Oct 2005
Old Friends In New Places
10/23/05 02:19 PM

So it was rare indeed this past week to re-connect with John Vipond with whom we used to work a ton when he was writing, recording and producing radio spots for Minneapolis ad giants Bozell (now closed) and Carmichael Lynch. Since going freelance he's been culling new clients, adopting kids (see photo) and teaching classes at MCAD, the U of M, The University of Saint Thomas and Brainco.
John, displaying the work of his newest art director, Ethan
Futura Marketing of Minnetonka brought John on board to record and produce a couple of voice-overs that could serve as part of a brand imaging campaign for a major Minnesota company with a global presence. The issue at hand with this particular brand is that, while quite successful, they don't have a unifying look and feel to their line of products and services. The voice-over talents, Dan Culhane and Scott Carpenter of N.U.T.S., were brought into the recording studio to shape potential "personalities" that could be used in a campaign. To quote John, "think of it as creating the look, tone, feel, logo and style for a brand like Microsoft Office", but in an entirely different category.
Not only was it fun to work with John, he also brought in his adopted son Ethan who made the day fun by entertaining Amelia, sharing with us his coloring book, and by playing peek-a-boo through the lobby window of Recording Studio A here at Babble-On - sure made a cold, gray autumn day in Minneapolis downright sunny.
Hopefully we'll see more of both John and Ethan in the near future once the big cloak comes off and the brand image comes to fruition.
Got a thought or comment? Please click below and let us know....
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Babblings From The Week...
10/23/05 11:37 AM
At times our Hyper/Cyber/Web Surfin' on a
Crackberry/Mocha Latté World reminds me of an
amped up game of
Telephone
with an Alfred Hitchcock twist. Unlike the
kids version, where the original message gets
lost but the source is known, the web brings
us all these perfect digitally cloned
creations with us rarely knowing who
fashioned them.
This month we had a few gems arrive at the recording studio that we thought we'd pass along for your amusement.
This first snippet, a mental health hotline, was sent to us by voice-over talent Jon Bruno (see our May Babble-Blog) with whom we do a lot work for Donato's Pizza, a Martin Williams account. Where he got this audio clip, well... he's not sure.
This second fragment is a piece of live television gone awry. A quick warning here - people were injured in the actual filming of this clip. While many people who've seen this laugh at "the incident", to me the funniest part is the clueless reaction of the two perfectly coifed and moussed Pottery Barn hosts.
This scene has already taken on a wild life of its own. Someone with some great re-mix chops and a wicked sense of humor has put it to a dance beat and taken it to the completely absurd.
Gotta comment? Feel free to click below and let us know....
This month we had a few gems arrive at the recording studio that we thought we'd pass along for your amusement.
This first snippet, a mental health hotline, was sent to us by voice-over talent Jon Bruno (see our May Babble-Blog) with whom we do a lot work for Donato's Pizza, a Martin Williams account. Where he got this audio clip, well... he's not sure.
This second fragment is a piece of live television gone awry. A quick warning here - people were injured in the actual filming of this clip. While many people who've seen this laugh at "the incident", to me the funniest part is the clueless reaction of the two perfectly coifed and moussed Pottery Barn hosts.
This scene has already taken on a wild life of its own. Someone with some great re-mix chops and a wicked sense of humor has put it to a dance beat and taken it to the completely absurd.
Gotta comment? Feel free to click below and let us know....
A New Pecking Order - Gold 'n Plump and GdB
ruffle feathers in Wisconsin
10/17/05 11:16 AM

