We listen to so many sounds per day that there are times we don’t even realize the sounds and noises going on around us. The humming of the ceiling fan, the clicking of the dogs’ nails against the floor as the walk-by, or even a conversation from across the house, are all part of our everyday lives. Because sounds exist no matter where you are, unless you are in a soundproof room, we almost become unaware of the ambient noise around us. For directors of television shows, movies, or commercials, all these sounds matter. These “sounds” make up the world around us, so it is important that when we are watching something, what we hear makes sense, or the viewer can be confused. Foreground and background sound must make sense for us to process what is going on in what we are seeing. In the commercial for Mountain Hardware OutDry Packs, the director and his team made a commercial with absolutely no one talking and advertised a dry bag excellently.
Before you can see the first scene of the Mountain Hardwear commercial for OutDry Packs, you can hear the rain, but it sounds like it is hitting something. This gives a hint to what environment we are about to see. If you guessed the woods or outside, you would be correct. The opening shot is of the forest. You can’t even see rain on the screen yet, but you can hear the diegetic sound. Within just a few seconds, we can hear thunder in the distance. Slowly, a piano starts to play. It is slow and stays with the speed of the moment you begin to see on screen. The rain and thunder become an ambient noise through out the rest of the commercial, along with cars driving by and many others, as the director turns to more foreground sounds.
Within seconds of the commercial opening, you can see a woman that is getting dressed and getting ready to head out of camp to go take photographs. You can hear the zipping of her coat, the rustling of her bag as she slides her camera in. The foreground sounds are what we hear when we can see something on the screen. You can hear the pedal turning the chain when the woman is riding a bike as we see a close-up of her legs and pedals as the move. You can hear the waves crashing around the couple as we watch them kayak in the ocean. Every time the couple opens one of the dry bags that are being advertised, you can hear the zipper, the rustling of the bags as you watch them put something in and as they pick it up. The use of foreground sound throughout the commercial makes everything that the viewer is seeing make sense.
In the commercial for the Mountain Hardwear OutDry Packs, the use of sound, not only makes us aware of where the scene takes place; we also hear the sounds that go along with the actions we are seeing on the screen. With the use of foreground and background sounds, the director was able to get the point of the whole commercial across without ever using a person or narrator saying a word. It was all done with the use of foreground and background sounds and noises.