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Tunewelders Ben Holst and Jeremy Gilbertson. |
Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" winner Ben
Callner's "Goat 4 Sale" commercial began with an idea about a
ravenous Doritos-eating goat. Culminating the narrative he envisioned relied
heavily on sound to sell the authenticity, dramatic tension and humor at play
in his 30-second spot. He tapped longtime collaborators
Tunewelder Music Group
of Atlanta to make it work. Led by Music & Audio Post Supervisor Ben Holst,
Tunewelders worked closely with Callner to hone the spot through sound design
& editing, foley, voice-over, mixing and mastering.
"Ben Holst and Tunewelders put the project first,"
Callner said. "Other than being just really down-to-earth, excellent
people, they go above and beyond to make sure that you're not only happy, but
that everyone – including them – is proud of the final product. In something
like the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest, I wouldn't think of going
anywhere else. I know they're going to make whatever I give them, in whatever
condition, sound absolutely fantastic."
"Ben has a way of theatrically pushing the envelope and
making the absurd believable and not too cartoony," added Holst, who has
collaborated with Callner on numerous film, commercial and interactive projects
since the two first met on set during a film production in Atlanta in 2007.
"A big part of that comes from his care for detail across the production,
and with his deep musical background, that certainly extends to sound and
creative where he's very hands-on. Even inside all the tedious work of syncing
goat crunches, which fly by you in a matter of milliseconds, there's always an
element of fun and general silliness working with him."
Capturing sounds unique to Callner's story required more
than the SFX package and pre-cleared music that Doritos made available to all
of its contestants. Greg Linton, location sound, provided a library of real
goat crunches recorded on site. The tedious process of syncing the crunch
sounds with the goat's chewing gestures needed to demonstrate both
believability and comedic timing.
For the comedic payoff when the goat screams from apparent
Doritos withdrawal, the challenge was finding the best voiceover performance
for the scream, and then realistically syncing it. The solution involved
Callner's childhood friend Keith Bahun and an iPhone.
"Goats actually have a distinct scream, so mimicking it
with the human mouth was tough to cheat," Holst recalls. "We explored
it all the way to the final delivery because it was so crucial to the
punchline. A bunch of us had recorded some takes, but Ben still wasn't sold.
Keith was known for this great scream, but he was all the way in Savannah, Ga.
I said, 'iPhones make great recordings, just have him do a lot of takes and
make sure he stands far enough away from the phone so it's similar in distance
to the goat in the shot.' We managed to pull it off last-minute and it came out
perfect."
Holst and Callner went beyond the obvious visual cues using
Doritos' trademark mixed bag of crunch samples. For example, to intensify the
goat owner's growing insanity as his pet incessantly snacks into the wee-hours,
their sound design incorporated building several layers of different crunch
sounds to embellish the moment.
For the final scene depicting the goat ominously hoofing it
towards the owner in hiding, the team also enlisted foley work using the same
prop hooves shot in the scene.
For Tunewelders, the project offered the opportunity to
showcase what they have quietly been doing since launching four years ago:
developing long-term relationships with national brands, production companies and
agencies, and translating their ideas through sound and music.
"We love working with
Ben," concludes Tunewelders Partner Jeremy Gilbertson. "When he has
an idea, we generally don't say no because we believe in his talent and the
longevity of his career. I'm sure everyone in our community who contributed
their support and resources share the same belief, and we're honored to be
among all the exceptional local talent who rallied behind him to help make the
spot such a huge success. Great things are happening here in the music, film
and entertainment sectors, so we're proud to represent Georgia and the City of
Atlanta on the national stage."
