In the wake of this natural disaster, aid that has been sent to the people of Myanmar has been intercepted by the country’s ruling junta who has seized all materials sent by the U.N.’s World Food Program, resulting in the U.N. to suspend further shipments of food until the matter has been resolved.

WFP spokesman Paul Risley relays “The food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,” including 38 tons of high-energy biscuits.

While governments and agencies around the world are waiting for a shift in the situation, voice actors in North America have banded together as in the past to bring critical messages to the people of the world centered on the welfare of the children who have been affected by this devastating natural disaster.

Organizing voice talent, Peter K. O’Connell, pleaded “If you directly know any radio station or television station program directors, internet radio stations or podcasters, please direct them to the audioconnell.com website where they can download a free :60 or :30 PSA or email them the spots or scripts (if they want to record spots with their own voice talent, God bless ‘em!).”

Several years ago when Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, O’Connell was the first to develop as PSA campaign that made a significant impact regarding awareness of how Katrina had clobbered the landscape and its people, directing those who listened to the PSA to give generously to the American Red Cross.

As O’Connell pointed out, public service announcements don’t do any good if they aren’t played. In order for people to respond to the call to action, they first need to hear the message.

“Please promote the availability of these spots within whatever professional network you are a part of and encourage their use to help raise money the people in Myanmar who have been so terribly distressed,” O’Connell concluded.

Source: Peter K. O’Connell

Source: NewYorkTimes.com

MacFarlane’s spinoff series, The Cleveland Show, is expected to be announced next week at Fox’s “upfront” session in New York City. MacFarlane has the fans to thank for his emergence as Hollywood’s highest-paid show runner. Family Guy was famously canceled in 2000, then brought back on the air after consumer demand for the first-season DVD and good ratings of reruns on the Cartoon Network convinced Fox execs to give the then-26-year-old upstart a second chance.

As for Freakin’ Sweet, MacFarlane, like fellow TV auteur Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), has a soft spot for musical numbers. He’s staging a one-night only revue of 26 original songs celebrating the letters of the alphabet. On May 10, MacFarlane and The Family Guy Orchestra will perform onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

By the way, he’s not getting paid. It’s a benefit.

Photo of Stewie from Family Guy courtesy Fox TV
[via Variety and Hollywood Reporter]

Source: Wired.com

These unscripted words are among many that are passionately flowing from voice actors in the U.S about the state of their health insurance.

Financial and emotional pain is evident as premiums rise, life circumstances change, and insurance plans yank precious benefits.

“Health care costs are strangling us,” says one. And another: “All our money goes to mortgage and insurance.” (more…)

Reality Pump knows that most of you were disappointed by the utter mess that was its first RPG, Two Worlds, but hopes it’ll a second chance to win you over with the sequel, Two Worlds: The Temptation.

Two Worlds caught flak from reviewers for its lousy graphics, horrendous voice acting, and clumsy interface. The Xbox 360 version was also particularly buggy, locking up with frustrating regularity.

Reality Pump acknowledges the problems, chalking it up to being overly ambitious.

“We tried to fit in every idea we had, even the ones that came late in the process,” the developer told OXM.

The same mistake will not be made with The Temptation. “We clearly delineated the game’s components at the start, and we’re sticking to this target so the end result will be a more finely polished game,” said Reality Pump.

Fans of Two World’s bad Renaissance Fair-style dialog (lots of “forsooth!”ing in that game), will be disappointed to learn that The Temptation’s “script is being written by someone that’s worked on plenty of game dialog in the past, and is getting many more passes and edits so it will read much better,” according to Reality Pump.

The overly hammy voice acting should be gone, too. The voice work for Two Worlds was actually performed by Reality Pump staff, “which I’m proud we accomplished but the end results show that it’s not exactly our forte,” said the developer. The sequel will feature professional voice actors.

Two Worlds was an absolute train wreck, but did have some genuinely fun and interesting ideas hidden beneath its broken exterior. If Reality Pump has, as it claims, learned the lesson of restraint, and can build off the experience it acquired making Two Worlds, then The Temptation may very well be worth a look.

Source: Wired.com

High energy voice talent Tony Pasquale has been contracted to perform as the live announcer in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome during DECA’s International Career Development Conference. The annual conference, with nationally recognized entertainment, has an expected attendance of over 14,000.

(more…)

“They’re silly things that don’t necessarily have to do with marketing,” says Weeg, who fashions outside-the-box audio for the Medford advertising agency. “We’ve done some off-the-wall things and even had some people request to be put back on hold after we’ve wrapped up the situation.”

While humor may go a long way in calming callers, most clients want to simply inform their captive audience of services and products, even sales or monthly specials.

“That’s a pretty standard fare,” Weeg says.

