Daniel’s Top Blog for CMT

Working on soundtracking an advert last week has made me look at adverts very differently, even if I just happen to see one on tv. The thing that strikes me the most is how concise the composition is in terms of harmonic material, and yet such thick and busy orchestration. Having spoken to Julio on Monday about my work the issue of orchestration came up again. I am coming to realise the importance of keeping alot of variety in voicing the main hook or “sound logo”. For example, in my own work, I took a prominent riff from the main bass line and repeated this at the end of the advert with the main ‘Honda’ logo. The problem was that having only appeared in the bass part until this point it didn’t stand out anymore than any other motif from my composition. This was made particularly clear as the advert I chose is fairly long and without constant variation, the hook looses all power. I intend to juggle the orchestration around tomorrow for this reason. I hope this will also help to keep more musical interest as the advert goes on throughout the 90 seconds.

Another comment I got from Julio was on the issue of sound effects. In some parts of the ad I had uses alot more sounds than others because I felt the actions on screen needed that support. However, there were other parts where I had maybe represented a certain sound through the music or even not at all as I deemed them in the background of events. This only meant, however, that these areas felt empty or just less expressive. This was particularly noticeable as the advert I am working on is very colourful and busy throughout. 

Hope some of this is relevant to any of your work!

~ by danielservante on November 6, 2008.