When the film for IBM Innovation's "Supermarket" spot was dark and gritty enough to make the client worry about its image, Brian Banks of Ear to Ear Studios in Santa Monica started a back-and-forth composing process with the agency, client and director Joe Pytka.

Part of IBM's future technology campaign, the washed out film for "Supermarket" features a scruffy young man walking through a grocery store stuffing food into his jacket, all under the wary eyes of a security guard, a camera and elderly people in motorized carts. As the man leaves the store, he is stopped by the deadpan guard, who, at first, seems threatening, then, after a pregnant pause, smiles and hands the unkempt fellow his receipt. The spot promotes the near-future reality of automatic scanning of groceries combined with automatic billing to consumers' "smart" credit cards.

"It had a very dark, covert look to it, so the music needed to motivate and feel good against this," says Banks. "But since the spot is a complete red herring and there is nothing wrong going on, the client wanted to bring a little humor into the piece. Finding the line between dark comedy, as opposed to dark with a humorous ending, was difficult."

After eight weeks and numerous compositions, Banks says the agency, Ogilvy & Mather in New York, and the client were eventually satisfied with the track. After narrowing the selection down to three compositions, a techno track composed from sequences and drum loops won out.

"It was mostly synthesizers and samples, with a bit of guitar work and a bit of vocal work, but just little snippets," says Banks. "We took the time to make sure everything was right, and if something was wrong, we came up with a meaningful change rather than just a patch."

Banks operates Ear to Ear and audio post company AudioBanks. He is the lone composer at Ear to Ear, and generally overseas all musical product that comes out of the studio, although Matthew Shoenfeld, formerly of Tomandandy, is his key sound designer.

Ear to Ear has composed music and sound for clients as diverse as Lexus, women.com, Legoland and Hardee's, with styles ranging from what Banks describes as "superfly sexy cool" to "speed death metal" on Ear to Ear's Short Cuts Volume 2 CD.

WEB.FILES:
Ear to Ear Studios: http://www.eartoear.com
IBM: http://www.ibm.com
Ogilvy & Mather: http://www.ogilvy.com