Project 1 Sound Replacement for Commercial

For my initial project of this trimester, I decided to choose from several advertisement sound replacement projects, to do the sound replacement for a 2009 Chevrolet Cruze ad which aired in China. The ad stars Wentworth Miller who, at the time and currently has a huge following and fan base in China from his role as Michael Scofield in the American TV series, Prison Break.

For the purpose of this project and brief outline by the facilitators, the technical processes and its impact on the aesthetic outcome will ultimately be aimed to be of a professional standard for evaluation by the lectures, while also being intended for viewing by other class members for feedback and improvements during the production process. To successfully meet the brief, I must implement the desired impact on the audience outlined in the brief which is as follows.

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HOLDEN CRUZE

Vision: This car is good enough for a Hollywood film high-speed chase sequence?

Audio: Hollywood – powerful – dynamic - smart – assertive – in control – big – deceptive – clever – unbeatable – elusive – uncatchable – cat & mouse

Reference: – Batman – The Dark Night Theme - Hans Zimmer

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As described above, the score for the project will be produced in the style of Hans Zimmer’s Dark Night Night Theme, however, due to limited resources I have access too and obviously I’m not a professional composer like Zimmer, I will have to get feedback from my lecturers and classmates to help guide me in the right direction.

A great resource for understanding Zimmer’s mind is his MaterClass which is a website were professionals that have mastered their craft have a video series along with workbooks and other resources. Here you can really get into his mind and understand why he is where he is because of his mindset and mentality.

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Personally, for this ad, I understand the client wants something along the lines of a very dramatic score, however, I wouldn’t go as far as to say, use the Dark Night Theme as a reference because like what Zimmer explains in one of his videos explaining his score for Batman and working with James Newton Howard, “there was and endless heroic theme… that’s not the character” and continues to say “part of what sets his story and fate into motion is that he wants to leave the opera and his parents get killed”. Another very real situation is for us as composers are to what Zimmer says is to “suspend disbelief that a man would dress up in a Batman outfit… that’s part of the job, I have to legitimately buy into this”. We have to believe the character and so does the audience. That where the famous two-note French horn lead was born, the suspense in those two notes are in a sense a reflection of his life, “he’s stuck in that one moment in his childhood”, he has that guilt that he was the reason of his parent’s death and now “he can’t have a proper grown up relationship… he can’t be truly heroic”. He explains with playing a scale of some notes with released tension, that’s Danny Elfman’s Batman, his, however, is constantly stuck and that’s how he represents his Batman with just two notes that keep the audience suspended in tension, wondering what’s going to be played next. He explains his composition as a nagging motif going all the way through, driving him forward (Bruce Wayne). Zimmer’s work described in his words are purposeful and deliberate so when you hear it, you know that it’s Batman and so my work should be equally purposeful in trying to showcase the client’s work and composing something that fits with Wentworth’s character as well as what the audience know him for.

Composed by Ramin Djawadi, who's know for his Game of Thrones score.

Lastly, the main focus is on the vehicle being advertised, however, is it equally who’s showing it off. We all (unless you’re not a Prison Break fan) know Wentworth and the apparently the majority of China love Wentworth for his role as Michael Scofield, I would like to use the Prison Break score as another reference track for the advert.

As for all the Foley recordings and how I plan to record them, they will be coming in a later blog.

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Resources:

Masterclasscom. (2017). MasterClass. Retrieved from https://www.masterclass.com/classes/hans-zimmer-teaches-film-scoring

Wikipediaorg. (2017). Wikipediaorg. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramin_Djawadi