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ROWELL GORMON

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Everybody Should Have an “Uncle Willie” (part one)

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The Man of Multiple Names Could Hear My Multiple Voices

To his wife Joyce, his co-workers and other friends he was “Bill”.  His mom, my grandma,  always referred to him as William Thomas (I always wondered who that “William Thomas” guy she kept talking about was).  But to me and my younger brother Lee (pictured above), he was Willie.  Not even “Uncle” Willie…just Willie.  It was what my mom and his other siblings called him, and he graciously allowed us to keep using that name for the rest of his life.  Willie was probably the person most responsible for developing my creative talents and imagination.

Don’t get me wrong.  Mom always read stories to me (shifting her voice with the characters), and she and Dad always made sure I had imaginative toys, books, records, crayons & paper,  and  (of course) plenty of cardboard boxes.  Dad had plans to go into drafting (before the government beat him to it and drafted him for a little assignment in 1940s Germany), so my drawing and cartooning abilities doubtless came from him.  Mom and Joyce both made puppets for me over the years and if they ever thought I was weird for doing the voices of my stuffed toys as I played, they never let on.  But it was Willie who actively joined in the play, and invited me to join in his own, right thru adulthood.

The Electric and the Eclectic  

It was Willie who fostered my interest in things electronic.  He built me a crystal radio set and showed me how to string antennae wire all over grandma’s spare room and listen to voices and music over the headphones.  It was Willie who put me on the air for the very first time…even if it was just a quick “hello” over his custom-built ham radio set-up.

It was Willie who took me over to visit his friend Don Scales, who built hi-fi systems and had this funny contraption called a tape recorder.  He let us kids not only record our voices, but play around with tape echo effects.  And some years later it was Willie, through his connection with Don (also chief engineer at the home town radio station), who got me my first part time job as a radio announcer/dj  while I was still in high school.  It’s no false modesty when I say it was Willie’s doing  and not my own talents — I still have the original audition reel and it’s cringeworthy!

When I got a tape recorder of my own and started messing around with character voices and the sound effects I could pull off my cartoon kiddie records, Willie not only encouraged me, he wrote some silly “radio serial” scripts about the guys he worked with in the radio/tv repair shop at Sears – “The Adventures of Picture Tube Charlie”, and did some of the voices alongside mine.  I’m told the gang at work kept bugging him for new “episodes”.

Expanding the Circuit

While I never learned any electrical engineering, Willie did provide for the advancement of my on air style, creating a makeshift “portable consolette” for me out of old record players, a recycled cart machine, basic microphone and a small mixing board which he built himself.  I even used it at a few of my high school dances…the only time you’d find an un-datable square like me at such an event.

Willie , who worked as a TV Repair man at Sears, salvaged an old b&w tv from the shop and got it working so I could have it in my basement lair at home (another blog for another time).  That was the one I remember watching the first moon landing on.  During college, he repaired another set for my first apartment, and it was the first color tv in our immediate family.  Willie and Joyce had a big RCA color console at their house, of course, with sound that could be rigged through his custom stereo.  As kids, we were thrilled when a Saturday family gathering or a rare overnight stay gave us a treasured glimpse into this magical new world of color.  Promos for the upcoming week’s “Batman” almost gave me a sensory overload!  On more than a few Sunday nights, mom and dad grudgingly let our visit go into overtime so we could watch Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color before heading  home.

Still later, during the Betamax years, Willie could always be counted upon to faithfully watch the tapes  I’d bring home of a tv commercial or promo I’d directed or appeared in, or the few clips I was able to snag when my puppet characters and I appeared on the local kiddie show, “Time for Uncle Paul” (again…another blog for another time).

Even when the rest of the family wasn’t really that interested, Willie (and Joyce) served as my enthusiastic and encouraging audience.  And Joyce actually contributed one of the makeshift puppets I used on the show, Malcom, who was built from a teddy bear body and a ‘cookie monster’ style head that could “eat” cookies through a slot in the back of his mouth.  On the show, though, he quickly developed into a sweet, slow-witted soul not unlike Edgar Bergen‘s bumpkin, “Mortimer Snerd“.  The puppets couldn’t actually do much, physically.  But they really came alive as characters.

But Willie’s influence, and Joyce’s, didn’t stop at local radio and local tv.  It’s literally gone around the world thanks to all those years of creative nurturing.  More on that in the next post.

— over and out —

Hitting the Voiceover Trail (you can’t get there the way I did)

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It’s an honest question. I get it a lot.

“How do I get into voiceovers?”

Usually, the person wants a Secret Formula…wants to know how I did it…wants to know how to follow the same path I did.  The thing of it is:  you can’t follow that path.  It simply doesn’t exist anymore.

