2012 D.I.C.E. Summit Speaker Spotlight Q&A

Glen Ballard 
President
Augury

You will be speaking on the topic, “Greater Than The Sum: The Miracle of Collaboration.”  We’d love for you to elaborate a little bit on your topic and what you will have in store for the attendees at the DICE Summit.

As a writer/producer I’m continually refining the process of directing the creativity of many talented people in the service of an integrated expression.  As a musician the benefits of precise and detailed collaboration are obvious to the average listener.  A conductor can organize and focus the disparate colors and tones of an orchestra into a single expression of enormous emotional power.  The “magic” effect of the many parts brought together is the result of something that may in its constituent elements be ordinary or mundane.

The many strands and fibers of any fabric disappear into the whole cloth...and the best art becomes a perfect circle, an egg of an idea.  Good collaboration allows for that single effect from many sources.

As the scope of our platforms expands into the Transmedia experience, the ability to make sense of complex material becomes paramount. Clearly one of the most powerful tools in integrating multi-platform experiences is music.  The power of musical DNA that grows out of an idea can create an “aerodynamic” vehicle that travels almost anywhere you want it to go. 

At the DICE summit we will trace some musical DNA through a few examples of movies and games.  Sound design and music become huge elements in how we tell our stories, and the integration of good music as early as possible can only serve the story.

We’ll also touch on some examples of great collaborations on some classic records that I had the privilege to be involved with. I learned early in my career from no less a master than Quincy Jones that it’s important to create a “safe” working environment in which each artist feels like their contributions will be given due consideration and that it’s fine to take crazy creative leaps because most of those end up as pratfalls. But then the BIG leap is made and something important is achieved that wouldn’t have happened any other way.

A hot term in gaming has been “transmedia.” Music can also be an integral part of the transmedia equation – where has your work been included/affected it?

Transmedia is the most exciting realm imaginable.  The complexity of creating worlds and its interesting inhabitants is appealing on every level.  The Wagnerian scope and ambition of it all seems much more achievable and approachable than the Ring cycle, but in every way potentially more powerful.  This is the future for many serious artists.  The challenge to us as creators is great, but the pay-off is even greater.  The richness of overlapping stories and uncertain endings is enormously appealing and requires new and better thinking.  We are learning!!!

As a musician, learning instruments isn’t enough anymore.  You have to be well-versed in all the new music technology.  How has technology allowed you to evolve as an artist and musician?

If we accept that each musician must acquire a basic music skill set, then I can say without question that digital technology has had the most important and fundamental impact on my creativity.  It has been like going from primary colors to thousands of hues.  Learning music is still in my opinion critical, but learning your other “instruments” like Logic, Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools is just as critical.

As a music collaborator, how do you feel interactivity has affected music and entertainment in general?

Interactivity has awakened something fundamental in many creators that may have been missing; the audience is paying attention!  We are communicating if we are doing our job, and a big part of communicating is listening.  The one-way street of the past will not be enough to satisfy our audience.  This becomes the biggest collaboration of all and it becomes a new kind of dialogue between artist and recipient.  The artist has a new level of sensitivity to bring to the table, and a new obligation.  

It seems that you’ve done it all – albums collaborations, film and now theater.  What’s next for you? What other areas do you want to conquer next?

 I am currently involved with two multi-platform projects that integrate almost everything I know about storytelling.  Music is at the center of both, which includes an interactive game, a trilogy of movies, a motion comic, live music and novels.  I’m also writing for the stage and continuing to create music, but for exciting new platforms.