Sometimes I enjoy and admire Ricky Gervais.  Sometmes I wonder how he got into the room…and how soon he’ll find the way back out. 

But what he wrote in the Huffington Post has put him back on the “plus” column for me just now.  It’s about the weird modern goal of being “Famous”.  …nothing else…just “Famous”, not famous for anything, except being “Famous”.  That’s the subject of his next video series.  I may actually have to watch this one, having been left un-involved by The Office and having only seen snippets of Extras (the Doctor Who parody was priceless, though).

His best quote from the whole article, for me, is this: 

“Born clever? So what? What are you going to do with it? Your best, I hope, and no less.”

Here’s the link to the full piece.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ricky-gervais/on-fame_b_1253273.html

It’s worth your time…even if you can’t stand Ricky Gervais.

– over and out –

Yes, it’s been the season when those emails and phone calls you thought were going to mean new business…simply meant it was a client from last year needing your tax ID number.

…but there are bright sides to consider.

A few of those requests actually remind me of some pretty great jobs…and some pretty great paychecks from some pretty great client friends.

And so it was I somehow had the presence of mind to attach the following note to one such friend who required a W-9 from me:

“Thanks for making this necessary!”

– over and out –

     I don’t think I’ve ever done a ”re-run” on the Clogged Blog.  But this one came to mind during a serious moment in Jesse Gephart’s otherwise hilarious stage production of David Sedaris’ “Santaland Diaries”.  This talented performer, in a one-man show, seamlessly shifted from satirical monologue to genuine concern when he noticed an audience member having some very real health issues.  Shifting his focus to solving an unforseen problem, he turned a show-stopping incident into something that seemed completely natural and in character.   That, plus the part of the script detailing all the awkward things Santa gets asked for…brought back an experience I may not have told you about, if you’ve just recently ”tuned in”.  This is from 2008.

  ———————————————–

      I can’t reveal names, lest I jeopardize any cherished Christmas traditions, but this really happened. I know because I was there in the studio.

     A local radio station decided to whisk Santa Claus into town to take phone calls from area kids. It’s a situation just waiting for a misstep.  And sure enough, just fifteen minutes into the hour, it happened.

     Santa was cheerily chatting up a sister and little brother, with plans of innocent avarice dancing in their heads. At one point, Santa asked the boy if there was anything else he’d like. There was the briefest hesitation, and then the little guy continued…words carefully chosen, and voice starting to quaver a little.

     “What I’d really like…would be…to be able to…talk to my Papa again.”

     It was more a simple statement than a request. But I couldn’t imagine how the old guy was going to get through this one. Before I’d even finished the thought I heard Santa, in a very soft and sympathetic voice: “Ohhhh, I know what it’s like to miss a papa, especially around the holidays. It’s extra difficult, isn’t it.”

     ”Yeah,” the little voice replied.

     “Well,” continued the old gent at the microphone, “I’m not sure exactly how much I can fix, but…I’ve got an idea. You put your mom back on the phone, and meanwhile we’ll work on getting that game system you and I talked about to maybe lift your spirits a little, okay?”

     “Okay.”

     And darned if it didn’t sound like that was just enough for the young fellow. He handed the phone back to his mother and I heard Santa, in that same caring voice, ask if she had any old recordings of the dad she could lift a little something from, and wrap up a small tape or disc for the boy…with a note that it was the best Santa could do. Those of us in the studio half expected the lady to brush it off, but she immediately brightened to the idea, saying she’d never thought of that, and knew of something that might just fit the bill.

     Sincere wishes for a season of comfort were exchanged and the call was ended. The editor went to work and condensed what actually went on the air, though I was surprised he left in the conversation about “papa”.  A brief adlib was attached alluding to the “talk to mom/got an idea/lift the spirits” ending and the call went out over the air.

     I don’t remember much about the rest of that hour. But later I had to wonder how differently it could have gone, if the station had just yanked in some guy with a funny voice who could go “Ho Ho Ho!” on cue and talk about toys.

     I post this “long winter’s tale” not so much as a credit to quick thinking, but as an encouragement for all of us who are tasked with using our talents to really connect with the person(s) we’re being paid to talk to.

