old news: Sierra Mist TV spot

[OC Richard]

Was this discussed when the spot first aired?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dZvud101YA

I just found this on YouTube while looking for something else, and it brings back memories of many frustrating hours of fruitless work.

I was hired to play pipes on this. The client wanted the pipes to play something the moment "Wallace" was seen standing over the grate. But they had no idea what.

It was just a second or two, but I spent two long days in the recording studio. I did hundreds of fragments of everything I could think of, all sorts of pipe tunes but even The Blue Danube and the typical stripper tune.

In the end the client didn't go for any of it, and used a jazz band.

Bummer, because I only get paid the Union rate for the studio time. No residuals! Which is how you really make your money.

[TomFromBama]

Funny commercial!

I'd never seen it before, so thanks for posting, and thanks for the story!!! :-)

[lrpddrummie]

They did a casting call for this commercial in New York. My band auditioned for it. They had us play several tunes and then we ran through several variations of the ad. I must of said “Where’s Wallace” couple hundred times with different inflections, accents, etc. We got word later they moved the ad shoot to California. It was a fun day as we carted ourselves to NYC, did the audition, then played in the streets of New York and then ran home for a night time parade. We used to use it in our PR slicks but not anymore as it is old news.

OC Richard – at least it is a feather in your cap as you can say you recorded pipes for a TV commercial.

[OC Richard]

How cool!

So they moved the shoot to LA, eh? I wonder who appeared in it. I'll have to watch it again more carefully.

I had a good run of studio work there for a couple years, after our local-boy-made-good Eric Rigler did Braveheart and Titanic and everybody in Hollywood wanted uilleann pipes. Eric had far more work than one person could handle and I'm eternally grateful that he recommended me for the gigs he wasn't able to do. For about two years it was nearly a full-time job and I played on countless TV spots, TV shows, movies, theme park soundtracks, albums, and so forth.

A couple times I played on things which were never used, this commercial, and the time I played the Hawai'i Five-O theme on the uilleann pipes for a Toyota Trucks spot that never aired. One almost never gets a copy of the music one does, but it so happened that I returned to the same studio for another gig and the engineer burned a copy for me.

Those days are long gone (now Hollywood wants duduk) but every now and then a gig pops up- I and three other pipers did Battleship last year, and a load of local pipers and drummers did a Budweiser spot for last year's Super Bowl.

[S.S.Muldoon]

I had forgotten that Patton Oswalt was in this commercial... and if I'm not mistaken, that's John Saint Ryan wondering as to the whereabouts of Wallace.