Feb 2006
A Mix Of Ice And Sand - "Escape From Everyday
Life" Radio Gains Traction
02/24/06 02:10 PM
Well,
it's Winter in Minnesota - yeah, go
ahead, make your jokes. Chances are
we've heard them all 'neath our snow
glazed pilings of hats and ear muffs.
And, hey, if you can? - Tell us with
that "Fargo" accent.
We never hear enough of that.
Yes, it's cold. The only thing that makes Winter more unbearable for us is hearing someone else complain about their particular clime, like..."My God, it's like 50º here and we're shivering to death"
A typical Minnesota couple chilling out on a Bahamian Beach
50º? Shivering? Hmmmm. Okay. Trade! No Backs!
Such was the case in early February when we were hunkered down in our Minneapolis recording studios with huge clutches of frost climbing our windows like mutant Arctic ivy. And where were these other folks who we're facing "cryogenic crisis?" - The Bahamas.
Sniff. Whimper. I'm wiping a frozen tear as I write.
All this good-natured kidding happened while recording, editing and mixing some pretty funny radio ads for The Bahamas with writer Paula Maki and producer Amanda Revere from Minneapolis ad agency, Fallon. This radio campaign's theme,"The Tourism Bureau of Everyday Life" was derived from "Escape From Everyday Life", which has been the tag line for the Ministry Of The Bahamas.
According to Paula, "Every piece of work we do, from tv to a simple poster, must speak to that tagline. However, The Bahamas has a secondary strategy...that they are a multi-destination country...they're more than just sun, sea and sand...This is what can separate The Bahamas from any other "need to get away?" island destination. Jamaica simply doesn't have as much stuff to do. So when I was thinking about a radio campaign, I wrote "Escape from everyday life" at the top of a piece of paper, but kept "variety" in the back of my head. The "Tourism Bureau of Everyday Life" idea seemed like a natural fit,... an area ripe for sarcastic observations from the everyday doldrums of modern American existence".
Nailing down that sarcasm fell to voice-over artist Angela Whitaker from L.A., whom we recorded from Margarita Mix in Hollywood via ISDN Digital Patch. We actually tried recording a couple of other styles with her too, from "bitchy satirical" to "something kinda Steven Wright" - both of which worked but, in the end,"syrupy sarcastic" paid the most dividends.
The announcer at the back of these radio ads is Kevin Strakan from The Bahamas, aka "Mr. freezing to death". Kevin's got that unmistakeable Bahamian sound but, y'know, recording from an island is always an adventure - unless it's England. First you gotta find a studio. Then, forget about using ISDN Digital Patch or Source-Connect to record things clearly. Your stuck with a phone patch; slightly better than tin cans and string... but not much. Once you put down the reciever you're left marooned, rolling your fingers, waiting for the takes to arrive via a web connection speed that rivals carrier pigeon. But, let's be honest. This is why one goes to The Bahamas - to avoid the stress of expectations, and the world of instant everything. Our January Babble-Blog can attest to that.
The music for this campaign was its own enigma. It had to be cheesy, yet sincere. However, some production music designed for this application just comes off as deliberate or silly. We didn't want that. So, I dug around for a tune that was originally done in the 70's that, at the time, was soooo sincere. (I'm convinced these guys are the real artists.) We slugged it under Angela's voice-over and it just felt right.
"Our target market is people around the age of 35-40, who work full-time jobs, ...are stressed out all the time, and... are the kind of people that brag about not taking vacation days,... These people must be saved. Not in the Pat Robertson Evangelist sense, but in the vacation sense. If The Bahamas can tug on their heart strings for even a brief minute while driving down a construction-filled highway, maybe they'll realize, 'Wow. I totally need to escape from my life for a little while.'"
Here are the three spots in the Bahamas radio spot campaign, "Activities", "Attractions" and "Destinations". Also, we thought we'd share a snippet of the alternate approach we considered with the "something kinda Steven Wright" voice.
Angela Whitaker can be booked through her casting agent, International Creative Management, Inc., LA. Kevin Strakan act as his own agent and representative through his own business, Fifth Avenue Models.
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Cul-De-Shock - "You Grew Up, Where?"
02/19/06 04:23 PM
Every
now and again one is confronted with
something that is just so out there,
ironic, weird or strange that you're
just left scratching you're head.
