USA
Briefing
For this wonderful project we were brought in by BBDO Energy Chicago’s SVP of Music. Our tasks was to present songs to them that were organic, followed a certain mood structure in line with the film and had a great match lyrically to the story, yet in a subtle way to avoid it becoming cheesy. They were certain that they wanted a song from an emerging artist rather than a produced piece of music as they were seeking a feeling of authenticity that you can typically only find in released music.
Interestingly, we worked on this search several months before the shoot, rather than to an offline edit which often is the case with song searches.
As with most projects, we were given a precise music budget that we wouldn’t be able to exceed, so we had to make sure all tracks were pre-approved for the budget.
Execution
Researching existing music for a commercial use is very different from mood research for productions as you are not just searching for a vibe and sound but the actual piece that fits like a glove. Often, music research involves digging through tracks while running the film for quick references if it matches the mood, pace and structure of the film.
Researching before a shoot involves a constant reminder of the requirements of the script, briefing and our own music strategy every time we listen to a potential piece of music to make sure we stay on the right path.
Here is the final film, including the winning music proposal, on which we added the reference terms of the client and our internal briefing:
To make sure we stayed on budget, we tapped into our network of independent music publishers and labels who received a music briefing from us leaving out any confidential information. In addition to that, we scanned our collection of several hundred thousand songs looking for tracks that fit the briefing and budget.
Results
The work was a finalist at New York Festivals and Golden Award of Montreux.
Learnings
Starting early on the music search was crucial for the song and the images working well together. It helped the visual and musical sides to come together in harmony from an early stage and prevented the agency from finding themselves in a situation where they edit to an unaffordable mood track whilst exploring songs that might not fit the edit (or don’t match the client’s love for famous track that it has been edited to).
Get In Touch
At Tracks & Fields we are always happy to help you with authentic and reasonably priced music options, please feel free to get in touch for a playlist of ideas.