From sexy rhythm and blues to the opera Rigoletto–that’s the range represented in entries number one and two which grace this Fall’s SHOOT Top 10 Spot Tracks Chart. Finishing first was Burger King’s “Eat Like Snake” in which a man slithers along a circuitous route, over and under tables, across a room to reach a triple decker burger which he devours in one jaw-stretching gulp. Taking the number two slot was “Lost Ball” for the Sharp Aquos Liquid Crystal TV, which delivers a picture so sharp that TV viewers clearly see a golf ball lost in the rough while all those at the tournament, including the player and his caddie, have no idea where it is and are reduced to fumbling through the grass.
Directed by Kinka Usher from House of Usher for Crispin Porter+Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, “Eat Like Snake” unfolds to music composed by Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau, creative directors at Beacon Street Studios, Venice, Calif. The sexy, suggestive R&B score is the perfect accompaniment to a man who takes on reptilian prowess, slithering like a snake toward his intended prey, someone else’s BK Triple Whopper, which has been left alone momentarily on a cafeteria table. Lyrics like “unhinge your jaw” and “eat like snake” are performed by the Snake Sisters on background vocals. As the man consumes his meaty victim in one bite, the Snake Sisters yell, “Swallow.”
“A key was not to sound like a spoof,” relates Feltenstein. “It was sung with the sincerity of a real song. We played it as straight as possible, bringing in great musicians and vocalists.”
Nau explains that the spot was originally done for Korean television, with Beacon Street creating a percussion score that had a taste of Korea to it. But when CP+B came back to Beacon Street for a music/sound treatment on an American version of the same commercial, there were several dynamics that led the composers to the R&B realm.
“Alex [chief creative officer Bogusky of CP+B] was concerned that the U.S. spot could come off as parodying Korean television,” says Nau. “The music had to be such that it would make the spot uniquely American without looking like any kind of disrespectful spoof of a Korean spot. Alex also wanted something sexy.”
“All this,” relates Feltenstein, “led us to R&B which is distinctly American.” Helping that along further was the coincidence that after having gotten the CP+B assignment, Feltenstein and Nau went that evening to an Al Green concert. “That evening of soulful R&B with gospel was a great creative inspiration for us on this job,” continues Feltenstein who adds that Beacon Street’s established collaborative relationship with CP+B was also important. “There’s a trust there where they let us really cut loose. There was no temp track. It’s the kind of creative freedom you don’t get too often.”
Indeed a past collaboration with CP+B–BK’s “Big Buckin’ Chicken” score–in a sense parallels the approach that has proved successful on “Eat Like Snake.” “Both have minimal lyrics and push the boundaries of what the lyrics are saying,” observes Feltenstein. “But in both cases, we played it straight while pushing the envelope a bit of what you can get away with on TV.”
Classical Score For “Lost Ball”–directed by Christian Loubek of bicoastal Anonymous Content for Wieden+Kennedy, New York–the music had already been selected prior to bringing composer Raymond Loewy of tonefarmer, New York, into the process. Nonetheless there were unique challenges to this proposition, requiring Loewy to don his arranger hat, and to tap into his midi orchestration and musical manipulation talents.
The piece of music he was presented with was Guiseppe Verdi’s Caro Nome aria from Rigoletto, a selection which provided a most apropos tone and feel for the storyline which has a professional golfer, his caddie, tournament officials and live spectators searching to no avail for a golf ball which was shot errantly into the rough. Meanwhile those people at home or looking at a retail storefront telecast of the tourney on an Aquos TV set can clearly and easily see the ball in its hiding place.
“The tone of the aria–a piece of classical music that many people readily recognize–was perfect for the premise,” notes Loewy. “It brought a playful tongue-in-cheek feel to the ‘search’ for this ball–a comical lilt without being out and out comic.”
“The quandary,” he continues, “was fitting the music properly to the visuals so that the points of music were hitting in the right places in the context of the spot. That’s hard to get without having edited sounds in the original music. So we went with the midi orchestration and other elements.”
Loewy also had to fight his self-described inclination to “obsess” over his midi orchestrations, the goal being to make the music sound like a live performance of the classical piece. He ultimately brought in four flute players whose live performances were meshed with the midi orchestration, and then added such touches as empty concert hall ambience to further the live performance sound.
Loewy also credits his collaborators on the agency and post/audio sides, including Wieden+Kennedy creative director Kevin Proudfoot, copywriter Alan Buchanan and producer Andrew Loevenguth, editor/sound designer Avi Oron of Bikini Edit, New York, and mixer Tom Goldblatt of audioEngine, New York.