     Yeah, it helps if you can nail the sound and read the words without stumbling. But when the person at the microphone can let some part of what’s truly inside come out in what’s being voiced, whatever’s on the page…there’s potential to transform the everday into something a little more.

     But who am I to say: maybe he WAS the genuine article!

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a Season of Comfort to us all.

– over and out –

     …even if it’s an accident.  But take credit for it anyway!

     In a recent flurry of comments on Paul Strikwerda’s facebook post about low-balling your voice0ver rates, I wrote the following “instant wise saying”:

 ‎…just because you’re doing something you love doesn’t mean you have to do it just for the love of it.

      Another friend, Andrew Swingler, immediately chimed in, asking if he could use it.

      Of course, I said “yes”.  I’d be tempted to register it as a trademark, except for the nagging fear I’ve lifted it from someone else without remembering it!

     But meanwhile, if it makes me sound wise and venerable…I’ll go with it!

– over and out –

     I consider myself pretty knowledgable in things involving voice recording over the years…especially in Radio, film and animation. 

     But voice talent Scott Reynes just boosted my knowledge by leaps and bounds with a chart he created, which chronicles the history of the voiceover. 

You’ll find it at http://scottreyns.com/history-of-voice-over.php   Once you get there, click on the thumbnail that looks like the picture here, and you’ll get the full-size graphic.

    Thanks, too, to the BillyBlog over at http://www.billyvoice.com/blog/.  If I hadn’t seen it mentioned there, I might have missed it.

– over and out –

I finally got a look at my Ranch.

Last summer I did the voice of a crusty old farmer who raises the different “flavors” of chicken for Taco John’s.  Since the restaraunt chain has no locations my home territory (yet), I’ve been scouring the internet for a look at the final animated TV spots.

Here’s the first one.  Let me know if you spot any of the others.

TacoJohnsTV

– over and out –

     Let me be clear about it right up front: 

     I like Morgan Freeman.

     I haven’t seen every movie he’s been in, but the ones I’ve seen, I’ve liked. 

     I like his voice. 

BUT I’M REALLY, REALLY TIRED OF GETTING HIS VOICEOVER AUDITIONS!!!

     I’m tired of his name (and Hal Riney’s, and Jeff Bridges’) being hastily slapped onto audition directions as shorthand.

      I’m tired of being yet again lumped into another huge, random gaggle of guys trying to sound like someone they’re not, in hopes of getting a job they were not seriously being considered for in the first place.

     So, after today, I’m trying a little experiement.  I plan to start deleting any and all auditions I get just as soon as I see the words “Morgan Freeman” in the specs.  Somehow I doubt it will affect my income much, since all the times I’ve tried to follow said directions, the job has gone to another talent.  It bothered me a lot until I remembered:  I’m NOT Morgan Freeman.  And I don’t promote myself as such.

     Get an impressionist…get Mr. Freeman through his agent.  Or maybe get better in describing what you want from an experienced voice actor.  Chances are, if you didn’t hear Morgan Freeman on my demos (assuming you even listened to them), you should know you won’t get him in the audition I try and cobble together.

       Maybe in Phase Two of my experiment, I’ll get Mr. Freeman’s talent agency and just forward those emails to the right person.

– over and out –

Norman Corwin (May 3, 1910 – October 18, 2011), pictured in 1973.

“Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit by postponing it pretend.”  — Norman Corwin, 1945

     My friends often tell me I “kick myself” way more than I ought to.  And they’re right.  But one “kick” that’s still justifiable is the one I keep administering for not being able to find a way to get to California last year for the 100th Birthday Celebration of one of the most influential voices in Radio...Norman Corwin.  As it turned out, I would have been able to sit down with Mr. Corwin and my college friend, Richard Fish, for a private visit which stretched from a promised “few minutes” into nearly three hours.

     Note I capitalized Radio.  That’s to differentiate the state of Radio in what’s now so quaintly termed its Golden Age from what it’s degenerated into. 

