By:
Gareth Johnson
Date::
10 Mar 2011
I was delighted to be asked to give a couple of seminars to broadcast professionals at the annual Broadcast Magazine Production Show at Earls Court, London, recently. It meant that I had a captive audience made up of programme makers, producers and upcoming talent to wax lyrical to about my views on using music to produce creative content.
I am by no means a polished presenter as I spend most of my days locked in the studio making music and getting geeky with studio equipment. However, I worked out what I wanted to say and took a crash course in powerpoint in order to get my points across.
The crux of what I said is simple:
1. A little extra thought and care of music choice and integration into a project will greatly enhance the overall impact for end users and consumers. This means an end to slapping unsuitable music on a project as an afterthought because a looming deadline approaches. Getting the music into your project earlier will affect editing decisions and work to enhance visuals making for a more coherent and clear message for consumers.
2. Establishing a recognisable brand identity is easier with careful music choices. Audio Network provides sub mixes, underscores and stings for all tracks, which essentially gives editors a ready made construction kit to use in content production. This is a really easy way to keep a common theme running through a project, helping to establish a recognisable sonic brand identity whilst changing mood and pace by using underscores and alternative mixes. It's an old school idea that Hollywood have been using for decades, and really works.
3. Identifying the target audience and demographic for your content is key in selecting the right music for your project. What's on their Ipods? what are the consumer expectations for commercial music content? Identify this and you're half way there.
Next stop is the search engine on the Audio Network website. It's all there waiting, you just have to look.
It all went down well and hopefully I was able to turn a few people onto the benefits of taking a moment to consider how a few simple changes in the way they incorporate music into their projects will make a big difference to the overall impact of their productions.
It's just like crossing the road:
STOP.
LOOK.
LISTEN.
Until next time.
GJ
Listen to Gareth's tracks here:
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