Last week saw the start of the broadcasting run for a new TV advert I had the pleasure of working on as sound designer and music composer. The advert is the UK TV advert for A TIME FOR MERCY, the brand new novel from best-selling author JOHN GRISHAM.
A TIME FOR MERCY, released on October 13th, is the third book in the acclaimed JAKE BRIGANCE series, following on from 1989’s A TIME TO KILL and 2013’s SYCAMORE ROW. Since the release of A TIME TO KILL, JOHN GRISHAM has become the master of the crime thriller genre, selling millions of copies worldwide.
After my successful work on the advert for JOHN GRISHAM’S last release CAMINO WINDS earlier this year, I was approached again to lend my audio services to this new ad. The clients were the same again; KOALA producing the advert for publishers HODDER & STOUGHTON; a division of HACHETTE UK. The brief was also a similar one; design an immersive blend of sound effects and music to give the ad that Hollywood trailer aesthetic.
As you can see and hear in the ad, I had a lot of great visual cues to hit with sound design; thunder, speeding police cars, crime scenes, prison bars and a deep-south swamp. Music-wise I was able to develop a track I was already working on. The track is called JUNCTIONS and features a driving, bass-heavy rhythm section topped with atmospheric electronic instrument layers. I haven’t firmed-up plans for JUNCTIONS outside of this project, but it will inevitably end up on a future release of mine as I love the track!
This was a really fun project to work on and it will be great to see some more of my work broadcasting across SKY and ITV for the next couple of months. You can get your hands on a copy of A TIME FOR MERCY from all major UK retailers now. I’ll be back with another update next month and news of another major UK TV advertising project I’m currently working on.
Until then…