Podcast Features Insight From Audio Producers

Marktree Productions presents VO Minute, a free podcast from audio producers Joe McNeil and Allison Moffett. Presenting their combined experience as producers, casting directors, and voice talent they are able to both educate and entertain.

Joe and Allison launched VO Minute in March 2010 with a new lesson offered each week. The podcast covers a wide range of topics concerning voice over artists including technical issues, performance techniques, equipment, recording methods, the business of voice over and the occasional anecdote for good measure.

VO Minute can be found and downloaded at podcast.com or on iTunes.

Marktree Productions is a full service audio production company. Located in Huntington Beach, California, just south of Los Angeles, they have an extensive pool of voice and music talent who are available for any project. Marktree productions provides voice-over recording & production, casting & directing, script review & editing, music composition & production, music transcription, sound effect design and full post-production services.

Source: Allison Moffette, VO Minute

Celebrity Voice Overs Gaining Popularity

Over the last decade the use of celebrity voice overs for television commercials has grown in leaps and bounds.

During the Oscars program this year there were twenty-four percent more ads featuring celebrity’s compared to last years program which had just four percent. Most of the ads this year featured celebrity voice overs rather than on-camera appearances.

With the jump in celebrity voice overs it seems clear that in the minds of marketing gurus it’s worth every expense. Because celebrity’s are recognizable people tend to have an emotional response to the sound of their voices. They remember them from their favorite movies and from the media. The more distinct the voice the better. People are therefore more likely to gravitate to that product over the competitions because they have an emotional connection to it.

Whether or not celebrity voice overs hurts or helps the industry is still up for debate. Some voice actors feel that celebrity’s are taking jobs away from the hard working talent who make a living doing voice-overs.

“Current day celebrities don’t need the money and are taking jobs away from unknown actors who do voice overs, many of which are just as good and some of them much better.” says veteran actor Paul Dooley. “The funny thing is that the large majority of listeners don’t even recognize the celebrity’s voice out of context.”

Good or bad, the once anonymous industry is getting some Hollywood limelight.

Over 11,000 Hopefuls Quack For Alfac

Aflac experienced a huge turnout for the casting of their iconic mascot. The insurance giant held an open casting call online at quackaflac.com where they received 11,200 audio and video auditions.

In addition to the online submissions there were also live auditions in five major cities across the US including New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas; Atlanta and Las Vegas where an additional 650 people turned out for their chance to be heard. The company also enlisted the help of employment site, Monster.com.

Read more

Voice Over Community Petitions The Oscars

This week the voice over community rallied together to launch a campaign to get their industry recognized at the Oscars.

On March 4, 2011 Voices.com took the lead and started a petition. Their goal is to achieve a measure of recognition for voice actors that is on-par to on-camera actors. Currently the Academy recognizes just four acting awards at the Oscars. Animated films are eligible for the Best Picture and Animated Feature Film categories but there is no category to honour the voice actors in those films.

Read more

« Previous Page