Fourth Grade Gladiators

I use this blog to primarily promote my work as a composer. It’s gotten a lot of traffic lately from people looking for the “No Country For Gay Men” parody video I did last week. I originally posted it on another section of my website

If you haven’t seen the video here it is:

How it was made:

It took a few hours of repeating lines to get the inflections to be funny/interesting. I tried to keep the timing of the words to be exactly the same as Javier’s but I found that if I needed to fudge the timing to make it funnier that was fine.

Next I muted the original to play only when the gas station attendant speaks.

At this point the sound of each character still didn’t sound like they were in the same space. I added the slightest room reverb to my voice to match the original. I then played back the audio of each character in a room with wood floors about the same size of the room they were in. I recorded this back into my DAW and we were almost there.

I added a room tone, the music and a distant ringing telephone to heighten the tension. If you recall the original scene has almost no music at all. I made sure not to over do it.

This first started as a funny idea I had. It turned into a way to show off my sound design chops.

UPDATE:

No Country For Gay Men has been mentioned in this weeks Entertainment Weekly.

Web Obsession of the Week

SWEET AS CHIGURH

Remember that heart-pounding confrontation in No Country For Old Men when Anton Chigurh, Javier Bardem’s coin-tossing killing machine, taunts an elderly store clerk who has no clue he just might be ringing up his last sale? Well, some online joker has turned the scene on its head, replacing Bardem’s gravelly intonation with a hyper-effeminate voice-over. The clip is a dandy, not only because its flamboyant Chigurh is so jarringly different from the Coen Brothers’ assassin, but also because the clerk’s bewildered reaction works perfectly with either voice. When Chigurh says, “You’ve been putting up your whole life - you just didn’t know it,” try not to titter at a bloodthirsty villain who sounds a bit like Linda Richman. - Jeff Labrecque

In the May 23rd, 2008 issue on page 105.

Revision3.com asked me to write the audio package for Social Brew. After firing up the Casios and plugging in a few esoteric guitar pedals these sounds were born.

from Rev3:Social Brew is the show that takes you inside the world of social networking services. From Linked-in to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter - just to name a few - we’ve got you covered.

http://revision3.com/socialbrew/

Motion Design by Eden Soto
Music/Sound Design by Lawrence Scaduto/Fourth Grade Gladiators

Why remix Peggy Lee? First because she’s awesome. But most importantly the challenge of remixing a song originally performed in 3/4 into what is essentially a 4/4 dance beat intrigued me.

Here is the original song:

Peggy Lee - Happy Holiday

Once Again a fantastic opening by Eden Soto. Music by me Lawrence Scaduto/Fourth grade Gladiators

Notes on how it was recorded: The bass is a Fender Korean Squire P-Bass recorded using a lil’ bit of compression and Waves Maxx Bass. It’s by far the cleanest and deepest dub I’ve gotten this bass to sound. I was all set to use amp modeling software when I stumbled upon this happy combination. The horns were taken from various sources of samples. The drums were a random not-so-in-time loop found deep in my collection. The vibe I was going for was a sort of an ESG thing. If you don’t know ESG check out this video (the song is sped up quite a bit): http://youtube.com/watch?v=TUoGuRp–tE

If Harvard offered a PhD in deceit, this would be it. Award-winning magician Brian Brushwood takes viewers on an inside tour of bar tricks, street cons, and scams. If you watch carefully, you’ll never have to pay for a drink again! http://revision3.com/scamschool/

Music by Fourth Grade Gladiators/Lawrence Scaduto

Video by Eden Soto (edensoto.com)

After creating Revison3.com’s theme music for popSiren, one of it’s latest and greatest offerings, there was a bit of hub bub in the forums asking for a longer version for the fans to listen to while dancing, doing homework, writing lolcats, etc.

Here is the intro (video by Eden Soto) in it’s original glory…

Without further ado, Fourth Grade Gladiators (aka, I, Lawrence Scaduto) proudly presents popSiren: Remixed and Uncut: Fourth Grade Gladiators - popSiren Theme Uncut and Remixed.mp3

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Motion Design by Eden Soto
Music by me, Lawrence Scaduto

The Future of Web Apps showcases the successful web technologies and business trends of the future, delivered by the pioneers of today. Attended by all the major European and US start-ups and industry experts, it’s the best place to learn directly from the developers, designers and entrepreneurs behind the web’s brightest stars in a relaxed and fun environment.

