SOUTH Music and Sound uses car sounds to create a modern hip hop song in Genesis commercial from Innocean
By A SHOOT Staff Report
As the features of the new Genesis–Hyundai Motor Company’s luxury car–appear on screen, the images mesh with the vehicle’s sounds in a way that lends a certain dimensionality to this commercial. The soundtrack seemingly emerges from the car as the genesis of the Genesis score–done by SOUTH Music and Sound–takes hold.
SOUTH went the direction of using literal car sound effects to create a modern hip hop song in this “Feel Every Detail” spot–with the “feel” coming from both the visual and audio worlds. Vania & Muggia directed the spot via production house Iconoclast for ad agency Innocean. And the hip hop creation turned out to a chart topper–not of the Billboard variety but rather SHOOT’s Top Ten Tracks Chart for the first quarter of 2024.
Ann Haugen, partner/head of production at SOUTH Music and Sound, recalled, “From the beginning, the creatives on the project wanted to incorporate the car sounds into the music as an additional instrument. This concept was intriguing because SFX are usually considered an afterthought. With this in mind, we were able to capture the car sounds on set, manipulate them into the track, using certain rhythmic qualities to blend them in seamlessly. Not only did it allow the track to have some additional instrumentation, it also gave it a magical connection to the visuals.”
Haugen continued, “The only real challenge in this type of concept is making sure we had access to the car before we started scoring so that we could capture all the sounds. Of course it was also crucial that we collaborated with a collection of hip hop artists who spend more of their time creating records than commercials. This ensured that this high-concept spot still provided the musical authenticity that Genesis has made such a huge part of their recent work. The agency was super open-minded to our process and point of view, and we couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out.”
The SOUTH team included Haugen, creative directors Matt Drenik and Dan Pritikin, composers Mike Mac and Jon Darling, and associate producer Alina Fox.
The sound design and mixing team came from Lime Studios with Michael Anastasi serving as sound designer and Dave Wagg as audio post mixer. They were backed by sound design assistant Michael Baran, audio assistant Matthew Conzelmann, producer Cassie Underwood and executive producer Susie Boyajan.
Paul Meyers served as cinematographer. Editor was Leo Scott of Cartel.
Click here to view the full Top Ten Music Tracks Chart for the first quarter of 2024.
Forsman & Bodenfors Shifts Its Singapore Group Creative Director Ivan Guerra to Its NYC Hub
Forsman & Bodenfors (F&B) has expanded its creative leadership in New York by relocating longtime group creative director Ivan Guerra from the Singapore office to the Big Apple to support a quickly growing list of new client wins.
As a group creative director in Singapore, Guerra racked up numerous accolades and participated in a myriad of new business wins that fueled the agency’s growth year over year. He explained why now was the right time to come back to the states, adding more nuance in the process. ”Singapore is the business hub of Asia, New York is the business hub of the world,” he said. “Our office in Singapore was small when I arrived. Since then, we’ve more than tripled in size, and became the [number one] most creative agency in the country, and work with more and bigger clients than ever before. There’s always more to be done, but the agency I’m leaving behind is in fantastic shape and ready to take on the world, as I know they will.”
For Guerra, there’s an opportunity to replicate in New York the success he had in Singapore. During his career, he repositioned and promoted businesses and products across a wide variety of markets and industries including P&G, Coca-Cola and Booking.com. Some of his well-known work includes a campaign that increased Samsung’s sales in the Middle East by almost 200%, one of the most iconic films in the history of Converse, Verizon’s most successful sports partnership program “Data Dunk” with the NBA, and a “Proud Whopper” campaign in 2014 that reignited Burger King and garnered 13 Cannes Lions and a Grand Clio.
Coming back to New York after 15 years in the business, including a stint where he spent time at the likes of top-shelf agencies like R/GA,... Read More