Middle Earth - China’s cultural industry podcast - 节目列表

Send us Fan MailThe stark cultural differences between China and the West are frequently identified as key barriers in productive professional exchanges. However, the mechanisms by which people can actually improve their cultural understanding — or “cultural literacy” — are less clear. How can professionals in China and the West bridge gaps in understanding ensuring that business can sail smoothly?   FeaturingVincent Vierron : DirectorBeatrix Frisch : General Manager at Mackevision Joey Wang : Scriptwriter Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!Three main takeaways from this week’s episode:       1) In Chinese workplaces, flexibility is key.   Partially as a result of China’s incredibly competitive labor market, workplaces in China tend to be much more flexible than their counterparts in the West. Media professionals should be ready at any moment for a change in a script or the editing of a commercial, with little notice or supporting budget. At the same time, Chinese workers will almost always respond to their emails on a Saturday evening or late at night (a habit that is far from widespread in Europe, for example). All of this results in sky-high rates of employee turnover as burnout and ambition take their toll.   2) Top-down approaches are standard in China. In the office, the boss is king. He (or she!) will always get the last word, no matter how much work went into a project beforehand. However, if an employee is flexible and patient, they can hopefully avoid the worst surprises. 3) Chinese work culture is constantly evolving. Whether the workplace is a state-owned enterprise or a private, international firm, internal procedures will inevitably vary wildly. What remains constant is that China has come a long way since the beginning of the reform and opening up period, so “middlemen” who take commissions only to put people in contact tend to be less important.  Recommended watching and listening- The Flower of War (2011)Quiz's answers- Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest who became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601, when the Wanli Emperor (万历帝) sought his services in court astronomy and calendrical science. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism and translated Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin. - Da Shan (大山), or Mark Henry Rowswell, is a Canadian comedian and television personality who is one of the most famous Western personalities in China. He has appeared several times on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala since 1988. - The Flower of War (2011) is the second-biggest flop at the Chinese box office after The Great Wall (2016). Zhang Yimou directed both films.  With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

Send us a text The stark cultural differences between China and the West are frequently identified as key barriers in productive professional exchanges. However, the mechanisms by which people can actually improve their cultural understanding — or “cultural literacy” — are less clear. How can professionals in China and the West bridge gaps in understanding ensuring that business can sail smoothly? Featuring Vincent Vierron : Director Beatrix Frisch : General Manager at Mackevision Joey Wang : Scriptwriter Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Three main takeaways from this week’s episode: 1) In Chinese workplaces, flexibility is key. Partially as a result of China’s incredibly competitive labor market, workplaces in China tend to be much more flexible than their counterparts in the West. Media professionals should be ready at any moment for a change in a script or the editing of a commercial, with little notice or supporting budget. At the same time, Chinese workers will almost always respond to their emails on a Saturday evening or late at night (a habit that is far from widespread in Europe, for example). All of this results in sky-high rates of employee turnover as burnout and ambition take their toll. 2) Top-down approaches are standard in China. In the office, the boss is king. He (or she!) will always get the last word, no matter how much work went into a project beforehand. However, if an employee is flexible and patient, they can hopefully avoid the worst surprises. 3) Chinese work culture is constantly evolving. Whether the workplace is a state-owned enterprise or a private, international firm, internal procedures will inevitably vary wildly. What remains constant is that China has come a long way since the beginning of the reform and opening up period, so “middlemen” who take commissions only to put people in contact tend to be less important. Recommended watching and listening - The Flower of War (2011) Quiz's answers - Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest who became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601, when the Wanli Emperor (万历帝) sought his services in court astronomy and calendrical science. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism and translated Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin. - Da Shan (大山), or Mark Henry Rowswell, is a Canadian comedian and television personality who is one of the most famous Western personalities in China. He has appeared several times on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala since 1988. - The Flower of War (2011) is the second-biggest flop at the Chinese box office after The Great Wall (2016). Zhang Yimou directed both films. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us Fan MailChina has found success in exporting domestic technology and consumer goods. However, its culture exportation has not achieved the same success. The language barrier may be an issue, yet South Korean and Japanese films and music have managed to overcome it and found success in exporting cultural products like video games, anime, and movies. So what gives? On this episode of the Middle Earth Podcast, the guests discuss the recent successes and failures of China’s culture going abroad. This episode was recorded during a panel at the WISE Festival 2019 at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. FeaturingEmily Xueni Jin : Science Fiction Translator Tom Simpson : Senior Director of the China-Britain Business Council Sha Hua | 华沙 : host of the talk) and  journalist for the Handelsblatt Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and usually hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Three main takeaways from this week’s episode1) Yes, the language barrier is an issue, but it is not the only one. If a Chinese indie band or film producer wants to have their work paid attention to by Western audiences, they have to upload the art onto Western social media platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, etc). Circumnavigating the Great Firewall of China makes this difficult, as well as the need to interact with fans in English. At the same time, non-Chinese individuals aren’t willing (or don’t know how) to surf the Chinese internet. But there is evidence that the language barrier can be successfully traversed: The first video to hit a billion views on YouTube was “Gangnam Style” by the South Korean singer PSY. Yet, in defense of China’s producers, the domestic market is such a huge market compared with South Korea’s that Chinese artists and producers don’t necessarily need to go global in order to survive. 2) There is still Orientalism and a lack of general knowledge about China in the West.As science-fiction writer Emily Xueni Jin pointed out, when you need to translate a Chinese concept or a mythical beast into English, should you borrow its Western equivalent or write it in pinyin and describe it? There is often a tough choice to make: to balance a “Chinese style” to highlight your stylistic differences, or to use an approach that could be construed as Westernization or Orientalism to garner a larger audience. 3) China manages to export three types of cultural products. When you look at the cultural products China sells abroad, only three types really stand out. The first is classical paintings and calligraphy. Given the lack of interest in these things among China’s own domestic youth, it prompts the question of how successful they could be abroad. The second is science-fiction works, which, surprisingly, work really well abroad. Perhaps this is because questions about the future of our planet, and how we should embrace technology, are universally understood. The last (and least known) is foreign films. A few years ago, some companies decided to invest in them. The Academy Award–winning film for Best Picture, Green Book, had a backing by Alibaba Pictures. Maybe after investing and learning for several years, Chinese companies will know how to make a global blockbuster film. One could make the argument that films from the 1990s are examples of China’s globalizing culture industry. However, films that toe the line of acceptability are being produced in far lower volume, and face greater levels of censorship. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Cal

