The 2012 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards took on a bold, new direction, moving away from the literal interpretations of previous campaigns. This year included highly conceptual and abstract visuals, using the human body as a landscape to portray each individual award category.
For the sound and music, I took an equally bold, abstract approach – combining lush soundscapes with modern, impactful sound design. Like the visuals, the sound does not strictly reflect each award category, rather following and supporting the conceptual art and design to create an exciting, engaging package.
Sound Design: Rhys Bills-Strange
Creative Direction and Design: Jon Chapman-Smith (Fuman)
Animation: Paul James, Josh Smith (Waxeye)
Photography: Hannah Richards
The 2017 promotional video for WeCreate is a fun video with eye-catching, colourful visuals. I used playful sound effects to add to the comical style, bringing the animations and graphics to life for an engaging and entertaining video.
Sound Design: Rhys Bills-Strange
Production: Bruce Ferguson and Emma Wolf (Darkroom)
The 2015 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards was an extra special year, being the 50th anniversary of the VNZMAs. The package combined glamorous, eye-catching visuals with impactful, dramatic sound design.
The epic, enveloping music and sound design lends itself to the floating, slow-motion style graphics, with bold sound effects supporting the explosive imagery.
Sound Design: Rhys Bills-Strange
Production: Bruce Ferguson and Emma Wolf (Darkroom)
This 2013 advertisement for the Mercedes Benz C-Class has a moody, dramatic feel to it. The underlying music lends itself to the cold, contrasting visuals, while sharp sound effects accentuate transitions and standout features on the Mercedes.
I designed the music and sound to not only support the visuals but the script as well, bringing focus and attention onto the most important messages throughout the advertisement.
Music and Sound Design: Rhys Bills-Strange
Design and Animation: Waxeye
The brief for this Dominate Hair advertisement was to create upbeat, grungy music to suit the edgy, youthful graphics and imagery. After experimenting with different styles of music, from grunge rock to indie rock, the client and I went for a more appealing, modern take with a Dubstep track.
Music: Rhys Bills-Strange
Design: Jon Chapman-Smith (Fuman)
The brief for this short intro piece for Four Knights Film was to portray a grungy, indie, yet quirky attitude. I designed simplistic, cheerful sound effects to back up the simple, quirky style animation.
Sound Design: Rhys Bills-Strange
Design: Jon Chapman-Smith (Fuman)
Animation: Han Law (Pixelpush)
Inspired by Brutalist Architecture and industrial design, the 2014 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards theme combined angular, abstract environments with light and movement. These environments are grand in scale, and graphical elements are revealed by moving perspectives, light, and colour.
I created rich, reverberant sound design to support the grandness of these sparse environments, while drawing the audience in with dense, expressive pads. Light and graphical details are revealed with distinctive, flowing sound effects.
An additional component to this years awards were on-stage structures and lighting elements, allowing the light and movement from the video to flow onto the stage. One of the developmental videos demonstrates the use of sound to support these stage lights, offering an incredibly immersive and engaging effect for the audience.
Sound Design: Rhys Bills-Strange
Production: Bruce Ferguson and Emma Wolf (Darkroom)
Art Director: Jon Chapman-Smith (Fuman)
The 2013 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards took on a sinister, ominous feel. Each award category showcased a distinctive theme and icon which was animated into an abstract, futuristic space – offering massive scope for modern, interpretive sound design.
I designed the sound and music to follow the rotation and movement of abstract shapes and graphics through unique environments – creating epic, contemporary soundscapes to support the over all theme and visuals.
Sound Design: Rhys Bills-Strange
Creative Director and Production: Paul James (Waxeye)
Art Director: Jon Chapman-Smith (Fuman)
Here you will find a range of tracks, not necessarily made with specific projects in mind. These tracks range from hip-hop inspired instrumentals, to electronic music like Drum and Bass, to more orchestral, soundtrack style pieces.
If you would like to use any of these for a project or would like to commission a track, please feel free to get in touch.
