fanboyism

biothlebop · Tue 21/02/2006 08:23:21

I frequently stumble upon music, books, movies, generally stuff that seriously impress me. But sometimes when I've had a persistent creative block (I paint, draw, compose, write, think alot of shit that will never be of use to me) and I experience something, a 15-year old fanboy wakes up in me, and makes me do awkward stuff. It's kinda like from a Radiohead interview I vaguely remember, when they said that they were influenced by Dj Shadow and tried to make music alike his (could have been planet Telex), however the final outcome of that song was in their style, not Shadow's. Ã,Â Luckily I have grown old and lazy, so I escaped the alternate universe where I have a 200 page Star Wars fan-fiction on my computer (actually used to know a dude who had written one). The stuff I make nowadays gets scrapped/discontinued in half an hour if it's unoriginal (= fanboy stuff or just crap), but sometimes it evolves into something better.
The thing that i'm interested in is: WHICH SONGS/ BOOKS/ MOVIES etc have made you want to create something of your own (who/what inspired you and what did you create)?

Some recent things (that made me feel creative/awestruck/inspired):

(song) The Go! Team - Get It Together : The drums reminded me of giant explodingdog.com robots stomping the ground, so, I started making a animation with enormous robots (which got scrapped after I thought that it's retarded to draw a animation to someone else's song).

(movie) Primer: A time-travel movie, shot with something that looks like it could have been a dv-cam. It made excellent use of the viewer's imagination (practically no special effects or fancy stuff, kinda like the film Stalker by that russian dead guy). Primer made me want to film a movie of my own (made shorts in the past), but it made me think that it could be actually possible (to make a decent film that isn't neccesarily a B-splatter), without shoveling in loads of cash.

Nikolas · Tue 21/02/2006 08:27:47

The first paragraph is indeed a little weird, but there you go:

Music: Stravinksy, Prokofiev, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, dEUS, KoRn, NIN, Melina Kana (Greek artist)

Movies: Ran Lola Ran, Clean shave, Pic nic at hanging rock (197something)

I won't sit down now explaining all of this, but just add that everything I wrote, I find immensly interesting, thus interesting to get things from (in comparison to Britney Spears, for example, where I dont' feel the need to 'borrow' anything...)

Tuomas · Tue 21/02/2006 08:35:18

My brother's odd with these things. He has a habit of listening one band for 2 weeks, and then start composing inspired by it. Mostly turns out pretty damn good. I myself had this thing say, a month ago, when I listenend the whole collection of Renaissance albums that I have through many times and started composing music quite different to theirs, but still inspired by their music.

BOYD1981 · Tue 21/02/2006 08:56:12

i'm pretty much inspired by everything i come across and every new thing i see, game i play or piece of music i listen to gives me ideas for other stuff.
sometimes if i want to do a background or character art i'll listen to a certain style of music for inspiration.
whenever i play a game i'm always looking at the architecture for ideas to use in my own maps, an example of this would be a map i did for Unreal Tournament which was based on Soul Reaver 2.
and whenever i play BaSS or watch Blade Runner i'm inspired to do something similar, and the scene in the recent Time Machine movie in which the moon was breaking up has inspired an entire game idea, as have some of the topics for various competitions on the forums.
the thing to remember is that the sub-conscious picks up on everything so i think sometimes you're unaware that you're being inspired by things you've seen or heard, there was an interesting experiment on a show Derren Brown did a while ago where he got two people in the adveristing business to come along to a studio to work on something, on the way to the place he was the two guys were taken past certain buildings in their taxi, posters, banners and lots of other stuff like that were put up along the route too which was all planned.
before they had arrived Derren had already drawn a poster for the same subject (which if i remember right was some kind of funeral home or some place for peoples' pets to live on...), he gave them a few hours to work on a design and their finished result was very similar to his, i think they had come up with the exact same slogan.
the show then went back and showed you what they had been taken past that had influenced them, it was very interesting.
so i'd say that everything influences everyone in one way or another.
but really the only things to have seemingly actively inspired me are Soul Reaver 2 (level design) and that one scene from the Time Machine, and quite possibly all the music i've listened to inspires the music i make (Crystal Method, Daft Punk and Goldfrapp seem to be my main influences right now), and the game i'm working passively working on now is inspired by all the nintendo games i've played (right down to me using the nintendo colour palette).
i think this is a very interesting topic of conversation and has definitely got me thinking...

Helm · Tue 21/02/2006 09:22:59

Musically I'm inspired and influenced by: Fates Warning, Confessor, Watchtower, Weakling, Psychotic Waltz, Skepticism, J.S. Bach, Anglagard, Unholy, maudlin of the Well, Cirith Ungol, Candlemass, Gyorgy Ligeti, Demilich, Pelican (early), Sieges Even, Bela Bartok, Venetian Snares, King Crimson, Ioannis Xenakis, In the Woods... and through periods, other bands or artists I get fixated on for a time.

