Mickey Mouse summoned to court
December 13, 2007
A host of famous cartoon characters have been summoned to take the witness stand in a trial in
A court in
They were called as part of a trial of a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros.
The court summons cites ‘Titty, Paperino, Paperina, Topolino’ - the Italian names for the characters - as damaged parties in the trial.
Instead of naming only the companies and their legal representatives, clerks also wrote in the witness list the names of the cartoons that decorated the toys and gadgets the man had allegedly reproduced.
‘Unfortunately they cannot show up, as they are residents of
‘It certainly pleased us that the characters were considered real, because that’s what we try to do.’
The
‘Let’s hope the characters will not be prosecuted for failing to appear,’ she said.
Source: Metro.co.uk/News
Image Copyright: Disney
audio’connell Voice Over Talent President Cast in 2007 Video Game of the Year
December 13, 2007
The 2007 “Video Game of the Year” winner Bioshock features audio’connell Voice Over Talent president and voice talent Peter O’Connell.
The 2007 Video Game Awards (VGA’s) honored Bioshock as “Game of the Year” at this year’s ceremony. audio’connell Voice Over Talent president and voice talent Peter O’Connell was a voice actor featured in the highly acclaimed game.
Peter O’Connell played the character of 1940’s
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.
About audio’connell
The Perfect Choice for An Awesome Voice™
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, podcasting 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. audio’connell is an affiliate of O’Connell Companies. The company also operates Voice Over Workshop to provide professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent around the world.
Source: NewsWire Today - /newswire/ - Buffalo, NY, United States
SIRIUS and XM Announce Additional Support for Merger
December 13, 2007
Three additional Members of Congress joined General Motors Corporation, Club for Growth, Harpo Productions, the Rural Coalition, and celebrity talent Andres Cantor, Bill Mack, Wynton Marsalis, Cal Ripken Jr. and Barry Switzer as the latest supporters of the pending merger of XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio. This new support adds to the diverse list of supporters for the pending merger.
Google Radio Advertising : 1 Year Anniversary
December 13, 2007
Radio advertising can increase the overall impact of your ad campaigns when used in conjunction with online advertising. 57% of online radio listeners look up items on the web after hearing an audio ad.
Radio is also a cost-effective way to reach customers who are not online — whether they’re driving to work, or the gym, or the store, you can still get your message across.
Google Audio Ads
With Google AdWords, you can launch radio ad campaigns in just a few quick and easy steps, and do it all online.
Before you login to Google and create a radio ad campaign, you’ll need a commercial to air, and more to the point, the assistance of a professional voice talent to produce the :30 or :60 spot.
To break it down, here are the key factors that will need to be considered within each category regarding selecting a voice talent for your radio commercial:
Level of Professionalism
A voice talent of 20 years experience will bring a significantly different twist to a recording and a distinct level of professionalism when they conduct business. Many pro voice talents come from a broadcast radio background and will suit this new Google radio advertising service well.
An aspiring talent may not come equipped with the necessary skill or intuition that a professional talent has from years of experience both on the air and behind the microphone recording a variety of voice-over projects.
Artistic Abilities
When searching for the perfect voice, advertisers need to evaluate the talent of the performer and not just their price tag. If a voice-over doesn’t convince your marketing department, it won’t convince an audience that was not involved in the planning, voice-over delegation, and the mastering of the final product.
Relying on a professional voice talent is essential to get an advertisers message across. These talents are not only supposed to successfully convey a message to a target audience, they are acting as the audio ambassadors of a company.
Recording Abilities
Many career voice talents record from a professional grade home recording studio. This means that they can work quickly and take on the role of both engineer and artist. This also means, potentially, that their recording fees will be less because they are performing and recording the production for the advertiser.
Talents that do not have access to a home recording studio or lack the technical skills to engineer a recording resort to outsourcing the service to an external recording facility. This not only marks up the cost of the voice-over but the recording turnaround time may also be extended as they book their studio time around the engineers schedule.
