Tag Archives: (An)Other Irish Cinema

Thursday 3rd March 2011 – Audio Branding and it’s Use in Film

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Audio (or sonic) branding  is a very interesting idea that is actually quite established even though you may not have heard of it…  we are exposed to it every day but you may not even realise this.  Audio branding is the use of sound or music in creating a brand image for a company,  the most obvious examples being the Windows start-up sound, the Intel Inside noises on the TV adverts and that annoying  WeBuyAnyCar.com tune (for those who have had it inflicted upon them in the UK).  The idea is that you drum a tune into the public’s collective head and combine it with a product to make that product more memorable.  Think Pavlov’s dogs…yes, humans are easy to manipulate too.  On a more sophisticated level, the sounds can actually convey an emotion which you then associate with the company in question.  I’m sure, being a music fan, you are fully aware of how powerful the possibility of creating emotion through music is… People like to be happy; if a brand makes the public feel happy then that brand is in a very good position.  You could say the Windows start-up tune is having a stab at this last point. In the unlikely scenario of you not having heard this before (considering you are using a computer to read this!), the start-up of their software is heralded in by a brief but jubilant fanfare…

 

For me, this is all very interesting; I have an interest in Psychology (I took a degree in it), I am interested in creating atmosphere with my music that immerses the listener in a world of my creation (in a fantastical way, of course, rather than sinister…) and I am also looking into how different sounds make you feel and think.  Also, in a career-oriented way I have always been interested in creating a stamp for myself in all the music I make.

 

Is it possible for me to directly make money as a musician through audio branding?  Well I don’t know really, but I suspect that this sphere is way beyond the independent types.  As far as I know, only big companies really use audio branding so it is therefore probably taken care of by their advertising agencies.  However, saying that, it would be instructive and fun to work on small scale ideas for anyone out there wanting an audio-stamp…  Such an opportunity would obviously be great for me but I also intend to use these ideas whilst exploring the more art-oriented music/sounds I make; carrying these ideas in my head whilst I make music and also exploring them will help me to grow as musician. The net result may even help any career that I can make for myself…

 

So, how else is audio branding being used?  Well, Wikipedia says Bentley Motors recently looked to create a brand experience by replacing all interior mechanical sounds with sound that had been created for their Continental GT car.  A very cool idea.  You can imagine how a submersive atmosphere could be created by assigning a sound to everything in an environment.    The sounds could all be part of the same story as the environment or be completely at odds with it; depending on your aim this could all get very interesting indeed….

 

On a more mundane level, people actually use these ideas every day without thinking about it:  People like personalised ringtones as they feel it shows off their personality to the annoyance of the middle-aged (and me). And are music fans therefore using audio branding as a form of self-expression?  It could easily be said that is exactly what many teenagers do when they associate themselves with a kind of musical movement.  The music can even be secondary to the image for such teenagers although you cant deny that certain sounds effect certain people in different ways; it would be foolish to say that the music doesn’t matter at all…

 

The article here lends a somewhat sinister slant to these ideas; there will always be some one that will play with ethical boundaries to make some money.  The author of the aforementioned article talks about how it is believed that audio branding is now being used subliminally in songs.  This may be to communicate brand values or even to re-iterate a company’s slogan… An example cited is Pharrell Williams’ 2005 song ‘Can I Have It Like That’ (featuring Gwen Stefani), with the chorus which apparently echoed the Burger King advertising slogan ‘Have It Your Way’… sinister eh.

 

All that aside though, recently the use of audio branding in a film really got me thinking.  All films use music or sound in some way and it is common knowledge that this use of music is there to heighten the experience and story-telling.  Music is also used stylistically in film through life-style music too; hip, cool teen films correspondingly use hip, cool teen music to appeal to their audience.  I talked a bit about the use of film sound in a more experimental sense during an earlier post about (An)Other Irish Cinema;  sound can be used to enhance the feeling that picture is creating or it could be used to disorientate the mind and the senses.  Anyway, back to the film I saw (not for the first time though!):  I don’t know to what extent Sergio Leone meant to strategically use audio branding  in ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’ but if you have seen it you will know exactly what I mean.  The wailing melody used throughout the film has even become somewhat of a western genre cliché as every time some one wants to reference a western stylistically, this music can be used.  Every time this happens it actually strengthens the film’s brand or even acts as an advert.  But the use of sound here even goes beyond this.  The music in this film is a work of art in it’s own right; it uses conventional instrumentation as well as some ideas that aren’t so conventional.  Like many films, the music really sets the atmosphere wonderfully but the sound-direction really does play a part in this too.  For example, the use of silence to create tension ready for it to break into action and louder sounds really draws you into the film’s stylistic ‘brand’.  These ideas may not be direct advertisements for the film but they all work as brand-strengtheners over time.  I therefore put it to the reader that this kind of sound design in film has yet to be fully exploited. As I always say, I’m no film buff but I can’t think of many examples where this has been done so elegantly (please feel free to correct me in the comments section below).  As a musician it is possible to create mood for a film whilst giving it a unique stamp that strengthens the film’s identity amongst it’s rival products and peers, becoming an altogether more complete and confident beast in the process.   However, there is so much more to explore beyond style, genre, orchestral swells and aggressive rock music… and film-makers that realise this seem to make their films stand out as unique, interesting and all-immersive as well as finalising their work as a piece of art.


