Profile Piece of Emi Evans

Emi Evans’s full name is Rebecca Emiko Evans, who is notable for her involvement in the production of esteemed video game music like NieR. Her first involvement in video game music can be traced back to when she was requested to work on an arrange album of a Nintendo DS game known as Etrian Odyssey 2.

Emi Evans started playing the Cello at the young age of eight, and initially actually thought of becoming part of an orchestra. It was during this time that she composed songs, sung, and played the piano. It was only when she became fifteen that she was scouted by a Japanese producer and began considering pursuing a career singing. One of the most distinguishing features about Emi Evans if her well-versed background. Though her mother tongue is English, she is well-versed in a myriad of languages, composing songs that incorporate elements of German, French, Gaelic, and Japanese. This powerful multilingual base came to serve an important role in her work with the NieR project. For the NieR project Emi Evans was asked to produce songs of a very special kind. Inventing languages of her own through the mixing and molding of all the languages she has used is but one of the few arduous tasks she faced during her time with the NieR project. Since NieR takes place in an apocalyptic earth thousands of years in the future, Emi Evans was tasked with attempting to conceive how the modern languages of our world would sound after hundreds of years of drifting.
NieR’s primary composer, Keiichi Okabe is a member of MoNACA—an organization that specializes in producing music that serves highly specific needs such as video game scenarios. This brings us to one of the reasons Emi Evan’s work is so special: making music that serves a clear and distinct purpose.


Going back to the soundtrack “Grandma” for example… when Emi Evans was tasked with producing lyrics for this piece she was given clear instructions by Mr. Okabe on the criteria it needed to satisfy. She was told that at some point in the game, a powerful boss is fought. The tactics of this particular boss is to distract and weaken you by making you remember some of your saddest and most painful memories. Producing music that caters to such a niche and specific scenario is what enables it to express and convey powerful emotions in my opinion. It is weaving meaning and purpose into the raw auditory form of the song to give it a soul. Such a process is one of the reasons NieR music is so special.

The Power of Words that Lack Meaning

Emi Evans is a Vocalist and Lyricist involved in the production of amazing original soundtracks such as that of Video Games “Nier Replicant” and “Nier Gestalt.” The songs of these games are notable for being written in an entirely fictional language.

Q: How did your career in music begin?

A: I began practicing the cello at age 8 thinking I’d play as part of an orchestra in the future. I actually didn’t start singing professionally until age 21.

Q: How did you get in the field of video game music?

A: My first work with video games happened when I was asked to write and sing for an arrangement album of the Nintendo DS game Etrian Odyssey 2. Shortly afterwards I got involved with the production of NieR.

Q: How was the creative decision to sing in a fictional language made for NieR?

A: NieR takes place in a withered world hundreds of years in the future. After 1000 years of drifting, what would our languages sound like by then? That was the question in our minds as we worked on producing the soundtrack.

Q: Does the fact that the lyrics lack conventional linguistic meaning change its effect in some way?

A: Definitely. In real language, both the meaning of the words and our delivery work together to express emotion. When the meaning of words is stripped away though, communication loses intellectual value making it more pure. You must make up for a fictional language’s lack of meaning by pouring extra emotions into it, making it much deeper on an emotional level!

http://youtu.be/XgMRNiEPPYg

One of my favorite elegiac tracks of Nier’s soundtrack.

I’ve always wondered what made NieR’s soundtrack so hauntingly beautiful. If the purpose of music is to convey emotion, words that lack true meaning can express it more powerfully than anything else!

It’s Time to Change up Disney’s Formulaic Nature of Creating Stories

When one considers the vast success of Disney’s last winter release, Frozen, the question of why it was so successful immediately comes into question. Analytically speaking the primary storytelling elements of Frozen do not deviate much from what Disney portrays in its other movies. At its basest form, it is the story about a protagonist overcoming evil and acquiring true happiness, with the villain that hinders their path being justly punished in the process. There are many recycled elements from past movies such as an endearing non-human sidekick, conveniently evil antagonists to surmount, and an inevitable happy resolution complete with romantic love waiting in the end. Considering these elements, it can be argued that Frozen is essentially the same story in a different form.

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Faint Traces of Progress

That having been said, there are indeed elements of progressiveness in Frozen. There is a notable focus on the internal conflict of the main characters, a welcome though incomplete deviation from Disney’s traditional black and white moral division. A larger emphasis is placed on the bond between siblings rather than the usual romantic development between two lovers. Though once again, Disney shows a reluctance to depart from their usual tendencies, making sure to depict love being inevitably fulfilled at the end of the movie in the form of Anna and Kristoff. Additionally though the female leads are not as hopeless damsels in distress as usual, they are still subject to male domination throughout the movie. In the battle against the Duke’s men, Elsa is beaten down and imprisoned despite fighting with immense magical ice powers. The implication that men are superior in fighting than females even should they possess unbelievable magical abilities doesn’t exactly depart from gender stereotypes. Meanwhile Anna is left to literally left to die by Hans because he refuses to kiss her. The manner in which she begs for his approval and love in an attempt to live is sorely reminiscent of a time when it was believed a woman’s value in life could only be achieved through finding love and marrying. The fact that Anna finds love in the form of Kristoff in the movie’s happy ending only reinforces this gender preconception.