In 1989, years before going to work for Radio Medford, talk show host Garth Harrington formed a company called Inpho to provide on-hold messages. He built a clientele of 250 over a seven-year period before selling to Robert Vigil.

“If people are sitting there on hold and don’t know that much about your company, it’s a great opportunity,” Harrington says. “A person can’t buy something from you, it they don’t know you have it.”

Maentz keeps voice talent — whose voices, if not faces, are familiar to Rogue Valley residents — on retainer.

Brad Douglas, who splits time between Palm Springs and Central Oregon, has a portable audio booth that allows him to quickly turn around a voice-over for the agency, Weeg says. “We can call him in the morning and he can give us what we need in a few hours.”

Traci Ann Swensgaard works out of her own in-house studio in Ashland.

Source: MailTribune.com

What these groups have in common is their taste for Original Pancake House fare. But finding experienced servers who are bilingual and don’t mind spending extra time with customers is proving to be a challenge.

“South Florida is a cultural crossroads,” said owner Mohammed Sattar. “Not only do we get visitors who don’t speak English, but we’ve got a large retired population. We had to find a way to serve them.”

They turned to Menus That Talk(TM), a Miami company that manufactures a line of talking menus for restaurants, cruise ships, museums and other public places. The menus are compact — about the size of a DVD case, portable and multilingual.

What co-owner Carol Sattar likes is their ruggedness and ease of use. “Customers simply select a language they prefer, then press a button like Omelettes, Crepes or Senior Specials,” she said. A voice responds, describing the dishes and their prices. When they’re ready to order, a Service button summons a waiter.

Preparation for the Pancake House was quick and easy. They sent their printed menu to Menus That Talk who organized it to work with the menu’s buttons, then translated it into Spanish. With an approved script, English and Spanish voice actors recorded the menu. A “face plate” was designed, and in less than a week a set of bilingual talking menus was delivered to The Original Pancake House.

“Customers appreciate the practical side,” says Ms. Sattar. “This gives them access to the full menu without needing to ask for help.”

Menus That Talk can deliver much more information than a Braille menu, and as Miami Lighthouse President Virginia Jacko points out, only one in ten blind persons actually reads Braille.

Beginnings: Menus That Talk CEO Susan Perry was having lunch with her niece, a young woman with advanced macular degeneration who cannot read a menu from any distance. “When my niece asked if I would read the menu specials to her, I realized I had forgotten my glasses, and we had a good laugh,” said Perry, “but the incident begged the question, why can’t menus talk to customers?” After nearly a year of development she and partner Richard Herbst showed the first completed menus to restaurant owners.

“Restaurants face some unique challenges,” says Herbst. “They are serving more diverse customers with shrinking wait staffs. Managers are under pressure to get food choices and cuisine descriptions in front of customers. We’re filling those needs with a device that anyone can use. And,” he added, “Menus That Talk satisfies basic Americans With Disabilities requirements.”

The Menu currently supports two languages simultaneously; the company offers English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and Russian. A version that will offer up to six languages will be ready shortly. A detachable external earpiece provides privacy, also interfacing with modern Telecoil(R)-equipped hearing aids for added service to the elderly and hearing-impaired.

Source: PRNewswire.com

Kevin Carroll, 52, won a competition to find a friendly Yorkshire twang to greet customers when they contact the firm’s call centre.

He and more than 100 others recorded their own versions of the Yorkshire phrase: “Hear all, see all, say nowt. Eat all, sup all, pay nowt and if tha ever does owt for nowt allus do it for thi sen.”

Five finalists were chosen and the contest was put to an online poll, which Kevin, of Gregory Crescent, Horton Bank Top, won with more than two thirds of the vote.

He said: “I’ve been told my voice isn’t bad so when I saw the competition in the Telegraph & Argus I thought I’d give it a go.

“I’m proud that so many people voted for me.

“I think they just wanted a friendly Yorkshire voice, although strangely, I was in America last year and everyone thought I was Australian.”

(more…)

Her new article entitled, “Celebrity Voice-Over Impersonations: Be Cautious! Words to the Wise,” is located in the Voice Acting section of VoiceOverXtra.com.

Based on her experiences, research and opinions (but not legal advice), Zoller writes that celebrities with recognizable voices are keen to protect the use of their voice and income derived from it.

“It is illegal to impersonate living people in commercials without their permission,” she warns. Thus, voice actors who are asked to impersonate the voice of a living or deceased person should ensure that copyright permission has been obtained.

Celebrities have another reason to protect use of their voice, Zoller notes: contract clauses often prohibit them from doing voice-over endorsements, or from endorsing competing products.

Parodies are different from impersonations, she notes. She advises obtaining legal advice when in doubt about such projects.

Source: OpenPR.com