Classic movie voice overs

From Mental Floss:

Here's a great listing of classic voice overs from movies.  Movies like Good Fellas and American Psycho, amont others.  As this blogger notes, I too have heard voice-over in movies referred to as a cop-out, or a film-makers shortcut of telling us instead of showing us.  I see where that comment comes from, but in the end game I disagree, as we in the voice over industry knows a voice alone can tell a profound story, and just because a voice is speaking doesn't mean it's "merely" telling you something.  It could be hiding, subversive; a character unto itself.  My question would be: "is the voice over written well?"  Does it advance the story?  Or is it truly an excuse for poor story telling?

Here's one of their examples from StreetWise, a 1984 documentary: (skip to 1:02)



Check out their full list with more examples:

Mental Floss Movie Voice Overs

The Voice of James Joyce

I didn't even know there were any recordings of James Joyce in existence, but here's a sample of him reading his classic Finnegan's Wake via Boing Boing. It's a great example of an Irish accent, though an unsubstantiated commenter notes that Joyce is altering his accent to protray a rural washer woman character.

James Joyce - Finnegan's Wake

It'd be interesting to read this along with the text and note the vowel and phoneme changes.

The Talent/Client Relationship?

A friend showed me this video yesterday.  While it's intended to highlight the relationship between graphic designers or web developers and their clients, I think it captures some aspects of the voice talent/client relationship as well.



It comes down to perception...the client wants to fit the VO square peg in their circular business or payment model, and it doesn't always work that way!

AudioBook Workshop in Chicago

Chicago's very own Sheri Burger is hosting an audiobook workshop through Voice Over U, June 13 and 14.  The workshop features special guest William Dufris - the voice of Bob the Builder.

Snip:

Back by popular demand, VOU will once again host William (Bill) Dufris, one of the leading audiobook narrators in the country and voice of Bob the Builder , for a weekend of audiobook workshops in Chicago. We’ve updated the Beginner level, fine tuning the format making it more comprehensive and allowing more on-mic opportunities for participants to work on techniques and workshop their reads. And we’ve added an Advanced workshop to take you to the next level quickly and prepare you to meet publishers’ needs for home recording and production.

You can register at Sheri's site, and listen to an audio message from William Dufris.

Listening to Audio Books

A panel moderator mentioned at APAC the importance of us narrators actually listening to each other's work; taking the time to listen to new audio books.  I have to admit I felt convicted in my seat as I sat listening.  I listen to other narrator's demos and pieces or samples of audiobooks, but I can't remember the last time I listened to an entire book.

Oh wait, yes I can, it was the last time I had a car!  I forget how tied to driving audiobooks are for me - they are the perfect past-time for a brain that is partly devoted to staying on the road.  I find it hard to listen at home, and it's a bit hard to pin down why.  I think it has to do with the speed of my own reading habits.  I read fast, 2-3 books a week, so listening to an audio version I find myself getting impatient, thinking ahead and then losing the train of narration.  I have to make an effort.

I realized the Chicago Public Library has audiobooks for download, how cool is that?  Of course, I had to install this stupid program called Overdrive to download the audio, and it's in WMA so I can't listen on my iPhone 3g.  Now I have to go figure out a way to convert the files so I can listen on the train.  I just downloaded Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris.  It's an Audio award winner, and I vow to listen to the whole thing!