I usually start music by naming the Sonar session after whatever I've decided to rip off at a time. So www.locustleaves.com/music/hellokitty.ogg was originally named 'weakling in the woods' for the opening bit that kinda reminds them, but as usual it degenerates to UGH UGH THRASH METAL with a few zany leads here and there, or slow doom metal, which is the music I'm most comfortable playing.

hellokitty is interesting because it rips off, in succession: in the woods..., weakling, pelican, explosions in the sky, at the gates, shape of despair. Nice going, Helm.

I have no literary aspirations, therefore no inspirations as well.

In comics, I look up to, and occasionally try to rip off Barry W. Smith, A. Pazienza, Yukito Kishiro, Munoz, Breccia, Chris Ware... that sort of thing.

Nikolas · Tue 21/02/2006 09:31:58

I have to state though, that my influencies don't come in my mind, until much much later I've finished composing.

Veyr rarely I have started writting a work in something in my mind like: "I'm going to write something like Ligety, or like Trevor Resnor...". But almost always when I finish and have let this idea go away (after a couple of months), I sit down listen to it (by chance usually, because I should be working on something new by then...), only to find out that it bears ressemblence to something. And then I feel a little miserable... $:-\$

Grapefruitologist · Tue 21/02/2006 09:33:42

Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone".
It inspired me to make the adventure game I'm still working on, "Since You've Been Gone."
It's like the song, but, better grammar.

Babar · Tue 21/02/2006 12:52:34

People inspire me. They do so much weird stuff that I feel I have to go around with a notepad in my pocket. Nature also inspires me sometimes: The way the the sun is shining in a particular way through the clouds, with the hills in the background hanging in such a specificly misty way over an open field with frosty grass...etc.

In music, the only thing that so far has inspired me into doing some ACTION is 2pac. The music resulted in some surprisingly non-violently freaky sketches.

A game that also inspired me into doing some sketches was Diablo 2. Having half a gazillion enemies all clawing at you while you battle mechanically has some element of craziness that cannot be ignored.

It's usually very specific things that hit me with inspiration. For example, not a whole song, but 2 lines from a song, or a short bit of the music from it that sticks out for me. It's not the whole "Grim Fandango is such an awesome game, it's inspired me to do something similar!!11!", but "That Chepito character is great! I especially like this and this action of his!". For people it's like when they are in a specific position, or reacting in a specific way, etc.

Phemar · Tue 21/02/2006 17:45:39

Musically I'd love to make music like Nirvana or Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Offspring.

I'd also love to write like Stephen King and sing like James Blunt.

ManicMatt · Tue 21/02/2006 19:27:09

A metal James Blunt? Hmmmm...

Anyway why would you want to sound whiney for?

Phemar · Tue 21/02/2006 19:53:26

I love his voice. He sings with such passion and he's really talented.

Nikolas · Tue 21/02/2006 20:02:34

Quote from: Zor on Tue 21/02/2006 19:53:26
I love his voice. He sings with such passion and he's really talented.

Why? Because of his voice? That cannot be considered a talent... At least for me...

BOYD1981 · Tue 21/02/2006 20:04:57

with the right hardware anyone can sing

ManicMatt · Tue 21/02/2006 22:01:40

Quote from: BOYD1981 on Tue 21/02/2006 20:04:57
with the right hardware anyone can sing

Surely they'd at least need to be in key?

I know what you're getting at though, although I suspect Mr Blunt can sing without computer aids.

I myself have started using vocal effects on my latest work, as my voice is a tad flat. Now I sound really cool! I just add things that make me sound electronic kinda like gary numan and combined that with an effect I've applied where I've made my voice sound raw and gritty. I wouldn't say that made me talentless, after all I'm writing the music and lyrics myself.

Nikolas · Tue 21/02/2006 22:04:57

Plain obvious:

Since the Spice Girls made more than one record, this simply means that you don't have to be able to sing, in order to make a record! And it also means that the producers, busted their arses in editing... $:-\$

Grapefruitologist · Tue 21/02/2006 22:07:06

Oooh! Cool! I want that hardware, heh

biothlebop · Wed 22/02/2006 12:19:47

If you use a vocoder, you can practically ignore singing in key. Else use autotune or some other plugin. I woul'dnt be surprised if almost all of the pop music on radio had some minor tweaking applied to it.

BOYD1981 · Wed 22/02/2006 12:25:34

i'd say pretty much all of it does with the possible exception of live music that is actually sung live and not mimed.
and most songs are recorded seperately from the music, the vocals are then edited and mixed.
machines have replaced the need for talent.

Tuomas · Wed 22/02/2006 12:47:47

Funny you should mention this. I've never heard people singing as well as I heard on friday at a cruise. Though it was clear that there was some hardware mixing with the voice, we sat so close we could hear the originar voice, and the one coming from the speakers, and it was completely different. Uh oh, what's the topic again?

EDIT: though I admit it'd be hell to have to listen to music like this from the radio http://www.keskiespoo.net/~salonn/mp3/Karate-Pekka/ so maybe manipulation isn't such a bad idea.

Phemar · Wed 22/02/2006 13:42:42

Quote from: Nikolas on Tue 21/02/2006 20:02:34
Why? Because of his voice? That cannot be considered a talent... At least for me...

How is that not a talent? Besides I was reffering to his music.