And, yes, while this whole "Cheney Get Your Gun" thing may qualify, I'm referring to something completely different.
File this one under, "I'll Be Damned", "Scully, this is a conspiracy that goes to the highest level" or simply,
..."WTF mate?"
Jocelyn+John share a smile (and some pants) at "The House"
Over the past few months Independent Producer Jocelyn Okubo has been working with John Lukas on a variety of voice-over and music editing projects. These have included things like contemporary fashion training videos & video wall presentations for Marshall Field's, video manuals for Capresso , and some innovative work for Chip And Pepper - a really cool line of designer jeans run by two of the most interesting characters you'll ever meet.
During these recording sessions, John and Jocelyn have spent many hours selecting and cutting music from our production music libraries, chatting away about things in the world, etc., but, y'know, they didn't know very much about each others background.
As fate might have it, Jocelyn stopped by recently to thank John for all his extra effort on the Chip and Pepper project by giving him a pair of their jeans. They got to talking about a this 'n that and realized that they both grew up in Hopkins, MN.
Nothing too notable about that.
As the conversation moved forward, it turned out that they also came of age in the same neighborhood.
Quirky, but not implausible.
Then, they realized that they'd grown up in the exact same house!
Wild. Cool. Creepy.
Steven King get outta my head!
February Babblings.....(birthdays, new music,
stuff from our inbox)
02/16/06 10:41 PM
February
16th update
- Birthday celebrations have been aplenty
here this month at our cozy recording studios
on One Babble-Plaza in the heart of downtown
Minneapolis. Mr. Greg turned another year
older this week and we serenaded him with
these unbelievable cupcakes we've discovered
from
Woullet's
bakery.
You gotta try'em. Sweet, deceiving and
absolutely killer - the Ted Bundys of the
pastry world. The roman candle we used to
set the mood kicked away some of the
winter blues we've all had with temps
stuck around 10º. Really.
At the time of our intrusion, Greg was recording some fresh voice-over with Vince Beggin and Liz Matassa from Martin Williams for their new Donatos Pizza campaign. Our friends over at BWN composed the music for these spots and the radio and TV should be hitting the air soon.
By the way, we've gotten nice comments via e-mail regarding our new production music segment called "Dropping In" (see below) Next month's entry, as suggested, will be more extensive and offer some new ideas.
Greg in C - before the sprinklers kicked in...
February 11th update - I'm convinced that the web has become the worlds largest pot luck supper. Just make something, anything, from what's on hand, bring it to the table, and see if someone will consume it. A Cyberworld Buffet of Hot Dishes made from creamed ones and zeros and dotted with acerbic wit and techno tater tots. Our e-mail gets bombarded with enough of the stuff to fill the Olympic Stadium in Torino. Happily, every now and again, we get something truly great that we like to share here.
For any and all of us who toil in the advertising industry, you know that your rough-cut, scratch track, mash up, or demo might as well be a fire hydrant next to a dog kennel. Nothing left to mystery there. So, someone in our midst has been hip enough to capture our industry's cumulative creative angst while capitalizing on the great success of Bud Light's,"Real Men Of Genius" radio ad campaign. Here's, "Miss I Don't Know How To View A Rough-Cut Lady." Enjoy. A round of benedictions for the geniuses keeping this campaign alive and for nailing this particular parody.
February
6th
-Our own John Lukas turned 29 this week and
we celebrated with a big honkin' cookie for
the crowd and crew at the recording studio.
Who needs crack? One bite outta this and your
amped up til June. We've determined that
whatever we don't finish we'll convert into
ethanol - and skip the pump for a month.
We're happy to see that Katie Lynch, a former producer at Colle+McVoy, is back in the fold and hanging out here at the studio. She's currently working as a freelance producer for another Minneapolis advertising agency, Kerker on their Roundy's account. Good news.
Yours truly spent Super Bowl Sunday putting my ADD to full use by watching the Big Game while listening to it on the radio. With all the hype surrounding the TV commercials I thought I'd review, (drum roll please.... )
"The Best Super Bowl Ads...On Radio". Well, there are stories to tell. If we can get the spots, we'll share them here with a few insights.
