Film, TV, Advertising and Games composer services from Ithaca Audio
We were recently asked by Berlin production company Moist Creation to create all the audio for their new animation for Red Bull. This included sound design for each of the different scenes in the video and music to tie the whole piece together.
Here is the video with just the sound design elements:
Take a look at this great interview with composer and sound designer Diego Stocco. Diego uses some really interesting techniques to create the sounds that make up his compositions.
You can download some of Diego’s great music here: http://diegostocco.bandcamp.com/album/the-broken-suite
Loud noises attract our attention and these days adverts and brands are screaming at us from every angle to take notice. Consumers are overloaded, so it’s time to look at some slightly more cunning ways to get the attention of the public and get your message out there using the power of audio.
These tips will give you some insight into some creative ways of using audio to get people’s attention and will also dip into the science behind ‘attention grabbing’ sounds along the way.
The very nature of sound vibration is that it loses energy over time, meaning almost all sounds start loud and get quieter. Hitting a gong, plucking a string, dropping your keys, with all these noises you instantly get sound that then dies away at varying rates. Our brain is used to this, play a sound backwards and our brain focuses on the sound trying to work out what is happening.
Here is an example recording, the sound of a radiator being hit.
Normal
[audio:http://www.ithacaaudio.com/uploads/Radiator.mp3]
Reverse
[audio:http://www.ithacaaudio.com/uploads/RadiatorReverse.mp3]
Our ears have evolved to amplify certain frequencies. Your outer ear and your ear canal act as an amplifier boosting the signal where you need it most. This is centered around the human speech frequencies, which if you think about it makes sense. Humans have become the dominant species through the abilty to communicate with each other and it is only natural that we should have evolved to easily hear each other speak. The frequencies that the ear focuses on most are between 300hz and 3khz and this is one of the reasons why the bassist in a band gets less solos that the guitarist.
Here is an example from our news themes post:
Normal
[audio:http://www.ithacaaudio.com/uploads/NewsThemeShort.mp3]
Here we have just the 300hz-3Khz frequencies. While the sound is not as full you can still distinguish the instruments and the melodies fairly easily.
[audio:http://www.ithacaaudio.com/uploads/NewsThemeShortBandPass.mp3]
This time the 300hz-3Khz frequencies have been removed making it much harder to distinguish the important information about the audio.
[audio:http://www.ithacaaudio.com/uploads/NewsThemeShortBandNotch.mp3]
The audio equivalent of an M.C. Escher drawing, psycho-acoustic effects confuse your brain. Take the Shepard Tone for example, it is a sound that appears to be constantly rising with no end point:
[audio:http://www.ithacaaudio.com/uploads/Shepard%20Tone.mp3]
Silence is a very powerful tool in the audio arsenal. Again, much of the effect of silence on our attention stems from evolution.
Naturally the world is quite a noisy place and sudden silences are often an indicator of danger in the form of predators. As a successful species humans have evolved to take a particular interest in avoiding being eaten. As such our ears are always on, even when we sleep and our brain is constantly processing the input. It is very good at identifying sudden changes in audio that could be dangerous to us.
Much of the time our brain is ‘passively’ listening to the sound all around us, blocking out the everyday noises (traffic, computer fans, wildlife etc.) that are of no danger to us. When our brain very rapidly switches to actively focus on a particular sound this really grabs the attention of all our other senses. Load noises are a good example of this but often overlooked is the effect of sudden silence which in many cases can be much more interesting.
Here is a piece of music created by Ithaca Audio that focuses on the change in volume between loud and soft sounds to create tension in the listener:
Last but certainly not least is quality. High definition, well recorded or created sounds just get our attention. Any of the attention grabbing tricks mentioned above will be dampened by bad quality audio. Wherever possible steer clear of low quality encoding such as mp3. Where small file sizes are necessary try looking at some of the lossless audio codecs such as mp3HD, FLAC and Apple Lossless. If size and compatibility absolutely demand mp3 then encode it at the highest quality settings that you can.
Ever wondered what goes into creating a great mashup? The Man in Blue has created a fantastic interactive site showing the ins and outs of his own ‘Definative Daft Punk Mix’.
The site has been created in HTML5 and CSS3.
Take a look here:
Following up from Evian’s Roller Babies spot a couple of years ago, agency BETC Euro RSCG have created this:
The online version features a great sound track in the form of the DJ Mehdi and Uffie cover of Tom Tom Club’s Wordy Rappinghood. The TV version apparently uses a remix of Rapper’s Delight, slightly less original but probably more suited to the ‘offline’ audience.
Directed by Legs, who have previously worked for La Roux, Florence and the Machine and brands such as Sony, Diesel and Coca-Cola.
Art Director: Agnès Cavard
Copywriter: Valérie Chidlovsky
Ithaca Audio was recently asked to compose and produce the music for a new spot for the Jenny Craig company.
The aim was to reflect the friendly vibe of the advert in the music by producing a piece that was upbeat, organic, modern but not too intrusive.
This new ad for VW has been doing the rounds today. Created by Deutsch LA and making great use of John Williams’ iconic Imperial March from Star Wars. A great idea from the creative team involved and John Williams’ music always creates a great impact on screen.
Director/Copywriter: Eric Springer
Group creative director/Art director: Michael Kadin
Associate creative director/Copywriter: Jim DiPiazza
Associate creative director/Art director: Mark Peters
Copywriter: Matt Sherman
Art director: Paul Oberlin
Director of integrated production: Vic Palumbo
Senior producer/Music supervisor: Marisa Wasser
director/DP Lance Acord via Park Pictures, Bicoastal/London, with executive producer Jackie Kelman Bisbee and Mary Ann Marino, line producer Patricia Frazier, head of production Dinah Rodriguez, production designer Jeff Mann and costume designer Melinda Eshelman
A very interesting video on the importance of sound in story telling and it’s use in Disney theme parks. Obviously creating music and mixing it for a theme parks poses some unique problems and Walt Disney Imagineering make use of some equally unique solutions.
For more insightful videos from the SoundWorks Collection visit: http://soundworkscollection.com/
The music in film trailers has a huge effect on the public’s opinion of a film before it is released. Like film music in general it can set the mood of the visuals, creating tension, a feeling of romance, confusion, playfulness or even fear. The difference with trailer music is that much of the public will decide whether to view the film based on the trailer. The music therefore has an incredibly important role in identifying the film’s feel to the viewer and enticing the public to hit the cinemas.
These two trailers for example give the viewer a very different feel of the film in question.
The first is an original trailer from the 1984 film ‘Ghostbusters’
This re-cut trailer by Youtube user Rothejfunk is set to the ‘Inception’ trailer music ‘Mind Heist’ by Zack Hemsey.
While the original is obviously far more accurate to the content of the film, the re-cut is certainly an interesting experiment. Even though the visuals in the second trailer are from the same film the atmosphere it creates is far more Inception than Ghostbusters.
Trailers are essentially adverts for films, and just like in advertising, music has a huge effect on the public’s perception of the final product. Experienced composers can manipulate this perception and while the music may only be very short it can have a dramatic effect on the profitability of the product it is promoting.
Hat-tip to @motski for pointing out the re-cut trailer.