Microsoft is launching The Code Trip later this month. It’s a bus tour of “the developer evangelists who interact with our community groups” Here’s the intro to their soon to come videos from the events.

I got involved through Eden and the project went off swimmingly. For those that are curious about production: I used Guitar Rig and a USA Telecaster from 2001-ish. Drums were chopped up one hits from some unknown library. And Bass is my beloved Japanese Fender Squire P-bass from the eighties. It beats the pants off any current Mexican made P-bass by Fender which cost about 2 to 3 times as much.

Animation by Eden Soto (edensoto.com)

Music/Vocals by Lawrence Scaduto

Opencontent.tv asked us to write a piece for a viral video they were producing for Opera Mini.

Animation by Eden Soto (edensoto.com)
Music/Sound Design by Lawrence Scaduto

Today revision3.com’s latest show debuts. It’s called the Digg Reel.

From Revison3.com: We’ve taken the best and highest rated user submissions from the video section of Digg.com and put it all together for you to enjoy. So sit back, press play and get ready to roll The Digg Reel.Animation by Eden Soto

Opencontent.tv asked us to write a piece for a stop motion viral video they were producing for Opera, a great web browser.

Tekzilla! It’s fun to say isn’t it? What is it? It’s a show, fool.

Revision 3 asked me to do my thing for this thing they were doing and we came up with some cool things. Ya dig?

My homie Eden Soto did the animation. More of his awesome work is viewable at edensoto.com

About the Show

Embrace digital technology. Join the Tekzilla crew and make your tech work better for you. Or you can go live in the woods with an axe. Every Friday Jessica Corbin and Patrick Norton deliver product reviews, computer help, tech tips on everything from iPods to camcorders, HD to the Internet, plus do it yourself projects.

Watch the first episode here

Yes we can! Clean, crisp and caloric; That’s how I like to think of this piece written for and purchased by Radio Shack. You’ll notice there is no Voice Over on the video. We’re showcasing the music here! But for those of you that are concerned you’re missing a key element in the plot I’ll fill you in. If a bunch of phones decide to breed they will make other electronic devices. Like a proper electronics kennel, Radio Shack will make sure the devices won’t produce strange offspring like Video Golf Caddies or Flowbees.

Word! Well maybe it’s not a hit per say, but it should be. Those wily cats over at Revision 3 hit yours truly up for some more original music for their new series, The GigaOM Show. Eden Soto once again handled the visual duties handing in amazing work in such little time.

About the Show

The GigaOm Show, hosted by Om Malik and Joyce Kim, is a weekly show about technology and business. Om and Joyce serve up the inside analysis of technology news that you need to know. Each week, the dynamic duo will preview a hot startup and get to know a seasoned entrepreneurial vet.

UPDATE: Christopher Wilkie has posted polite praise on his blog about our work.

Eden Soto does some awesome animation and graphic work. He asked me to provide some music for this show open. He’s a nice guy. He has never kicked a cat or made a baby cry. I hope his niceness runs off on me.

Eden Soto did the animation. Talk about a talented dude, his stuff always looks great and is amazingly fluid. He asked me to do the music and here’s the final product.

A good buddy of mine Joe Martine made this wonderful little short film back in April of aught six. I did the score to it and we all agreed that it came out better than we thought. This one is a builder so give it a little time to get to all of the wonderful strings, french horns and casios. Shot in NYC.

I wrote this for the great folks over at Revision3. They produce a lot of interesting original content for the web including the Diggnation podcast. Pixel Perfect is a “how-to” show about Photoshop hosted by Bert Monroy, considered to be one of the top Photoshop artists. Check his site for some crazy photo realistic works made entirely in Photoshop.

In the wake of the OiNK.cd take down we decided to slop together a quickie song and video. We thought, “How bad, cheesy, sappy and sentimental can we make this?”OiNK.cd was a great website of music lovers and sharers. It will be missed.