Some pretty big changes are happening in the local voice-over community too. Lipservice Talent Guild is engaging the "on-demand" world with a new website, a new look, a virtual phone system, and a quick and streamlined approach to getting auditions turned around. Can you say, "Brave New World?". They're calling it Virtual Lipservice. You can get the whole download on that, here.
We've gotten a lot of compliments over the years regarding the Summit Brewing Company radio ads that we've done with Mike Lescarbeau. Just found out that we'll be crafting some new radio spots before Spring so, stay tuned for more foreign accents, boisterous singing, and gratuitous glass clinking sound effects. If you've not heard any of these spots, feel free to belly up to our samples page.
Dropping in - New Needledrop for February '06
02/12/06 04:42 PM
This
month we're debuting what will, with the
best of intentions, become a monthly
Babble-Blog feature : Dropping In.
We're treating it as kind of a quick hors d'oeuvre platter that shows off some of the new production music we're receiving here at the recording studio on a regular basis. Since we've got countless vendors, from innumerable countries, covering a myriad of styles, this'll give you a chance to hear what kind of "new" production music is out there. Music that can shape your sound design and add color to your voice-over recording.
We say, "new" because some months may feature foreign movie music from the 60's, others might cover trip hop, soul, kitsch, dub, swing, crunk, New Orleans Jazz or any combination thereof. It'll rarely feel like The Flava Du Jour comin' outta your leet friend's iPod but, y'know, you never know... just depends on what our music buds are recording and producing that month.
The idea of sharing these snippets comes from the realization that writers and producers have told us for years that they didn't know such distinct stuff was out there. They've also shared with us that, many times, they've hoped to find some track for inspiration to which they could write but they didn't know where to start. Well, here's at least one resource that might get your neurotransmitters to leap that synaptic cleft and get it on.
So to speak.
if you hear something you like, feel free to keep it in mind for your next radio spot, podcast, TV commercial, industrial video, blah, blah, blah, 'cause we'll be keeping a list of what we've posted for easy reference.
This month's "Dropping in" segment comes from one of our favorite vendors in England. You'll hear some small combo jazz, music for technology, three chord power rock, "Hair in the wind" road music, and even a Cha-Cha. Coming segments will hopefully be a little longer and cover an even wider range of styles - we're just getting the ball rolling for you....
Here's "Dropping In" for February '06
If this feature is a help to you, or if you've gotta comment, criticism or shout out for us - feel free to send us an e-mail or comment down below.
Crossfades - The "Goodbye Girl" Heads to
Omaha
02/09/06 09:51 PM
For
the past few years we've had the
pleasure of hanging around the recording
studio with Michele Phillips - first as
a voice-over talent, and then most
recently as the broadcast producer for
one of our very loyal clients,
Marshall
Fields.
But, as much as she has loved her gig here in the Minnie-Apple, she's decided to move on and ply her wares in "The Big Onion" of Omaha, Nebraska. Yeah, we don't get it either. Guess that theater, restaurants and culture just can't hold a candle to missile silos and Cornhusker's Football.
Michele, neatly coifed and ready to roll, lands in "The Big Onion"
All kidding aside, Michele is taking a big and important step with her career. She'll now be the Senior Writer + Producer for Zaiss & Co, an Advertising and PR firm in Omaha.
During her stint here as a broadcast producer she helped us record, edit and mix literally hundreds of radio spots - including a few award winners. And, y'know, it just wasn't a session with Michele without receiving a free and encyclopedic, education in movie trivia.
If there's a movie out there that Michele hasn't seen, it's either Czechoslovakian, snuff, porn, or simply "in production". Though, if by any chance there is a Czechoslovakian snuff porn movie in production - she knows exactly who the director is...
"..and he's brilliant"
Without her eagle eye for movies some of us might never have seen, Kung-Fu Hustle, Garden State, or her most recent video recommendation, Crash - all of which were great suggestions for someone who rarely gets to the flicks.
Michele, on Jeopardy, is about to ace out the grand champion
Of course, my complete and total lack of movie knowledge has made for some truly great session fodder over the years. A typical conversation with Michele tended to go something like this:
Michele - "Oh, man, do you remember that scene in Pirates Of The Caribbean where Johnny Depp looks at the camera in the exact same way you just looked at your sandwich?"...
