Apollo 11 40 Annivesary logo

I was five years old and I recall my parents…my Father specifically, waking me up to watch a man step foot on the moon.

I didn’t understand it then. I do now.

To all the men and women that made it happen and especially those who risked (and gave) their lives in our quest towards space before, during and after Apollo 11 – thank you very much.

Tags: commentary // Comments Off on july 20, 1969 – man on the moon

UPDATE: With thanks to @VoicesDotCom via Twitter where I first saw this new news posted, the family of Walter Cronkite has told CBS News this morning that it would an honor to have the voice of the late news legend remain as part of the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric”. Read about it here.

As you might guess, I LOVE this decision.

You don’t think any of them read the blog post below earlier this morning, do you? Nah, nobody reads this digital rag!

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Original Post
“The CBS Evening News” broadcast has decided to stop using the newscast’s recorded introduction voiced by Walter Cronkite, following the famed anchor’s death at age 92 on Friday evening. The iconic Cronkite was known to be in failing health for sometime. The voice over introduction had been used for the broadcast since it became “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” in 2006. (Source: New York Times)

That’s the news, now for an opinion.

CBS News President Sean McManus said “it didn’t feel right” to continue to use Cronkite’s voice after his death. I understand the sentiment, I get it and I respect it.

But I do think two things about the decision:

I think you’re giving up the best newscast intro ever voiced – there was so much implied by his voiceover in addition to his great and immediately recognizable delivery.

I would also hate to be the man or woman who is chosen to follow that man as the new announcer.

Dan Rather wasn’t wise enough to really understand what a tough act Cronkite would be to follow when he lobbied for the “CBS Evening News” anchor job in 1981. Most announcers aren’t that oblivious.

Tags: CBS News, voiceover // 1 Comment »

Walter Cronkite (Photo credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department © 2006, Richard Roberts)

Iconic CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite died today at the age of 92. The newsman died of cerebral vascular disease at 7:42 p.m. ET in his New York City home surrounded by his family.

CBS News was the standard for television news during Walter Cronkite’s tenure.

After he left, the place was never the same.

He saw the country through the Kennedy assassination and the national mourning that followed and Man walking on the moon (I’m especially disheartened he’ll miss the 40th Anniversary of that monumental event this coming week).

He reported on the Vietnam War and of a Presidential resignation following something called Watergate.

I didn’t know him, I knew of him. I watched him. Everybody did.

My only connection to him was when I bestowed on him an honor I am pretty sure he never heard about: the best voiceover performance of 2006.

Good night Walter.

Tags: CBS News, voiceover // Comments Off on requiescat in pace walter cronkite

There are those, sometimes myself included, who wonder if any event on television can ever capture the imagination anymore.

Sporting events? Maybe for a day like the Super Bowl – but when you think about it, it is just another football game with some extra sweet frosting surrounding it.

Inaugurations? Funerals, maybe.

But visually the sight of Paul McCartney playing live during a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman ON THE MARQUEE of the Ed Sullivan Theatre (the theatre where he first played in America as a Beatle on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964) was stunning.

It was impactful.

Watch the thousands of people lining Broadway and the side streets…as far as the eye could see. Office workers and people hanging out windows to listen. The TODAY show may try but it’s not the same.

To consider the history that happened there in 1964 and everything that transpired for McCartney, the Beatles and the world since then was amazing.

That’s what television CAN do when it’s not doling out crap about some pseudo celebrity or chasing “real-life” stories.

If you’re a true broadcaster at heart, if you get the history that surrounds our medium, this was great television.

This is why David Letterman is the king of late night and, since Carson retired, always has been. They both can be called comedians and entertainers but they are broadcasters first.

True broadcasters can make great television.

P.S. 7.17.09- Sometimes when you do make great television, EVERYBODY notices. Congrats, Dave!

Tags: CBS Television Network, commentary, tv, video // Comments Off on letterman, mccartney, great television

Sometimes the person offering the kick in the pants deserves a kick in the pants and I’d be a bit of a phony if I didn’t fess that I got kicked Sunday morning for good reason.

In my July 12th post, I was so excited about a wonderful comment I read about taking the risk of going too far in a voice over performance that I omitted a key thought in the post. While you can read the whole post here, the summary of it was supposed to be that reading blogs can offer some great insights into your voice over performance because sometimes time (as is my case) and money (as is the issue for others) prevent folks from getting professional training.

While I stand by my statements completely, it is what I failed to say that caused a dust-up and rightly so. What I neglected to say was that while blogs are valuable they cannot take the place of professional in-person or at least phone training. While I have made that clear on this blog in the past and certainly pointed it out in my free e-book The Voice Over Entrance Exam, I failed to make that point clear in my blog post.

That omission got noticed by of all people my voice teacher. And she was pissed! As she wrote on my facebook page:

Ouch Peter! In my 25 years as a voice actor, I have never taken a Voiceover Seminar with a reputable teacher that has not come back to me with manifold rewards (and monetary ones). Blogs are great for sharing opinions and occasional bragging rights, but to pack your parachute with skills in this competitive biz, it takes an investment in training that should never cease, no matter what the cost. I’ve sacrificed, paid the piper and reaped the rewards.

Oh dear. This was not good. I made a mistake, I left out an important part of the blog post and the woman who’s been teaching me voice acting the longest now rips me a new one on Facebook. Well my axiom has always been if you’re going to fail, fail big!

Actually that’s never been my axiom, I just made that up here.

My response, made on bended knee when typing on a i-phone (which is no easy task):

Toni,

Your point is well taken so let me clarify (and I think you know well my belief in this from my book): nothing replaces personal voice over training. The interaction is invaluable so that would always be my preference.

But there are times when life’s priorities get in the way…at least in my case. So reading is a supplement.

BTW one of the teachers who first taught me to go farther was YOU.

Thank you for that and your (as always) wise input.

Best always,
– Peter

It’s a lesson learned but likely a mistake I’ll make again anyway: re-read your blog posts 12-13 times before posting; find your mistakes then or else you’ll piss off your voice teacher. Sorry Toni.

Tags: commentary, kick in the pants, voice over entrance exam, voice over workshop, voiceover advice // 1 Comment »

If you’re like me (and God help you if you are) you work and then you’ve got kids. In between you grab a sandwich and you sleep a few hours.

So taking time let alone money out for voice over seminars is costly on both fronts. This is why I subscribe to many blogs. I will set aside time in my workday to read because that’s another way to improve – not only within voice over but also social media, marketing and overall business operations. And it’s free, except for the time.

A prime example for me recently was a great performance reminder from voice coach Marice Tobias (friends and fellow VO’s Bob Souer and Mary McKitrick are just two folks who go ga-ga for Marice’s teaching insights). My light bulb moment came courtesy of Tracy Pattin’s VoiceBank blog.

Among the many Tobias nuggets in the post taken from a recent AFTRA Mastery panel: “Go Too Far.”

If you’ve been at all trained as a voice talent, you may have been told that before. If not, then that phrase may seem odd. But for me it was a great kick in the pants.

Me of all people, sometimes the loudest person in the room if not the world when I carry on in a humorous way, needs to be reminded to make a performance bigger, more intense, more subtle, more brooding, more obnoxious (scary I know). But in taking my performance further, I can see how that sounds – see how it communicates and then, if need be, I can pull it back. But I need to dare myself to make it bigger, to take the risk, to get out of my comfort zone. I forget that performance imperative sometimes.

The nuggets are out there and today I found mine by reading Tracy’s blog post about Marice’s comment.

What performance or business nuggets have you found recently and where did you find them?

Tags: commentary, kick in the pants, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice // 2 Comments »