The winter top 10 chart encompasses a wide array of musical stylings–from lush orchestral pieces to thoroughly effective licensed tracks to truly inspired sound design. In this edition of SHOOT‘s music series, we look at the tracks and what makes them work so well with the creative.
NUMBER ONE
Landing atop the chart is “Digital Joy,” for the Intel Corporation and the Microsoft Corporation, out of Deutsch, New York. The ad, directed by Samuel Bayer of bicoastal RSA USA, uses iconic film characters–ranging from Little Orphan Annie to the alien in the Alien movies to Dr. Zaius from Planet of the Apes–to illustrate how people can use high-powered PCs based on the Intel Pentium 4 technology and Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to view, manage and work with digital content. “Digital Joy” shows a parade of the icons, as well as more generic representations of entertainment, making their way through the city streets to a typical home where they join a family in its living room. A score that seamlessly shifts as much as the genres presented on screen–from suspense, to action, to musical, and back to action again–backs up the stunning visuals.
Peter Nashel and Andy Farber of Dutone Audio Group, New York, composed the score, which was performed by a 50-person orchestra. The pair started working with Deutsch early on, during the storyboard phase. Nashel notes that the agency creatives knew going into the project that the music “needed to reflect all the various personalities and cultural references, but still hold together as a single piece of music.” As for the orchestral direction, Nashel says it was an idea that “came about naturally–it just seemed to fit the scope of the spot, and gave it the depth it needed.” Nashel reports that the track–from composition to the final recording–took about a week.
NUMBER TWO
Nextel’s “The Build,” out of TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, uses the imagery of ants to illustrate how the telecommunications provider aids in the construction of a building. “The Build,” directed by StyleWar of bicoastal Smuggler with extensive effects by The Mill, London and New York, shows construction workers assembling a large building. The workers pass off supplies in formation–much like a colony of ants constructing a hill. Underscoring the action are the sounds of construction, as well as the familiar beeping of Nextel phones. As the action unfolds, the music slowly builds–almost underneath the other noises–with a steady drumbeat. As the action builds in the spot–supplies are off-loaded and workers bring them to the necessary part of the building–the music increases in tempo, using drums and other instruments.
David Shapiro, partner/executive producer at Fluid, New York–the company’s Judson Crane composed the score–related that the agency initially wanted to go with sound design only, “but as [the agency] began to edit and animate, they saw that it really needed something to drive the images. We had about two to three weeks at that point to develop a sound.”
Shapiro noted that the agency wanted the tune to have a repetitive nature, in keeping with the tone of the spot. After creating about 15 demos, “we zeroed in on a sound that worked for everyone.”
NUMER THREE
At times, licensed music can detract from a spot’s creative. That’s certainly not the case with Cingular’s “Road Trip” via BBDO New York. The ad, directed by Lance Acord of Park Pictures, New York, highlights the enhanced coverage by the recently merged Cingular and AT&T Wireless. The spot, set to the classic tune “The Weight” from The Band, shows a young guy traveling from Boston to San Francisco in a 1956 Chevrolet Malibu convertible. Throughout his travels he gets remarkable reception–five bars, in fact–on his cell phone. His surroundings mimic the five bars–as he passes a farm, rows of tractors plowing through the field are cutting swaths that increase in length like the five bars on his phone. Ditto for buildings, trees, boats, coffee cups at the convenience store where he stops to refuel, and a flock of migrating birds. The changing landscapes are punctuated by “The Weight,” which was licensed via EMI Publishing, New York.
BBDO senior VP/executive Bob Emerson relates that the selection of the song was somewhat accidental. The spot’s editor, JJ Lask of PS 260, New York, used the song while cutting the spot. Emerson noted that the agency team had been prepared to create a score for the spot, but in the end decided that “The Weight” worked, and licensed the track.
NUMBER FOUR
In a holiday-themed spot for the OfficeMax chain of stores, DDB Chicago took the now-iconic Rubberband Man supply guy and immortalized him as an animated clay figure. The spot, “Santa’s Helper,” directed by Chel White of Bent Image Lab, Portland, Ore., finds the helpful supply man tooling around town with his ubiquitous cart filled with goodies from the office supply store. He brings cheer to the town’s denizens in the form of PDAs, computer printers, and assorted other office fixtures. At first glance, “Santa’s Helper” calls to mind classic holiday specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer–until the viewer sees the modern gadgets being given out.
As with previous spots featuring the Rubberband Man–who is normally live-action–the action unfolds to the tune of The Spinners’ hit “Rubberband Man.” Although in this case, it’s a holiday themed version, featuring a children’s choir and sleigh bells. Mat Morse of Spank! Music and Sound Design, Chicago, composed and arranged the new version, which is even catchier than the original.
NUMBER FIVE
Tracy McGrady, a guard for the Houston Rockets, and one of the league’s leading scorers, plays the role of Gulliver against a band of Lilliputian soldiers in order to make a basket in the extraordinary adidas spot “Unstoppable.” The ad, via TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, and directed by Brian Beletic of bicoastal Smuggler, opens on McGrady going in for the dunk. As he moves up the court, the action slows, and an army of tiny men in white and gold appears, attempting to take the player down with ropes that tangle around his neck, arms, waist, legs and feet. Assaulted on all sides, McGrady is also stalked by helicopters, as well as soldiers in jeeps and paratroopers raining down from the sky. Though it all McGrady stays on course, and makes the shot, defeating the miniature army. The spot’s score is comprised of thrilling sound design–the roar of helicopters and assault vehicles, the bouncing of the ball and the squeak of sneakers on the hardwood.
Ren Klyce of M.I.T. Out Sound/M.O.S., Sausalito, created the sound design, which helps to make the action–a teeny army taking on a basketball great–seem more real.
