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14744. Ms. No - 4/27/2005 9:43:50 PM Thoughtful,
Strangely enough I get that a lot online. It's kind of weird. I'm not at all a manly sort of girl at all. Hell, you've met me, did I seem the least bit butch to you? I've no idea what it is. 14745. Ms. No - 4/27/2005 9:46:38 PM Arky,
Yes, Lauren Bacall did do the Fancy Feast commercials but she was a human in them rather than the voice of the cat. She did have an amazing voice --- her age is starting to creep into it a bit now, but nowhere near the level of Sally Kellerman's. 14746. thoughtful - 4/27/2005 10:56:28 PM MsNo, no you're not the least bit manly...rather quite good looking and a lot of fun.
I think it's your handle...sounds like one a drag queen might use, no? Or certainly someone into S&M! 14747. Ms. No - 4/27/2005 11:34:58 PM I decided that if I were a drag queen my name would be Maxine de Limit.
You can credit the ever-witty Resonance for the change in my moniker. He said it always made him think of someone admonishing a child "Christi No!" and he was the first to start calling me Ms. No. I liked it. I absconded with it!
and lord knows I've been called worse! ;-> 14748. jayackroyd - 4/28/2005 11:33:02 AM Of course there's tons of money in voice-over work commerically which is all very up-and-up as well.
It's hard work to get now. I have a friend who is a fairly prominent morning drive DJ in the tri-state region. He used to be, among other things, the national voice of Chrysler. But now that higher wattage celebrities have found out how lucrative these gigs are, he's getting much less work.
Familiar voices like James Garner or Dick Cavett apparently appeal to consumers in subtle ways, even when they are not identified. 14749. The Summer Woman - 4/28/2005 2:58:45 PM A 'phone engineer told me that, after it being installed in an oil plant in Saudi, they had to change the voice recording to that of an arab male, as some guys really, really liked the female voice and kept using it as, well, a sex line of sorts.
This cracked me up. I always thought the way to Osama would be a through a woman. But did anyone listen to me? 14750. The Summer Woman - 4/28/2005 2:59:08 PM A 'phone engineer told me that, after it being installed in an oil plant in Saudi, they had to change the voice recording to that of an arab male, as some guys really, really liked the female voice and kept using it as, well, a sex line of sorts.
This cracked me up. I always thought the way to Osama would be a through a woman. But did anyone listen to me? 14751. The Summer Woman - 4/28/2005 3:00:25 PM A 'phone engineer told me that, after it being installed in an oil plant in Saudi, they had to change the voice recording to that of an arab male, as some guys really, really liked the female voice and kept using it as, well, a sex line of sorts.
This cracked me up. I always thought the way to Osama would be a through a woman. But did anyone listen to me? 14752. The Summer Woman - 4/28/2005 3:03:17 PM Sorry about the triplication...hand tremor.
slinks away... 14753. jayackroyd - 4/28/2005 3:31:21 PM Aha. You've given yourself away, concerned. 14754. Ms. No - 4/28/2005 4:59:27 PM Jay,
Yes, there are many more celebrities doing voice-overs now than there used to be. Sally Kellerman's been doing the Pavilions Markets radio spots for a couple years --- which is why I'm noticing that she's sounding old. Of course Kellerman's done VO work for most of her career simply because she does have such a unique voice.
I almost picked up some VO work before I left Sacramento. Oddly enough it's because of someone my mother had worked with. She and I sound very much alike and he really wanted to use her but she lived 400 miles away so he figured he'd see if I could fill the gap. What he wasn't thinking about is that no matter how alike our voices are, my mother had some 25 years of experience in the business and I'd rarely ever spoken into a microphone before. So, after speaking to me on the phone and getting all excited that he'd found a replacement his hopes were completely dashed upon getting me into the studio.
And that was the beginning and most likely the end of my voice-over career. 14755. jayackroyd - 4/28/2005 5:04:57 PM With the exception of the DJ (who has been reading ads for a living since his late teens) the folks I know who've done it all say it is a remarkably difficult thing to do. The producers have a very precise idea of the pitch, tonality and pitch changes (rising, flat, falling....) they want. Dozens of takes of very short segments are common. I know one guy still getting residuals because he is the last second and a half of Captain Morgan's signature laugh. 14756. thoughtful - 4/28/2005 5:13:06 PM I was into books on tape for awhile and it's amazing how the voice of the narrator becomes the character...one book in a series used a different narrator and it just wasn't the same. Of course, she was supposed to be kay scarpetta from VA and doing it with a british accent just didn't work! 14757. Ms. No - 4/28/2005 6:46:46 PM Jay,
Yeah, it is hard. I've done some voice-overs for friends' projects and even as undemanding as they are it required multiple takes. The real pros are in high demand not just because of their tonality but because of their skill in being able to get things just right with a minimal number of takes. Those who have such skills and can add in multiple characters or capable accents and dialects are solid gold.
I heard a very strange radio spot recently for Del Taco. Three guys are talking about their masculinity in relation to some Macho Combo or something and they're supposed to sound Latino. Only one of them does and the other two are horrid. I couldn't figure out first of all why they needed to be Latino and second of all why in a town like Los Angeles the producers couldn't have found 3 guys with authentic dialects. The commercial is very jarring because of this.
I also notice trends in "popular" voices. The Julie Kavner sound was a big hit for awhile. It seemed every spot with a female voice in it had that scratchy nasal quality that was somehow supposed to give the impression of an intelligent, thirty-something woman with a wry sense of humor and a tendency to catalogue shop from J. Crew and Pottery Barn. 14758. Ms. No - 4/28/2005 6:50:39 PM Thoughtful,
That had to be hard to assimilate. It's one of the things that's prevented me from listening to any books on tape --- fear that the narrator won't sound right. Although I did hear a wonderful reading of Poe's Mask of Red Death performed by Gabriel Byrne. 14759. thoughtful - 4/28/2005 8:26:25 PM sometimes the author narrates the book which is interesting since they add the emphasis they originally intended, but then again, they may not be the best voice actors.... 14760. wonkers2 - 4/28/2005 9:26:19 PM Dickens really comes alive on tape. 14761. Ulgine Barrows - 4/29/2005 8:09:06 AM Does it depend upon who is reading? 14762. Ulgine Barrows - 4/29/2005 8:14:55 AM We heard some children's renditions of the Lemony Snicket series that were vile & uncredited. The ones from Tim Burton at least had some ooomph of continuty.
And now that Carrey is palting the lead in a feature movie, they may get their due.
You know, I cringed at every rendition of "the Hobbit and Whatnot" until it was done correctly.
What's his toes that directed hobbits, the new generations is looking at lemony snicket. 14763. alistairconnor - 4/29/2005 8:38:30 AM Speaking of.
I would love to hear your voice in the Fiction thread.
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