Commercial Music

With the 2013 Clio Awards taking place this month (May 15 in N.Y.C.), I've been thinking about some of my favorite commercials. In today's DVR world, most American television viewers (and I suspect most TV viewers around the world) tend to fast-forward ("skip") through the commercials while watching their favorite programs. However, I actually enjoy commercials and am keen to find the next spot that will make me laugh, cry, or scour the Internet looking for the song used in the campaign.

Some of my favorite campaigns over the years have come from Publix Supermarkets, Heineken, Subaru, and Apple.

What appeals to me in finding those next great commercials is the writing. As a writer myself, I am acutely aware of the creativity involved in being able to tell a story in a 60-second or 30-second spot – one that not only is memorable, but a story in which the viewers are able to identify with the people or situation. And the advertiser hopes you would, in turn, want to purchase their product. It's astonishing how much of a story can be told in so little time.

Of course, we all know that these great stories must be filmed and edited, and that's where the talented readers of Markee 2.0 Magazine come in, right? With our "Making Commercials" articles, we highlight the talent and creativity involved in making some of television's best spots.

The music and sound found in television commercials also can draw a great deal of attention. Think of the early iPod campaigns or the Nike ad from 1987 when "Revolution" became the first Beatles track to be featured in a spot. Just as in film, music can play a key role in making a commercial memorable.

Throughout its history, Gap Inc., has strived to make its commercials memorable through music, from Madonna and Daft Punk to The Avett Brothers and now, Ki:Theory. As Markee contributor Michael Fickes described in a recent article ("What Color is the Music?"), "Few brands have a commercial footprint as recognizable as The Gap. Gap commercials are recognizable after a few frames of white scrim and a few bars of music." Indeed. Have you seen the ad Fickes describes? The image below from the commercial links to the full ad on YouTube.

The reactionary blame game

In the days following the Sandy Hook shootings in Connecticut, I started to think about the many ways in which popular culture – the movies and video games specifically – would be blamed for this tragedy. Sure enough, people started appearing on news networks and writing columns for newspapers describing how this terrible event and others could have been prevented if America didn't digest so much violent entertainment. It's an old argument.

In fact, as I write this, a group in Connecticut is organizing a drive to collect and destroy violent video games. This is the natural course of events that follows such mass murders in our nation. While I can agree that these violent acts occur far too often – once is more than enough – I do not blame video games, movies or television shows. Neither do the experts. The latest study was published in The Atlantic.

I started to do some research for facts I could use to make my point that pop culture shouldn't be the scapegoat for the violent tendencies of a few people. In doing so, I ran across a column from author Stephen Marche for Esquire magazine, titled "Why Culture Is Never Responsible For Mass Murder." His thoughts mirror mine, and I certainly couldn't have written anything on this topic as well as he does, so I am sharing his article with you. I encourage you to read it and to share your thoughts with us here.

The best way to begin to tackle gun violence in this country is to talk about it. Most people – most politicians – avoid the subject entirely. It only becomes part of our national discourse when tragedy strikes. Well, by then it is too late. We must examine this issue constantly and with an open mind. The reactionary blame game gets us nowhere.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the Sandy Hook victims and their families and friends.

Update (1/9/12): Connecticut town cancels plans to destroy video games.

Fairy Tale TV is ‘Must-See’ TV

Grimm's Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell), seen here in his CG Bludbot incarnation created by HIVE-FX of Portland, Ore. Photo: HIVE-FX

With few exceptions, compelling TV dramas used to be the exclusive property of cable/satellite channels. This was not because network shows were subject to more stringent regulations regarding colorful language and nudity. Often, the cable shows simply had bigger budgets for their original dramas, because they may only be producing a few at a time – and for a shorter season than is typical of network TV. Sure, you could rely on your Big Three networks for passable one-hour dramas and the occasional made-for-television movie or miniseries, but for gripping, human drama, one had to be willing to pay for the viewing privilege. Millions of Americans, myself included, have been – and will continue to be – eager to spend a monthly fee to view series such as Band of Brothers and The Sopranos (HBO), Mad Men (AMC), Battlestar Galactica (Syfy), and Homeland (Showtime). However, during the last few years, the major networks have turned their attention toward producing better dramatic series with sizeable casts, big budgets, and even on-location shooting.

Programs such as The West Wing (NBC), Lost (ABC), NCIS (CBS) and now Grimm (NBC) have brought creative storytelling, captivating action, and high production values back to the masses. Grimm, as featured in the May/June issue of Markee, is the latest TV drama to charm the U.S. television viewing audience. In fact, its recent May season finale won its Friday night timeslot with nearly 6 million viewers.

Grimm is a rather unique program that reinterprets the well-known “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” with a modern twist. Portland police detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) has inherited the ability to see supernatural creatures, and as a “Grimm,” he is tasked with keeping the balance between mankind and the mythological. There’s truly nothing like it on TV, so Christine Bunish spoke with the show’s visual effects team at HIVE-FX to learn how some of Grimm’s scariest monsters are created as viewers watch them change from their human forms. 

As you will see in our May/June issue, the production values of today’s network dramas certainly are on par with those of the pay channels. And the success of effects-heavy programming such as Grimm should lead to more shows in that vein. In turn, that will put more VFX artists and companies to work, the prospect of which pleases me a great deal.  

If you've never seen the show, be sure to catch up on Grimm during its hiatus, and tune in this fall when it returns.

TV Documentary Depicts the Prohibition Era Experience in South Florida

Premiering Nov. 4, 2011 at 9 p.m. on South Florida’s PBS Station WLRN Channel 17, Prohibition and the South Florida Connection – a WLRN original production by local filmmaker Steve Waxman – tells the notorious tales of the seedy, seductive and often scandalous side of the Sunshine State during the 1920s.

For many, the Prohibition Era conjures up images of some of America’s most infamous criminals from New York, New Jersey and Chicago: Bugs Moran, Meyer Lansky and Al Capone. Yet few realize the prominent role South Florida and its Caribbean neighbors played in the transportation of illegal booze into the United States during this era.

Filling the demand for alcohol were a host of bootleggers and rum runners transcending both gender and racial lines. Suave and sophisticated men, such as Bill McCoy and Cracker Johnson, who along with their savvy female contemporaries, Gertrude Lythgoe and Marie Waite, all relied on their wits and bravado to amass sometimes fleeting fortunes that often were fraught with risks and danger. Pirates, illicit still makers, an unmotivated local police force, along with an undermanned but determined Coast Guard, all added to an intoxicating South Florida cocktail of peril, profits and corruption.

Filmed in an intimate style with telling photographs, obscure footage, vivid recreations, and a lively soundtrack, Prohibition and the South Florida Connection, reveals yet another fascinating and intriguing chapter in Florida’s colorful past.

Additional broadcasts:
Sunday, November 6 at 7 p.m.
Thursday, November 10 at 10 p.m.
Tuesday, November 15 at 10 p.m.

About Steve Waxman:
Steve Waxman began his career in broadcast journalism in radio in 1981 when he created “WaxTrax,” a very successful weekly album review show in Arizona. Moving into TV in 1993, he has written and produced programming for a variety of national syndicated shows such as Travel Log, Business Today, American Journal, Inside Edition, and Fox Sports. He also received a segment producing credit for a VH1 documentary on Michael Jackson. Waxman’s documentary writing and producing credits include the PBS aired programs: Great Entrepreneurs, Generations in the Sun, and Israel Forgotten Heroes, which won an Emmy in 1999.