Client: Wentworth’s Wilsonville Chevrolet
Agency: Cappelli Miles
Role: Creative, Direction
Date: Summer 2019
THE PITCH
MUSICALS. Love them. Been a dream to write one, but never had the guts to write a multi-hour epic ballad. But a minute long one? That I could do. When a Portland, OR car dealership approached me to create a memorable radio campaign, I wrote out a lot of ideas, but the big one was Wentworth’s: THE MUSICAL. A comedic, tongue-in-cheek exploration throughout musical history featuring not just a little diddy at the end of the commercial… but the entire dealership’s messaging, sung out! Wentworth’s loved the idea and had a few musical aficionados on their team, so I got the green light.
It was time to make a musical!
The quick script I’d jotted down that became the foundation for the musical
PRODUCTION
Writing copy was easy, but writing lyrics? Definitely a challenge. I worked with my favorite composer and musical muse Dave Dexter for creating the score. Both 60s spots featured two very different styles, including unique time signatures, tempos, instrumentation, and more. Dave and I worked for a week on how to take the lyrics I’d temped out and make them fit the music and actually be singable!
The initial recording layout of the different vocal tracks recorded on location. We had four different harmonies for both the male and female singers.
“And now… Back to Wentworth’s: THE MUSICAL”
Starting off each spot like this made it feel like we were resuming a musical in progress, like these little snippets were part of a larger story…
The ridiculously talented Heidi and Israel Bloodgood who preformed the key vocals. They sang the leads and also the harmonies and even the multilayered choir in Spot B!
