle. I am now in evaluation / outside review stages. I played the (almost) final piece for my sound design class last night. I had them fill out questionnaires and we followed that by talking about the piece for almost an hour. I also sent the third cut to my cousin Mike. He replied with four pages of thoughts (I appreciate that time investment so much, by the way. It makes me feel less alone with all of this business). Every bit of feedback has been so helpful, but SO MUCH OF IT is contradictory. Parts that some people love are deemed erasable by others. Parts that those people love seem superfluous to others. Other stuff is totally valid but I just don’t have the time to incorporate it. I am attempting to strike the delicate balance between listening to critique and being true to what I think serves the piece best. A friend reminded me of something Jack White said: “It’s safe to say somebody out there’s got a problem with almost anything you’ll do.” Thanks for the reminder. I plan on going through all the feedback I have received and methodically deciding what I can realistically work from and what I can’t. And trusting my gut with the rest of it.

I want to go deeper into so much more of what is going on with me right now. I decided on a title. I have had 324324 eureka! moments. I am editing this piece down to the very second it is due. I have to be completely done with my production book by Monday at noon (gasp!). I want to go into all of this, but… well… I only have a week left to do everything. Time is precious.