VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Ed Fisher]

Note to me from client: "That is perfect. They liked the somewhat southern read. It needs to sound professional and strong but still have a bit of the south in it."


Note to self: "I don't remember doing a southern read."


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"I reserve the right to be completely wrong."

[Jason Huggins]

Good stuff 😃 I recently did a live session with a client from Toronto who said he chose me because I sounded like I was from Toronto. Guess growing up in Michigan was a benefit... this once.

[vkuehn]

What is the old cliche' ... "Beauty is in THE EYE of the beholder."

I suspect I am not alone in this trait in this crowd: I have lived in 9 states. I've plagiarized phrases, sounds, accents from each. I had an extended phone conversation with my sister three states away yesterday afternoon. She asked about my V-O venture and the book narration. And way down somewhere in that conversation, she confronted me: "Your accent has changed. You don't talk the same way you used to. I put some exaggerated amount of Sun-Belt in my voice as I asked: "How would ya' like for me to sound?"

What I think sounds Southern might not impress someone trying to purchase some voice work who has their own idea of what Southern sounds like.

I tried to deliver my interpretation of a Pennsylvania 'sound" one time and it was suggested to me that I should never, never attempt that again. So my favorite story about a radio announcer who grew up Pennsylvania seldom gets told.

[scottnilsen]

I was recently asked to voice another spot for someone because they wanted it to "sound Asian to appeal to that demographic...just like the last one you did for us."

Except that I didn't do that before... just did a straight read. Whatever. The check still cashed.
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We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Well, that and mimes.

(714)408-6405 www.scottnilsen.com

[Scott Pollak]

I've lived in the South my entire life (Oklahoma, Texas, La., Alabama and now Atlanta) and have worked hard to try to NOT sound Southern but I know it still crops up from time to time. Folks here, of course, think I have NO accent at all, but then I'll have clients in New York (with their thick, New Yahk accent) ask me to 'not sound so southern'. LOL. And, ironically, I also have a lot of N.Y. and northeast clients who DON'T hear any accent! Go figure.

Like Vernon said, I guess it's in the ear of the beholder.
I quit trying to fight it a while back.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[Rob Ellis]

Yeah when I tell people where I'm from they say "You don't have the accent that I would expect to hear".......but I can turn it back on when I need to

[ConnieTerwilliger]

I posted a link to some spots I did for Northern Ohio and a couple of people have commented on how I nailed the Ohio accent. I was going for mature - over 65 - and I guess my mature voice comes from Ohio.
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[ccpetersen]

Yeah. We moved away from the Boston area before I could perfect my "Southie".

There's a lady who runs a gas station a few miles away from me here who is from Ayer, MA, which was right down the road from us. Sometimes I stop in just I can say to somebody, "Hi, how ah yah!?"



c
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Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420

[Lee Gordon]

I have found that people who request a specific regional accent are often producing material for use in a market outside of their own, thinking (incorrectly, in my opinion) that it will better relate to the locals. For example, I recently did some commercials for a law firm in Portland, ME. The audition request came from Kansas or some similar place in the middle of the country. They, at least, had the good sense to request a version with just a slight hint of the accent and one without an accent. Fortunately, I believe good sense prevailed and they opted for the no-accent version.

This is similar to a phenomenon that anybody who has worked in local radio will recognize: you get a piece of copy for a local business that was clearly written by somebody from out of town and it will include the city and state in the address. For example, here in Hartford we would get scripts for stores located at "Westfarms Mall, Farmington, Connecticut." For one thing, the mall straddles a couple of towns and nobody thinks of it as being in Farmington. For another, everybody around here knows where Westfarms Mall is so there's no need to mention a town. And the "Connecticut" bit is totally superfluous.

One of the strangest accent requests I ever got was a promo video for a book called "Black & Gold Party Gras," celebrating the Super Bowl victory of the New Orleans Saints back in 2009. It was produced by people in New Orleans, presumably for consumption mostly by people in New Orleans, but they wanted it done "Brooklyn style." Don't ask me why.
Black & Gold Party Gras
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[mmellinger]

I just got this today: i liked your voice but client said, they want a voice from the US but not sound so American.

[Diane Maggipinto]

did you tell him about the liberty bell?


btw, martha, i'm loving the pashmina or fake pashmina in lieu of coats. we talked about that in san antonio
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com