While the top two entries on SHOOT’s Summer Tracks Chart are distinctly different, they share the bond of taking the mesh of music and sound design to new artful heights.
Finishing first in our Chart is “Gymnast,” a European spot for the Audi RS6 featuring an ensemble of gymnasts whose twisting, twirling and precision movements parallel the RS6’s powerful engineering that demands “performance from every part.” This tour de force in choreography is driven by a score from Wave Recording Studios, London.
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Meanwhile, assuming the number two slot in our quarterly Music & Sound Chart was Haägen-Dazs’ “Opera” scored by Q Department, New York. The spot tells a story of unfulfilled love as a honey bee draws oh so close to a flower in need of pollination only to be thwarted by a strong wind that whisks him away from his intended romantic partner.
A female voiceover intones, “Honey bees are dying and we [Haägen-Dazs] rely on them for many of our natural ingredients.” She then implores us to “help us save them.”
Viewers are directed to Helpthehoneybees.com where they can learn more about the bees’ plight.
“Gymnast” Directed by Paul Hunter of Prettybird, Santa Monica, and shot by DP Alex Barber for BBH, London, “Gymnast” represented a unique opportunity for Wave. “Paul Hunter is a director who understands sound,” related Wave creative director Warren Hamilton who served as “Gymnast” sound director. “You look at Paul’s body of work and it’s very much music and sound driven,” continued Hamilton, citing such commercials as the lauded “Freestyle” for Nike out of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore, which debuted in 2001 during Hunter’s tenure with bicoastal/international HSI Productions.
Hamilton and Wave sound designer Tony Rapaccioli, who also served as audio post mixer on “Gymnast,” noted that both Hunter and BBH brought Wave into the pre-pro stage of the project.
“Paul had a vision for the choreography with the gymnast dancers,” said Hamilton. “He wanted the soundtrack first in order to drive and shape the choreography and pacing.”
Wave invited a couple of accomplished musician friends–composers Nick Rapaccioli (Tony’s brother) and Neil Barnes–into the mix to create the initial composition. Barnes was a member of the since disbanded band Leftfield while Nick Rapaccioli is a former collaborator with Leftfield.
With this soundtrack completed up front, it helped to drive and establish the tempo, pulse, rhythm and pace of the subsequent filming.
But that was only part of a most ambitious soundtrack creation and development process.
With the properly synched images and soundtrack, Wave colleagues Hamilton and Tony Rapaccioli orchestrated the process of deconstructing that musical track and blending in original sound design elements.
These sound design elements were captured by Wave which took a new Audi RS6 to Gosfield, an Essex airstrip, to record custom car effects. Audi supplied a stunt driver who put the car through its paces until Wave’s Project Harvest sound library team had built a unique collection of RS6 sound effects, conveying the power of the engine, the changing of gears, the sound of the doors and other aspects of the car.
At one point the plan was to have the sound design virtually replace the original musical score, thus the RS6 audio would be woven into and at one with the filmed choreography and images. But Wave thought differently.
“We had to fight at first to keep elements of the original music in the final commercial, having it and the car sound design in sync with the visuals,” related Hamilton. “As it turned out, a large part of that original music is still there. I’m glad we were able to retain much of that music because I think meshing it with the sound design made for an even better spot [both the cinema and television versions].”
Tony Rapaccioli noted that U.K. advertising restrictions make it “a no-no” to show the power and speed of a car. “We had to convey that power in an understated way, through the power of gymnasts and the music and sound design score which was totally in sync with their performance.”
Hamilton chimed in, “This work shows the benefits of people having the foresight to bring in the sound guys during the pre-production stage–and how that can help the film. People used to regard sound as an exercise after they shot the commercial. To get the chance to be involved in a significant way before the filming is gratifying. Wave is pushing for more of this. We find agencies now considering us more in the pre-filming stages of a project….I also wish there were more directors like Paul Hunter who are on board with the sound straight away from the very beginning of a job.”
“Opera” Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan and Laurent Ledru of bicoastal Psyop for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, Haägen-Dazs’ “Opera” is a stellar combination of live action (shot by cinematographer Heimo Ritzinger) and animation. But also key to telling the tragic love story is a stirring operatic soundtrack.
Drazen Bosnjak of Q Department re-arranged and adapted a duet from “Cavelleria Rusticana,” making it work within the context of a :30. He recorded the piece with a pair of noted vocalists, tenor Kip Wilborn and soprano Julianna DiGiacomo.
“The first challenge for me,” recalled Bosnjak, “was to pick the piece of music that helped to tell the story, which is a ‘conversation’ between two characters–a bee and a flower. We wanted to find a piece of opera that supported and advanced this ‘dialogue.’
“Secondly, we had to work within a 30-second format. Opera composers didn’t think of squeezing their work into 30 seconds. A piece of operatic music takes a minimum of a minute and a half to develop expression that is authentic–So our biggest role was to adapt this music so that it would truly help tell the story. To do that we had to retain the harmony, melody and most importantly the operatic feel within a limited time frame.”
Thus Bosnjak described his duties as being a mix of “rearranging and adaptation, figuring out how to put the music into this new world. There was a little bit of changing in instrumentation, editing elements of the piece to accommodate the texture and quality of certain images.”
He noted that accomplished vocalists Wilborn and DiGiacomo gave much of themselves to make the track the best it could be. “They breathed life into the track with their singing,” affirmed Bosnjak. “If you took their voices out of the piece and replaced them, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation about it being a Top Track on the SHOOT Chart.
Bosnjak added that Jeff Goodby, co-chairman/creative director of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, was very hands-on involved in this project and is a big opera lover. Goodby had a couple of suggestions after the first recording session, with Wilborn going the proverbial extra mile and coming back for a second session in order to help accommodate and vocally explore those suggestions.
There is also a sound design element to the “Opera” track. Bosnjak was the sound designer. He described that contribution as being “a slight, guttural sound design…At the point that the bee is flying around and clouds start moving in and the scenery becomes dark, there’s an ominous feeling. We blended in a stormy weather sound, a subliminal thunder crack to help create a dark, more atmospheric mood–at which point the bee is taken away by the wind. The sound design helped to bring in the unfriendly forces of nature, and the struggles that nature can present.”
In the final work, Bosnjak said, “It’s hard to tell how the music is mixed with the sound design, where one starts and the other stops. It’s the kind of merging that we like to create–and at Q we’re trying to come up with a name for it.”
While that natural mesh was gratifying for Bosnjak, so too was the intent of the spot. “It was an opportunity to raise people’s awareness of a problem, that bees are dying, we don’t know why but we better find out.”
Zack Rice executive produced for Q Department, with Kelly Fulton serving as producer.
Josh Abbey of Color, New York, was audio post mixer on “Opera.”