     But lest you think Norman Corwin was some kind of extraordinary voice actor, perhaps I should clarify.  While he was an on-air voice and had a career on mic as well as off, his influence on what Radio was capable of doing lay in his imaginaton and his writing and his ability to instill in his various voice casts the spirit of what he created on the pages of his scripts.  He knew how to direct those actors, along with countless technicians, musicians, even composers as accomplished as Bernard Herrman, in bringing his imaginings to life on the air…and have them re-created in the imaginations of his audiences.

     Corwin could easily be dismissed by some as “high brow”.  His love and mastery of language was on display in everything he wrote.  But he could just as easily write in the voice of (pardon the over-used phrase) the common man.  And he did so with such regularity that his various Radio series and specials were highly acclaimed, even though they were mostly “sustaining”…meaning they did not rely on comercial sponsors.  Indeed, if you’ve read any of the current obituaries, you may note one his most famous broadcasts during the era of WWII was broadcast live on all three national networks.

     But Norman Corwin could just as easily turn out a touching fairy tale story…like “The Odyssey of Runyon Jones”, about a little boy’s journey through a hell of a heavenly bureaucratic maze as he tries to free his little dog, unjustly sentenced to “Currgatory”.  One of his first nationally broadcast plays was a pre-Dr. Seuss rhyming Christmas story, “The Plot to Overthrow Christmas”, with historical villains teaming up with the Devil to kidnap Santa and do away with him, long before Jack Skellington. 

     There was the uproarious (as least to me) show, “The Undecided Molecule”, where said molecule was put on trial for refusing to meekly be assigned his place in the universe.  That showcased many top stars who would always be glad to appear in a Norman Corwin production:  Vincent Price as the Prosecutor, Robert Benchley as the Defense Attorney, and as the wise-cracking Judge…Groucho Marx.  Corwin’s writing was so precise that in listening to a recording of the broadcast, I had to stop myself mid-chuckle at what I thought was a Marx ad-lib…when the next rhyming line proved conclusively it had been in the script all along!  And the Molecule itself was performed live by a sound effects man practially torturing a wave oscillator, decades before Ben Burtt came up with the sounds of R2-D2.

     It wasn’t all fun and games, though.  One program I rarely read about, but which chilled me when I first heard the recorded broadcast, was called “They Fly Through The Air With The Greatest of Ease”.  It starts out as what you’d expect from some standard glorification of daring aviators, taking to the skies in their bombing runs.  But part way through, there’s a horrifying shift of focus as the narrative suddenly follows the bombs down to the people they’re about to obliterate…not the ones you would have thought at the start of the program.

     Corwin defied catagorization in his work.  While it’s true he did some of his finest writing and producing in the truest flag-waving traditions of the 30s and 40s, he was sensitive to injustice no matter what its origin.  This week’s Los Angeles Times article cites a program in the late 40s in response to the House Committe On Un-American Activties (the McCarthy communist witch hunts which ruined so many lives).  In it, a narrator (actor Frederic March) spoke these words:  “Who comes after us?  Is it your minister who will be told what he can say in his pulpit?  Is it your children’s school teacher who will be told what she can say in a classroom?  Who are they after?  They are after more than Hollywood.  This reaches into every American city.”

    He was still writing, still producing, even as he approached 100 years of age…with projects involving actors such as Jack Lemmon, Jessica Tandy, Martin Landau, Ed Asner, (Firesign Theatre’s) Phil Proctor, even William Shatner.

     Norman Corwin understood media.  And not just radio.  While he is justly remembered for his Oscar-nominated work on the Kirk Douglas bio-pic on Vincent Van Gogh, “Lust for Life”, he was early on the director of a Radio play based on Archibald MacLeish’s “The Fall of the City”.  While it boasted a voice cast including Orson Welles and Burges Meredith, live orchestra (again) conducted by Bernard Herrman…it is said that Corwin, in order to get just the right feel of the raw power of the mindless crowds (the Masterless Men of MacLeish’s story), had various sized groups of actors set up in a remote location at a local armory, where he directed their “crowd responses” like a conductor throughout the show, rather than having to rely on stock recorded crowd sound effects.

