In this edition, we speak to director Kyle Lewis about the new Hunters Iced Cold campaign, an ASMR-inspired celebration of craft, texture and sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy1pG5zo3VQ
We took director Kyle Lewis onto our Foley Stage to work with our Foley artists on the Hunter’s Iced TVC, an ASMR-inspired celebration of craft, texture and sound. This is part of our Director’s Vision series, where we go behind the scenes with the directors we collaborate with.
http://youtube.com/shorts/x8GEyOe_PuI?feature=share
What Was Your Vision for Hunter’s Iced?
– Kyle knew from the brief that he wanted to utilize our Foley stage, not a soundtrack, to carry the film.
“The moment I got the Hunter’s Iced Cold brief, I knew immediately that I wanted to build an ASMR soundscape completely from original Foley. The whole piece is about sensory moments, taking what could traditionally be a liquid and intrinsic film and giving it emotion, rhythm and depth through sound as much as through the visuals and I wanted the two to work completely hand-in-hand. Rather than simply putting a track underneath the film and adding sound design afterwards, I wanted the Foley itself to almost become the music. I knew Pressure Cooker Studios would be the perfect match for that because they could approach sound in a really original way and help us create something that felt handcrafted, tactile and completely unique to the film.”
What was your brief to Pressure Cooker Studios?
– Rather than over-direct the sound, Kyle briefed the team to bring their own instinct to it.
“To be honest, when I briefed Pressure Cooker Studios, I really wanted them to approach it in their own unique way. I’m a big believer in collaboration and in giving people the space to showcase what they’re really good at. I think that duality between different creatives is often where you find the most original ideas. So rather than over-prescribing everything, I wanted every sound to feel individual and handcrafted, and for Pressure Cooker to explore how we could actually create rhythm from Foley.”
What was your favourite part of the audio post-production?
-For Kyle, it was the hands-on, human side of building sound from scratch on the Foley stage.
“I think we’re living in a world that’s becoming increasingly inundated with AI, where so much can start to feel false, perfect and overly glossy. So being able to physically go into a Foley studio and make sounds using glass, leeks, ice and everyday objects was incredibly exciting. That hands-on approach is actually what made me fall in love with filmmaking in the first place. There’s something about the human touch that you simply can’t replicate.
That was probably my favourite part, but I also loved creating with Alex in the studio afterwards. Once we had this beautiful library of original Foley, we could start shaping it into rhythm, creating intention, building things up, pulling them back, finding pauses, highs and lows. We were basically creating music out of Foley. What more could you ask for?”
What Was It Like Working on the Foley Stage?
-The Foley stage took Kyle right back to why he wanted to make films in the first place.
“Working on the Foley stage genuinely took me back to being a kid, watching behind-the-scenes footage from big films and dreaming that maybe one day I could be a filmmaker and director myself. It reminded me why I became a creative in the first place. Working with the guys there was so exciting because the process is incredibly organic. You can plan a sound, but then you start experimenting and suddenly discover something completely unexpected and those little surprises are what make the Foley stage such a special space.“
How Did the Sound Design Elevate the Film?
-Sound wasn’t a finishing touch on this project, Kyle treated it as the foundation.
“The sound design really became the bedrock of the entire piece. Without it, it could have been a more traditional intrinsic film. Even visually, I was very conscious of doing everything practically and in-camera, no visual effects and no AI, so I wanted the sound to follow that same philosophy and take the film somewhere new.
ASMR is obviously having a huge moment culturally, but I wanted to take that idea and approach it differently. Hunter’s Iced Cold is a brand-new product, so it felt important that the way we introduced it also felt new and original.
Working with Pressure Cooker, and bringing their experience in narrative sound into a commercial space, gave the film another level of depth. Sound can sometimes become an afterthought, but for me it’s fundamental. It shapes the narrative, creates rhythm and, most importantly, makes us feel something.”
What would you do differently next time, if anything?
-Kyle wouldn’t change the process itself, just how much space future projects leave for it.
“I honestly wouldn’t change the experience of working in the Foley studio, because I think every time you walk into that space it’s going to be completely different. Of course, you build on what you’ve learnt and remember certain techniques or sounds, but there’s always an element of surprise.
Who knew, for example, that crushing a leek could create the perfect sound of ice crushing? That’s what’s so remarkable about it. You have to trust the process, experiment and allow yourself to create on the fly.
In the commercial world we can sometimes become quite restricted by plans, timings and exactly what something is supposed to be. The Foley stage gives you this incredible space to play again, experiment and discover things you never could have planned and that’s something I’d definitely want to carry into future projects.“