Tackling the Big Issues Through the Beauty of Sound – What Cannes Means to Us

It’s been a big week for our partners The Gate and Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam both of whom have won some well-deserved Lions for work on which we have collaborated with them.

‘Childline: Nobody is Normal and ‘Nike: Victory Swim’ are tackling issues that are both close to home and more global.

‘Childline: Nobody is normal’ has delivered an incredible 5 Lions including a Gold Lion for Animation and, a particularly proud moment for us, a Silver for the Use of Adapted Music. 

In a year when home life became incredibly challenging and sadly often unsafe for many young people, Childline’s work has become even more paramount. Radiohead’s Creep is a track that has resonated for teens and adults alike since its first release in 1992. Gary Turnbull adapted the track to the beautiful stop motion animation and designed sounds to bring the unique puppetry to life. 

‘Nike: Victory Swim’, awarded Bronze for Diversity and Inclusivity, represents a practical requirement in the world of female sport in the middle east – providing apparel with both modesty and movement. The campaign film celebrates the victory of a young girl learning how to swim for the first time with other middle eastern women right behind her.

Delivering Victory Swim was no mean feat. Due to lockdown, Raja Sehgal recorded the dialogue remotely with the actor who was based in Egypt. The majority of the underwater sounds you hear were recorded using a special underwater microphone called a hydrophone. (Raja’s pond stood in for the Red Sea.) These recordings were then manipulated with the music stems working to tell the story which resulted in a really beautiful piece of work. 

Both of these projects arrived to us mute, which is like a blank sheet of paper. Collaboration with our partners is key to understanding how they want the images to come to life. This to me displays the outstanding contribution sound makes to picture and I am especially proud of my team this week as Cannes comes to a close.