Final Commercial Project

Now that you've finished one commercial project, replacing the soundtrack of an existing commercial with new music, it's time to go wild and choose your own commercial to replace the soundtrack.  Look for a commercial that is has a mainly music soundtrack, but listen for other ambient sounds to keep, like we kept the sound of the man typing on his computer, clicking the iPod wheel, door slamming, and narrator's voice.

Looking for ideas?  Nathan Birkholz did an excellent job not only of replacing the original music from this Evian water commercial, but he also added sound effects of rollerskates, grinding on a metal rail, chain link fence, and babies laughing. Watch the original commercial first, then watch Nathan's "Baby Nathan" version:

Original Evian water commercial:

Nathan's "Baby Nathan" version:


Check out these student's commercials as well for more ideas: Nathan Delelandre, Bethany Westphal, Josh Meyer, Mykenna Schneiter

After you've found a commercial to work with, you'll need to download it from YouTube.  We've been using KeepVid successfully for many years, but it needs Java to run and it might not work correctly if you are using a Chrome browser.  Watch the top of the screen for a yellow bar and click on "Allow Java to run on this site".  When prompted with a dialogue box, click a checkmark in "Allow".  Then watch for a list of files in blue with the extension .MP4.  If you are working on an older iMac, choose the 480p file.  If you are working on a newer iMac, choose 720p or 1080p.

If you are trying to use KeepVid.com on a new Mac running OS X 10.9 Mavericks, use Safari instead of Chrome.

Watch this screencast to see how to use Keepvid.com to download YouTube videos using Chrome:



Choose a new commercial to replace its soundtrack with new music. Propose your commercial, replacement music, and other sound effects (foley work, voice overs, etc.) to Mr. Witte.

If you need music at a specific number of beats per minute to match the action in your commercial, use one of the following websites to calculate beats per minute (BPM) of the original soundtrack

• Tap for Beats Per Minute BPM
• BPM CounterTap
• BPM - Online Beats Per Minute Calculator and Counter

Want to take your replacement soundtrack to the next level? Start listening for other sound effects in your original commercial which happen during the music which you are replacing.  To make your commercial soundtrack believeable, you will want to find new sound effects online and download them into your Garageband project.  See the student's work above for screenshots of soundeffects in Garageband.  

Can't find the perfect sound effect online?  Maybe it's time to get into a little foley work.  Watch this video to understand the role of foley work in films: