MTV has revitalized its Sunday evenings with the introduction of a night of comedy, fantasy, and athleticism. Rob Dyrdeck’s “Fantasy Factory”, “The CollegeHumor Show” and “Nitro Circus” make up the evolution of MTV’s “Sunday Night Stew”, which debuted the same night as the GRAMMY’s. The positive response and solid viewership of the revived Sunday Night must recognize four of the men behind the promotion of the campaign: Howard Grandison, Evan Silver, Andy Gundell, and David Hnatiuk.
Evan Silver and Howard Grandison wrote and directed “Fantasy Factory” and “Nitro Circus’” promotional campaigns, “Tightrope” and “Falling” respectively. They collaborated with David Hnatiuk, acting sound designer and music supervisor, who recruited 10-time Emmy-winner Andy Gundell to compose the music. With seven of Gundell’s ten Emmy awards being for his original scores as a composer, Hnatiuk knew Gundell would be well versed in classical and orchestral music. Together they crafted the direction, concept, and music of the Sunday Night campaign.
Silver and Grandison were given a creative palette to design a campaign to promote and explain the concept of the new shows. They knew what needed to be accomplished to promote the campaign, and came up with the idea to blend action and comedy with an MTV circus spin. Ultimately, they sought to regain the loyalty of the young male demographic of previous Sunday Night shows such as “Jackass”. Popular shows such as “The Hills” are known to feature the latest, trendy indie band, and Silver and Grandison wanted to approach their campaign with a different angle to tell its viewers that this would be a unique night apart from the typical MTV shows. The selection of music would be an integral part of conveying that idea.
When brainstorming music for a particular project, whether music supervising, creating soundtracks for documentaries or composing the music for “Fantasy Factory’s” promo, Andy Gundell thinks to himself, “What would it be like if the music wasn’t there?” Silver provided sound samples with general suggestions that the music have feelings of childlike wonder, and they combined a children’s lullaby with old circus music to create the circus feel. Gundell thought the incorporation of a child’s voice, either humming or “la-la-la-ing” would provide an added effect, and considered using his daughter’s voice in the composition. In the end, music supervisor Hnatiuk explained that the music would have to highlight Sunday Night Stew’s broad concept of aggression and fun. “Stunts, college humor, fantasy. It’s all about keeping an action-packed feel, keeping energy high and complementing the aggressive behavior, or the constant pursuit of something happening at all times.”
In forming the music behind the concept of the Sunday Night, Silver had come up with a sound and direction that he was comfortable with, and presented demos to Gundell to draw inspiration, including tracks from Albert Hammond and Lykke Li. For Grandison’s “Falling” spot, Gundell was directed to compose original classical music reminiscent of the styles of Phillip Glass and Brian Eno. Silver eventually abandoned his attempts to license Albert Hammond and Lykke Li tracks and decided to use original music as well.
Inspired by music by Albert Hammond and Lykke Li, as well as the idea of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Andy Gundell composed a type of broken circus music for the “Fantasy Factory” tightrope advertisement. Evan Silver wanted the music to be different than what has come to be expected from MTV. Silver says, “This isn’t the latest indie song”, but rather a “fun, driving, weird circus theme”. Gundell says his main focus with his original composition was to enhance the visual media, stating that “The point is what it is underscoring, not the music itself. I’m striving to support, not take the viewer away from the point.” The unique music helped to create an environment of suspense and fantasy for the commercial, keeping with the theme of a fun and humorous Sunday Night.
Although Howard Grandison had originally imagined his spot with original music, executives of “Nitro Circus” opted to go with the theme of the show, “The State of Massachusetts” by the Irish punk band Dropkick Murphy’s. Grandison wanted the Dropkick Murphy’s song to “contrast the slow falling motion” in the commercial. Even though Grandison wasn’t originally thinking of the music while dreaming up his concept for the spot, he believes music has the power to “enhance a concept” and can “make or break a spot.”
While both Grandison’s and Silver’s spots included music, many of the other spots for the Sunday Night Campaign had no music at all. Advertisements with no music that do include background sound require the special skills of a sound designer, in this case the music supervisor for the project, David Hnatiuk. Hnatiuk describes sound design as the “blending of sound effects to create an environment that is convincingly real or metaphorically storytelling”, which can be especially hard when there is little or no pre-recorded sound from the taping to work with.
One of the largest challenges of this campaign was the balancing of sound design and music supervision, partly due to the fact that all sound design was done entirely post-production and also due to the sheer volume of spots involved in the campaign, which totaled to around sixty spots.
With the combined effort of Grandison and Silver as co-directors, Gundell as an original composer, and Hnatiuk as both music supervisor and sound designer, the Sunday Night Campaign materialized into a humorous, fantastical and hard-hitting commercial campaign. Taken a full 360 degrees, the campaign also included banners and print to promote the new MTV lineup.
Everyone involved noted that this project was one of the more unique and fun advertising campaigns they’ve worked on, and as Hnatiuk points out, “Music invites viewers to be part of the party, of an undying fun, energetic experience. Music was integral in reaching this concept”. Not only was the project visually stimulating, but according to Hnatiuk the unconventional music “broke some ground and maybe inspired some people”.
The Sunday Night Campaign is not only a thorough example of everything that goes into music supervision and the creation of a commercial campaign, it can serve as an illustration for how new and innovative music can be effectively used in promotion and reach the target audience. – Joyce Lin and Julia Buchheim
