While both are wild rides, the top two entries on SHOOT’s Fall Tracks Chart take us on distinctly different journeys.
Finishing first on our Chart is “Battle for Milkquarious,” a tongue-in-cheek online rock opera for the California Milk Processor Board out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. Handling music and sound were composers Tyler Spencer and Zach Shipps of the Detroit-based rock band Electric Six, with lyrics penned by Goodby associate creative director/copywriter Andrew Bancroft.
The 20-minute rock opera has assorted highlights but we’ll single out an open which is an homage to the ego of spandex-clad rocker White Gold who brandishes a milk-filled guitar. White Gold serenades his romantic interest, the lovely Strawberry Summers, with the tune “You’re Almost As Beautiful As Me.”
Meanwhile assuming the number two slot in our quarterly Music & Sound Chart is the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “All Together Now” for Cole & Weber United, Seattle. The animation :60 finds six giant-sized athletes engaged in a epic tug of war, which ends with them literally pulling the continents together, embodying the Olympic spirit.
“Battle for Milkquarious” Directed by Tom Kuntz of MJZ, the “Milkquarious” rock opera is the important second chapter in the evolution of the character White Gold, who was introduced last year, born out of a creative brief which called for making teenagers think milk was as cool as Red Bull. Hence White Gold and his posse were launched on a MySpace page. Soon the act had five songs on iTunes, three full-length music videos and thousands of 12 to 17-year-old fans who thought White Gold and his band were real.
Indeed the campaign resonated with teens, leaving Goodby and client to wonder about what to do for an encore in 2009.
Steve James, executive director of the California Milk Processor Board, related, “We asked ourselves, ‘What’s the next plateau for an artist who is a self-described rock ‘n roll god?’ The answer was for him to create and star in his own rock opera.”
The futuristic rock opera, which premiered online Oct. 5, features six songs from Goodby writer/lyricist Bancroft, with music composed and performed by Electric Six’s Spencer and Shipps. The music and lyrics are pure fun, all the way from the exercise in vanity reflected in the love song duet by White Gold and Strawberry Summers to the rock opera’s climactic battle between good and evil.
As for Electric Six, that band has a fervent fan following of its own, The Goodby team was turned onto Electric Six by director Kuntz who had directed videos for the act.
Audio post mixer on the rock opera was Rohan Young of Lime Studios.
“All Together Now”
Directed by the team of Fx & Mat of Nexus Productions, London, for Cole & Weber United, the IOC’s “All Together Now” was advanced by an orchestral score on which London music houses Brains & Hunch and Tonic Music Ltd. teamed.
“We wanted something universal. We wanted to make sure it didn’t sound like it was from a certain region, and it needed to be scored,” said Cole & Weber associate creative director/art director Scott Fero..
Brains & Hunch delivered an orchestral score which relied on traditional instruments like brass and strings but was also infused with synthesized sounds, creating an orchestral piece with a modern feeling.
Susan Stone, Tonic creative director, produced the music, collaborating with Brains & Hunch composers Christopher Branch and Tom Haines.
“The complex animation needed talented composers like Tom and Chris who were experienced with animation, who could really envisage the story before it was visually there,” Stone said, noting, “Because the job was so high-profile and the production spread across three countries, it was essential that the entire team worked closely together through the whole project, as opposed to dealing with the music at the end of the job.
Stuart Welch of Wave, London, was the audio post mixer.