NUMBER SIX
“Belief” for eBay presents a simple idea: people are inherently good. In the ad, out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), San Francisco, and directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, people are shown performing simple good acts, accompanied by an uplifting but sparse piano score. A man holds an elevator door open, passers-by help a man pick up some dropped papers, riders on a bus leave the handicapped seat empty, two guys help push a stalled car. The idea: eBay, the online auction site, started with the idea that people are good and trustworthy, and people proved the site correct.
Jonathan Elias, creative director/composer at bicoastal Elias Arts, composed the track for “Belief.” A frequent collaborator with GS&P, Elias says the creative process was a seamless one, and though a few versions of the track were created, the agency opted to stick pretty close to the original.
NUMBER SEVEN
“Improvisation” is the second spot on the chart for adidas that presents basketball players with on-court challenges normally not seen in a typical NBA match-up. The ad, out of TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, and directed by Jake Scott of bicoastal RSA USA, features Detroit Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups literally taking on the court. As he attempts to make a basket, the hardwood comes to life, pulling itself into life-size formation, and attempts to block Billups from taking the shot. When that doesn’t work, the court pushes him back, creating a wave as he runs towards the hoop. The floor’s action is for naught, though, as he makes the basket. The CG action–Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., created effects for the spot–is accompanied by frenzied sound design that makes it seem as a basketball court could morph into different shapes. In the background, an ominous tune plays–sounding like something out of a horror movie.
Composer Garth May of Blast Music, Los Angeles, created the music for the spot. Marshall Grupp of Marshall Grupp Sound Design & Music, New York, created the sound design. Because “Improvisation” involved such intense CG, Grupp was brought into the process early on, and spent about six weeks creating the sound design. “The agency was very clear in their creative brief that the sound design needed to very realistic,” he says. “It had to sound like the basketball court was erupting, but they didn’t want any ‘weird’ sound elements. The court, in a sense, comes to life, but it’s not anthropomorphic–it doesn’t breathe or make vocal sounds.”
Grupp noted that as a sound designer, “this was a wonderful project as the sound elements were an integral part of the storytelling.”
NUMBER EIGHT
BMW’s “Lawn Ornaments,” out of Publicis NY, and directed by Andrews Jenkins of Foodchain Films, Portland, Ore., and bicoastal Go Film, shows that even inanimate objects love the look of a Beemer. The spot features the car moving through a suburban street at holiday time. The various lawn decorations–plastic Santas, elves with candy canes, angels and children’s choir members–eye the car as it drives by. Once the BMW has reached its home, the various decorations have clustered around the car to admire it. The spot’s score, comprised of piano and strings, has an ethereal, otherworldly feel to it, in keeping with the magical events taking place.
Mike Hewer of bicoastal/international Amber Music composed the piece. The team at Amber–including producer Ebony Maitland and music supervisor Patrick Oliver–notes that the agency was looking for “something Christmas-y and magical to help highlight the action in the film.” A search of Amber’s catalog by Oliver and his assistant, Matt Friedman, turned up a piece by Hewer. And, with some tweaking in instrumentation, it became the final version. The Amber team is please with how “Lawn Ornaments” turned out, noting “the music captures perfectly the movement and mystery of the spot.”
NUMBER NINE
A new spot for Stolichnaya vodka, out of Publicis NY, and directed by Josh & Xander of bicoastal/international Partizan, opens on a guy watching TV. As he takes his feet off the coffee table, he realizes his floor is frozen. Another neighbor looks bewilderingly at a vase, which has frozen and cracked. A woman in another apartment, who just came out of the shower, opens her medicine cabinet, and finds its contents frozen. The source of this odd indoor-ice storm: a group of friends has completely frozen their apartment to best enjoy their Stoli, a vodka best served chilled. The music builds slowly in the spot, culminating in a track that sounds as though it would be perfectly at home in an austere lounge or nightclub.
Gareth Williams of Human, New York, was the primary composer on the spot. (Human works collectively on all projects.) “[‘Frozen Neighbors] had a really strong concept and music was a critical element to achieving the coldness of the spot. Everyone was on the same page creatively from the beginning,” says Williams, who noted that it took just two days to create the music and sound design. “Within the confines of creating ‘cold’ tracks, we were able to still come up with several different interpretations of what cold music sounds and feels like against the picture.”
NUMER TEN
Ads for laundry detergent usually call to mind product demos that keep your whites white and colors bright–rarely do they conjure animated tales about the various mysteries of laundry as is the case with All’s “Floor.” The ad, out of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), New York, with animation by Airside of Oil Factory Films, London, opens on an animated woman taking clean laundry out of the dryer; in the process a sock fall to the ground. A voice-over wonders why the clean sock on the floor attracts all the dirt in the laundry room, at which point animated globs of dirt, dust and other laundry room detritus comes out of the woodwork, and has an impromptu dance party on the clean sock. Not too worry though, continues the VO–All with stain lifters will return the sock to cleanliness. The music reflects the tone of the spot. A jaunty drum/cow bell beat that morphs into a disco tune when the animated dirt–complete with mirrored disco ball–boogies down on the poor sock.
Raymond Loewy of tonefarmer, New York, composed the spot’s catchy track. He notes that BBH involved him early on in the process, which proved beneficial. “This was one job where the storyboards really helped us get a bead on what the flavor should be early,” he says. “[The boards] demonstrated both the bright primary color patterns and quaint crudeness of how the final animation would indeed eventually turn out.” Loewy says the agency had only one mandate–that the dirt and germs dancing have their own music to dance to. He’s pleased with how the final spot turned out: “It’s always great to be part of a campaign that presents fresh and unexpected work in a somewhat tired category like laundry detergent,” he relates, “and hopefully the track holds up its end of the creative bargain.”
