Using Unexpected Music In Your Film
(3 min read)
We all know how it goes. Sometimes there are those commercials where you know exactly what music you’re going to get.
If someone is grilling, on a beach, or enjoying a refreshing beverage you’re probably going to hear ukuleles and whistles… maybe some handclaps and/or stomps for good measure.
If you see a truck navigating tough terrain, you’ll hear blues rock with dirty guitar lines and testosterone-laced war drums.
A spot with panoramic nature vistas and adorable animals comes on, you get piano and plucky strings and well-timed majestic swells.
Unless you’re Apple.
“Don’t mess with Mother” starts innocently enough with a Bach-like fugue piano line under some beautiful shots of nature, and the audience thinks, “Alright, another documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman,” followed by an audible yawn. But then we begin to hear hints of electric guitar and a bit more drama building, as the pace quickens and it all explodes as the devilishly distorted guitar begins to shred leading up to a baby elephant with the banshee’s scream of Dave Mustaine.
What?
That’s right. A pretty brilliant edit of Megadeth’s “Last Rites/Loved to Deth” is used to score this insane journey through one minute and nine seconds. There is nothing like taking an expectation and turning it on its head and the team at Camp4 Collective smashed it like a herd of jacked up wildebeests.
By now, most of us know that Apple loves the iPhone camera and wants you to love it too… or at least prefer it to their competitors. We’ve seen commercials that highlight the abilities through emotive, none-too-salesy cinematography and type treatments. But Apple also loves to shake up the establishment. Not only did Camp4 Collective step up Apple’s visual game with breathtaking shots from 9 different extreme locations, but they shake us out of our commercial nap with their unexpected selection of music.
There is nothing like taking an expectation and turning it on its head and the team at Camp4 Collective smashed it like a herd of jacked up wildebeests.
And isn’t that the key element? Getting your audience to pay attention for any amount of time at all, to manufacture that perfect moment that makes them want to see and hear your story?
So the next time you’re working on a spot that could have a predictable and safe music choice, we challenge you to try something unexpected. Use antonyms of your committee-approved keywords, explore unusual genres, go down a weird rabbit hole.
You might be surprised.
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