Thursday 10th February 2011 – (An)Other Irish Cinema

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Last week, I attended a short-film event put on by James Devereaux for his Drifting Clouds Cinema Group.  We had orginally talked about Lunar Rising playing an acoustic set at the event but unfortunately the bar hosting it doesn’t yet have a  live music license.

Anyway, the event hosted a film-making trio that go by the name of (An)Other Irish Cinema.  As I have talked about before, for the fringe arts to survive it is necessary to collaborate and combine numbers and strength, and this formed the basis of the trio getting together.  In their own words:   ”(Donal) Foreman, (Rouzbeh) Rashidi and (Maximilian) Le Cain formed as a platform for joint screenings, to showcase their work and, in so doing, to propose the possibility of an/other filmmaking culture in Ireland”

I am no film critic and do not pretend to have any knowledge about film, the proceses used or issues that film-makers care about.  I do, however, like film.  All the way from cheesy blockbusters to the deeply strange.  Each film interests me in a different way and offers something, from gaining a few cheap laughs to something really profoundly effecting me.  So, yeah, this isnt meant as a film review (I probably wont even mention film titles) but it is an explanation of what I took from the films in light of my interest in combining and gaining influence from seemingly unrelated walks of life.

From what James had told me, I was aware that the films being shown were avant garde.  I’m not a fan of art that is elitist, or art that is so abstract you need a degree in art history to understand it so it may come as a bit of a surprise that I really enjoyed what was on show.  As the trio of film-makers hinted in a ‘question-and-answer’ session afterward, the films weren’t designed to wrap up an idea in such a deep cloak of mystery that it will never be understood. Indeed, there may be nothing to actually understand.  The works were based around the moment in which they were filmed and took influence from everything going on at the time of filming/editing.  You could even say that the films are a film version of Jazz….  What results is a feast for the senses; The films effected me visually, and most crucially to me, aurally.  The mix of these two mediums in the way presented, rather than being a narrative as such created an atmosphere that immersed me in something I had never experiecned before and also got my grey cells working.  The great thing about such film is that every one takes you on a journey you have never expereicend before.  In contrast, love stories etc take you on the same journey over and over again (which I think has it’s rightful place).

As some of you will know, the main focus of my musical interest is atmopshere.  With Lunar Rising, very much like my bandmates I think, I aim my input to work towards an all-encompassing experience that will hold you for a duration of time and tell you a story without actually telling you anything;  A sense of journey in emotion and immersive sound.  Whether or not I ever achieve this is down to the listener of course!  The lyrics do add a tale but combined with the ambiguity of the musical journey, I find the desired effect is intensified.  With Henry Spencer Project, I aim to create a more physical atmosphere that picks up the listener in rhythmic movement.  With the audio/visual project I am undertaking with Lesley Flower, we aim to make each aspect (audio and visual) mutually bolster the other to create an atmosphere that is intensified by their partnership.

It therefore follows that the main interest I took away from seeing these short-films are the atmospheres they created, how they did this plus how I might translate such ideas using the tools and knowledge available into my own work.

The use of space was very interesting.  Open spaces were used but sounds were intense and right in your face.  Visions of natural surroundings were used with heightened, intensified natural sounds.  The distortion of sounds lent fairly normal images more depth and an altered sense of perception.  Emotive sounds were used that worked in tandem with or against various images.  Lots of contrast and lots harmony in so many different ways.  Maybe I can use ‘normal’ sounds and songs but use anything I like to contrast or harmonise them aesthetically or theoretically with sound and/or image (or using any other of the senses for that matter…).

Also, I have been developing an interest in the sounds around us in our every day lives and how I can merge these to create something that is even more personal to me than the music I write/sounds I create.  To my mind it follows that combining my instrumental self-expression with sounds that I am personally immersed in intensifies my own stamp.  Therefore, the use of everday sounds (or ‘found sounds’) in the work of the films I saw really stood out and, for me, really made the experience complete in a practical sense once combined with my aforementioned thoughts.

Please do take the time to check out the film-maker’s and group’s links at the beginning of the article.  Keep an open mind and expect something more than a film; indeed something very different.  You wont regret it!  If you are unfamiliar with my work then it would be great if you found time to check out the links to Lunar Rising and Henry Spencer Project.  As always, I really am very grateful for any kind of feedback you can offer at all!

Jay