Voice-over Fees
All voice-over costs are all subject to the time slot of the ad, the market size, duration of use, and whether or not the talent is charging a union rate. Talents may quote on a per page, per project, per word, per minute / hour, or per market basis. Each talent will respond with their own quoting system in order to provide advertisers with competitive quotes and proposals.
Union VS Non-union
Union
If hiring a union voice talent, there is a bit of paper work involved, and the fee will most likely be higher than if an advertiser worked with a non-union voice talent. AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, is the most popular option for voice talents affiliated with a union.
SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, is a different union altogether that protects the interests of those acting in some capacity on the silver screen. Talents may be members of both unions, but if the project is for broadcast radio or television, AFTRA policies will apply.
Non-union
Non-union talent, who account for the majority of voice talents in the market, are not affiliated with a union and can therefore set their own rates. This is not to say that their rate may not be similar to a union rate. Depending on the skill and experience that a talent has, their rates may increase. Non-union talent operate their business just like anyone else and may require payment upfront for their work. These professionals exercise their own billing methods.
If advertisers using the new Google service are looking for a proven voice-over solution, InteractiveVoices.com is ready to meet and exceed their expectations, partnering them with the best voice-over talent in North America.
Voices of the Thomas and Friends Series
December 13, 2007
For those of you familiar with the hit children’s series Thomas and Friends, we’re going to talk a stroll down memory lane. On our walk, we are going to visit the celebrity narrators on both sides of the pond that have provided voice-over narration for the Thomas and Friends television series for over twenty years.
Shining Time Station has had a number of fine gentlemen on board, maintaining a wholesome and genuine image for audiences in both Britain and North America. The first celebrity to take on the role of Mr. Conductor and narrate the series was Ringo Starr, a former member of the The Beatles. Ringo narrated from 1985-1991, associating his recognizable and authentic British accent with the Island of Sodor.
Next in line was an American comedian named George Carlin, who provided voice-over narration from 1991-1998, succeeding Ringo Starr as both the narrator and Mr. Conductor for the North American audience. In Great Britain, UK narrator Michael Angelis was also recording for the show, following in Ringo Starr’s footsteps.
The US audience embraced another one of their own when movie star Alec Baldwin joined the company (1998-2003), narrating the show, voicing characters, and even starring in a full-length motion picture for Thomas and Friends. Michael Brandon, a native of Brooklyn, New York, is the current US narrator (2004 to the present).
Thomas and Friends was written by Rev. W. Awdry and produced by Britt Allcroft. The Thomas and Friends series has a global fan base, an official website, and a variety of merchandise including an empire of quality wooden train tracks and accessories, collectibles, videos, and apparel.
Thomas and Friends recently celebrated their 60th Anniversary with tours and showcasing of cherished Thomas collectibles including a golden Thomas the Tank Engine.
One of the most endearing qualities of this series (other than the trains themselves) are the voices of the narrators. I was surprised to see Alec Baldwin in the role of Mr. Conductor, but was soon pleased and quite impressed by his contribution to the series.
If you have a favorite narrator from the Thomas and Friends series, add your comment below.
Update On Don LaFontaine
December 13, 2007
Don LaFontaine, the king of the movie trailers, recently sent a message out to his friends with some updates concerning his health.
I was chatting with Don moments ago (it’s past midnight here on the east coast) and since writing this email, he has been steadily improving and hopes to be back to work by the end of the week or the beginning of the next.
In order to provide you with the true story and an accurate account of what happened before the news gets into the hands of the media, Don and I agreed to share his letter with you here on VOX Daily first.
The Character Voiceover Market
December 13, 2007
The character voice-over market is one of the most popular and competitive fields where voice-overs are concerned. Voice actors provide voice-overs for animation on the Internet and off-line including voice-overs for cartoon characters, video game characters, computer game character voice-overs, and even the voices of animated characters in film.
Characters can range from traditional beings such as animals and humans to inanimate objects (think CGI films like “Toy Story” or “Robots”) such as trees, toasters, and pineapples.