Me - "ummmmmmm, no"
Michele - "you know, it's like the one he developed in his early years - like when he was in Private Resort"
Me - ummmmm.
(silence)
Michele - Is the voice-over cut to time?
Me - yup!
The lucky folks in Omaha are truly fortunate to be getting such a good natured and talented person in their midst.
Best of luck to you Michele, and thanks for the laughs.
Wild Financial Advice - A.G. Edwards Avoids
Doing Tame Radio
02/04/06 05:37 AM
Financial
planning can be a strange adventure.
Ever try filling out some of those
forms? You could fashion a
papyrus boat
and cross The Nile with the reams of paper
that seamlessly glide under the bow of your
pen.
Ideally, however, financial planning is about being savvy, cool, and taking calculated risks. And, if you can laugh once or twice along the way - so much the better. Kinda like this campaign of radio spots for A.G. Edwards and Sons that we've been bushwhacking our way through for the past week.
These radio ads pivot on the premise that, if you think someone else is going to take care of your nest egg for you - you're nuts. (Please review last year's Social Security Sinkhole for full corroboration)
Eugene Fuller, the writer for Minneapolis advertising agency Carmichael Lynch, came up with the idea of framing this dilemma by using scenarios similar to those you might have seen many, many years ago on the original Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
Matthew Wood as "Jim Fowler". Studio A at Babble-On
The protagonist for these scripts would not be styled after Marlin Perkins however. If you've forgotten, Marlin was the guy cautiously secluded in a near-by blind who would always send his guy, Jim Fowler, into snake pits, bear dens and alligator infested waters, "...to see how these creatures live" - Jim probably kicked himself for never landing a better gig with Cousteau or something.
Our version of Jim Fowler was played by voice-over actor Matthew Wood from San Francisco who, for a day job, works as the Supervising Sound Editor at Skywalker Sound. If you've ever seen a Star Wars flick, you've heard some of his handiwork. Instead of trying to record Matthew via ISDN Digital Patch or Source-Connect from San Francisco, the folks from Carmichael had him flown into Minneapolis for the day long session. Smart. When you've got nine scripts to record, it's actually cheaper to get your voice-over talent a plane ticket and hotel room than to fire up the Digital Patch for six to eight hours.
And we wonder why the airline industry is sagging?
The smooth voiced David Kaye was our book end announcer and, since his stuff was pretty quick, we just recorded him from one of our favorite studios in L.A., Patches.
The
next step, sound-design, was a
collaborative process between Babble-On
and a firm called
Singing Serpent
out of San Diego. While both of us were
trying to get the sound accurate we began to
realize that simply being "true" didn't make
the spots funny or really engaging. To quote
Eugene,
"Early on we knew we wanted
the spots to feel real, as if we were following a mic'ed guy in the wild. But we also thought the spots needed some added humor or they'd fall flat. The sound effects seemed like a good way to get some jokes in"
Finding sounds that would be funny, but that didn't go way out of bounds, was a great experiment in throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. As the photos reveal, any and all attempts to get the real sounds failed due to our talent being completely clueless and uncooperative. I'm still trying to get the tortoise stains out of the couch and there's a lingering "Komodo odor" in the booth that isn't responding to Lysol.
Eugene, and Producer Tara Mulholland were patient with the talent
Ultimately, most of what made the final cut were sounds and textures that weren't even animal in nature - suction cups, paper crumples, and shoveling were just a few of the basic sounds we mutilated to fit the environment. In a funny twist, we did actually find and use one real animal that worked in some capacity across all three spots. Eugene and I were both amazed that with just a little pitch shifting, EQ and other tricks we'd get the exact feel we'd been aiming to achieve. Eugene had this to say -"Who would have thought that we'd end up using cat sound effects for a tortoise, komodo dragon and a king cobra?" I'm particularly fond of "Tortoise," where we devote like 20 sec. to a long painful grunt before an egg pops out of momma tortoise. Maybe the most helpful thing of all was having an entire day to play around in the studio and explore what would work best and provide the most giggles."
If you'd like to hear the radio spots "Komodo Dragon", "Tortoise" or "King Cobra" just give us a shout with an e-mail and we'll get you a CD or an MP3.
Voice-over talent David Kaye can be booked through The William Morris Agency. Matthew Wood can be scheduled through his agent, VOX.