That Beep by Architecture in Helsinki
IMF: So I had this dream last night. It happened exactly like this. Weird eh? Have you heard this?
David: Yes I know the band, but not huge fan so I don’t know the song intimately. It’s catchy and commercial-friendly for sure. Must have been some dream.
IMF: Where would you try to sync this song?
David: I’m feelin’ it for commercials before I think of it as a film placement. It would also work well in experiential or event marketing as it’s one of those easily accessible songs that has the power to energize people en mass. For that reason it really works best on commercials. It’s like bottling that energy and releasing it to the public for 30-second consumption-boosts.
It evokes the vibe of some brands that we work with like Koodo, Telus or confectionary ads like chocolate bars and gummie-candies. The bop and pop of this track makes it somewhat “quirky” as the ad-folks say, and would make it really work best on ads geared to the younger demographic (mobile phones, candy, gum, compact-cars, energy-drinks…). In many ways it’s also got a bit of a catwalk vibe. If there was a slow-mo-type picture it would also work in a very sexy way.
“You got that beat, that bopopobo!” is a great line for synch because it means nothing (so it won’t alienate) and yet could mean so much (go-get-em-vibe). It’s positive and almost seems to give you energy as you listen to it. However, even with the deep vocals it still wreaks of bubble gum pop.
Architecture in Helsinki has also been great for placements as they are willing to provide instrumentals through their co-operative label, Polyvinyl and have released many remixed versions of their tracks which I can offer to my client as options (and clients need options no matter what they say).
IMF: You always go above and beyond the call of duty with your responses. Any chance you’re supervising an 80’s John Hughes film? I thought it would work in film best there if anywhere. Maybe the song we heard when Gary and Wyatt run computer programs to create Lisa in Weird Science?
David: I try. So funny you say that because I am working on a film right this second called “Don’t You Forget About Me” which is a documentary about a bunch of film nerds who take a road-trip to Chicago to find Hughes and ask him to get back to work. It’s a very good film with Kevin Smith, Allan Ruck, Alley Sheedy, Annie Potts, Andrew McCarty, Judd Nelson and even Kelly LaBroke from Weird Science. Right now I’m looking to replace the obligatory Alphaville “Forever Young” cover by Youth Group (a-la-The O.C.) This song would also work in a Weird Science context but, as this documentary shows, they just don’t make teen-films that good anymore. Ha!
Coming from a film background, David Hayman started music supervising for a Canadian tv series called The Eleventh Hour. Now at Vapor Music, David has his hand in supervision for films (Everythings Gone Green, Young People Fucking), short films (NFB, Canadian Film Centre), and advertising campaigns (Virgin Mobile, Toyota, GMC, Coors, MTV). David is also a unicorn-slayer and volunteer fire-fighter by night.*