Reading Challenge

Just like curling up on the couch and losing yourself in a great book, these radio ads really had to hook the listener in. When Rare contacted Soundbyte with a crazy idea for a radio campaign that had to be created on a tight budget, the team at Soundbyte were for up for the challenge.

With limited budget, they knew that music composition would not be an option, nor would loads of professional talent to perform the scripts. The team would have to think outside the box to bring this playful campaign of radio ads to life.

With casting being critical, Brad used his connection with the esteemed Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), where he himself graduated from, to see if the team could work with their extremely talented pool of young actors. They were in luck, with WAAPA gladly opening its doors. Before they knew it, they had over 15 actors auditioning for the different roles.

Working closely with Simon Mullins, the copywriter who penned the scripts, the final list of actors was put together. Brad & Simon then spent the better part of the day recording all the different roles, making sure each character hit the mark.

With the performances all captured, the very long and detailed processes of building the immersive worlds began. Brad and his team of sound engineers would start to lay up the intricate sound effect beds. Without the budget for composition, they also had to find music that would help enhance each different story.

Once music and sound design was completed, mixing would come to the forefront. Brad used perspective shifts and spatial awareness to immerse the listener into the storybook world. Only when the listener was completely hooked, could the sound design then gently pull them out of the moment to realise the whole time they had been listening to the imagination of the young reader.