The Sound Design Challenge has been moved to DesigningSound.org. All information concerning current and future challenges can be found there.
Quick “Covering My Butt” information:
Participation in this challenge indicates that you have read, and accept the all the legal/compliance issues as discussed here (last updated 8/8/10). Make sure you’re familiar with them before downloading any materials and/or starting the challenge. Thanks!
What is This?
I’ve spent the last few years looking for something like this on the web, and I haven’t found it. It’s something I’d really like to partcipate in, but it just doesn’t seem to exist. So, I figured I might as well start it up myself.
The monthly Sound Design Challenge is a chance to challenge yourself, experiment with new ideas, see how other people might approach the same problem(s), and have a discussion about the unique ideas people come up with. I encourage anyone who is interested to participate. I’d really like to see a wide range of skill levels: enthusiast, student, pro, whoever. Yes, there are still chances for those of us who have been doing this for years to get new ideas from someone who’s just starting out. So, don’t exclude yourself if you think you’re not good enough yet; you should be involved too. Hopefully, it will help you, me and everyone else both develop our technical skills and spark some creativity.
How Does It Work?
Once a month, I’ll post a challenge. That challenge will have a specific set of rules, either a goal or a set of roadblocks that you have to work your way around. [more on this idea here] You’ll have 10 days from the announcement of the challenge to get it done and posted to the groups on Vimeo or SoundCloud, as dictated by the challenge. You’re still welcome to post your entry after the deadline (that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it still), but it won’t be considered in the competition. Any materials that are required for that challenge will be available on this site for the first 9 days of the Challenge only. Sometimes the challenge will be video oriented, sometimes a picture might be used, maybe just audio, or maybe something more sinister and diabolical.
Once we’ve passed the completion date, I and a group of volunteers (your peers) will pick the five that we think are the strongest entries, and repost them here on the site. At that point, it’s up to the community to decide which is the winner. There will be a voting box in the sidebar to the right. (note: While I will be participating in the challenges, and probably posting mine to this site, I will never be included in the final five.)
We’ve had some prizes for winning, but I make no promises that I will have one for each challenge; unless you are looking for an excuse to do the happy dance and/or possibly talking smack about how awesome you are (I encourage the former/discourage the latter). If they’re available, I’ll offer them; it will be mentioned in the challenge itself. What I would like to do is conduct an e-mail interview (to be posted on the site) with the winner to discuss his/her piece. So, you get a chance to be featured on the site. You could consider that the only guaranteed prize. ;)
For audio only months, I may ask permission to permanently host the entries for the five finalists, for posterity. This is totally at your discretion. SoundCloud is a great service; but, unless you want to pay extra bucks, the storage space is limited. I’d love for these to be able to stay up for as long as I can maintain the site. And I want you to be able to make the most out of your SoundCloud account for your personal needs.
After the current month’s round is done, we can all start getting ready for the next.
If you’d like to contribute…
Awesome. There are all sorts of ways you can help out. Obviously, one way is to participate and/or spread the word (the more people involved, the better). I’ll also need volunteers to participate in the judging each month. Other ways include feedback, suggestions for future challenges, donation of media for use in the challenges (video clips are especially welcome), or anything else you think might be helpful.
General Rules of the Challenge:
- If you haven’t already, read the legal junk (last updated 8/8/10)
- You’ll have 10 days to download (well, only 9 to download) any materials and complete your entry.
- Post completed video entries to the “Dynamic Interference Sound Design Challenge” group on Vimeo, and completed audio only entries to the “Dynamic Interference Sound Design Challenge” group on SoundCloud. Obviously, this means you’ll need accounts on these services (both of which are free).
- Limit 1 entry per person (Keep in mind that ALL of them have to be reviewed).
- Unless I specifically say, “You can’t use/do…” for the challenge, go ahead and do it.
- Please calibrate your monitors (speakers) for either a film or television mixing listening spec (the television spec is suggested). See this post if you don’t know how.
- If you volunteer to judge, you cannot nominate your own piece.
- We’re on an honor system here for the specific rules for each challenge, please keep it fair.
