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Nik Phelps

Music and Sound Design, Performance Coaching

Donkersteeg 31
B-9000 Gent
Belgium
nik(@)niksprocket.org


Nik Phelps - Composer


Nik Phelps

My main pursuit is in the creation of music and sound for animated film, both in the studio and for live performance. In addition, I give lectures and workshops on soundtrack composition, film music, the process of creativity, and I direct seminars on Performance for Pitching. Sprocket Productions is my avenue for the realization of all these projects.



Original Music and Sound Design for Film


I've been composing music for film since 1989, and have been working with animators since 1995, creating scores for the CBS TV animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. I have worked on numerous award-winning films, including Brooke Keesling's Student Academy Award/Emmy Award-winning Boobie Girl and Nina Paley's feature film Sita Sings the Blues, which won the Cristal de Grand Prix at Annecy and the Cristal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. With an eclectic musical sensibility, my role as a composer is to create unique and effective scores at a reasonable cost; serving the film is my ultimate goal and special talent.



Live Music for Contemporary Animation


The Sprocket Ensemble

Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble

Live Music for Contemporary Animation

What performance art companies like New York's Wooster Group did to create a forum for unusual stage talents like Spalding Gray, The Sprocket Ensemble project has done for the rich new talents of independent filmmakers and animators. A collaborative performing arts endeavor between a composer/performer of live music and directors of short film and animation, the Sprocket Ensemble liberates the excitement of live concert performance to create a new milieu for the appreciation of diverse new forms and talents in the cultural development of American film. The Sprocket Ensemble's collaborative series of screenings set to original live musical performance brings new audiences to the world of animation today.

Nik leads the Sprocket Ensemble, scoring for two to ten players according to the program. From 1997 through 2006 he performed weekly in San Francisco and toured extensively with the group, appearing at festivals, museums, schools and clubs in America. Since moving to Gent, Belgium in 2006, Nik and the ensemble have performed in Portugal, Scotland, Germany and Poland, and he regularly performs as a musical artist.



Video Gallery



Fetch! by Nina Paley - I began working with Nina in 1998, and she constantly amazes me with her genius! Fetch! was her very first film in Flash.





The Additional Capabilities of the Snout by Ivan Maximov - Ivan Maximov is a legendary Russian animator and teacher. I've loved his work since I first saw his films at the KROK Festival in the Ukraine in 2001, so I was pleased to collaborate with him on this film.





Le poisson fidèle by l'Atelier Collectif Zorobabel - What would you do with an inedible fish that can be caught indefinitely? Adapted from a short story by Peter F. Neumeyer.




Lectures, Coaching


Nik lecture Volda 2018

An important part of the Ideas in Animation project is my commitment to illustrate the important relationship between music and the moving image in my work with festivals, forums, independent animators, and universities. I work quite a bit with students and professionals of all ages, both by providing music for film projects and in giving informative and entertaining talks and workshops. I've found that coaching performance techniques for filmmakers in making their pitches to be a vital service that has not previously been recognized. and am involved with the pitching forums ANIMARKT in Lodz and AGORA in Athens.



Sprocket Productions
Donkersteeg 31
9000-B Gent
Belgium
nik(@)niksprocket.org

Webmaster - Nik Phelps

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