Teen Voice-Overs Used in Anti-Drinking TV Ads

“Choose not booze.”

That’s the theme of the Mesa County Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force’s media campaign, which kicked off Tuesday morning at the Two River’s Convention Center.

As part of the campaign, the task force will be running anti-drinking television ads, with voice-overs from local youth, and it will conduct a mass mailing of 10,000 postcards promoting the campaign.

The commercials are aimed at teenagers and adults.

Rebecca Spiess, chairwoman of the task force and undersheriff of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department, said some people see underage drinking as a rite of passage. “It is not OK,” she said. “It is not a rite of passage.”

The task force, which consists of numerous community organizations such as the Sheriff’s Department, School District 51 and both local hospitals, has been working for the past decade to give parents and youth information and resources to combat underage drinking.

The institute reports that 76 percent of Colorado students in grades 9 to 12 had at least one drink of alcohol; 47 percent had at least one drink in the last 30 days; and 31 percent had five or more drinks in a row in the last 30 days.

In 2005, 16.8 percent of all alcohol sold in Colorado was consumed by underage drinkers, the institute said.

For information about the task force, go to www.youthisallthat.org.

To watch the video and hear the voice overs, click here.

Source: The Daily Sentinel

Child Voice Actors Love “Sunday School” with Sunday Muse

Sunday Muse a leading animation voice actor who has provided her voice on such hit shows as Care Bears (Cheer Bear), Rolie Polie Olie and Jo Jo’s Circus, is now offering her immensely popular kids Voice-Over workshop.

Geared towards children who are either looking to move forward in the animation/voice over industry or just looking for a unique educational experience, “Sunday Muse Cartoon Voices for Kids,” shows kids how to ‘be’ the cartoon voice that they see on TV. In a safe environment, kids explore cartoons through rap music, imitation and a series of mock auditions using scripts from popular animated scripts like Rolie Polie, Care Bears, Super Why, and Arthur. Using her one of a kind technique “Actively on the Spot,” kids learn how to animate their bodies and voice by connecting to the emotions and actions of the character they are playing.

Sunday provides her students with the skills in demand by casting directors of national cartoons and children’s shows and her students end up on national television.

Source: VOX Daily

Pablo Francisco to Entertain at Brea Improv

Pablo Francisco is one of the funniest comedians around who just can’t get the voices straight in his head.

One minute he’s Arnold Schwarzenegger and the next he’s Al Pacino as Tony Montana in “Scarface.” Francisco bases his high-energy comedy act around clever and well-rehearsed voice impersonations and his incredible beatboxing abilities.

And he’s bringing it all to the Brea Improv this weekend.

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Character Actor D.C. Douglas Survives Writers Strike with Voice Over

The writer’s strike may be keeping writers and actors off Hollywood sets, but it can’t keep character actor D.C. Douglas from talking. During the recent drought of theatrical work, Douglas counts on voice over jobs to keep him afloat commercially. His work, including the now famous celebrity GEICO commercials, can be heard at http://www.MyVoiceOverGuy.com

Landing the GEICO announcer role last year gave Douglas’ voice over career a kick in the proverbial pants. The 2007 campaign was downloaded daily on YouTube.com and stirred up additional work for Douglas throughout the year. The commercials were so popular that GEICO is extending the campaign with a new round of commercials including celebrities like Joan Rivers, Peter Frampton, James Lipton and even Mrs. Butterworth. Douglas says it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I absolutely support the writers in their fight,” says Douglas. “Unfortunately, this kind of fight takes a toll on the industry - there are virtually no auditions and pilot season seems to have been decimated. But I’m in an extremely lucky position being a voice over artist as well as an actor. I still get to use my craft to generate income and support the writers at the same time. I’m doubly lucky that the GEICO campaign has been renewed for 2008. Funny thing is, I’ve got several films that were shot a year ago that won’t be out until this summer or later. So for now I’m anonymous but making a living.”

Not until late 2008 will we see Douglas in “Change Your Life” with Tony Plana (”Ugly Betty”), “Deadwater” with Lance Henriksen (”Aliens”), “Universal Remote” with Charles Q. Murphy (”Night At The Museum”) and the movie of the week, “Final Approach” with Dean Cain (”Out Of Time”). Until then, keep your ears open.

