Today we are recording two tracks with local, up-and-coming Indy rock group, “The Blank Slates.” (Troy Lawton is lead engineering, with Jonathon Wong as assistant engineer.  All of the interns have been helping out this week and rotating responsibilities.) Featuring Andrea Iacopini on guitar and vocals, they produce a high-intensity, earthy nuance with a forward drive. According to Andrea, “The Blank Slates” is a “concept of ever-changing sound, where each song has space to develop into its own without allowing the band itself to be easily categorized.”

Andrea was joined by drummer Cochrane McMillan in January of this year, with bassist Martin Fowler adding to the mix later that month. Not only are they solid musicians, but their tracks are chock full of well-blended harmonies and tight fills.

In “My Only Regret,” Cochrane takes the lead on drums and has been playing solid all day, with Turkish hand-hammered cymbals adding nice texture and shimmer.  Martin has a solid ear in this tune with dead-on rhythm and innovative fills. Andrea is a natural songwriter, and struck gold with his addictive opening guitar and bass lines.

www.myspace.com/theblankslates

The goal of today’s session is to create the majority of a demo for distribution to local radio stations.

Good energy, good times, good clean fun.

-Emily Hendricks

Elements is a digital media training program for at-risk young people and ex-offenders ages 18 – 23. Funded by the California Employment Training Panel, the program provides 150 hours of industry-standard training in one of three training tracks – Web and Video, Audio and Multimedia, and Drafting and Design – as well as an additional 150 hours of job skills development and career counseling. The program engages students full-time, Monday through Thursday, from 9am to 5pm for three months. Upon successful completion of the program, students are given job placement assistance.

In cycle 2, different from the first cycle, Artist/Musician, Zack Vieira will be the focus of the group portfolio. Zack has recorded with Sound Arts and will continue the development of his debut solo release. The talented and eager students will team up and use Zack as their “client” and with their new skill-sets create and package a portfolio of Zack’s work. This will include designs for CD packaging, flyers, a mini documentary, and a website design and build with sounds, flash, songs and videos. Shortly after the completion of the portfolio, Zack will be releasing an EP and will later be featured in the Sound Arts Breakup Compilation.

Interested in applying to participate in the Elements Program?
Download the application for cycle 3.

Last week Wendy Levy from the Bay Area Video Coalition put together a multi-platform producer program like no other. The 2008 Producers Institute was a 10 day opportunity to incubate great ideas for social change, within some of San Francisco’s best facilities, and amongst some of the sharpest and most well informed teams of creative professionals. Producers and directors from around the world are paired with mentors and experts in audio, video, web 2.0, social networking, mapping, Second Life, and game design to help manifest multi-platform projects that connect people with political, cultural, environmental, and open-source information and content. Many producers arrived with a rich seed while others were had already created sites or documentaries. In all cases, the result for each team, from the highly productive week, was a 15 min keynote presented at The Museum of the African Diaspora to organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Sundance Documentary Institute, and ITVS. Each presentation encapsulated the, largely user driven, web, mobile, and multimedia concepts and proposals that would help to provide users with the tools, networks, and inspiration to use cutting edge technology to create a social, political, and global influence. A truly unbelievable experience!

Want to learn more? Check out these links to other articles and blogs:

http://bavc.org/producersinstitute/panel.htm

http://www.zoom-in.com/blogs/film-video/incomming-the-bavc-producers-institute/

http://www.memoryminer.com/blog/?p=94

http://www.calebbooker.com/blog/2008/06/04/dont-call-it-citizen-journalism

http://bavc.wordpress.com/2008/05/29

http://bavc.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/here-we-go-but-where-are-we-going/

http://bavc.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/producers-institute-day-one/

http://bavc.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/pi-from-the-intern-perspective/

http://bavc.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/producers-institute-plenary-panel/

BAVC Spot 1

BAVC Spot 2

BAVC plans to continue to host off-site Logic classes at Sound Arts along with a handful of other cool classes including a Sound Design Workshop on June 10th, 2008, with instructor and musician, Christopher Willits. To enroll in the next Logic class on July 28th – 30th, 2008, contact www.bavc.org