It’s easy to get swept away by Inception’s stunning visuals, but it seems the music and sound design are getting just as much press.

The Guardian revealed last week that Hans Zimmer’s entire epic score stems from one old French tune – Edith Piaf’s recording of “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”. In the film, the dreamers use this song to “kick” themselves awake. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll hear that the main Inception theme is basically a remix of Piaf’s song. Very clever!

Zimmer apparently had some fun as a musical prankster:

“Just for the game of it, all the music in the score is subdivisions and multiplications of the tempo of the Edith Piaf track…I was surprised how long it took [fans] to figure it out.” (New York Times)

Zimmer’s score is an incredible example of how one small piece of musical “DNA” can permeate the entire soundtrack. It’s like a Bach motif woven throughout a piece of music (or Coke’s sonic logo woven into a K’naan track). Even if we’re not fully aware of this DNA, it gives the music a deeper, almost subconscious structure.

The sound design of Inception is just as layered and intricate. Take a peek at this wonderful Sound for Film Profile:

Charlie McCarron, Sound Consultant
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Silence can be deadly, especially when it’s a hybrid car sneaking up behind you. So for the first time in history, automakers are working to create synthetic engine noise. And they might start calling on everyone from sound designers to film composers to music supervisors for the sounds of these new cars.

Sound like science fiction? Just take a peek at this Batmobile-like hybrid from Fisker Automotive:

Watch on YouTube

The cool part is that this car’s “takeoff” sound came from a set of external speakers. In theory, you could replace this sound with anything you want, just like changing a cell phone’s default ring. Will customizable engine sounds be the next “ringtone” craze? Will we one day download our car’s tones from iTunes? Will artists of the future collect royalties on mileage?

There are obviously some legal hurdles before we hear anything too unique on the road. But the door is currently wide open for automakers to experiment with new sounds. It’s only a matter of time before the big brands will be racing to create the coolest-sounding electric car. What a fun time to be in the audio branding business!

Charlie McCarron, Sound Consultant
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Special thanks to @soundseller for pointing out the Fisker Karma Hybrid video.

And your word for the day is…’diegetic’. Diegetic and non-diegetic are cinematic terms relating to the use of sound in a film. Diegetic refers to sound whose source is visible on the screen, or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film. Where as non-diegetic is sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. A film’s music soundtrack is nearly always non-diegetic, creating a sense of mood and accentuating key moments in a film’s plot. In the following clip from Mel Brooks’ film High Anxiety, he cleverly plays with this convention – moving the music from non-diegetic to diegetic – enjoy.

Brian Kelly, Creative Director
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As I was watching Sprint’s clever “What if ____ ran the world?” ads, I noticed they used no music, no jingles, nothing that would traditionally qualify as a sonic logo. Only one sound stands out consistently in each ad: the walkie-talkie-like bleep of the Sprint phone itself. And every time we hear it in Sprint’s commercials, it’s followed by a joke. By the end of each ad, we’ve heard it 6 to 12 times, and it’s no longer just a phone bleep. It’s a brilliantly timed comic device that has preconditioned us to laughter.

Of course, the same sound can mean vastly different things for different people. For the majority of us, the sound of an incoming text message is exciting, a happy beep signaling a new message from a friend. But for my mother, it’s a sound that strikes terror in her heart and gets her adrenaline flowing. For her, it means she’s received a text from my younger brother in Africa. Often his messages bear bad news – he was robbed on the street once and lost all his money. So this seemingly harmless sound evokes fear and maternal instincts in a split second. One day she told me, “I hate that sound more than any other sound.” Who knew a simple, neutral beep could stir up such an emotional reaction?

The finest sound designer can craft the most perfect sound for your brand, but context is everything. Though most of us don’t start salivating, we’re a lot like Pavlov’s dogs once we’ve been trained to hear a sound in a certain way. Sprint was smart; they trained us from the beginning to hear their phones as fun, even before we interact with one in real life. As soon as a strong sonic branding plan meets a positive customer experience, the Pavlovian buttons will be pushed in just the right ways. For 99.9% of us, this is good news. For the unfortunate alarm clock marketers of the world…I wish you luck.

Charlie McCarron, Sound Consultant
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