Broken Roads

The first thing I used to tell these people (back when I knew everything) was, “Get a part time job at your local radio station.”  My start was a 250 watt AM station in a small Indiana town, which (until they added FM) could barely reach the city limits.  Places like that do still exist, but now they’re usually just outlets for syndicated programs with someone else doing all the talking.  Even if you did manage to find a station that’d let you do much on the air, chances are you’d be stuck in a rigid format that frowns on any individual personality.

Voiceover’s “Poison Pill”

But let’s say you did find a local station that’d let you keep that mic open for more than ten seconds at a time.  Chances are, you’d be learning and developing skills alright… the wrong ones.  For one thing, you’d likely be tempted to sound like the other radio DJs you’ve heard all your life, and who are on the air with you now.  Trouble is, that DJ sound is exactly what voice seekers don’t want anymore.  They avoid it like the plague.  Send out a voice audition with what we used to derisively call the “Ron Radio” sound, and you probably won’t be heard past slating your name.  Even if you’re not yukking it up like a DJ, chances are you’ll be considered “too announcer-y“.  It doesn’t matter how nice your voice sounds.

Writing Your Own Ticket

Unlike my experience, you also won’t find yourself in a position to develop your own style by creating your own material.  It didn’t take long for me to figure out I’d never make it as a Disc Jockey.  But I did enjoy running what they used to call a “tight board”, turning the various elements of an air shift (commercials, Public Service Announcements, time & temp, and the music) into one smooth audio flow.  After a few wrong turns I was finally able to see a more likely radio future in the production room.  Doing commercials and little comedy bits for the “real announcers”, I was able to use all the character voices I’d gleaned from years of watching Bugs Bunny and Yogi Bear and Bullwinkle.  Not just funny voices.  Characters.  Eventually (very eventually), I got hired by a radio station who wanted a production guy who could “think like [Stan] Freberg and keep it clean”.  There I found a like-minded mentor who showed me how to adapt my writing skills into creating good, engaging, and entertaining advertising copy.  Within a year, I started picking up local Addy Awards.  Part of my secret was being able to write material for myself I already knew I was good at.  The other part was luck in having advertisers who let me do it.  You may not be able to rely on your own word-smithing to give you an edge.

So What Am I Supposed To Do?

Chances are, you can’t get away with doing what I did.  Heck, I wouldn’t be able to get away with it myself.  Radio stations don’t have time to train you, they want you to hit the ground running.  And formats are so rigid today, the kinds of stuff I created would never get on the air.  And studios?  They don’t have time to un-train you!

Parallel Highways

Have you ever been driving down an Interstate and notice an old two-lane road running alongside?  It’s an older way to get somewhere, but not exactly the same route or even end point.  There are still ways you can adapt the things I did to get into voice work.  Not everyone has the same experience, but here are some parallels.

  1. Find A Place To Stink. Comedian George Burns lamented the end of Vaudeville because, he said, it left “no place to be bad”.  Touring the circuit, performers were able to learn what worked and what didn’t, until their talents were polished and their individual styles emerged.  You may not have local radio, but there are podcasts, local theatre, or even just fooling around with the record button on your phone.  Learn to listen to yourself.  Compare what you hear to the sound and style of national (not local) commercials.  Don’t imitate those voices.  Find a way to do your own version of those styles.
  2. Find a Mentor. Sure,  you probably won’t have anyone like the guys who took me under their creative wings at the radio stations.  But you can find teachers online, maybe even where you live, who’ll guide you to finding your own voice (or voices).  I’m not talking about the people who want to sign you up for an instant voice demo after a $2,000.00 weekend seminar…I’m talking about someone who’ll work with you, one-on-one.  If you don’t have stage fright (or even if you do), get involved in community theatre.  You’ll learn how to use your voice in the context of a character (straight or comic). See what you can learn from various directors.  It’s likely you’ll have several mentors shaping you before you’re ready to “show yourself”.
  3. Learn what you’re good at. You may be able to do a great Homer Simpson but guess what.  That  job’s already taken.  Perhaps you can sound like Morgan Freeman or whoever the celebrity-du-jour is for producers.  But unless you’re a great impressionist, just develop your own way of adapting those styles.  It’ll happen over time.  And it will take time.

What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

So, yeah.  You probably won’t get anywhere in your voiceover career by trying to do it the way I did it.  But that’s because this is now…and you’re you.  I’m still at it because I’ve tried to keep learning and adapting as styles and market demands change (and they’ll always be changing).  Once you get the hang of reading the signs, I bet you’ll find the “road rise up to meet you”…instead of coming to a dead end.  I’d be interested to hear what routes you’ve discovered.

