Best Inspirational Videos for Meetings

    Soundtracks Supply Power to Event Productions

    [fa icon="clock-o"] Jun 8, 2010 3:26:00 PM [fa icon="user"] David Haneke [fa icon="folder-open'] Motivational video clips, motivational videos, inspirational video, meeting openers, motivational video, inspirational movies, motivational messages

    How do I select music for a video? How do I go about licensing music? What's the best corporate music?We've all been to a wonderful movie and experienced powerful music sound beds underneath the film which swayed our emotions and provided a heightened sense of excitement, or perhaps fear, or a compassionate sense of empathy.

    How important is a sound bed on a film clip for a corporate event?

    A movie, or motivational film clip, is individually made up of words, imagery and music, but when creatively mixed together, it's powerful and exciting!

    Pauline Reay in her helpful book "Music in Film: Soundtracks and Synergy", cites Aaron Copeland (Fanfare for the Common Man, among other famous compositions) who in 1949 offered a useful summary of five functions of film music (and by way of association, five functions of sound beds for film clips):

    1. it conveys convincing atmosphere of time and place
    2. it underlines the unspoken feelings or psychological states of the characters
    3. it serves as a kind of neutral background filler to the action
    4. it gives a sense of continuity to the editing
    5. it accentuates the theatrical build up of a scene and rounds it off with a feeling of finality.

    The most common request I receive for musical sound beds resonate with some variation of this statement, "Let's use music that will pump them up", or "set the tone" or "get the audience excited".

    There are so many wonderful genre's of "pumped up" music: pop, classical, jazz, country, rock, jock-jam, etc. In fact, when you look up the term music genre's in Wikipedia, you'll find over 1,000 genre's.  

    Music used as a sound bed is very personal, even for an audience of 2,000. Music is often associated with an experience we've had in our past. For instance, when we hear the organ playing progressions of cords to get the audience clapping, we think of a game at the baseball stadium, and it can bring back wonderfully happy sensations. When we hear Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" from the 70's, it brings back memories associated with that time. The same happens when we hear a film soundtrack like the "Titanic". 

    So, when working side by side with a client to provide definition to the type of music they have in their minds-eye, I ask for a song that has the same rhythm, a similar melody and harmony as they desire for their corporate event. (My Grandfather, a church musician trainer, always reminded me that music is defined by three key elements: melody, harmony and rhythm). 

    Selecting a song that resonates with the audience is wonderfully helpful because it allows me as the creative director to do one of three things: compose a soundalike sound bed, license a sound-alike (using a synchronization license) through a library like APM, or contact the composer and record company of an existing popular song (i.e. Van Halen's Right Now).

    So how exactly, do I go about selecting music that is the perfect fit for the video clips? It's the million dollar question.  It's a really subjective, intuitive -- and yet critically important -- process.   Even as I write this, I am listening to music to get my juices flowing...to help me explain the emotional quotient behind how powerful the sound bed supports film clips.

    In a creative session, after narrowing hundreds of choices down to the top three or four, I present the short list to my client so they have the final say-so.

    The exciting thing is that generally clients select the same 'favored' fit that I have pre-selected (without telling my favorite). 

    Tell me about your favorite sound beds for films, and what they have emotionally brought about in you: specifically, how do they make you feel? How do you respond? I'd love to hear from you! 

    David Haneke

    Written by David Haneke

    One of the best things I do is to collaborate with our creative production team. I like to see productions get results! Those results include helping tell the vision of an organization, engaging in a sales effort, helping customers better understand the big picture of an organization, or helping clients see the value of services. One of my favorite compliments is from a client that said, "This is the best tool we've had in over 22 years to tell our story!" Specialties: Making an idea or concept come to life through video media: motivational videos, custom video production, and event production.

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