Who Are Red Monkey ?
Red Monkey were a loose collective put together by Richard King who'd been casually approached with a view to contributing a couple of tracks for the soundtrack to Witchcraft X, Mistress Of The Craft. However unbeknownst to us deadlines were approaching and Elisar Cabrera, director of said feature presentation, asked if we could do all the music for the flim. So with about two weeks to go before the film had to be finished we set to work trying to come up with enough sound track music for a film - despite us not having a finished copy to work with !
Ah but little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for. With just over a week to go we receive a timecoded VHS "final" copy to work with plus an added request "can you also add some sound effects ?". So without much time to work in we put our shoulders to the wheel and after much effort came up with a list of sound clips which we documented along with their corresponding SMPTE timecode start and end times which we duly deliver.
Ah but little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for. With just over a week to go we receive a timecoded VHS "final" copy to work with plus an added request "Can you also add some sound effects ?". So without much time to work in we put our shoulders to the wheel and after much effort came up with a collection of material (songs, sound clips, effects and atmospheres etc. etc.) plus a full log of each pieces corresponding SMPTE timecode start and end times which we duly deliver to a grateful Elisar.
After this many moons go by until Richard receives a still unfinished, but apparently production ready, VHS copy in the post and we eagerly sit down to watch the results of our labours... To find that not only was the film a different version but where our sound clips had been used they hadn't been placed at the correct SMPTE offsets... resulting in our overlaid sound effects giving some scenes a surreal "cheap kung fu film" effect as punch effects strike almost seconds after the punches are thrown... D' oh !
Oh well, it was fun doing it and we did our best. And to this day we've never received either a finished copy of the film or so much as a penny for our efforts (no change there then - ed.) so noone has any right to complain ! In fact the only reason we've ever seen the released version of the film is courtesy of Herr Ramjet buying one off ebay (for the princely sum of 2 dollars)
Next time we get asked (what next time ? - ed.) we'll make sure we have something approaching a finished film (or at least a good approximation of one), a clear idea of what's required, and a reasonable amount of time to work in !
All material featured on this web page was written, recorded & produced by
Red Monkey and is �Red Monkey 1999. Tracks were recorded either in the Temple of Din or West Orange Studios (Preston) or a bit of both. Free for personal use but if you use anything commercially we'll require a cut !
Personnel
- Raptor Ramjet: Bass, Electrickery
- Alan Gregson: Electrickery, Guitar
- "Blind" King Richard: Electrickery, Harp
- Steve "My Stevie" Borsley: Guitar, Trumpet
- Karen Bentham: Saxophone
