Good stuff, looking forward to it eventhough other work is piling up for some reason (it might be an FBI conspiracy because they don't want me to enter, damn them)

My music is crap, but I'm sure my friend could make up some guitar stuff...

The Composition Contest is now OPEN!

Basic Details:

The contest starts today (May 21st, 2008) and will end on June 21, 2008). Each contestant will score music (style of their choice) to the short film Luftwaffles by William Barr. The film last 1:21 (excluding the credits) and 1:28 if you include the credits. The film is funny, light hearted and features several opportunities for style and pace changes in the music. Feel free to be as creative as you'd like!

The Idea:

Hold a composition contest where any composer can take a stab at composing to a short film, then have objective and constructive feedback given back to them by industry professionals during the judging process. After this, hold an open meeting for all of the composers who took part (and any judges willing to give their time) where each composer can exchange ideas, feedback and thoughts on all of the submissions. (To me this is probably the most valuable part!)

I will be moderating the feedback and open forum after the contest and judging are concluded. It is my hope that all will take part in that since a good deal of feedback and discussion will be held.

The Short Film:

As noted above, William Barr was kind enough to share this video clip for this contest. His website is http://www.wilbarani.com/. He is a 3rd year student at the Swansea Institute studying 3D computer animation. There are three versions of this video: a Hi-res and Lo-res Quicktime and a WMV file. Should be enough options for most DAWs out there.

Update: Added another site to download the video from to keep bandwidth flowing.

Quicktime (large): http://www.wilbarani.com/videos/luftwafflesVLargeQTnm.mov

Quicktime (large): http://www.madsenstudios.com/luftwafflesVLargeQTnm.mov

Quicktime (small): http://www.wilbarani.com/videos/luftwafflesSmallQTnm.mov

Quicktime (small): http://www.madsenstudios.com/luftwafflesSmallQTnm.mov

WMV: http://www.wilbarani.com/videos/luftwafflesSmallWMVnm.wmv

WMV: http://www.madsenstudios.com/luftwafflesSmallWMVnm.wmv

The Panel:

I'm very excited about the panel that has been assembled for this competition! Please note that I'll mainly be fulfilling the organization and moderating role. Unless needed, I'll not be actually judging the pieces to avoid having an even number of judges (to help avoid the case of a tie). We have:

Aaron Marks- Since 1995, his company has been creating original music, sound effects and dialog for video games, radio, television, film and all things multimedia. Aaron Marks and his staff of highly skilled artisans have combined credits on over 300 video game projects, films and theater productions throughout the world! He is also the author of the fantastic book The Complete Guide to Game Audio- which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to be a professional video game composer!

http://www.onyourmarkmusic.com/

Will Loconto- With almost 20 years in the recording and videogame industries, Will Loconto brings a comprehensive body of knowledge, experience, and creativity to his work. He was lead vocalist/songwriter for T42 (Columbia Records) and spent several years with Information Society (Reprise Records). In the game industry, Will has served as Audio Director at two companies (ION Storm and Third Law Interactive). With over 20 published titles, Will Loconto has a proven track record of top quality products and on-time delivery. He has been a featured lecturer at Southern Methodist University’s Guildhall, the premiere program for game development. Will is a member of NARAS, ASCAP, the International Game Developers Association, and the Game Audio Network Guild.

http://www.willloconto.com/

Sean Beeson- Sean Beeson is an emerging young composer in the videogame industry and a fellow gamedev member. His most recent credits include, Assault Heroes 2, recording a soundtrack with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, "Hairspray (2007)" Trailer", "Eternity's Child" for WiiWare, "I.Q. - Identity Quest", "The Operational Art of War III", "Brain Brain", and Mainland Gaming's "Mojave's Edge " among various other titles. Some of his past film credits include two films nominated for BAFTA 60-Seconds of Fame Awards, the popular animated short "Emelia", which was the #1 iTunes short film for a few weeks, a film highlighting the effect of online gaming obsessions, (The Chronicles of Evanor) and two full-length Norweigan films. As well as being a composer, Sean also produced, engineers, and programs sample libraries for composers, and is the producer behind Tsaiko: The Taiko Drum Library.

http://www.seanbeeson.com/

Nathan Madsen- Nathan Madsen is another gamedev member and moderator. He has over 130 credits in the anime, independent film, web design and video game industries. He currently works as the lead composer-sound designer for NetDevil. Some of his recent credits include work done for Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Witchblade, Lego Universe and Jumpgate Evolution. He has worked on Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and PC titles. He is also a published author and has spent time teaching video game audio at the college level.

http://www.madsenstudios.com/

The Prize:

Currently we have several game audio (or just general audio) books that GD.net has graciously offered to purchase for the winner. Once a winner is selected and announced, I will contact them with the list of possible books they can choose from. In the event the winner has read all of those books, we will choose a book he or she has not read. The winner's music will also be used in the Luftwaffles short and credit will be given. This is a great way for a young composer to get their work heard in a completed film and add another notch on their resume. A great bonus is having your chance to have your music heard by some of the top composers in the industry!

The Rules:

The rules are pretty basic:

1) All music in the score must be written by you and only you.

2) Only one submission per person. Any one can take part in the contest!

3) All submissions must be received by 10 PM Central Standard Time on June 21, 2008.

4) All submissions must include both the film and the score embedded together. This is to avoid any syncing problems later on.

Please Note: The preferred method of delivery is posting the movie file on an FTP site and then giving me the link and password info. Once I get all of the submissions, I'll relay them to each of the judges and the judging process will begin. If you cannot upload to an FTP site, then contact me privately so we can attempt to make other arrangements.

Another method for sending the file is http:// www.yousendit.com which is free for files under 100MB. It costs money for files larger than that (up to 2GB) but also has a two week free trial. If you use this method, you must have my email address which I can give out privately.

Fair warning: Do not contact me the night submissions are due in a late attempt to work something out. You have a full month to prepare, I suggest you use your time wisely. The last thing I want to do is have several people spamming me last minute while they try to figure out how to get this file to me. Make arrangements now and save yourself the headache!

How You'll Be Judged:

Judging will be based on how creative and supportive the music is to the film. Instrumentation, orchestration, style, pace is all up to you! You have complete freedom, just make sure whatever you write supports and enhances the film.

That about does it for now. I'll be looking over this post and polishing it up more as time allows. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions please feel free to contact me! Start writing!!!

Thanks,

Nathan

[Edited by - nsmadsen on May 22, 2008 10:17:55 AM]

Great achievement Nathan and great looking contest with a fantastic panel!

This video is awesome, thanks everyone who is involved.

The video is hilarious! Count me in.

That video is indeed hilarious haha. Awesome!

So glad everyone likes the video so far! :) Here is a slight update:

Another method for sending the file is http:// www.yousendit.com which is free for files under 100MB. It costs money for files larger than that (up to 2GB) but also has a two week free trial. If you use this method, you must have my email address which I can give out privately.

Hopefully that helps give everyone more options.

Thanks,

Nathan

Yay! I'm checking back in here at the right moment, I see. Three words:

Count me in.

And cheers to Nate for organizing this!

- Stijn

[EDIT]
Love the movie! :) This is my first time scoring a movie, so I hope it turns out alright! [grin]

[Edited by - stenny on May 25, 2008 6:56:07 AM]

Nice video, should be a promising contest. I don't want to be excessively critical, however it just seems that it is a bit short on action and high on dialogue. It should be fun to come up with something anyway, thanks.