Make no mistake…NOBODY was expecting this and not only was it that amazing “what the…” moment that advertisers hope to elicit moment from an audience, but it was also exceptionally well produced in every possible facet.
Freaking perfect! A+
Maybe it’s because I talk for a living.
Whatever the cause, when I was in an ISDN session this week (and I don’t do too many of them, much to Dan Friedman’s chagrin) the commercial producer at the other end had me do my line readings (literally two lines) in sets of threes and sixes (or until I lost count) and then turned off the mic after saying she’d get right back to me. So I stayed on hold, in the announce booth, waiting.
Why they didn’t have the instrumental version of “The Girl from Ipanema” playing in the background while I waited, I’ll never know.
All I heard was….silence. For minutes.
While I made small talk with my ISDN host, in my mind, I’m imagining a conversation across to the other codec as the silence continued.
Producer: Why was this guy chosen again?
Assistant: We can probably still get some of the other voices, it’s not too late.
Engineer: Can we just fire him so I can go to lunch now?
Now, in fact what they were likely doing was listening back, matching my reads with the female voice talent whom they recorded earlier, Catherine Sheehan, whose sentences I was finishing as part of the script.
Mr. Everyman Voice wins again!
Anyway, then everything was fine and they said thanks and I went on my merry way.
But for a brief moment, inside this only occasionally paranoid voice actor’s head, the silence was deafening.
Did this ever happen to you?
The Archive of American Television has so many amazing interviews of performers who have truly fascinating stories that you really can’t hear anywhere else. Most of the interviews are uncut and I’ve really enjoyed that.
Well on a You Tube fly around I found this great series featuring the legendary Don Pardo from 2006. They are long segments but they are amazing.
I hope you enjoy.
Here’s another one of those situations where I missed out in meeting somebody whose work I always enjoyed.
Last week the voice over world and TV fans everyone bade farewell to Dick Tufeld.
Most of us “of a certain age” can remember Dick as the voice of “Robot” in the TV series “Lost in Space” and he WAS great in it.
But I also remember him on a number of award shows where at the end, he would say “This is Dick Tufeld speaking.”
I’ve written about Dick before on these pages. Here also is an obit.
Two nice ways to remember – or learn about – a great voice talent.
And of course, have a listen:
If you are involved in social media for your business or if you’d like some edumacation on same, you should attend a Podcamp.
If you are near Toronto (like me) you should attend this one – great people, great knowledge, great town.
February 25-26, 2012 at Ryerson University.
If a guy does a radio show across the country for 25 YEARS – do you think maybe you could let him say goodbye to his listeners if his tenure on the show comes to an end?
Especially if the show is pre-recorded?
The story from ALL ACCESS reported that Bill didn’t get to say that “goodbye” and that Matt Pinfield will take over St. James’ show “Flashback” (OK, he was the host, not the producer – but he was host for 25 years!)
I don’t know Bill St. James and I was not an addict of the show but I certainly knew of the show and know of his fine voice work.
I don’t really care what kind of political BS maybe involved in any of this…there’s a respectful and dignified way to end something like this. But it didn’t happen that way…again!
I think way St. James was treated here, as described, unnecessarily sucks.
Doesn’t it just seem wrong to you, or should I just stop caring?
