Well color me surprised and perplexed.

I did not expect that with so many changes NOT being made (set, theme) that ABC News would replace Bill Rice with a new announcer for World News with Diane Sawyer.

I said so. I meant it!

This made me feel that we would be in good taste running our unofficial audition for the announcer job for World News with Diane Sawyer. It would be fun, harmless fun which is the point of the whole exercise.

I didn’t see the first show tonight but reports are coming in that indeed there IS a new announcer. No video yet as I think we have to wait for the west coast feed to be done at 9:30 PM ET. I’ll update it when I find it.

I am stunned and feel kind of bad about the whole thing.

Nobody and I mean NOBODY was gunning for Bill’s job with this silly event and in fact I think to a person we all respected his work. But somebody at ABC decided on a new voice and made that call.

So should we continue with the faux-ditions or is it now in bad taste? Is it a matter of ‘that’s the way our business goes’ or should we, as peers show more respect?

Kudos to the new person who got the gig. I hope it turns out to be one of my friends who has kept a great secret.

Were we merely being naively prescient with this new outcome or are we now dancing on a great announcer’s career if we keep this going?

Seriously, give me your thoughts!

P.S. 12/22/09: Here is the first video I could find of the new open.

Tags: ABC News, fauxdition, unofficial audition, video by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
16 Comments »

What, did you think I forgot or sumpin’? It’s December and that means it’s time for voxmarketising’s annual fake audition or “faux-ditions”

This year we go back to the news division and our network of choice will be ABC as Charles Gibson is retiring and Diane Sawyer is taking over as the “World News” anchor. Obviously, they’ll need to re-do their opening announce.

That’s where YOU come in.

As you may or may not know, the great Bill Rice has been the announcer for ABC News for over three decades and does a marvelous job. I highly doubt someone of his great talent will be dropped so not only don’t get your hopes up via this unofficial audition…don’t even day dream. As always this is for fun (“this is not a competition, just an exhibition; please, no wagering.)

I’ll grab 3 judges and we’ll whittle all the contestants down to 10 finalists and then we will vote (but not until I call the vote).

You’re responsible for the mixing and audio quality (which has been a factor in past judging and voting); your audition needs to sound broadcast ready which means the mix should sound as great as your voice.

Here’s my demo – again just as an example – perform the announce in whatever way you think would be most likely accepted by ABC News producers if they were hiring a new announcer (which, as far as I know, they are not).

Peter K. O’Connell Demo Faux-dition:
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/ABC_News_Sawyer_Auditions/OCONNELL_Unofficial_Sawyer_Audition.mp3]

You can download the music bed here. (Right click on the “here” and click “save link as…” on your computer to mix it within your own system.)

Your short script from which to prove your voice over brilliance is as follows:

“From ABC News headquarters…
This is World News with Diane Sawyer.”

If you need a reference for how they do it nightly, you can view that here but we will NOT be doing the story teases, focus on the part starting at about :15 seconds in for the purposes of your audition.

Email your audition to peter at audioconnell dot com. MP3 file only.

File name: YOURLASTNAME_Unofficial_Sawyer_Audition.

LISTEN TO ENTRIES HERE.

I’ll allow submissions until it becomes tedious or boring. Only one entry per voice talent, please.

Have fun and Merry Christmas from audio’connell Voice Over Talent.

BTW, if you haven’t already taken the time to SUBSCRIBE to this blog, I hope you will now.

Tags: commentary, fauxdition, unofficial audition, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
49 Comments »

With my sincere thanks to the 80 participants in this faux-dition and the gracious judges (all of whom admitted to some tough decisions) there are now terrific 10 nominees for you to vote on.

First, a little housekeeping (PLEASE READ)

THE RULES FOR VOTING ON NOMINEES

1. The decision of audio’connell voice over talent is final

2. Nobody has a chance to get the real announcer job at Late Night With Jimmy Fallon because of this unofficial and very silly contest…plus the job has already been filled

3. Please choose your top three choices, numbering them 1, 2, 3 with your first choice (1) being your favorite (three different announcers, not three votes for one person, etc.)

4. Type your vote in the comment section of this blog post below

5. You may only vote once and you are on the honor system

6. Voting will end when I say it does, probably a couple of weeks I’m guessing

OK, the floor is yours. Have fun! Click HERE to listen to the nominees then please come back to vote below in the comment box.
______________________________________________________
As always, thanks for visiting the voxmarketising blog. If you haven’t already, we (well me really) hope you’ll subscribe using the orange RSS button on the top right column of this page. It’s free and every time someone subscribes to this blog, an angel gets its wings (hey, worth a shot ;).

Tags: announcers, commentary, fauxdition, NBC Television Network, silliness, tv, unofficial audition, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
82 Comments »

Stand by to to this blog see the top 10 finalists.

Then you can vote for your winner.

The judges ballots are due very soon!

Tags: announcers, fauxdition, NBC Television Network, silliness, tv, unofficial audition, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
1 Comment »

Whether this becomes an out and out holiday tradition here at audio’connell’s voxmarketising remains to be seen but suffice it to say I’m at it again.

Based on the enormously popular Unofficial Casting Call for the NBC Nightly News announcer, I am today kicking off the Unofficial Casting Call for the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon announcer job.