     So, yeah.  I guess I can be forgiven for kicking myself just a little bit for missing the chance to sit down with this titan of imagination.  But, as I wrote last year when I told you to send him birthday card…I really sort of did meet the man, at least through his words and his work.

     If you’ve ever created something with voices or sounds or music…and their respective languages…you’ve built on foundations set down by Norman Corwin, whether you knew it or not.

     You can learn more about this man’s remarkable career in a book, written by one of my favorite college professors (and I only had a couple of good ones), R. Leroy Bannerman’s Norman Corwin and Radio: The Golden Years, plus Corwin’s own published works, still in print.

– over and out –

     I’ve done it before, but never to this extent, or in this particular way.

     ‘Ready for your close-up?  I’m Mr. DeMille.  (If you’re too young to get the reference, watch “Sunset Boulevard”)

RG (in blue shirt) directs Paul Garrett. It's ironic that at one point I was directing Paul to use his hands less. Look whose hands are blurred in this shot!!!

     This weekend I worked with a group of very talented actors on the first in a series of web-training videos for Firehorse Films…as a Director!

Today’s lesson:  expanding your income by being able to offer new services to established clients!

     Mind you, the mastermind behind the whole project was Firehorse’s Jean-Paul Dame (pronounced dam-MAY…I don’t know how to use the accent key).  But Jean-Paul and I have worked on various audio and video projects over the years.  Sometimes I’ve been his on-camera talent.  Sometimes he’s recorded me or another VO talent at my studio.

     During one session a few years ago, JP was trying to get a particular read from one of my talented VO friends.  After several takes failed to bring the desired result, I suggested something-or-other to help the talent get the idea of what he was being asked to convey.  Next take:  nailed it.  From that time on, JP declared I had a new talent:  I speak Jean-Paul-ese!

     It’s come in handy several times since, with him specifically bringing recording work to me so he can fall back on my ability to know what he wants, and “translate” it into something the actor can then use.  May sound strange, but it works.

     When this current video project came along, naturally I auditioned.  But the age, gender, and ethnicity requirements of the final script meant I was just not right for any of the parts.  Jean-Paul brought me in to direct the actors, freeing him up to concentrate on technical issues, and keeping performances consistent for smoother editing later (saving him and his client time and money in both instances).  Even I was a little skeptical I was bringing much value to the project.  JP is no slouch director himself.  But not only did he declare my input of value, the sentiment was echoed by his clients more than a few times.  Bottom line:  they got what they wanted on-camera…faster and more efficiently…through my “adapted” talent behind the camera.

     So…looks like I’ll be directing talent in a lot more of these.  And it will actually be much more lucrative for me, since it would be unrealistic to expect I’d show up as a character in project after project.  But, as it appears now, my behind-the-scenes work will allow me to be a part of the rest of the series!   …keeping fingers crossed on that.

     Meanwhile, as you can see from the photo, I’ll be “acting” vicariously through the professionals who are in front of the camera.

     …and it still feels good, knowing I’m filling a creative need with some part of my imagination!

     What other part of your own creativity might you be using to the benefit of your current clients…and yourself?

– over and out –

This week I received news from my friend and client Rick Gregory at Bluestone Media that our ongoing work for Susan B. Komen for the Cure and its online breast cancer awareness program got some major recognition.  Here’s the quote:

Our mobile site won…Best in show for the entire mobile site and a Silver award for the Breast Cancer 101 tool…The W³ Awards honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites, videos and marketing programs. Simply put, the W³ is the first major web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.

 The W³ is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, interactive, advertising, and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as AvatarLabs, Big Spaceship, Block Media, Conde Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, Fry Hammond Barr, Microsoft, MTV Networks, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, Yahoo! and many others.

Rick’s team at Bluestone creates the interactive material for the Komen websites, and for several years he has had me record and edit the voicetracks with talent, Nancy Stolfo-Corti and Yasmin Wurts Metivier.

As someone who’s lost a family member to breast cancer, it’s good to be part of such a project.  And it’s even better to see that work recognized for excellence.

– over and out –