- Product/Brand - The Prince’s Trust
- Spot - Learn The Hard Way
- Music Title - Charlie’s Way
- Composer - Kay
- Publisher - Woodwork Music
- Artist - Philip Kay
- Master Rights - Woodwork Music
- Music Supervisor - Leland Music
- Ad Agency - CHI&Partners
- Creatives - Jonathan Burley, Danny Hunt, Gavin Torrance, William Hunt, James Crosby
- Film Company - Academy Films
- Film Director - Seb Edwards
- Poist Production - MPC
- Air Date - 29/1/15
The Prince’s Trust’s harrowing yet heroic Learn The Hard Way spot, shot by Academy Film’s multi-award-winning director Seb Edwards, asks us to recognize and respect the inner strengths shown by some of society’s most disadvantaged teenagers.
Edwards’ film was already at a rough edit stage when agency CHI&Partners called in Leland Music to supervise a soundtrack from Woodwork Music’s Philip Kay – the high-profile UK-based composer who has scored episodes of US TV blockbusters like Breaking Bad and CSI NY as well as commercials for blue chip brands like The Guardian and Lynx.
“Phil and I first worked together on Hovis’ Go On Lad in 2008,” says Abi Leland. “He had a band at the time called Working For A Nuclear Free City, but this was his first bespoke composition.”
Compared to the acclaimed Hovis track, which sought to invoke 100 years of British life in under 30 seconds, Kay’s Prince’s Trust offer relies more on mood than melody. But, Kay insists, that doesn’t mean it was any easier to write!
“When the brief is to provide an overview of the key emotion behind a film, I always find it's helpful to allow the music to develop on a time frame longer than the medium it is intended for in order to see where the original idea can be taken,” he says.
“What I wanted to achieve was a kind of slow-motion examination of those precise moments when the Princes's Trust characters realise the power of their potential.”
