In partnership with Thinkerbell and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Eardrum has created a skin-crawling audio experience for a road safety campaign that reframes speeding as Australia’s deadliest predator.
When Thinkerbell approached Eardrum for this campaign, which highlights that speeding claims more lives than snakes, sharks, or spiders combined, Eardrum’s Ralph van Dijk proposed a bold idea: create the entire soundscape using nothing but speed and automotive sounds.
Working closely with MassiveMusic head of sound Abigail Sie, an unnerving soundtrack was created. Each sound effect was distorted and reshaped until the mechanical became animalistic. Revs became growls, screeching tyres became bird screeches, and speeding cars on gravel became snakes, all hinting at something lurking, something deadly.
“We suggested the idea without really knowing how realistic we could make it,” said van Dijk. “But once the team started bending and twisting the literal sounds, a range of beastly, organic creatures began to emerge in our imagination. Unsettling while still strangely familiar”.
The soundscape forms a core part of TAC and Thinkerbell’s integrated initiative, ‘Australia’s Deadliest Predator’, which challenges Australians to reconsider what they really fear. While sharks and snakes capture the imagination, it is speeding that silently stalks Victorian roads, claiming hundreds of lives each year.
Audiences can hear the work in the campaign film online.
Credits:
Creative agency: Thinkerbell
Client: TAC
Audio Production Company: Eardrum
Audio Director: Ralph van Dijk
Recording Studio: MassiveMusic
Sound Designer: Abby Sie
Film Production: Thinkerbell
Activation Production: Graffiti