Send us a text China has found success in exporting domestic technology and consumer goods. However, its culture exportation has not achieved the same success. The language barrier may be an issue, yet South Korean and Japanese films and music have managed to overcome it and found success in exporting cultural products like video games, anime, and movies. So what gives? On this episode of the Middle Earth Podcast, the guests discuss the recent successes and failures of China’s culture going abroad. This episode was recorded during a panel at the WISE Festival 2019 at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Featuring Emily Xueni Jin : Science Fiction Translator Tom Simpson : Senior Director of the China-Britain Business Council Sha Hua | 华沙 : host of the talk) and journalist for the Handelsblatt Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and usually hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Three main takeaways from this week’s episode 1) Yes, the language barrier is an issue, but it is not the only one. If a Chinese indie band or film producer wants to have their work paid attention to by Western audiences, they have to upload the art onto Western social media platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, etc). Circumnavigating the Great Firewall of China makes this difficult, as well as the need to interact with fans in English. At the same time, non-Chinese individuals aren’t willing (or don’t know how) to surf the Chinese internet. But there is evidence that the language barrier can be successfully traversed: The first video to hit a billion views on YouTube was “Gangnam Style” by the South Korean singer PSY. Yet, in defense of China’s producers, the domestic market is such a huge market compared with South Korea’s that Chinese artists and producers don’t necessarily need to go global in order to survive. 2) There is still Orientalism and a lack of general knowledge about China in the West. As science-fiction writer Emily Xueni Jin pointed out, when you need to translate a Chinese concept or a mythical beast into English, should you borrow its Western equivalent or write it in pinyin and describe it? There is often a tough choice to make: to balance a “Chinese style” to highlight your stylistic differences, or to use an approach that could be construed as Westernization or Orientalism to garner a larger audience. 3) China manages to export three types of cultural products. When you look at the cultural products China sells abroad, only three types really stand out. The first is classical paintings and calligraphy. Given the lack of interest in these things among China’s own domestic youth, it prompts the question of how successful they could be abroad. The second is science-fiction works, which, surprisingly, work really well abroad. Perhaps this is because questions about the future of our planet, and how we should embrace technology, are universally understood. The last (and least known) is foreign films. A few years ago, some companies decided to invest in them. The Academy Award–winning film for Best Picture, Green Book, had a backing by Alibaba Pictures. Maybe after investing and learning for several years, Chinese companies will know how to make a global blockbuster film. One could make the argument that films from the 1990s are examples of China’s globalizing culture industry. However, films that toe the line of acceptability are being produced in far lower volume, and face greater levels of censorship. With thanks to