— over and out —

The Demo Player That Thinks It’s iTunes

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Sample Image of the
ZamPlayer, used elsewhere on this site.

What if the voice style a producer is listening for is actually Segment Number Five in my sixty-second Demo? What if the producer stops listening after Segment Number Three? Is a problem. …for BOTH of us!

Not anymore.

Enter VoiceZam, a new type of audio player created by my friend, Bob Merkel, and now in use on www.voices2go.com. It allows listeners to zero in on just the part of any demo they want, without having to play the demos in their original order. Like iTunes, it can start at Segment One and play through, or start anywhere else and skip around and/or repeat or go back, INSTANTLY. Short Segments or the whole demo can be downloaded just as easily.

The player is set at one default (changeable by you)…in my case: Commercial. But the drop-down menu reveals all the other demos on offer, from Narration to Character to Audiobooks and E-Learning. VoiceZam’s player lets me upload as many different categories as I want to show off, but lets the listener pick and choose ONLY what he/or/she is listening for.

Added bonus: I can label each Segment in each demo just the way I want, so as to better match the type of voice being searched for. And updating & swapping out segments is so easy, even I can do it.

Once you get the hang of the player, it’s tempting to click around and see what other “buried treasure” you might have missed listening the old fashioned way. That’s just what I’m hoping my potential clients will do.

Best of all, the player is built to play instantly on any device….well…any desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, dumbphone, or Dick Tracy Wrist Radio. Bob still isn’t sure it’ll show up on your old-style digital watch, though. There’s more to say about the player, but it’s being said much better on the VoiceZam.com website. Don’t even get me started on the feature that lets you track who’s listening in, and for which segments, and for how long!!!

On a personal note: Bob is a delight to work with, taking hands-on ownership of any question, any potential problem. In my own case, he even went into his software “baby” and created a player skin color to match my website theme…and later created a catagory in the drop-down so I could also show off my Audio Production skills to potential clients. Not only that, but recently, he took note of numerous complaints about the cost of the service. Did he do a Steve Jobs and say “take it or leave it”? No. He did a “Bob Merkel”, and cut the cost in half.

I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of customer response a “warm & friendly voice” talent appreciates.

— over and out —

…a Ghost of Christmas Past.

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I didn’t send out cards this year.  It reduced holiday stress, but still…I felt a little guilty.

So, as I’ve met and made so many new friends since this little audio skit was created five years ago, I figured I’d take advantage of technological advances and share with you a film noir version of the muchly over-done “Christmas Carol”…this time, starring Sam Scrooge.

My thanks to Wendy Zier for joining the voice cast.   And, as Scrooge would say, “A Happy Humbug to you all!”  (…seriously, the only way I’ve made it through this year is with the help of friends such as you.  And for that, I am truly grateful.)

— over and out —

Knowing When (Not) To Say “No”.

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If there’s anything better than being invited back for another creative animated tv spot by a great creative team:  it’s being asked to add a little something that wasn’t in the original script…and watching it take off!

In a spot recorded this summer and readied for air in the fall, the folks at Lawrence & Schiller    continued their Telly Award and Addy Award winning media campaign for Taco John’s.  My old coot farmer, who raises all the exotic-flavored chickens featured in those Baja Boneless Wings, has been coerced into being a retro DJ for his flock, who want to do…what else(?)…the Chicken Dance.

“I hate the Chicken Dance…” – used with permission

Originally, my character was just in the one TV spot, a treat in itself.  But after the demo tracks were done, I got the question:  “If we did some funny lyrics for the Chicken Dance, could the farmer sing them?”

I can’t read music, and can only carry a tune if the bucket’s big enough.  But rather than be all humble and shy and say “no”, I figured what the heck.

It actually worked out great.  My audition track had the creative team giggling (for all the right reasons).  On the day of recording the actual spots I was told they’d decided to go beyond the Radio :60 the lyrics were originally intended for…and use the character bit as a singing tag in all the spots in the campaign:  Radio and TV!  What a rush!  (…and what it did for the session fee wasn’t bad either!)

I haven’t heard the full sing radio version, but you can sample the fun of the tv spot in the video above.  Thanks to the Creative Coop at the agency, and for my Family Flock at Sunspots for putting us together in the first place.

…remember this the next time you’re tempted to tell a client you can’t do something.

— over and out —

New Dog…Old Trick

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Animating a moving mouth over live-action animal footage is nothing new. There was a popular series of theatrical shorts in the 30s based on the concept. It’s still fun, though!
My thanks to Rod and Nancy Rich at MonkeyBravo for thinking of me when it came time to record the voices (and for including my friend Wendy Zier as the other pooch).
After the “dog-eat-dog” drama of recent weeks, I thought it might be good to lighten the mood!

