Award-winning music and sound design company Endless Noise recently composed a whimsical track for a new Kyocera commercial. “Butterflies,” created by ad agency Vitrorobertson, is an animated fairytale about the merging of Eastern inspiration and Western innovation.
To view “Butterflies,” please go to http://endlessnoise.com/clients/data/kyocera/Kyocera_Butterfliesweb2.mov
The spot takes viewers on a dynamic journey with a mix of painterly strokes and typographic treatment. On the streets of Japan, a stylish Japanese woman uses her Kyocera phone, which takes the form of butterflies and travels across the globe. “The winds of change blow east to west,” explains the super, as the Kyocera falls into the hands of a New Yorker on his city streets.
For Endless Noise Creative Director Jeff Elmassian, the challenge was to find a way to infuse traditional Japanese elements with experimental contemporary sounds. “We had to show this voyage from Japan to New York in the ‘East-meets-West’ concept through the use of animated butterflies. To evoke a fairytale-like feeling, we incorporated a lot of vocal treatments and ambient textures with Japanese ethnic instruments. Music and sound should work together symbiotically, which is how we typically approach our projects.”
To create the energetic yet ethereal track, Endless Noise used a combination of the Koto, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument, various percussion, harmonica, strings and guitar, as well as vocal treatments derived from chattering voices that were manipulated between the spoken and sung.
“It was great to reconnect with the creatives at Vitrorobertson,” concludes Elmassian, who teamed with the agency on a previous campaign. “They push their concepts as far as possible visually and musically, and gave us the freedom to explore the right feel and textures for this spot. We’re very happy with the way this project came together.”
Ad Agency: Vitrorobertson
Creative Directors: KT Thayer; John Vitro
Art Director: Taylor Crawford
Copywriter: Justin Ebert
Producer: Joyce Schmidtbauer
Production, Design, Animation & Editorial Company: Blind
Executive Producer: Dave Kleinman
Creative Director: Erik Buth
Producer: Rebecca Blankenship
Production Coordinator: Vincent D’Angelo
Designers: Lauren Indovina, Andrew Baron, Ryan Zunkley, Angela Zhu & Paul K. Lee
2D Animators: Thomas Bittikoffer, Gabe Guzman, Maithy Tran & James Hurlburt
3D Animators: Yan Ng & Thomas Bittikoffer
Music Company: Endless Noise
Composer: Jeff Elmassian
Executive Producer: Dayna Turcotte
Associate Producer: Mary Catherine Finney
Endless Noise is an award-winning music and sound design company, founded by renowned musician/composer Jeff Elmassian. The studio composes and produces innovative music and sound design for commercials, TV programs, feature films, interactive and multimedia projects. Clients include Nike, Audi, Lexus, American Express, Motorola, MasterCard, Nissan and Kyocera to name a few. Building on its Grammy, Cannes Gold Lion, Clio, AICP, D&AD, London International Advertising, ANDY and One Show awards, Endless Noise continues to wow the sonic senses with its mastery of composition, versatility, and fearlessness of pushing the boundaries of music. Recent industry recognition includes a 2007 Clio Award for Best Sound Design for its EA Games “Night Sky” spot, and an AICP Award for Best Musical Arrangement for Garmin “Moose.”