Send us Fan MailBefore the Beijing Olympics, foreign media groups seeking to sell or co-produce science-themed media content in China had a difficult time finding partners. Paul Lewis, an independent producer and former president of Discovery Channel Canada, was nevertheless able to co-produce two science programs in partnership with Chinese state media outlets: "Daily Planet Goes to China" and "Factory Made/Made in China". In this episode, Paul discusses how rapidly the Chinese media landscape has evolved, and the implications for science-themed content. FeaturingPaul Lewis: Producer | 制片人   Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!  Recommended watching- “Factory City” episode of Factory Made/Made in China (Discovery Channel, 2009)With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

Send us a text Before the Beijing Olympics, foreign media groups seeking to sell or co-produce science-themed media content in China had a difficult time finding partners. Paul Lewis, an independent producer and former president of Discovery Channel Canada, was nevertheless able to co-produce two science programs in partnership with Chinese state media outlets: "Daily Planet Goes to China" and "Factory Made/Made in China". In this episode, Paul discusses how rapidly the Chinese media landscape has evolved, and the implications for science-themed content. Featuring Paul Lewis: Producer | 制片人 Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Recommended watching - “Factory City” episode of Factory Made/Made in China (Discovery Channel, 2009) With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us Fan MailVirtual reality (VR) is a new medium that many a technology guru has predicted will revolutionize cinema—or would, if it weren’t for the pesky problem (among others) that VR interface still requires the viewer to wear what essentially amounts to a “head box.” Nevertheless, VR markets around the world are slowly but surely expanding. Many of the major film festivals (Sundance, Venice, and Cannes, to name a few) now feature a special VR section. Overall the industry is indeed growing—especially in China. For context, here are some key figures: The value of China’s VR market in 2016 was around USD $500 million (mainly hardware). The value of China’s film market in 2016 war around USD $6.9 billion. The value of China’s film market in 2020 is projected to be USD $10 billion. The value of China’s VR market in 2020 is projected to be USD $6.5 billion (half in hardware, and the rest split between games, films, enterprise applications, theme parks, etc.).  FeaturingEddie Lou : Founder Sandbox Immersive Festival and Sandman Studios | 青岛国际 VR 影像周创始人 & Sandman Studios 公司创始人Gianluigi Perrone : Founder Polyhedron VR Studio | Polyhedron VR Studio 公司创始人 Denise Wu: VeeR’s Head of marketing | VeeR 公司营销主管 Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! This week’s episode is brought to you in partnership with “WISE: The Future Think Tank,” a group founded by Philipp Grefer in Beijing in 2018 to spark cross-sectoral dialogue about digital life, style, culture, business, science and technology. WISE invites and connects thinkers and doers from different industries online and offline to discuss essential questions about how we want and should live in the future.  For the second year running, WISE will be hosting a special event in Beijing at UCCA in the 798 Art District from May 18-19, 2019. Topics will range from how AI can help solve world hunger, if the robots will take over, what can be learned about the future by looking into the past, how to find China’s first international superstar, and the future of design and creativity. Investors will share new ideas about the future of cultural and tech industries and startups, while China’s first surfer will share her vision for an environmentally-conscious China. The event will also feature two concerts brought to you by the Reeperbahn Festival, Europe’s largest music platform for international and transcultural exchange. SupChina Access members will receive a special discount. To get your tickets and learn more, visit www.wisenotwise.com.With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

