Two of my favourite online magazines announced today that they are ceasing to exist! First pingmag and then JPG photography magazine… Its weird, while I totally appreciate there is a global recession I also find it odd that two entities that were very loyally supported should need to end it all, permanently – no scaling back or downsizing… Is it a case of boom or bust? When times are good & the economy is strong do these companies expand to the point that when the economy inevitably contracts they become unsustainable? Who knows… but one thing you can be sure of: the people involved in these projects are not disappearing – sooner or later they will resurface, hopefully wiser & creatively reinvigorated…
But lets just hope they arent heading off to make such purile products as this fart app for iphone/ipod touch which has apparently been earning ‘nearly $10,000′ a day.. Sheesh, what is the world coming to? Are there really that many buyers for something that is at best a dumb gag? Save your pennies oh fart company, novelties dont tend to be long term/self sustaining entities either…
I know a few sound editors who like to waste their time editing ‘mix jokes’ – at worst they place silly farts at inappropriate moments & laugh like the latent 5 year olds they are… Accordingly I was a little unexcited when a film (Black Sheep) I was working on actually required fart sounds… And not just a single fart sound but many, in fact a mob of farting sheep. So what did I do? Delegate! ‘I dont want to know how you record them, but that sound effect is yours’ said I during the spot session… A few weeks later the assistant FX Editor I delegated the task to asked me to come have a listen to the scene, and the scene worked! In fact it worked so well you could almost smell it – whatever he did to record those farts was worth it, but I was still glad it wasnt me. Inevitably I asked how he recorded them, and was relieved to learn he had used silly putty. You know that glow in dark stuff you can buy in toy stores? It comes in a little bucket. Well, if you compress it & squeeze air through it, you can produce a range of fart sounds – from comedic to revolting… phew!
