Shane James Norton

I grew up in Massachusetts before coming to Florida to attend Stetson University. In my studies here, I have gotten to work in a wide variety of artistic mediums. The areas where I excel are Audio Production, Photography and Videography, and Vinyl Installations. A work that I was lucky to be involved in was a Vinyl Installation for DynoClimb, a rock-climbing gym in DeLand, Florida. The work consisted of separate silhouettes of different rock climbing hold shapes, arranged together to make the shape of a brain. Also included were the silhouettes of two rock climbers, with one reaching down from the top of the brain to pull the other up. This was
the most exciting work I have done yet!  My senior project is titled B-Side: Original Compositions for Video Games. From a young age I was involved with video games, whether it was Pokémon, watching my brother play Kingdom Hearts and Shadow of the Colossus, or mobile phone games, music has always been such a big part of the experience for me. With focusing on Audio Production as well as Sound Design for two of my sequences in my time at Stetson University, I decided to pursue a Senior Project composing music for video games.

I have been highly influenced by the work of Yoko Shimomura over the years, through her contributions to Street Fighter II, the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as Final Fantasy. My favorite music is boss battle themes. The intensity and the amazing melodies make me so happy, and I’m always so fulfilled when I compose something amazing myself. I hope that the audience can get into the music and I hope they don’t hold back.  

You’re supposed to rock your head to this music, it’s supposed to be infectious. I picked the video aspect of each piece wisely, with excerpts of gameplay from various video games, and I hope that people agree each piece fits with the game. I also worked in collaboration with a classmate who developed a video game for their project. Overall, I hope everyone has fun listening to this project, because I had an immense amount of fun creating it. The intensity and the amazing melodies make me so happy, and I’m always so fulfilled when I compose something amazing myself. I hope that the audience can get into the music and I hope they don’t hold back. You’re supposed to rock your head to this music, it’s supposed to be infectious. I picked the video aspect of each piece wisely, with excerpts of gameplay from various video games, and I hope that people agree each piece fits with the game. I also worked in collaboration with a classmate who developed a video game for their project. Overall, I hope everyone has fun listening to this project, because I had an immense amount of fun creating it.