In the end, Disney tries to incorporate elements of progressiveness into their movie but stay conservative with their changes and ultimately do not stray far from adhering to their tried and try formulaic story structure. Make no mistake; Frozen is an excellent and, suitably so, successful movie. In terms of music, presentation, animation, and so forth, Frozen is top of the line. But it can be said that those elements have developed disproportionately compared to its story.

Committing to Change

Indeed, Frozen is an enjoyable experience with high entertainment value, explaining its due success. But that is why I feel there is potential for so much more. Currently Disney holds an unrivaled position of influence, being able to reach audiences of all kinds, far and wide. I feel that there needs to be a wider vision behind that power, a resolve to communicate to the people the essence of storytelling. Human beings learn and grow through stories. They learn how to be members of their culture through the stories they are exposed to from infancy on. If our understanding of the world and subsequent resulting behavior is shaped by such a force, we should be more prudent about what the stories we tell contain. Disney as of right now sends many misleading and maladaptive messages. For example, Disney’s common practice of simplifying their story’s conflicts into a clear moral division of black and white is retrograde to facilitating a healthy understanding of how the world works.

As an influential platform of storytelling, I believe Disney has an obligation to society to introduce innovation in the way they tell their stories. Storytelling is important because it provides a way for people to develop a sense of self, life, and the surrounding world. Ironically the same reason that Disney feels no pressure to change its formula is the same reason it is the one that can afford the most to do so— money. Disney has no inherent need to make risky storytelling decisions when it has a formula that has been proven to work. But that’s also the reason it has a large cushion for exploring innovation. As an institution that is capable of reaching audiences wide and far, I feel Disney has a responsibility to fully exploit the potential of the powerful storytelling platform it has established. There are so many lessons that can be taught, and messages that can be sent. It simply needs to take a step beyond the comfortable boundaries it has set.

Upcoming Game Silent Hills Promises a Merging of Mediums

 On August 12, 2014 a playable teaser of an upcoming video game named “Silent Hills” was released on PS4. Silent Hills is to be the first survival horror game that utilizes a powerful newly developed engine known as “Fox Engine.” Fox Engine has highly refined capabilities, allowing it to create shockingly photorealistic graphics. The reason Silent Hills piques my interest is because of its interesting development approach; namely how it is being directed by game director Hideo Kojima in collaboration with famous Hollywood film director Guillermo del Toro. It marks one of the first times in history that a highly esteemed game director joins forces with a similarly prominent film director. The potential of merging gaming and cinematography is boundless, paving the way to the creation of a revolutionary new field of creative work.

     A trailer released on Sep 17, 2014 demonstrates Silent Hills’ unparalleled photorealistic capabilities.

According to Gamespot, Silent Hills may even adopt cinema’s episodic format, being released in a similar manner to Telltale Game’s revolutionary The Walking Dead. Another reason to keep an eye out for Silent Hills besides its adoption of cinema techniques and directing is the style of gameplay it promises players. While many contemporary horror games rely on threat of death and jump scares to perpetuate its feeling of terror, Silent Hills explores a dimension of human psyche that unnerves people on a very fundamental level. There is a story behind the game that is waiting to be unraveled, creating a nervous dynamic between the player’s fear of the unknown and their curiosity to learn more. Silent Hills’ form of horror is a slow burn, gradually wearing away at the player’s mental state as it forces the player to question how much they are willing to risk in order to continue further in the game.

5 Reasons Making Creative Works has Never Been Easier

Whatever your medium of choice is, whether it be digital art, books, video games, or visual novels, here a ton of things that you can be grateful for in this age of information.

Accessibility of Visual Art Freeware

An artist has never been more empowered than in today’s society. Whereas artistic hobbies and endeavors were restricted by socioeconomic status and tool/supply limitations in the past, nowadays anybody with computer access can grab quality software from online. Art software doesn’t require consistent financial backing to support it and has the benefit of non-destructive workflow; meaning if you mess up somewhere the entire piece isn’t ruined. Image-wise, art software allows you to create things people of the past could only dream of.

 

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Emotive Music Direction

Like artists, musicians of the modern era have access to digital music production software and editing software. But what I consider more important than that is the new fields that have been opened to musicians, namely, series affiliated music. Music has always existed throughout most of human history, but never before had it had the same sense of purpose as before. E.g. video game music represents a category of music that has an extremely refined sense of direction and purpose. A horror game needs eerie and creepy music. An action game needs intense and epic music. Giving a musician a strong sense of purpose is a recent development.

Immersion and Interaction

Immersion in the universe through gameplay is a very recent development. An audience member never joined in on stage in a play of Romeo and Juliet. A reader never plunged into the pages of a copy of Jane Eyre and started writing in sentences of their own. A story and the universe it encompassed has always been the domain of the author and the author alone… until now.

Accessibility for Inspiration

There has never been more accessibility to novel ideas and original concepts. Inspiration for the writing of one’s own world can be found by consuming the myriad masterpieces of other creators. An aspiring character designer emotionally affected by the computer game “To the Moon,” may be inspired to include mental disabilities in their next work. A writer that shed tears over the visual novel “Narcissu” may want to develop a story revolving around terminal illness in their next work.

Communities

The internet has proven to be a bountiful tool for the aspiring creator. If you want to conceive a universe, the availability of ideas and inspiration is practically difficult to avoid. If you want to flesh out your universe, tutorials that teach you how to do anything from digital art, to music composition, to game design can be found in the click of a mouse button. And finally when your universe is ready for sharing, there are communities that will consume and critique your content, offering suggestions and helping you refine your world.