Recording Sound Project for Vodaphones Mayfly Advert

 Music by Hook SoundsMusic by HookSounds

Video by Vodaphone

In making the soundtrack to the Mayfly advert, I began by writing a list of the elements I thought I needed, and I spent time playing about with objects to find a sound for the wings flapping. It was the most difficult I’d say to find, because its needed to sound soft and but also the repetition of the wing movement is also very fast.  After a while I found using different paintbrushes and brushing them on different surfaces had the most successful result. I recorded lots of different versions, so I could edit them for the different mayfly and layer them for the cave and big group of mayflies. When I layered up the wing sounds and grouped them in protools, I made several copies of the group so it sounded like a large number of wings flapping. For atmosphere I used different boxes filled with plant materials and recorded tracks of rustling them at different speeds. I also had a bowl of water and scooped up small amounts to record water droplets, to add to the atmosphere of a humid rainforest.  To add to the noisy jungle feel, I made some gibbon noises and bird noises. For the water fall, it was a case of recording different splashes in water and different speeds of pouring water into the bowl, then layering it up in after effects. I used an elastic string for the boing noise of the tennis ball hitting the net, which I love. And flicking a paper bag for the sounds of the ball hitting the leaves. I was focused on recording a few versions of each sound effect so I could have choices when I was editing, and layer things without repeating sounds. I chose to have no music for the beginning and fade it in as the mayfly picks up pace. I think this works well, because at the start the viewer could be thinking empathetically then this music fades in and reaches its loudest when the voice over says ‘is he miserable about it… not one bit’ it wasn’t what you expected at the start of the advert and would engage people and instantly have them connect that this is fun. I think the music choice works really well, and highlights the ‘make the most of now’ tagline its high tempo reflects the speed and activity of the Mayflys day.

I am pleased with the result, but it could be improved in the following ways. I think I’d like more of a hum, and even more layers of Mayfly wings for the cave scene. More woosh sounds, for him swinging his leaf before playing tennis, and when he swoops and soars. I think I could layer something else with the moment when he slides down the leaf just to add quality. I also turned down the levels of the music when the voiceover is audible, but I think I should look at the other tracks and also do the same for them, because particularly when there’s the water rapid part it’s very loud. I also need to improve the clarity of the voice over, it sounds a little distant, so I think if I re-did that or looked into a way to edit it in protools to increase the quality. Overall I think it’s a nice piece of work, but the main thing I think bringing the quality down is the voiceover clarity. As I learn more in Pro-Tools I could hopefully make a better quality version, but the recordings need to be as good as they can be to begin with.