Source: Emediawire.com

Hoteliers Find Voice Overs Help Rent Suites

When is the last time you saw a hotel promoting itself online using little more than static imagery and some strategically placed ad copy?

Hoteliers would be wise to observe the trend in the real estate market and employ more technology and visitor friendly aids that will results in more bookings for their establishments.

Dee Thomas of Pegasus Solutions suggests that hoteliers should provide customers with a web gallery with multiple-language voice-overs that will present the shopper with a complete perspective of the property and its facilities.

Voice over could be used as a tool to flesh out the offerings and also as a mechanism that effectively communicates in the language(s) of prospective customers, whatever those languages may be.

The web has opened up business on a global scale, thus necessitating communication with customers in their native language.

Websites attracting people from around the world should be aware that only 30% of visitors are English speaking. The other 70% speak different languages. If the text used on a website is only in English, then 70% of prospective customers are unable to easily consume the content which directly affects the potential of conducting business with those individuals.

Source: BreakingTravelNews.com

Image: istockphoto.com/Frances Twitty

Voices.com Wins a Frost & Sullivan : 1to1 Impact Award

Phoenix, AZ - On Monday, January 14th, Voices.com CEO David Ciccarelli was an honoured guest at the Frost & Sullivan : 7th Annual 1to1 Impact Awards, receiving a Silver medal on behalf of Voices.com as recognized winners in the Full-Suite CRM category, sharing the spotlight with Westpac Banking Corp (Gold medal) and ESET Software (Bronze medal).

The winners were honored at a special awards session and panel discussion at Frost & Sullivan’s 9th Annual Sales and Marketing West Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

Award categories (and their winners) include:

Customer Strategy: Travelocity, Watercolor Inn & Spa, Big River Telephone

Full-Suite CRM: Westpac Banking Corp, Voices.com, ESET Software

Marketing Optimization: AT&T, TD Bank Financial Services, Sylvan Learning

Sales Optimization: US Bank, DirecTV, The Berry Company

Customer Service Optimization: A.O. Smith Water Products, Virgin Atlantic, Earthlink

New Media: Procter & Gamble, Subway Buffalo SFAFT, La Redoute - For instance, Subway uses text messaging to send coupons to the 5,000 customers who have opted in. On a snowy day with light traffic, they can blast an SMS message to create some traffic. P&G has improved its organic search engine results.

Organizational Transformation: Honeywell Aerospace, Canada Post

Award winning companies will be featured in the January/February issue of 1to1

Source: LeeAase.WordPress.com

Seth MacFarlane to Host 2nd Annual Elans

The Producers of the Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts (CAEAA) are ecstatic to announce Seth MacFarlane as the Host for their 2nd Annual Elan Awards Show on February 15th, 2008 at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts.

Creator, Executive Producer, and star of one of the most bankable franchises in all of television, FAMILY GUY’s Seth MacFarlane reports: “I am extremely excited to be hosting the 2nd Annual Elan Awards. I am, of course, heavily involved in animation, and gaming seems to be the wave of the future. But most of all, I’m excited to purchase inexpensive prescription drugs and smuggle them back into the United States.”

“Need we say more?” laughs Holly Carinci, Founder & Producer of the Elan Awards. “It’s obvious that he’s the perfect Host for our awards show especially given the industries we honour, Animation and Video Gaming, and it’s these industries that we owe the idea of inviting Seth to Host … When asked they came back resoundingly with Mr. MacFarlane as their choice for Host. We’re just so happy and not a little relieved that he accepted! It’s not easy finding the right Host for two different industries and we’ve certainly got that with Seth.”

The Elan Awards, which awards the talent behind the burgeoning professional Video Gaming and Animation industries, as well as the raw talent (students) coming from Digital Art Educational Institutions, began in its first year as a Canadian-only Awards show but added International “Best of” categories for all three of these industries for their second production of the show.

Participation exploded after only one year into an enormous network of Video Game, Animation and Digital Art Schools worldwide who were eager to participate.