Send us a text Virtual reality (VR) is a new medium that many a technology guru has predicted will revolutionize cinema—or would, if it weren’t for the pesky problem (among others) that VR interface still requires the viewer to wear what essentially amounts to a “head box.” Nevertheless, VR markets around the world are slowly but surely expanding. Many of the major film festivals (Sundance, Venice, and Cannes, to name a few) now feature a special VR section. Overall the industry is indeed growing—especially in China. For context, here are some key figures: The value of China’s VR market in 2016 was around USD $500 million (mainly hardware). The value of China’s film market in 2016 war around USD $6.9 billion. The value of China’s film market in 2020 is projected to be USD $10 billion. The value of China’s VR market in 2020 is projected to be USD $6.5 billion (half in hardware, and the rest split between games, films, enterprise applications, theme parks, etc.). Featuring Eddie Lou : Founder Sandbox Immersive Festival and Sandman Studios | 青岛国际 VR 影像周创始人 & Sandman Studios 公司创始人 Gianluigi Perrone : Founder Polyhedron VR Studio | Polyhedron VR Studio 公司创始人 Denise Wu: VeeR’s Head of marketing | VeeR 公司营销主管 Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! This week’s episode is brought to you in partnership with “WISE: The Future Think Tank,” a group founded by Philipp Grefer in Beijing in 2018 to spark cross-sectoral dialogue about digital life, style, culture, business, science and technology. WISE invites and connects thinkers and doers from different industries online and offline to discuss essential questions about how we want and should live in the future. For the second year running, WISE will be hosting a special event in Beijing at UCCA in the 798 Art District from May 18-19, 2019. Topics will range from how AI can help solve world hunger, if the robots will take over, what can be learned about the future by looking into the past, how to find China’s first international superstar, and the future of design and creativity. Investors will share new ideas about the future of cultural and tech industries and startups, while China’s first surfer will share her vision for an environmentally-conscious China. The event will also feature two concerts brought to you by the Reeperbahn Festival, Europe’s largest music platform for international and transcultural exchange. SupChina Access members will receive a special discount. To get your tickets and learn more, visit www.wisenotwise.com. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us Fan MailMaking a feature film can be a long and painful process — especially when you’re shooting an indie film in below-freezing conditions 16 hours per day for 14 days. But that is exactly what the creative team behind "The Last Sunrise" (最后的日出) was able to do, and along the way, they generated useful insight into China’s science-fiction movie scene and the realities of filmmaking in China on a shoestring budget. Featuring Wen Ren | 任文 : Director | 导演 Elly Li|  李昳青: Producer, Co-writer | 制片人，编剧 Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Four main takeaways from this episode:    1) Chinese science-fiction productions tend to be optimistic about the future. While Western science-fiction productions are dominated by dystopian tropes, in contrast, Chinese sci-fi tends to paint a far more benign portrait of how science will usher in a better future. Of course, state regulations that govern cultural production in China have something to do with this, but gifted creators can often find workarounds to these restrictions. 2) In China, getting started in the film industry is like founding a startup. The main goal of most filmmakers is to make a good-quality film and, if at all possible, to pay the filmmaking team along the way. There is no shortcut to a successful career in making feature films; making a high-quality movie is the end result of years of experience in the industry. Big payoffs do not happen by accident. Just like any other entrepreneur, filmmakers need to make good products before they can hope to earn serious revenue, and this means working on as many projects as possible. In China as in many other markets, the jump from making low-budget films online to big-budget films intended for cinematic release is a large one, and not everyone makes it. 3) Chinese internet distributors usually pay a flat fee and keep audience numbers secret. If an internet platform agrees to distribute a film, the producer will receive a flat fee and will need to budget the film accordingly. There is no incentive or bonuses for films that reach a large audience on an internet platform. The general public will likely never learn how many people have actually watched the movie, just as with Netflix in the West. Platforms like Youku do provide an indicator of popularity 热度 and share it with the creators after some time. However, the popularity of any given film peaks only briefly before audiences move on. In the case of The Last Sunrise, for example, the movie was the second-most widely viewed movie on Youku for a few weeks before plunging down to number #799 three months later. 4) There are a few key secrets to shooting a film in 14 days. Do a lot of advance planning to avoid wasting time. Surround yourself with a team who can work long hours and understand your creative vision. Select only a few locations, and shoot indoors as much as possible. For The Last Sunrise , for example, the team limited filming locations to only three places: Beijing (北京),  Zhangbei (张北) in Hebei Province, and Ordos (鄂尔多斯) in Inner Mongolia. As you pitch the project, be prepared to propose a variety of budgets and lengths to appeal to different types of investors. Recommended watching and reading: - The Last Sunrise (最后的日出 - 2019): - Train to Busan (2016): Wikipedia page Black Coal, - Thin Ice (白日焰火 - 2014): Wikipedia page - The Wandering Earth (流浪地球 - 2019) - Zhang Yimou’s opinion piece in the New York Times, “What HollyWith thanks to Brenden Gonsalves&a

