The relationship between Face the Music's Paul Robb, Fallon Worldwide and BMW of North America dates back to Robb's first commercial collaboration in 1997. Robb composed music for the German automaker's five-spot "Responsiveness" campaign; two won Clios for best original music.

"They were pretty revolutionary in their aggressiveness and were the first car spots to use techno or electronic music," says the former Information Society band member. "They were interested in me because I was a recording artist and not an ad flunky. It was a very rewarding collaboration. Since that time, BMW has come back to us every couple of months to continue the legacy."

Robb now writes music from Face the Music's Venice office where Birgit Roberts serves as exec producer. Their most recent collaboration was "Pure Drive" for BMW's 3 Series with Fallon.

Partizan director Michel Gondry shot the commercial, which was inspired by the stroboscopic images of Man Ray. According to Fallon director of broadcast Mark Sitley, Gondry's execution did not disappoint. However, the spot was co-funded by BMW Germany, which deemed the North American commercial inappropriate for its European audience.

"Personally, I thought Michel's spot was a grand slam, but BMW Germany wanted more conventional running footage," states Sitley. The creatives shot more car footage and Gondry removed his name from the project, subsequently cut by Brass Knuckles editor Chris Hafner.

As for the music, Robb maintains the parameters were wide open. "We were doing tracks and submitting ideas before it was in production," says the composer. "Michel put his musical ideas into the stew too, and his opinions definitely colored the end result.

"I think it's always easier seeing the pictures that you're going to compose to because otherwise you're lost in fantasy land," he continues. "Most composers are not very visually oriented."

Robb composed to the portraiture featured in two spots for Boeing out of FCB, Chicago, and Frontline Communications Partners. "Freedom" and "Being There," produced for the US and European markets respectively, address the fear of flying as a result of Sept. 11.

"Freedom is going where you want to go and doing what you want to do," states one of the voiceovers against images of family reunions, vacation hotspots and an airplane soaring through friendly skies. "The nation's skyways are ready to make the most of freedom."

Derived from a previous Boeing campaign, the music is designed to emote warm feelings from the viewer. "There are specific sounds that trigger feelings in people like orchestral strings and acoustic guitar," explains Robb. "Some of these instruments say specific things, which is why they get applied over and over again."

The goal for a composer is to keep from repeating himself. "That's difficult, especially in advertising where you're doing tiny little pieces of music and you have to cram in a lot of information in 30 seconds," he says. "The Boeing spots are like mini songs. They have an intro, a verse, a chorus and an outro.

"Our identity is to try to stay current and connect with creatives through the real world of music and what's happening right now," comments Robb, "and part of that comes through our affiliation with Bleep Records. In addition, I'm a recording artist myself and I'm determined to stay in the actual music business as well because that's part of our success."

Clients like Nike, BMW and Sony keep things fresh. In Sony's "Vaio MX" out of Y&R, Irvine, the camera moves coincide with the music, which Robb describes as "groovylicious."

"It's not as much of a cringe for an artist to make a commercial as it once was. I think the market here is becoming more like the European and Japanese markets where to have a band featured in a TV commercial is not such a bad thing. It's just another outlet for people to promote their music."

WEBFILES:
Face the Music> http://www.facethemusic.com
Fallon> http://www.fallon.com
BMW> http://www.bmw.com