<a href="http://www.sonixphere.com.“>Sonixphere, a global resource for everything related to music and sound, transformed combat dialogue into a funky original song for a multi-platform campaign launching “Gears of War 3.” Conceived by The Richards Group, Dallas, the campaign broke on national TV September 20th, as well as online, in video pre-rolls, and in stores.
The song that drives the campaign is made up of bits of dialogue drawn from the game itself. “By manipulating the game characters’ spoken lines into ‘sung’ melodic phrases and through the creative use of audio processing, we crafted their words into memorable hooks and catchy rhythms,” explains Greg Allan, CEO/Creative Director of <a href="http://www.sonixphere.com.“>Sonixphere, which launched last August. “Our goal was to create an urban song with a pop feel that was in keeping with the personality of the Gears of War brand and would speak to gamers.”
The creative process began in Dallas, where The Richards Group’s creative team (art director, Rodrigo Maycotte, writer, Chris Cannon, and producer, Dan Calhoun) worked with partner and editor Brent Herrington of the editing, audio and visual effects house 3008 in selecting game footage and assembling a 30-second rough cut. Herrington and the <a href="http://www.sonixphere.com.“>Sonixphere team (who flew to Dallas to work onsite) used that material to prepare a click track.
From there, the task of constructing a catchy song from the dialogue began. Using audio processing, <a href="http://www.sonixphere.com.“>Sonixphere composers transformed the game dialogue (including such phrases as “go baby go,” “boom, baby,” and “that was beautiful baby”) into musical hooks and arresting patterns. A final tempo was chosen, and the sung phrases were dropped into a beat-driven track <a href="http://www.sonixphere.com.“>Sonixphere composed from scratch.
“It was critical to have music done in-house with us for this project,” says Herrington. “Being together in the room allowed us to go back and forth making changes to the music and picture, and even changing tempos.”
“This was something we never did before and so we didn’t know what to expect,” says Richards Group Art Director, Rodrigo Maycotte. “It was a musical and editorial challenge, and we had a tight deadline, so having Greg’s team fly in and work next to our editor was a great solution. When we came up with this idea, there was no doubt <a href="http://www.sonixphere.com.“>Sonixphere could pull it off! We knew we were in good hands and love the song.”
“We had to make something out of nothing,” concludes Allan, whose global composer roster has recently completed music and sonic branding for Mayo Clinic, Sports Authority, and Madden NFL 12. “Being able to work side-by-side with the great team from 3008, made a difference in the final result and ensured we met the client’s creative goals and deadline.”
Credits
Spot: Gears of War 3
Agency – The Richards Group, Dallas
Creative Directors: David Canright and Lynda Hodge
Art Director – Rodrigo Maycotte
Writer – Chris Cannon
Senior Producer – Dan Calhoun
Music – <a href="http://www.sonixphere.com.“>Sonixphere
Editorial – 3008 editing audio vfx, Dallas
Offline editor – Brent Herrington
Online editor – Mark Sullivan
Producer – Angel LaRiva
Assistant Producer – Michael Irving
Final Mix – Matt Cimino
For more information, call (312) 329-1310 or visit www.sonixphere.com.
