The point was to have a vacation with just Mrs. audio’connell and me while baby audio’connell played with the grandparents (baby, btw, seems not even to have noticed the parents had gone missing because of all the fun provided from the grandparents). The destination was New York City, where the missus is originally from.
Early flight out Friday morning with an incredibly long line at security out of BNIA (made even more interesting by some young, strong dude who may have come straight from the bars to the airport and promptly fainted while in line causing a tremor (“thud”) when he hit the airport’s marble floor; “the bigger they are…”) then straight in to JFK, SOHO and the sister-in-law’s apartment.
It was decided naps were in order and it was from that nap that I was awakened by a call from one of my agent’s advising that Shell wanted to use me for a VO. Groggily I replied in the affirmative inquiring only how much and when (though I’m not sure in which order). Numbers came first and since they were in the “proper sequential order” ($), I went on to the “date” which was to be the following Monday. I would still be in NYC, would they do ISDN? Sure, where would I like to record from? Give me an hour, I said, and I’ll price out a couple of studios.
Like a fireman answering the bell I was fully awake now, knowing I had to work fast to find facilities, availabilities and rates. Remember, this is NYC, many studios are not as available as other studios in other cities on short notice. I had made one brief attempt pre-trip to ensure I had available VO facilities in the area, only to find my contact had moved to Australia…I decided that might not work for me.
The sister in law had a video production friend who had a lead on an ISDN studio and I had the internet. I gave the client’s agency three choices, they picked one and all was booked. This job would pay for the vacation!
Monday comes and I show up at the studio off 5th Avenue in mid-town early to review the script (ha!). There were voice actors (or more likely actors looking for voice work) auditioning for a group of spots; unfortunately they were union spots, so I didn’t get a shot at them. The studio was also having some technical problems with the client’s ISDN hookup so we got started about a ½ hour late. I walked in, was handed the script, set up in the booth (Neumann U87) did four takes of the main read, about nine takes of the tag and I was outta there in about 15 minutes. The clients were very happy and I made some nice new business contacts.
Post script: as the plane was landing, coming back home today, I got an email and a call from the client: they screwed up the script and need to me to record again. That means I get paid again!
I’ll post a few other New York notes a little later.
but I told you so.
Funny part of this was, Mrs. audio’connell and me were in New York City on Sunday of (what would become) the final game of the Rangers-Sabres series and we walked over to the Garden to see if tickets were available…$300/pair seemed like money would could spend in the city elsewhere.
We did watch the game with my sister-in-law (who was gleefully rooting for the Sabres) at whose apartment we were staying; I didn’t dance too much as to ensure we’d have a place to stay for the entire trip.
Ottawa next…more to come.
There are like 6.7 billion people in our world (need an update, click here) and I think there may be 12 billion blogs*.
RSS (really simple syndication) helps (like in the upper left corner of this blog). You click on the link and you can subscribe (or bookmark) to a blog on your browser (I use Internet Explorer 7.0 ) under the heading “Feeds” which is on your “Favorites” tab and is positioned right next to all your web site book marks (if you are now saying “ooooh, thaaaat’s what that heading is for!” don’t worry, I did too). When a new post on a blog you’ve subscribed to comes up, your subscription link title in the “Feeds” is bolded so you’ll know if you click it, you’re likely find some new content. At least that’s the way mine works.
Want to see a REALLY cool (because its soooo simple) explaination? Click here!
Lately a tool I’ve been using is a RSS “reader”. Now trust me when I say when it comes to stuff like “readers” and other tools of the internet, my knowledge based is firmly entrenched in the 19th Century (did you know that they make phones that are actually portable!)
But I very much like this reader tool. There are likely a ton out there (most I am assuming are free); the one I am using is Google Reader. The reason I like the reader more than a browser feed listing because the reader can present portions of the posts content for me to skim. If I want to read the whole post (if it is an especially long post) I can click on the headline and be taken directly to the blog.
It’s been a helpful way for me to review and control the information I want to get, I hope it can to the same for you.
* This number may be a slight exaggeration 🙂
BUFFALO, New York, May 1, 2007 – – Offering a brand that is admittedly “a little loco”, Crazy Jose’s Mexican Restaurant secured a kindred spirit in professional voice-over talent Peter K. O’Connell as part of its recent commercial campaign. In an ISDN recording session with the Texas client’s agency, O’Connell portrayed an “anal retentive” customer of the chain, who loved Crazy Jose’s food and low prices but felt the distance between the salt and pepper shakers on the chain’s dining tables weren’t “precise” enough.
Also, during its recent 2007 Addy Awards, the Advertising Club of Buffalo (formerly Brainstorm) selected audio’connell Voice-Over Talent’s Peter K. O’Connell to serve as the award ceremony’s announcer. Providing voice-overs revealing all prize winners for the show, voice over talent O’Connell also provided character voice work for an introductory show presentation.
As part of its 2007 Beta Awards, InfoTech Niagara’s annual presentation featured voice talent Peter K. O’Connell from audio’connell as part of its commercial parody vignettes through out the show.
audio’connell Voice Over Talent is a worldwide voice over talent service featuring professional male and female voice talents specializing in commercials, corporate narrations, voice imaging, podcasts and messaging on-hold (MOH) created for advertising agencies, media and broadcast production companies as well as both large and small businesses around the world.
The company also operates Voice Over Workshop to provide professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent around the world.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Company Media Releases ON LINE:
http://www.audioconnell.com/media
Company Name Pronunciation:
au·dio·o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)
Company Name Spelling:
Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voice Over Talent
Company Web:
http://www.audioconnell.com
Company Blog:
http://www.voxmarketising.com
O’Connell Voice-Over Resume:
See resume here
