February’s Theme
The result of the vote for the ‘Night and Day’ theme was a three way tie, so I’ve decided to give all three contributors the chance to choose a theme over the coming months.
First up is Dan Gallard of Sonik Boom Sound in Australia who has chosen ‘Wind’ to be February’s theme:
“My theme would be wind through different items be it trees, windows, doors etc. There have been a few times recently when I wish I had more wind to choose from.”
I don’t want to take over Dan’s idea (and feel free to comment to the contrary if this isn’t your wish, Dan) but one thing that I think would be good to try and focus on for this theme is capturing ‘atmospheric’ wind tracks (interior or exterior) and maybe trying to avoid anything that’s too similar to white noise. Obviously wind can convey all kinds of moods and emotions – everything from eerie whistles to relaxing breezes – and tracks like these can be priceless when it comes to needing to create interesting ambiances for films. Clearly, this is a tricky one as we will be at the mercy of Mother Nature but let’s see what we can all get together over the next few weeks.
Just a couple of ‘updates’ to mention regarding the club this month:
- This month, I was going to completely close the door on any entries which don’t have a vocal ident but, considering the difficulty of the theme, I will be a little bit flexible for one more month. However, vocal idents are still preferred if possible. Otherwise, as usual, your recordings must contain some form of imperfection (mic bumps, shash, etc.) to prove that they are not taken from some FX library CD. Once again, please don’t take offence if your perfectly manicured contribution is not accepted; I’m just trying to cover my arse.
- Lastly, due to a very low vote this past month, I think I’m going to put less emphasis on voting and winners. Essentially, I don’t think all that stuff really matters – I presume everyone’s main interest is simply the collecting. Therefore, once the ‘Night and Day’ winners have chosen their themes, I’ll just choose themes myself unless there happens to be a strong vote one month for some reason or if a theme gets a lot of requests in the poll widget in the sidebar of the club homepage.
Good luck!
thesoundcollectorsclub.com 
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
February 2, 2011 at 8:03 pm
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Just discovered this awesome site. Thought I might drop a note and say. Will definitely keep up to date with what’s going on here and hopefully find time to contribute some day.
February 3, 2011 at 9:30 pm
i should have voted, i just didn’t have time to listen carefully through everyone’s uploads. some of those things were long. lol
what about taking suggestions/idea nominations from the members and putting that to a vote near the end of each month? it’s something that can be done quickly, and it might turn out some interesting assignments.
just a thought.
February 4, 2011 at 4:25 am
Thanks for the kind words Henrik – I look forward to hopefully hearing some of your recordings soon!
February 4, 2011 at 6:42 am
No worries about voting Shaun – for me the whole thing with the club is that I don’t want to force anything that doesn’t come naturally.
In a similar way to the idea you suggested, people are welcome to vote or add an idea in the poll widget in the sidebar of the homepage. However, I’ll only reference this if I see strong activity on it, otherwise I’ll just leave it bubbling away gathering ideas.
It’s actually been really cool this month speaking to a few different people (the 3 winners) about theme ideas rather than just hearing one suggestion. Hence, for the time being I might just go fishing from time to time and send out a few random e-mails to regular contributors in order to gather their ideas.
Cheers for contributing this month, Shaun – that’s the important part.
February 4, 2011 at 6:57 am