One of the radio spots that we helped to record and produce featured a tongue-in-cheek protest song aping the folksy airs of Arlo & Woodie Guthrie. The tune, penned and played by GdB writer Jeff Schuller, was sung by Minneapolis voice-over talent and actor Kevin Dewey. We featured it here, (middle of the page) in our May Babble-Blog.
While it's no "Alice's Restaurant" - it is raising awareness.
Kevin Dewey - A Man Of Pride, Passion & Poultry.
"We work hard to raise the best, freshest chicken we can for Wisconsin families to enjoy. But the corporate guys have a lot of muscle and they're trucking in more and more chicken from out of state. That's bad news for fresh local chicken and bad news for our local economy." That quote comes from Joe Bragger of the Bragger Family Farm of Independence, WI. who's a supporter of the fight back campaign: Tell Corporate Chicken Get Stuffed.
The movement has taken on even more inertia with a website that features info on the local chicken cause, places to buy Gold 'n Plump, a downloadable letter, and a video of Kevin flailing away at a guitar - lip synching to an updated version of the song we originally laid down in Recording Studio A this Spring.
The radio campaign got updated this past week with fresh performances from both Jeff and Kevin. The audio post production hook for this radio ad was to put Kevin in a coffeehouse - something like the Haight-Ashbury of Eau Claire.
Or, any Starbucks in Madison.
We got a great live feel by recording the guitar with a couple of Neumann TLM 103's setup with the "3 to1" rule. This kept the sound open, in phase, but still real. Some chimey EQ and a touch of club reverb rounded out the guitars and vocals. While an even wetter 'verb would've helped the sound-design seem more true - there was too much of a risk of losing Kevin's voice on the radio. Sculpting the sound-design was its own fork in the road since, on a whim, we just started dropping in yelps, chants and hand claps to see if we could create a rallying cry from the audience. We loved what we got and kept it in.
This is the latest version of "Protest" for Gold 'n Plump Chicken from Gabriel deGrood Bendt.
Kevin Dewey can be booked through his Minneapolis voice-over agent, Wehmann Models and Talent, Inc. You can catch up with Jeff Schuller on the club scene with his band, U-Joint.
Gotta comment? Please feel free to click below and let us know...
Babble-On - Now Available In Your Grocer's
Meat Case
10/14/05 06:13 PM

For a few years now we've been working with OLSON, a Minneapolis Ad agency, on their Cub Foods radio ads. They deviate from "Man On The Street" audio production with their "Woman In The Aisle" twist. Which, we must admit, is nice. 'Cause as cold as the meat case gets - it sure beats recording outside during a Minnesota Winter.
Colleen Kruse, our "Woman in The Aisle", recording at Cub Foods
Many customers are sure they're on hidden camera and are insecure about how they look (who wouldn't on a Monday morning grocery run?). So we assure them it's just an audio recording, it'll only take a minute, and that everyone is beautiful on the radio.
(Don't laugh - it works.)
We never cease to be amazed by the equal number of people who'll barely look at us, and those who seem SO happy to prattle away about their lives and shopping habits. In fact, it's not that rare that an interviewee will find us again before they leave just to share "a few more thoughts" which we "need to know".
I will repeat that.
..."Need to know".
After 2 or 3 hours in store, we usually end up with an hour's worth of raw audio for a :60 spot. This includes recording the voice-over intro's and outro's of our facilitator/moderator/host and master cajoller, Colleen Kruse - a Twin Cities comedian and columnist for The Rake with whom we have the pleasure of working (and laughing) during these recording sessions.
Lately the crew has been account exec Eric Schafer, our own Greg Geitzenauer, Colleen Kruse and the occasional OLSON copywriter - Derek Bitter, Scott Dahl or Tom Randall. Eric mans the release signature clipboard and doles out the $5 gift cards to anyone willing to open their hearts, minds, mouths and shopping carts to us. Once we're done recording, we burn a CD of the session right there at the store from our compact flash recorder. It goes back to OLSON to be burrowed through for select comments good enough to make the final mix.
The next day Greg pulls those clips together for a quick once-over/beauty contest to see which ones should make the radio spot. From there, it's crafting the audio post production jigsaw puzzle into a radio ad that A) makes the product sound good and affordable, B) shows that Cub is the place to shop, and C) hopefully has a smile or two in it.
Here's a recent Cub Foods radio spot for California Red Seedless Grapes
Of course, some of the fun never makes into the final mix. These are just two gems from over the years.
DodgeBall - On Mic Or On Baseball, Mike Nails
The Pitch
10/04/05 04:13 PM

Normally, it's a chance to chit-chat about people's kids, trips, world events or political nonsense before the serious business of "selling product unit" begins. Occasionally, when local voiceover magnate Mike Dodge is in (as he was for a recent Syngenta session), you get the wryest insights about what he might have read, written, reviewed, or reviled.
A bit of a hardball fan and lover of travel he invariably has great road stories. On a recent junket Mike buzzed through Saint Louis and Chicago to catch the Cards, Cubs, Twins and ChiSox.
For most fans, being at Wrigley Field during a playoff stretch is like arriving at Mecca during The Hajj - lot's of exultation, cheering - even stoning and head shaving by the bleacher bums. Mike, however, appreciates the South Side's White Sox....
Voice-over talent and gifted raconteur, Mike Dodge.
As a devout member of Red Sox Nation I would have to say that, up until this weekend, I was only a nominal White Sox fan. However, I thoroughly appreciated the dusting they laid on the Cleveland Indians. So, if my Sox suck against the ChiSox - I'm hoping they go on to pound the Yankees. Please, let's have anybody but The Pinstripes representing the A.L. in the World Series.
Mike Dodge can be booked through his Minneapolis voice-over agent, Moore Creative Talent, inc.
Gotta comment, please feel free to share. Just click the comments button below....
Marshaling Resources - Fields smart approach
to :30 radio ads
10/02/05 04:41 PM

