just a cool thing to watch
There creativity, artistry, music and a true sense of achievement in this video.
But it’s also just a blast to watch.
There creativity, artistry, music and a true sense of achievement in this video.
But it’s also just a blast to watch.
In case you might have missed it during the Super Bowl….
P.S. Here’s a little story about how the promo came about from Late Show EP Rob Burnett.
I was advised that there might be a audio script promo coming for Podcamp Toronto 2010 but I never saw it…maybe I missed it.
At any rate, I decided to write my own tonight and this silliness is what I came up with. Please tweet it, facebook it, linked in it etc.
If you have a podcast you want to use it in or some other proper venue to promote Podcamp Toronto 2010, please feel free to use it.
I’ll see you there…and if you see me first, please say hi.
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Click here to download the promo!
Buffalo Bills Wide Receiver Terrell Owens, January 4, 2010. Photo copyright James P. McCoy, Buffalo News, all rights reserved
I don’t talk sports that much here because it’s not the primary focus of the blog (unless I do voice over for a sports team or if it’s about the Olympics because of my logo fascination therein). Also, the sports I really like are golf and hockey (I play the former not the latter albeit very infrequently). As far as the Buffalo Bills are concerned, I am certainly a fair-weather fan.
I also don’t talk that much about Buffalo, NY here because unless you are from the area, you probably don’t care. But today for truly a brief moment, I hope you read this digression.
The picture above this post was taken by the Buffalo News‘ James P. McCoy and shows Buffalo Bills wide-receiver Terrell Owens on January 4, 2010 holding a newspaper picture of him taken on January 3, 2010 during the Bills-Colts football game in which Owens scored a touchdown. I couldn’t find the picture he’s holding on line but it is a tremendous photo of a truly excited football player scoring a touchdown while playing a meaningless game in a blizzard. In the photo Owens is celebrating his 41-yard reception, good for six points in the game which simultaneously moved him into third place on the NFL’s all-time receiving yardage list at 14,951.
At the beginning of this past season, the Buffalo Bills signed the infamous wide receiver Terrell Owens to the team. This was a player who was bigger than life for his on-field performance (very impressive) and his off-field chatter (very unimpressive). It seemed clear to me that the Owens signing was an opportunistic move by the Bills to sell tickets (which is their job) and the area would have to put up with the seemingly bombastic Owens for one year.
The Bills season is now thankfully over. I will not take you down the disastrous path that led to the team’s 6-10 finish (others will, ad nauseam, oy vey!) But I would like to note that Mr. Owens’ public persona was professional, courtesy and patient throughout the entire year here in Buffalo. At a time and place where he could have been easily excused for mouthing off and getting angry via on-field antics or through the media…he did not. He played well (not amazingly well as he has admitted) but he did his job with very little (if any) complaint.
Based on how I had seen him perform elsewhere, I thought when he came to the Bills, Terrell Owens would be a pain in the ass to deal with and to have to listen to via our local media. I pre-judged him harshly in the privacy of my own head. He proved me completely wrong and I would like to first publicly apologize for judging him and then thank him for being a part of our team.
If both sides see fit to stay together in 2010, based on his performance and behavior this season, I – for one – would be glad to have him on our team.
James Brown - the Hardest Working Man in Show Business
While James Brown may have been the hardest working man in show business (correctly pronounced by those of us in the industry as “bid-nez”), I am going to canonize myself as the hardest working man in voice over (correctly pronounced by those of us in the industry as “voice talking”).
Picture if you will (channeling Rod Serling) a vigorous lake effect snow storm with 30 m.p.h. gusts and blinding snow falls and an even earlier than usual darkness that falls over the city from the ginormous (that’s a meteorological term…maybe) snow cloud that had covered the area. The snow drifts alone had to be 25 miles high! And those were the small ones.
These tsu-nado-zzard conditions made travel unfit for neither man nor beast. But being a beast of a man and having a commercial recording session in a downtown studio scheduled in the midst of this blizz-tor-nami, I grabbed my dogs and my sled (and my light spring jacket…I’m a native Buffalonian after all) and sprang into action.
Buffalo, NY on December 28, 2009 at the corner of Delaware and Chippewa - about two miles from the recording studio
I dodged stalled cars and busses, ran over old ladies on the sidewalks (when I could find them) and flew around turns like an Olympic luge driver who’d failed his drug tests multiple times all to make it to my appointed recording session where, of course, I performed spectacularly for the people in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
They won’t know how hard I worked for them when they hear my spots or what a bombastic, egotistical, self-aggrandizing bone-head I am….but now you do.
The life of a voice actor is an arduous one. Creating a voice, setting a mood, transmitting a message within only a finite time period. Lesser performers would quake and fall under the pressure.
Not yours truly.
When called upon by my agent in a recent audition to portray fear, panic, intense medical distress and possibly public mortification I rose the occasion…well, for this role, I actually sat down. It was but a brief utterance I had through which to convey all those emotions.
I played the part of the “Man” in this audition:
VO: When diarrhea hits…
MAN: Uh-oh.
VO: KAO. Kaopectate stops it fast.
Powerful liquid relief speeds to the source fast,
to stop diarrhea and get your system back to normal…
Woman: Fast.
VO: Kaopectate. Stop the uh-oh fast, with Kao
And I did so with various choices thusly:
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You may stand in awe of my voice acting greatness. And you’ll laugh at me a little less if I get the job cause for that one phrase I’ll cash a very healthy check.
Feel free to pick your favorite uh oh.
