Saw a new advert the other day on national TV (UK). Not a cheap slot.
Photography: Excellent, said “expensive quality”
Script: Great, said “time & effort”
Voice-over: Nicely performed, good warm feelings
Animations: Fine, did the job
Music: WHAT!!? You’d have to go a long way to find a more cheap-sounding instantly-forgettable backing. I know at times music should be very much in the background, supporting the production without getting in the way. But that’s just it. It should support the production, not say “look what we saved money on”.
And I know music is my thing. I know I’m passionate about it. I know I think it should always be the most important part of any production. I know we disagree about that and I know we always will. But it seems to me that whoever chose the music for this particular ad WANTED to say “this is a cheap ad/product”. Why? When everything else said otherwise.
It could have had a melody for someone to catch on to or an emotion to draw them in. It could have had some performance or production quality that echoed the class of the photography. But no.
Finding suitable music shouldn’t be out of anyone’s reach. There are music supervisors out there who will do a very professional job. I’ve no idea what their fees are, but if you can’t afford that, a bit of simple research or reaching out to a composer or a production library should give you a few ideas.
Come on production teams. Make your productions memorable for the right reasons!
Bob Good has around 400 production tracks available exclusively on half a dozen libraries, including Cinephonix
in the UK and Music For Productionsin Canada. He prides himself on producing high quality music, recorded using real instruments.
Bob’s recent library placements include BBC
’s Masterchef, Autumn Watch, The One Show, Wanted: A Simple Life, ITV
's This Morning, Long Lost Family, Channel 4
’s A Place In The Sun, Come Dine With Me, Channel 5
's Age Gap Love, Billionaire Babies, Netflix
’s Al Hayba, Discovery
’s British Treasure, American Gold, France 3
's Au Fil De La Durance, Canal Vie
’s Ex Au Defi and many more.
