News

Sound Lounge Radio Puts Bank of America in a NY State of Mind

New York City (October 21, 2003)--Sound Lounge Radio recreated a series of New York street scenes inside its Manhattan recording studio in producing a new package of radio spots for Bank of America. The 60-second spots were conceived by Deutsch, New York, as part of its "Higher Standards" campaign for the bank.

Although the spots sound as if they are off-the-cuff interviews with ordinary people on busy city street corners, they were actually created with actors performing scripted dialogue in Sound Lounge Radio's studio. "It's very difficult to record on the streets of a big city like New York," explained Sound Lounge Radio creative director, Tony Mennuto. "Ambulance sirens are bouncing off buildings, jack hammers, horns. It's far too noisy especially when you need to record dialogue with a lot of consumer information. You need to have something clean."

Instead, Sound Lounge Radio recorded the actors in its spacious live room and helped to create a sense of spontaneity by having the spokesman work with a handheld microphone while walking the room with the other talent. "We had the actor memorize the dialogue so that it didn't sound like he was reading lines," said Mennuto. "In this situation, mistakes are often good, and it can help if people are slightly off mike." Sound Lounge engineers recorded more than two hours of material for each 60-second spot.

For the background environments, Sound Lounge Radio engineer Seth Phillips recorded ambient sounds in various New York City neighborhoods, including near the city's port. Additionally, sound designer Marshall Grupp produced custom sound effects to enhance the aural landscapes.

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