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G&E
Discovers Spirit Of Hispanic Heritage Month
New York, NY (October 10, 2003)
Discovery en Español celebrated
Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15-October 15, with the introduction
of new programs and specials highlighting various aspects of Hispanic culture.
To launch the month-long celebration and promote its relevant specials
throughout, the network produced an image spot and promotion package rich
in the sights, sounds, and spirit of the Hispanic culture, and set them
to original music provided by NYC's G&E Music.
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The
:30 spots, which air in both Spanish and English, promoted the introduction
of four compelling new specials, one of which premiered each weekend
on Discovery en Español. Each special aired
as part of a themed weekend under the network's brand of "Nuestra
Herencia Hispana" (Our Hispanic
Heritage), falling into different cultural categories--Land, Women, Culture
and Triumph. G&E provided four different versions of a live instrumental
score, recording four different tunes at the same tempo, to fit the slightly
different spots for each special.
In addition to hiring G&E Music to score, record and mix music for the spot,
Discovery worked with NYC-based motion design and branding studio Zona Design.
G&E's Erik Blicker attended the high-definition, live action commercial
shoot in downtown Manhattan, fully engaging in the colorful scene in order
to best
portray it musically. Directed by ZONA director/creative director Zoa Martinez,
the spot truly captures and celebrates the essence of the Hispanic culture
and its diversity and movement through the generations.
"There was a great Latin vibe going on--there
were Merengue and Salsa dancers, trumpet and guitar players," describes
Blicker. "With such an immersion
in the Latin scene I was filled with ideas for the score. First, we agreed
on a tempo--113 BPM--to which Zona cut their graphics."Where the spots
weave images of Latin dancers and musicians with colorful graphics and backgrounds,
the score features a smooth live quartet and vibrant guitar,
trumpet and violin solos. Discovery Supervising Producer Eliza Booth and her
production team wanted driving and elegant music to accompany the colorful
spot, and G&E's Blicker and Glenn Schloss delivered just that--bringing
in acclaimed musicians to perform live drums, piano, bass, and guitar as a
quartet. G&E
engineer Brian Quill recorded the live session in G&E's NYC facility, also
recording live trumpet and violin parts, as well as VO narration, in other
sessions. He was assisted in engineering and audio post by Omar Carmon.
"G&E's work was really creative and intuitive
to what we had in mind. The music certainly drives the promotional message we're
sending, getting people
excited about Hispanic Heritage Month and our specially scheduled programming," raves
Booth. "Accompanying some very distinctive and vivid cultural images,
their score provides a vibe and energy unachieved by the images themselves,
really
dressing the piece with style."
"This project was really cool because there
was very little programming involved--we created really smooth, flowing music
in these live recording sessions
with some great players," explains Schloss. "Now that we can accommodate
this size recording session, we're really excited to be tracking live instruments
when the budgets allow." Quill tracked the sessions into Pro Tools, using
outboard pres to sweeten up the tracks. "The bass, which I tracked through
the Avalon 737, sounds really sweet," Quill notes. "And,
because we captured such great performances in the studio, the musical piece
basically
mixed itself, before we recorded VO sessions of both English and Spanish versions
of the narration."
With the music already recorded and mixed, Quill
was engineering the VO sessions on top of the score so that not only could the
VO talent get a real flow for
the tempo, but also Booth could patch in by phone from Maryland, to produce
the VO sessions. "And, all the while, Zona was sending us updated QuickTime
files," adds Blicker. "We worked in an innovative way with Zona,
where instead of mixing to the completed DigiBeta tape, we received Quick Times
from
them and just mixed to the QuickTimes, posting the individual mixes one at
a time so that they could continue to work on the end graphics while we did
finishing
mixes. This more efficient workflow allowed us to make the tight deadlines." Plus,
with Zona doing the audio layback, the QuickTime exchange allowed them to keep
working on the graphics until the very last minute.
The G&E Music crew really enjoyed this project and continues to work with
ingenuity and efficiency to bring musical life to broadcast promotional campaigns.
Qtmovie and Hirez graphics can be found at http://clients.gemusic.com/press
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