Blastwave FX Blastdrive
At the 127th AES Convention in New York City, HD sound effects label Blastwave FX announced that Tobias Poppe of Dusseldorf, Germany (now residing in Los Angeles) won the recent Blastwave FX Sound Design Competition. Poppe and all other participants downloaded 50 free sound effects from Blastwave FX’s Website and created a soundtrack to footage of water balloons hitting people in the face. The winning prize was a one-year subscription to Mix magazine and the Blastdrive ($5,999), a 397 GB Comprehensive Lifetime Sound Design Solution (CLSDS) featuring 31,700 sound effects on a Glyph Hard Drive, a sound effects search engine (Mac/PC) and recently announced Free Updates for Life.
“After listening to the sounds provided by Blastwave FX, I started manipulating in all directions,” says Poppe. “Putting sound on slow motion gives you a lot of opportunities to go crazy, but I wanted to be a bit more simple, serious, refreshing, positive and open—like water. A little bit in conflict is the extreme slow motion of the footage, which I felt I needed to serve. To do so I used more segmented kind of sounds and slow, low bass-y sounds to complement the slow visual motion.”
Notable Judges for the Blastwave FX Sound Design Competition included 2009 Academy Award winner Richard King (Dark Knight), 2000 Academy Award winner Dane Davis (Matrix) and 2009 Golden Reel nominee Charles Deenen (Need for Speed: Undercover).
Speaking to the quality of the Blastwave FX sound design entries, Davis states, “I found the selection process to be maddeningly difficult! After listening to each entry several times, I then listened to my favorite nine over and over and over again.”
“This competition was a success for Blastwave FX,” says Laura Sinnott, Blastwave FX’s contest director. “We had an unprecedented number of contestants register and participate from all over the world. The quality of submissions were stellar overall, and the enthusiastic reaction to the sound design community we are building and Blastwave FX sound effects library was inspiring! We’re already looking forward to the next competition!”
Click here to see Poppe’s winning entry and the water balloon smashing footage.
Click here to see the winning video and top 20 competition entries.
Click here for more information on the prize, the Blastdrive sound effects library.
For more information on Blastwave FX, visit www.blastwavefx.com.