One of the markets that is heavily making use of character/celebrity voice-over impersonators is the telecommunications industry. Telephone broadcasts may use character voices in them to help sell a product or service. Other companies are getting into the game by offering custom recorded character voice-overs for special occasions like Valentines Day and birthdays.
If you think about it, celebrity voice impersonators are also character voice actors. Whenever people are looking for a voice talent who sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger, George W. Bush, or Elvis Presley, they expect that person to recreate the voice of the celebrity by performing a character voice-over. The same scenario applies if a Catherine Zeta Jones, Julia Roberts, or a Marilyn Monroe impression is in order.
Check out some animation voice talent and video game voice talent online.
audio’connell’s Peter O’Connell Voices National Commercial for Shell Oil
December 12, 2007
Audio’connell voice over talent president selected by Shell Oil Company to serve as the voice talent for a commercial to be shown at Shell-branded service stations across America.
audio’connell voice over talent president and professional male voice talent Peter K. O’Connell was selected by Shell Oil Company to serve as the voice talent for a commercial to be shown at Shell-branded service stations across America.
Used as a commercial within Shell’s in-house broadcast network, the spot Mr. O’Connell voiced promotes Shell V-Power gasoline, America’s best-selling premium-grade gasoline. Shell V-Power is specifically formulated to help remove gunky engine build-up left behind from low-detergent discount gasolines on critical engine parts, specifically intake valves and fuel injectors. Mr. O’Connell recorded the Shell V-Power gasoline commercial at Pomann Sound in New York City. 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.
About audio’connell
The Perfect Choice for An Awesome Voice™
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, podcasting 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. audio’connell is an affiliate of O’Connell Companies. The company also operates Voice Over Workshop to provide professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent around the world.
Source: NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Buffalo, NY, United States
How To Use Voice Overs in a Podcast
December 12, 2007
Let’s look at the different ways that you can use voice-overs in your podcast. Every show has an introduction, perhaps separate segments throughout the podcast, and of course, a wrap up or an outro. These short audio branding clips are referred to as Podcast Imaging and are the framework of any competitive, entertaining, and thematic podcast. One of the most important components, and literally the most necessary, is the voice-over of the Podcast Host. This may be you, the source of the information, or it could be a professional voice talent that represents your organization in your podcast.
Along the same lines, talent can also be recruited to be the voices of podcast guests to give an extra dash of flair and variety to the podcast.
Podcast Promos… You’ll need to create a handful of these marketing pitches: one that lasts about :5 (5 seconds), a :10-15 vignette, and a full :30 promo. Some podcasters create a 1 minute promo, and in many cases, use this as their podcast intro as well. This can be recorded by the host of the show, or alternatively, can be recorded by a voice actor. If a voice actor is selected to complete this task, it is wise to have the same actor perform any Imaging that needs to be done to unify the image of the podcast.
How to Give your Listeners a Spectacular First Impression of your Podcast
December 12, 2007
Most people are familiar with the current broadcast medium and the quality of the productions that they consume. The same goes for podcast audiences. Remember that these are the very same people that are actively watching and listening to programs on television or radio, so you’ll need to make them feel at home in your podcast too.
The content of your podcast, or the material that you will be covering, is very much up to you as is the quality and preparation that goes into it. The audio production of your podcast, however, can be easily and cost-effectively delegated to a professional voice talent. They have all the goodies that you need regarding sound effects, royalty-free music, production (the recording of your podcast), post-production skills (editing and mixing your podcast) and the vocal talents to carry your podcast and convey the message that your listeners need to hear.
If you are familiar with retainers in radio and television, you’ll be able to apply the same concept here if you work with a particular voice talent regularly. You can opt for a full buyout, which is usually the preferred method of invoicing for a one-time or sporadic voice-over job.
Before we go, I’ll mention one more tool that will help you with the complete 411 on podcasting itself. The Small Business Podcasting Guide (It’s FREE), is a great resource that will help you to plan your podcast, brand your podcast, record your podcast, distribute, and grow your podcast.
Best wishes on finding that perfect voice for your podcast.
