[Note from Hanson Hosein, MCDM Director: This is a guest blog post by Donald Giesen, Seattle native, now in Nairobi, Kenya as Executive Director of the East African School of Media Studies. Please see below for Donald's request for donations of any old spare DV cameras you might have.]

Here in Kenya, many media practitioners still hesitate to get on the train that is the internet. Perhaps we are too used to our decrepit, colonial-era locomotives which are never in a hurry to get anywhere. We figure that we can always hop on board even if we’re caught napping when it leaves the station.

But I’m afraid this “train” is more like the bullet trains found in Japan- if you’re not in your seat by the time the whistle blows, you’ve got a looong walk ahead of you.

Strained analogy aside, the changes that the internet has brought in terms of media creation, distribution and consumption are real and those of us who are too slow in embracing this change risk getting left behind.

So when my students were given the opportunity to work on a collaborative project with MCDM, I wouldn’t have dared to let the opportunity pass.
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Today we talk about foley. Your film creation cannot live on music alone, unless you are making a silent movie, or you make sure you record every footstep sound carefully, you will need some sounds effects to enhance the action on the screen.  Most professional editing suites come packaged with all sorts bits and bites that you can use. If you do not have those, there is hope on the internet for non-commercial use: basically for free for students and filmmakers for online distribution and film festivals, with possibility of licensing for commercial when (more realistically, if) needed.

The resource I want to share with you today is The Freesound Project. Freesound makes available an ever-growing database of sound effect licensed under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 license. This means you can use and abuse the samples for non-commercial purposes including remixing, file sharing and webcasting.

You may search the site using freeform text, tags, descriptions, usernames, or geotags.  There is also a “sounds-like” type of browsing available on the site. An account is required, but sign-up is free.