“We are quite taken aback by the enthusiasm of so many countries outside of Canada to participate in this show.” says Carinci. “We believe that this early World wide Industry participation in the Elans is positive indication of our mandate in establishing Canada as the World centre for Video Gaming and the celebration of Canada’s incredible contribution to the world in Animation and the educational Institutions behind the future talent in both phenomenal industries. In short, we are looking to one day soon produce the Oscar-equivalent for both Animation and Video Gaming. Having a host the caliber of Seth MacFarlane and worldwide participation in what is only the second show, the future looks very bright.”

The 2nd Annual Elan Awards will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts and their Official Hotelier The Sutton Place Hotel, Vancouver (one of only two AAA Five Diamond Hotels in all of Canada). Tickets go on sale today. Those wishing to attend the awards should go to www.theelans.com to find out how to purchase their seats.

Backing their efforts are the phenomenal supporters of the Elans which includes Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP, Seven Group, Annex Pro, Foundation 9/Backbone Entertainment, Radical Entertainment, Next Level Games, slant six games, Studio B Productions, Mercury Filmworks, Action Pants, Atomic Robot Games, Blue Castle Games, Voicebox Productions, Western Imperial Magnetics, 90 Degree Software, David Kaye Productions, Raven Tales, Selkirk College, The Art Institute of Vancouver, Emily Carr Institute, Sheridan College, Vancouver Film School, School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SFU), University of Washington Department of Communications, BC Film, Vancouver Economic Development Commission, Tourism Vancouver, BC Innovation Council, as well as Uniglobe Advance Travel, FedEx, Paramount Limousines, Chloe Angus Designs, Moore’s Clothing for Men and the Awards Auditing firm, Buckley Dodds & Assoc.s.

“As the Movie Industry goes to Hollywood for its Oscars, so will the world of Video Gaming and Animation come to Canada for their Elans.” Holly Carinci, Founder & Producer, CAEAA.

Source: TheElans.com

Another Look at Setting Rates for Voice Overs

Mary McKitrick, professional voice actor and avid blogger, recently composed a lengthy article about charging rates in the voice over industry.

Mary stated in her post “Most of my colleagues in the business of voice-over find setting rates to be the most difficult part of their job. I would like to examine this issue in some detail, and I must warn you this is a long post - the longest one I’ve ever written.”

Some of the reasons why it is so difficult to set voice-over rates, as further explained in the article, are:

• The going rate for voice-over varies geographically
• The perception that doing voice-overs is easy
• The cost of running a voice-over business
• The actual voice-over of voice-over

This information is critical to the success of any voice acting business and is most useful to those starting out in voice over or considering a career in voice acting.

To read the full article and gain invaluable insight, visit the source referenced below.

Source: MCM Voices Voiceover Blog

Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice Team Hydra Kicks in VO

Caught any of the new Celebrity Apprentice program?

Although the profile of the assembled cast may be elevated to include celebrity personalities nothing much has changed. The participants are still required to partake in tasks that will demonstrate their abilities to work together and call upon creative forces. This season, the teams are divided by gender, Empresario for the ladies and Hydra for the men.

One of the recent episodes consisted of the teams having to create a concept and commercial for dog food manufacturer, Pedigree. Notable project manager for team Hydra was Gene Simmons from KISS.

Part of the task, as is the norm for the majority of television commercials, included a voice over.

Marilu Henner performed the voice over for the women’s team for their comparatively sparse commercial while the men decided to feature Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis on camera with a voice over performed by Trace Adkins who may just find that a career in voice over is in his future.

Source: CheeseSays.com

Voice Overs Mixed in on CDs to Combat Music Piracy

“WARNING: All songs on this promo CD are voice-over protected to avoid any piracy and illegal file uploading on the internet before the release date”

In efforts to curb piracy, music labels are now using voice over to thwart would-be pirates from leaking music on the internet before the CDs hit the store shelves.

While the voice overs are quite effective, they also happen to be potentially deterring music reviewers from thoroughly enjoying an artist’s work thereby giving the recording artist a lower rating than they would have had they not been distracted by voice overs meant to crack down on illegal file distribution and file sharing.

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