Send us a text Making a feature film can be a long and painful process — especially when you’re shooting an indie film in below-freezing conditions 16 hours per day for 14 days. But that is exactly what the creative team behind "The Last Sunrise" (最后的日出) was able to do, and along the way, they generated useful insight into China’s science-fiction movie scene and the realities of filmmaking in China on a shoestring budget. Featuring Wen Ren | 任文 : Director | 导演 Elly Li| 李昳青: Producer, Co-writer | 制片人，编剧 Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Four main takeaways from this episode: 1) Chinese science-fiction productions tend to be optimistic about the future. While Western science-fiction productions are dominated by dystopian tropes, in contrast, Chinese sci-fi tends to paint a far more benign portrait of how science will usher in a better future. Of course, state regulations that govern cultural production in China have something to do with this, but gifted creators can often find workarounds to these restrictions. 2) In China, getting started in the film industry is like founding a startup. The main goal of most filmmakers is to make a good-quality film and, if at all possible, to pay the filmmaking team along the way. There is no shortcut to a successful career in making feature films; making a high-quality movie is the end result of years of experience in the industry. Big payoffs do not happen by accident. Just like any other entrepreneur, filmmakers need to make good products before they can hope to earn serious revenue, and this means working on as many projects as possible. In China as in many other markets, the jump from making low-budget films online to big-budget films intended for cinematic release is a large one, and not everyone makes it. 3) Chinese internet distributors usually pay a flat fee and keep audience numbers secret. If an internet platform agrees to distribute a film, the producer will receive a flat fee and will need to budget the film accordingly. There is no incentive or bonuses for films that reach a large audience on an internet platform. The general public will likely never learn how many people have actually watched the movie, just as with Netflix in the West. Platforms like Youku do provide an indicator of popularity 热度 and share it with the creators after some time. However, the popularity of any given film peaks only briefly before audiences move on. In the case of The Last Sunrise, for example, the movie was the second-most widely viewed movie on Youku for a few weeks before plunging down to number #799 three months later. 4) There are a few key secrets to shooting a film in 14 days. Do a lot of advance planning to avoid wasting time. Surround yourself with a team who can work long hours and understand your creative vision. Select only a few locations, and shoot indoors as much as possible. For The Last Sunrise , for example, the team limited filming locations to only three places: Beijing (北京), Zhangbei (张北) in Hebei Province, and Ordos (鄂尔多斯) in Inner Mongolia. As you pitch the project, be prepared to propose a variety of budgets and lengths to appeal to different types of investors. Recommended watching and reading: - The Last Sunrise (最后的日出 - 2019): - Train to Busan (2016): Wikipedia page Black Coal, - Thin Ice (白日焰火 - 2014): Wikipedia page - The Wandering Earth (流浪地球 - 2019) - Zhang Yimou’s opinion piece in the New York Times,

Send us Fan MailIn case traveling to the nearest Chinese temple may be a bit inconvenient, modern-day Chinese astrologers still have you covered — inevitably, there’s an app for that! In this episode, astrologer Wen Jun explains how she works, the kinds of clients who seek her out, the differences between Chinese and Western astrology, and other aspects of fortune-telling in the modern age. 通过一个app了解占星的艺术世界上最古老的工作已经可以在网络上进行了。文君，一个占星师，她解释了一些问题包括她如何在网络上进行工作，她的客人，以及东西方关于占星的不同之处。 FeaturingWen Jun | 文君 : Astrologer | 占星师 Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Two main takeaways from this episode:1) There are a number of popular Chinese fortune-telling apps on the market today. Wen Jun works for the popular astrology app Ce Ce Astrology 测测星座. One of its main competitors is another popular app, Stars Network 星星网络. 2) Contemporary Chinese astrologers are very popular. The most famous astrologers in China are Tang Qi Yang 唐绮阳, Uncle Tong Dao 同道大叔, a graduate of Peking University, and Monica Mo 莫小奇, a TV star.   With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves  for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support. 

Send us a text In case traveling to the nearest Chinese temple may be a bit inconvenient, modern-day Chinese astrologers still have you covered — inevitably, there’s an app for that! In this episode, astrologer Wen Jun explains how she works, the kinds of clients who seek her out, the differences between Chinese and Western astrology, and other aspects of fortune-telling in the modern age. 通过一个app了解占星的艺术世界上最古老的工作已经可以在网络上进行了。文君，一个占星师，她解释了一些问题包括她如何在网络上进行工作，她的客人，以及东西方关于占星的不同之处。 Featuring Wen Jun | 文君 : Astrologer | 占星师 Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Two main takeaways from this episode: 1) There are a number of popular Chinese fortune-telling apps on the market today. Wen Jun works for the popular astrology app Ce Ce Astrology 测测星座. One of its main competitors is another popular app, Stars Network 星星网络. 2) Contemporary Chinese astrologers are very popular. The most famous astrologers in China are Tang Qi Yang 唐绮阳, Uncle Tong Dao 同道大叔, a graduate of Peking University, and Monica Mo 莫小奇, a TV star. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.