Elvis & Nixon Feature Film Trailer
We’re all really excited to be invited to create the UK trailer soundtrack for new feature film “Elvis and Nixon” starring Kevin Spacey, based upon the untold true story behind the meeting between Elvis Presley, and US President Nixon at the White House in 1970.
This film is a story straight out of history, and we want our trailer soundtrack to really channel that. So we take a real world approach to creating a dual paced soundtrack for the trailer, incorporating live instruments with specially recorded guitar and drum tracks and big horn riffs, to really make the music track pop with 70’s flavour. We also layer in some of our organically recorded and designed sound effects, including sparkles from our custom made sparkle machine, Elvis karate swooshes, and special foley recorded live around the studio from old iron doors and external skips to get just the right intensity and timbre for the impact sounds.
However, even having musically worked hard to bring out an early 70’s Memphis gritty pop sound with a really fun flavour to reflect the feel of the film, and created what we think are just the right SFX to complement, we still feel there’s something missing. It isn’t until we take time to research and figure out how to create the sonically authentic hum and fuzz of the original USA guitar amps, which, driven by the US 60Hz power grid, is quite distinct from what we’d hear in a UK studio of the time, that we feel we’re really getting to grips with the project. After we mix it all down to vintage tape for extra noise texture, we finally have the soundtrack we aspired to create for this trailer.