Hi everyone, I'm Eric Gallardo and this is a reworking of the composer's symposium proposal that you may have looked through that's on here. I've changed the proposal from being solely focused on composers to all members of the video game audio field and I'm looking for insight and anyone who is interested to join me!
So please read on and let me know what you think!
Proposal for
Creative Audio in Video Games Symposium
Objective: To create a platform where composers, sound designers, V/O actors, sound engineers and all members of the video game audio community can come together and gain valuable insight and exchange technique and knowledge through discussion, lecture, and panel/peer criticism. The biggest upside to doing it online is the fact that anyone, from anywhere can be a part of it. For Free.
Outline: Every three months or Six months, depending on what the community votes for, the Symposium would meet together using an online chat service (ventrillo, skype, etc) where a single overarching topic would be the spotlight of the day. It would be divided up as follows
Presentations:
Speakers who want to share insight on the specified subject, lead a workshop, seminar etc, would lecture for between ½ an hour to an hour each. Speakers would have to submit an outline of the presentation to the Symposium’s committee (explained further down).
There is no limitation on who can submit to be a speaker. Absolutely anyone can speak. The only reasons the committee will be reviewing submissions are to verify the relation of the presentation to the topic and to verify the accuracy of the information. If what you want to say is true, or can argued to be true, and is on topic; it is almost certain you will speak.
Q/A and/or Moderated Discussion:
At the end of each individual presentation there will be a small ten minute window for questions pertaining to the specific presentation.
Beside this, there will also be a half-hour to hour long general Q/A or Moderated Discussion.
The General Q/A is where all attendees will be able to ask the speakers general questions that may or may not be related to the presentation. There will be an appointed moderator (chosen in much the same way as the speakers are chosen) that will also have general questions to ask each of the presenters as well as moderate discussion that occurs during this time.
The Moderated Discussion would involve the Speakers, Moderator and the Symposium’s Committee. The moderator will have prepared discussion points and all persons involved would be encouraged to participate and debate. The topic for the Moderated Discussion, if it occurs would be separate from the Symposium’s main topic and could be used to debate more philosophical and non-tangential ideas. Example topic: “ Audio and the Affects of Emotional Response.”
Panel and Attendee Participation:
During this portion of the meet, the non-speaking attendees can submit examples, ideas, approaches or anything else that pertains to the subject at hand for the Speakers, committee and Moderator to discuss and provide insight on. Do you have an approach that differs from one of the speakers on the subject? Want them to look over and critique something you’ve done/are doing that relates? Bring it up!
We could be utilizing a filesharing site to share presentation material, examples both visual and aural, and the like. I need help figuring out the logistics of it all, so any ideas would be helpful!
Submission of Topic:
At the end of the symposium there would be a general call for ideas on the next symposium’s topic. As a group we would list all ideas that interest us as possible Symposium Topics.
Over the following week the committee would narrow the subjects down to ten possible topics and release them as a poll that would be open for voting for the next two weeks (if meeting every three months) or month (if meeting every six months).
This would give ample time for anyone who would want to speak at the symposium to be able to create an outline for a presentation and submit it.
Descriptions:
Symposium’s committee:
I’m looking for interested and knowledgeable composers, sound designers, voice actors, engineers, and anyone else that is a member of the video game industry’s audio field to be committee members. Again, there is no experience necessary to be a part if the committee, but a strong knowledge base is to be expected. You'd need to be knowledgeable in your specific field since as a member of the committee you going to be part of organizing the event, reviewing submissions for presentations, participating and possibly assisting with presentations and answering questions.
Eventually I’d like to run congruent but separate tracks with separate committees for each category in audio but as I’m sure this isn’t going to be big overnight we will start off with a single committee. I’m looking for at least one representative from every aspect of audio. If interested in organizing and being an integral part of all this please let me know!
Moderator:
Moderators will be selected much in the same way that speakers are. If you feel that you are qualified and understand the topic well enough (note, no experience needed) Simply submit a proposal stating why you think you’re qualified to be a moderator when the time comes and you will be considered.
That is the general proposal, If you want to help me get this started, let's talk! you can reach me by email at contact@ericjgallardo.com or by my contact page on my website www.ericjgallardo.com or here in this post! Spread the word, let's get this going!
And if you have suggestions please let me know as well!