— over and out —

T’is the Season…

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Yes, it’s been the season when those emails and phone calls you thought were going to mean new business…simply meant it was a client from last year needing your tax ID number.

…but there are bright sides to consider.

A few of those requests actually remind me of some pretty great jobs…and some pretty great paychecks from some pretty great client friends.

And so it was I somehow had the presence of mind to attach the following note to one such friend who required a W-9 from me:

“Thanks for making this necessary!”

— over and out —

Sometimes You Just Say Something Wise…

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…even if it’s an accident.  But take credit for it anyway!

     In a recent flurry of comments on Paul Strikwerda’s facebook post about low-balling your voice0ver rates, I wrote the following “instant wise saying”:

 ‎…just because you’re doing something you love doesn’t mean you have to do it just for the love of it.

Another friend, Andrew Swingler, immediately chimed in, asking if he could use it.

Of course, I said “yes”.  I’d be tempted to register it as a trademark, except for the nagging fear I’ve lifted it from someone else without remembering it!

But meanwhile, if it makes me sound wise and venerable…I’ll go with it!

— over and out —

Bossing People Around (In The Nicest Possible Way)

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I’ve done it before, but never to this extent, or in this particular way.

‘Ready for your close-up?  I’m Mr. DeMille.  (If you’re too young to get the reference, watch “Sunset Boulevard”)

RG (in blue shirt) directs Paul Garrett. It’s ironic that at one point I was directing Paul to use his hands less. Look whose hands are blurred in this shot!!!

This weekend I worked with a group of very talented actors on the first in a series of web-training videos for Firehorse Films…as a Director!

Today’s lesson:  expanding your income by being able to offer new services to established clients!

Mind you, the mastermind behind the whole project was Firehorse’s Jean-Paul Dame (pronounced dam-MAY…I don’t know how to use the accent key).  But Jean-Paul and I have worked on various audio and video projects over the years.  Sometimes I’ve been his on-camera talent.  Sometimes he’s recorded me or another VO talent at my studio.

During one session a few years ago, JP was trying to get a particular read from one of my talented VO friends.  After several takes failed to bring the desired result, I suggested something-or-other to help the talent get the idea of what he was being asked to convey.  Next take:  nailed it.  From that time on, JP declared I had a new talent:  I speak Jean-Paul-ese!

It’s come in handy several times since, with him specifically bringing recording work to me so he can fall back on my ability to know what he wants, and “translate” it into something the actor can then use.  May sound strange, but it works.

When this current video project came along, naturally I auditioned.  But the age, gender, and ethnicity requirements of the final script meant I was just not right for any of the parts.  Jean-Paul brought me in to direct the actors, freeing him up to concentrate on technical issues, and keeping performances consistent for smoother editing later (saving him and his client time and money in both instances).  Even I was a little skeptical I was bringing much value to the project.  JP is no slouch director himself.  But not only did he declare my input of value, the sentiment was echoed by his clients more than a few times.  Bottom line:  they got what they wanted on-camera…faster and more efficiently…through my “adapted” talent behind the camera.

So…looks like I’ll be directing talent in a lot more of these.  And it will actually be much more lucrative for me, since it would be unrealistic to expect I’d show up as a character in project after project.  But, as it appears now, my behind-the-scenes work will allow me to be a part of the rest of the series!   …keeping fingers crossed on that.

Meanwhile, as you can see from the photo, I’ll be “acting” vicariously through the professionals who are in front of the camera.

…and it still feels good, knowing I’m filling a creative need with some part of my imagination!

What other part of your own creativity might you be using to the benefit of your current clients…and yourself?

— over and out —

A Small Part of A Larger Effort

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This week I received news from my friend and client Rick Gregory at Bluestone Media that our ongoing work for Susan B. Komen for the Cure and its online breast cancer awareness program got some major recognition.  Here’s the quote:

Our mobile site won…Best in show for the entire mobile site and a Silver award for the Breast Cancer 101 tool…The W³ Awards honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites, videos and marketing programs. Simply put, the W³ is the first major web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.

 The W³ is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, interactive, advertising, and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as AvatarLabs, Big Spaceship, Block Media, Conde Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, Fry Hammond Barr, Microsoft, MTV Networks, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, Yahoo! and many others.

Rick’s team at Bluestone creates the interactive material for the Komen websites, and for several years he has had me record and edit the voicetracks with talent, Nancy Stolfo-Corti and Yasmin Wurts Metivier.

As someone who’s lost a family member to breast cancer, it’s good to be part of such a project.  And it’s even better to see that work recognized for excellence.

— over and out —