One work-around for this is to try and make the style of the radio spot represent the brand. Over the past few months we've been working on some Marshall Fields radio that falls into this category. Scott Jorgensen, the writer, came up with an easy template for us to execute - an answering machine.
Here's how it works - the messages left on the machine handle all the retail dope, while the answering machine itself acts as a pavlovian mechanism for the brand - every time you hear it, you associate it with a sale at Marshall Fields. Simple.
Amy Matthews (sans tool belt) on mic in recording studio A
For a recent "13 hr Sale" we altered this execution slightly. Normally, there are several people leaving messages for "Molly" on her machine. This time the message was left by just one person - which clarified things further. The spot, called "Countdown" was given to the skills of Minneapolis voice-over talent Amy Matthews whom, by the way, you may recognize from her work on "Bathroom Renovations", a TV show that airs on the DIY Network.
For voiceover folks this kind of radio spot offers a delicate dance - you have to sound natural, casual, friendly and real while talking about retail information - perhaps the most unnatural thing to do.
We had the pleasure of recording Amy in recording studio A here at Babble-On but not for long - she nailed it in under ten takes. To be honest, she got the performance even quicker than that. The hitch was bringing her in on time without having her sound rushed. So a nibble was removed from the copy, Amy upped her pace, we altered the sound design a touch, and boom - the spot rounded up on time.
Here's "Countdown" for Marshall Fields 13 Hr Sale...
Other Minneapolis voice-over folks involved in the production were George Keller as "Molly" (who was recently in doing radio spots for Minnesota Tourism - here, bottom of page) and Joanna Jahn as our announcer (who can currently be seen in 50 ft. Penguin's production of Debbie Does Dallas)
Amy Matthews and Joanna Jahn can be booked through their Twin Cities agent, Wehmann Models and Talent, inc., while George Keller is represented by Moore Creative Talent, inc.
Gotta comment, rant or rave? Please click the link below and let us know...
SHOUT! Gets The Party Started with Target and
P!nk (updated)
10/01/05 07:51 PM

Jen Edwards-Hughes, Ronni Saxon, Shirley Venard and Isabelle Monk in Recording Studio A at Babble-On
This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and our friends from SHOUT! Radio Productions were in Recording Studio A at Babble-On to record a stylish radio ad promoting a concert for Target Pink - an exclusive line of pink-themed products created to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The show, a concert with P!ink, Butch Walker & DJ Laurent Vacher hit the stage on Friday, September 30th, at the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan.
Mark Benninghofen and Joe Weismann, the writers (see'em here - middle of the page), wanted to create a spot that would get across a lot of info about the event while keeping Target's cool, funky brand style in tact. The hitch in all this was that the production had to have a slick concert vibe and come in at 30 seconds. With TV spots this is easy - concert footage, fast cutting graphics and supers pull the load.
When all you've got is audio, you need to be nuclear efficient and smart.
Mark and Joe sensed a sophisticated layering of voices, a tune from P!nk and stylized audio production would do the trick. They were right. Even so, paramount to getting the radio spot off on the right footing was getting killer voice-over talent - something SHOUT! does infallibly well. Les Femmes Fantastiques for this gig were Minneapolis voice-over talent Jennifer Edwards Hughes, Ronnie Saxon, Shirley Venard and Isabelle Monk.
For fun we piled all the girls into the recording studio booth so they could feed off each others energy, rhythm and pitch. This might seem like a "no-brainer" but more often than not larger groups of voice-over talent are recorded separately to allow for more flexibility in the mix.
Personally, I gotta admit - it's nice to break the rules. This session called for it.
The ability of this troupe to offer space in their performance while carefully blending where they needed to is a testament to their acting skills and voice-over prowess. The audio post production was fun too since it involved a lot of stereo voice effects, reverse cymbal crashes, automated EQ's, carefully timed reverb and music loops.
Here's a slightly different agency version of the mix, "P!ink". You'll hear even more of the neatly timed interaction and vocal blends here...
Jennifer Edwards-Hughes, Ronni Saxon and Isabelle Monk can be booked through their Twin Cities agent Wehmann Models and Talent, inc. Shirley Venard can be hired through her Minneapolis agent, Lipservice Talent Guild.