Female Voice Talent Gina Tuttle

I don’t know if you caught the 2010 Oscars last night.

I did and I thought it was a pretty good show. I thought it was VERY interesting at the end for best picture how Tom Hanks seemed to walk on stage and just read the winner’s name without any recognition of the 10 nominees (yes they did little BP vignette’s throughout the telecast). But it just seemed like he got told “go out, read the winner and get off…we’re LATE!” Maybe it was just me but I chuckled (been there, done that…just, you know, not on the Oscars).

But to the point of this post, congrats to someone I do not know in this industry (probably there are more I don’t know than I do know) and that would be Gina Tuttle who served as announcer for the 82nd Oscar broadcast. She was an excellent choice to my ear. Congratulations on a job really well done.

Tags: announcers, tv, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter o'connell voiceover
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This one gave me a chuckle.

The Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives hosted their yearly awards gala and they asked if I would do the live announce again. I said sure, we worked out a trade deal and all was good. I did warn them that sometimes travel comes up and then I might have to pass; they were cool with that.

Travel came up and off I was to be on a plane instead of behind the mic for them. I said the only option I had for them was that I could pre-record it the show for them into individual sound files and they audio-visual technician would play them back for the proper intros. They loved that idea, I recorded it, they loved how it sounded, it was done well in advance and sent over to the av company to get them comfortable with pacing and technical stuff, etc.

So the night of the show comes and goes and the next day I email to see how it went. Here’s the answer I got:

Well….funny you should ask. Hi Peter – the rehearsals went really well but we did have a glitch during the actual intros. I sat with the av guy to make sure he knew when to cue the next person’s intro. He would hit the button with your recording and then play music in between. However, he hit the button too quick after announcing the Key Bank winner and we heard “from Business First” too soon so he stopped it right away. Unfortunately, by stopping it the way he did, it was miscued and then it went back to the very beginning of the recording again. Luckily he wrote down the exact time of each recording so it was a matter of getting back to the right time on the recording but he kept missing it so we had about 2 full minutes of waiting and wondering what was up. My face was on fire J

Your voice was loud and clear and it sounded like you were right there so that was very cool. I think considering what the av guys had to do, they did an awesome job. And other than that, the night was fabulous. We are getting rave reviews.

Yikes.

So tonight on Facebook, I see my friend Nancy Knight posted something so I threw a kudo towards her as she was one of the award winners —who happened to be the NEXT intro when the AV had the hand-eye coordination melt down on his computer mouse. Nancy wrote:

Peter — thanks for the kind words — yeah, the audio left me and my prom date stuck at the top of the stairs for QUITE some time… before I figured it was all automated, I thought you were mad at me or something…

Oy! Usually I only annoy people when I am present but thanks to one tech, I annoyed hundreds of people while in Texas. Sorry Nancy.

Of course, I never make mistakes. Like the time as a PA announcer I had a stadium full of people stand for the national anthem during a college football game…only it was time for the band to play the school song. Yeah….

Tags: announcers, commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter o'connell voiceover
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Voice Talent Lee Gordon (I swear it's him)

Last evening I enjoyed two very pleasant phone calls that I thought I would share with you.

First, I got a call from a number I had never seen before – which isn’t that unusual as many new clients call me all the time. But this wasn’t a client, it was my friend and fellow voice talent Lee Gordon (that’s his picture above) who shared with me the fact that he took my advice (yikes…I’d forgotten what I said) and got a cell phone he could use just for his business. This would be his primary business number: 860-805-8100. I was his first call on the new phone, which was a great honor in my mind. I hope if you read this here, you’ll call Lee and congratulate him while simultaneously putting the number in your own database, as I did.

Lee also called to share some other good news: he was cast as the “Sun” in a national commercial for SunSetter Awnings, though our mutual agent and friend (the two aren’t mutually exclusive) Erik Shepard at Voice Talent Productions. I was especially thrilled to hear this because Lee and I had spoken in New York in December about how we were both up for the announcer role for the SunSetter Radio spots, which I was hired for. Let it be known that the FIRST person to congratulate me on that win was Lee Gordon – the very definition of gracious. We both hope somehow our paths will cross on these campaigns and we’ll get to work together.

Later in the evening, about 8:00 p.m., I got a call from the agency president of one of my other agents, Lynne Heyman of Heyman Talent (that’s not her pictured above). She was returning my call, which I advised her automatically puts her in the upper echelon of my agents. But as I also pointed out to her, the dedication she shows to her talents on her roster by following up with a call even at 8:00 at night is very impressive. And as usually, our 5 minute call lasted almost 1/2 an hour and it is always time well spent with her. I just wanted to thank Lynne here for taking the time with me last night.

Tags: announcers, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent by peter o'connell voiceover
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Male Voice Talent Bob Souer

No but he plays Him in an audiobook. (Ba-dum-bump!)

About four years ago my friend, fellow traveler and sometimes dining companion Bob Souer was booked to narrate entire Bible in the “New King James” version.

Let me repeat: the entire Bible – all 700,000 plus words of it. It’s now been released.

Personally, I’ve always felt there was a bit of divine intervention in the booking because you’ll not find a more kind, Christian man with greater voice over talent than Bob.

If you or someone in your family enjoys absorbing Scripture, this would be an awesome gift, written by some awesome people and presented by an awesome guy.

Tags: announcers, audio books, casting, commentary, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter o'connell voiceover
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I’ll be brief.

Tonight, “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” changed the news program’s opening; the graphics were the same but the voice was different.

The network’s most celebrated anchor (even more than Edward R. Murrow) Walter Cronkite had introduced the network’s flagship broadcast since it began in September of 2006. It was a masterful piece of casting.

Tonight, CBS News President Sean McManus and Executive Producer Rick Kaplan used a new voice to introduce the program, actor Morgan Freeman.

Here is the audio for the new introduction.

Mr. Freeman did a passable job as an announcer and it’s said he’ll voice other CBS News programs as well, adding unity and flexibility to many CBS News broadcasts.

But Freeman is not Walter Cronkite whose voice upon that program bestowed a blessing and implied gravitas the likes of which cannot be measured by anything yet invented. No other network news program had or has anything like it. Suffice it to say Cronkite’s voice over on the program’s open was an invaluable asset.

McManus had indicated the program would lose Cronkite’s voice on the open in 2009 after the anchor man died but the Cronkite family allowed it to be used ever after, which (it was said at the time) made everyone happy at CBS News.

Evidently “everyone” lied.

The stupidest thing The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric ever did occurred tonight – it removed a pillar of broadcast journalism as the voice of the network’s primary news program and replaced it with someone else. It is not Freeman’s fault…no one could have replaced Cronkite’s perfect voice over.

No one should have.

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Tags: CBS News, CBS Television Network, announcers, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter o'connell voiceover
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How’s that for an informative, succinct headline?

For those of you still unsure of its meaning: the 2009 Unofficial Casting Call for the Announcer for ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” will end THIS MONDAY, (January 4th in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Ten). At 5:00 p.m. eastern time (1700 hrs)….”that’s all there is, there isn’t any more.”

After that time, the judges will whittle all the fake auditions (faux-ditions, if you will) submissions down to their 10 best; voting will then begin.

No, you won’t get the real job and no there is no prize except for bragging rights.

If you haven’t yet submitted your faux-dition (you lazy so and so!), you can read all the details here on how to submit. We’d love to hear your take on the job!

And if you think you’re too cool or too talented to submit for a phony audition…you’re not. You’re just a yella bellied chicken!

Tags: ABC News, announcers, fauxdition, unofficial audition by peter o'connell voiceover
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