Some points of difference between the two casting calls:

1. The Nightly News audition was in response to what I (and many others) felt/feel was a poor performance by a certain actor (who otherwise is very talented). For the Fallon casting call, I have no knowledge of the new announcer’s (Steve Higgins) ability (which I’m sure is great) nor should this thingy we’re doing here be seen as an indictment of his talents…I wish him great success. This is just for fun and nobody here will be getting the Fallon show job.

2. NBC Nightly News had a well known theme. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has a house band, The Roots, but no theme song that I know of yet so I grabbed a Roots song (“Here I Come” all rights reserved etc.) and edited into a strictly demo theme sample. The music should open up some creative voice imaging opportunities for participants.

The directions to participate are simple and straight forward:

A. Download HERE the demo only theme song (complete with cheering audience to get you into the late night feel)

B. Here is a script (again demo only):

From NBC Studios in New York, It’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Tonight Amy Adams (slight pause) Eddie Izzard (slight pause) and musical guest John Legend

With The Roots

Now here’s your host: Jimmy Fallon!

C. Record your version mixed with the demo theme (note: you should have your audition finish at about :30 seconds into the theme as you’ll note I brought the audience cheering up. If you hit it right it will sound like he just walked out after you said his name. Also remember there would be graphics and likely some animation as part of the intro too.

D. Email it to peter at audio’connell dot com. MP3 file only. File name: YOURLASTNAME_Unofficial_Fallon_Audition

E. I’ll allow submissions until it becomes tedious or boring. Only one entry per voice talent, please.

>>> HERE is where you can LISTEN (but NO voting yet) to all the entrants <<<

Here’s my example to give you a general sense of timing but PLEASE do it with whatever pace and vocal performance style you’d like. Mine is just one way, not necessarily the perfect way.

DEMO EXAMPLE
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/Late_Night_Fallon/OConnell_Unofficial_Fallon_Audition.mp3]

How a winner will be chosen:

i. I’ll get between 3-5 people to serve as judges to pick the top 10 entries
ii. From there I will open up the voting. Don’t vote until I open the voting….I’ll delete any voting posts until I write the “voting is open” post
iii. As for prizes, I got bumpkus. Maybe we’ll get an angel gift giver or someone who wants to re-gift some holiday present, we’ll see.

Anyway, have fun and Merry Christmas. Let’s hear your best stuff!

If you just want to listen to the audition “bed” here it is:

Tags: announcers, commentary, fauxdition, NBC Television Network, peter o'connell, silliness, tv, unofficial audition, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
18 Comments »

Creating the Unofficial NBC Nightly News Voice Off was an epiphany for many reasons not the least of which was the power of the web.

1. Until the very moment I came up with the idea, I really hadn’t been searching for a breakthrough idea for the blog which would garner lots of attention. After the event’s successful completion, I’m still not. While the blog is an important web marketing tool, it remains for me a creative outlet that, while I hope others enjoy, laugh and learn from it, doesn’t need be anything else besides that outlet. I am however thrilled that the blog provided a useful channel through which the idea could blossom. For those two reasons, I really am happy I have the blog.

2. There are so many tremendous voice over talents that I “met” for the first time through this exercise. Many I had known of for years and some are even great friends but coming across so many heretofore unheard (by me) voices was a real treat.

3. Finally, the big epiphany: some voiceover talents (not naming any names nor does this part reflect upon the aforementioned names) are crappy marketers.

Well, there goes all the new professional goodwill I just engendered from the Voice Off. But I feel if I address the issue, folks can learn from it. And folks, I witnessed all this first hand.

Lesson 1 – If you do not have your own voice over web site, I consider you a voice over wanna-be. Ouch, harsh! “But I have a page on voices.com and voice 123,” you say. Good, that’s right, direct your prospective client to your page there and hope and pray they don’t start fishing around the other talent pages on those sites (some of whom will do a 10 minute narration for $5 and a cup of day old coffee, just to get experience). Bad odds. Spend the money, get your own web page (or full site) and create a brand. Stop whining about money and do it!

Lesson 2 – Telephone numbers are not optional. Maybe you have a studio in your home and you don’t want clients calling your house and having your 10 year old answering the phone and, while sounding cute, still sounding unprofessional and I get that. Get a cell phone number, make that your business line, plaster the phone number everywhere and always answer it professionally. But get a phone number. Here’s your slogan – “The Telephone – its how business gets done!”

Lesson 3 – An email signature block is mandatory. Typing “Joe” or whatever at the bottom of an email doesn’t cut it. Every email you send out is an electronic business card. People may have kept your email just to have your contact information…unless of course you DON’T have it on there and then your important email really becomes expendable. An email signature block, which you can set up on most software to go out with every email automatically (so you really have no excuse) should contain at minimum your name, your company name, your phone number and your web site where folks can find your demos.

There are only two people now who know of your errors, you and me. And as you can see, I’m not using any names in the crappy marketers section. So quietly go about fixing these changes and go make some money. Nobody else will know how you did it cause I’m not telling.

Tags: commentary, fauxdition, internet, marketing, NBC Nightly News, social networking, unofficial audition, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »