Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335892
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 67 had made in our garden and around London to see if we could hear just how big the change was. It was during these discussions that the idea of asking people around the world to record their own isolated ambiences and share them with us came about. Anyone who made a submission to the project would in return gain access to all the recordings that came in—the classic 'crowdsourced' route to audio riches. With hindsight, it would have been a good idea to ask all those taking part to grab a dB meter and record the level of the backgrounds whilst capturing their sounds, but realising that we may only have a limited time in which this unique situation was going to last, I missed out a few things I would like to have done differently. At the beginning of the lockdown, and under increasing pressure from Isadora to enable her to stay in contact with her friends, we had given her her first smartphone. Although there are many benefits to her having this new device, my wife and I were very aware that this was a moment we had to take to teach her about the responsibilities of being online, of ways to stay safe, other than with the various parental controls we had put in place, and to make her aware of all the pitfalls of having this new 'online life.' We talked to her about social media apps and how careful you have to be whilst using them, through fake news and phishing sites, and also how websites are made. As the days went past, we began to see more and more televised reports of famous and now deserted locations around the world that we'd only ever known as bustling with workers and tourists. This pushed us to start creating a website for the project, and also an associated Twitter account to help spread the word and centralise all the interesting sonic changes we hoped would come in. We knew that there was a large and active community of film, television, and game sound editors on Twitter, and we hoped they would help us access sound recordists, editors, and designers in as many countries as possible. Our Alastair trawled through his contacts, asking sound editors and production mixers if they could help spread the word and point a microphone out of their window to capture what they were hearing. Opposite page top: Riverside balcony, Paris, France. Photo courtesy Julien Loock. Bottom row L-R: Alastair's backyard studio in London; the Sirkett family L-R: Isadora 11 yrs, Toby 13 yrs, Michelle, and Alastair.