AC Holding establishes a global presence with +Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services

AC Holding chooses +Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services as the Nano-Tech voice to their video for world-wide reach of services.

Began in 1979, AC Holding is a privately held family business with a diversified group of companies anchored on trading, distribution and new business opportunities.

Plan-A Advertising had a vision of their own of how to break through the clutter with the diverse companies under the AC Holding banner. All state-of-the-art in their own right, Plan-A wanted a theme that revolved around AC's present technology and how to be empowered by it. As they like to remind viewers -The future doesn't wait for anyone!

They wanted a voice to complement the story-board that focused on the high-tech mechanics of AC's businesses (with frames that cotton to the movie - Minority Report). The video produced by Plan-A Advertising  makes us feel that we're in a Worlds Fair exhibit depicting what it could be like now and not just in the not-so-distant future.

We didn't think the voice should be preachy or trumpeting what the future holds for us. So, thinking maybe that little-sound-in-the-back-of-your-head effect could be useful, we decided on something that said, this might be what the future would sound like. Having always been a fan of Peter Thomas, (in particular his voice-over on the Traveler's Exhibit at the 1964 Worlds Fair) we continued that retro dynamic with special effects on the ACH voice. The sound is EQ'd to that of a low quality head-set. Textured, so sharp, that it almost hurts your ears. For lack of a better term, we coined it; the Nano-Tech effect. Very grateful to the folks at Plan-A Advertising for letting me in on this one. It was nice to be able to stretch some creative juices. Nadiya, a new member of the 'Team' that I hadn't worked with before, was terrific with conveying vividly the essence of the project that gave me a tangible point of entry. And that's a big factor in this business. Direction is everything. I feel like I'm really a part of something with this one.

By: +Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services

516.488.8840

The Mortuary brings "Mystere Escape Rooms" to a new level with Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services

Leaned a new one about the Haunt Industry...

Seems the rage around the Haunts is - Escape Rooms! This is where you pay for the real life sensation of you and your team being locked in a room with the task to escape before the time runs out. Usually 60 minutes. You begin by solving puzzles, uncovering clues, deciphering riddles and discover hidden keys to unlock the door to freedom. All with the satisfaction that your skills set you free!

The Mortuary Haunted Mansion in New Orleans wasted no time in putting together a complete package for it's Escape venue - Mystere Escape Rooms.

There are Five Rooms of the Mystere and all five need a different voice to introduce their various aspects, ratings and skill level difficulties to the public. From Karloff's voice to a scaly-wag pirate, these rooms come alive with distinction and engage event seekers.

 

 

Wrapping it all together as carnaval ringmaster is MORTO the puppet clue-master. He's a wise-craker.

He'll be showing up on Youtube soon enough...with links.

 

The Mystere Escape Rooms are supported with a thirty second television spot produced by PSX, Inc. , with Tom's contemporary youngish voice. It has YouTube presence for WW exposure with this link at the Mortuary's YouTube Channel and at Mystere Escape Rooms.

 

 

By: +Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services

516.488.8840

David Letterman's (Morning Show) with WTC Climber/George Willig - 1980

In another life TC & Co. was talent booking...some Highfalutin's on Occasion

It was back in the 80's when we were with Marty Ingels of Ingels Inc. - Celebrity Contact Service.   

Guess you could say we were making our bones as Marty's East Coast agent and developed a rapport with ad agencies here in the east. I had done an interview with George (WTC climber 5/26/77) shortly after the WTC climb and got along well enough to be friendly. I had mentioned to him my connection with Marty and he introduced me to Steve Lefkowitz, an agent over at N.S Beinstock, a sports talent agency at the time. Steve took me under his wing and generously shared his know-how of the business...and most important - how to work the phones if you couldn't be there in person. We were rife for new business, plus I was still running on the momentum of booking George on ABC's Super-Star Show a few months earlier in June. It was a lot of fun to coordinate the booking, rates, travel and smoothing out any edges or bumps to make sure everyone was relatively happy.

We passed the notion by George to be a guest on the Letterman Show and he was psyched. George actually met David on the Tonight Show while Dave was subbing for Johnny Carson. Dave's Show was a morning show back in the 1980's and l-i-v-e. So, the challenge was ON. Time to see if we can cast a little interest for George in Letterman's casting departments' direction and see if we can get a nibble. With some tenacity and that never-take-no-for-an-answer swagger I garnered from Steve, I had piqued the interests of David's talent coordinator for George being cast as a guest. She called in late August to say they wanted George on the show in mid-September. It would mark David's 65th show ending a 13 week cycle (or Final Show).

If you can believe it, George was actually canceled for that show while he was still in the air from California to New York a few days before going live. You didn't want to be eavesdropping on that call. But we convinced their talent coordinator to continue with George as planned. It goes without saying, that if there were Air-Phones on board at the time, George probably would've been cut from the show. My objection centered on him being told to go back to where he came from as soon as the wheels touched down in N.Y.

The show was slated to start at 10:00 AM and we arrived at the studio at 7:00 AM for rehearsals and timings. Originally scripted as the Show's opening scene (left script) was to have David (alone) climb up a 45 degree angle and introduce George as part of the guest list.

 

Yet, after a few rehearsal takes, it was falling flat. I was spit-balling a few ideas with the scenic designer that if they had some big-ass background scenes of a brick building then..."Sure we do", she said. We're NBC, we've got that stuff laying around all over. WoW, that's great. Then, I proffered placing George & Dave on the floor on top of the building graphic lying on their stomach's. Cue some SFX of street noises, coupled with some fans blasting away at the two of them to resemble swirling wind and place a camera over-head to take in the effect that they're scaling the side of let's say - the RCA building. Voila! You've got the makings for a premise that's believable. Watch as they play it up until David's best bud, Stan trots in for the reveal! 

The scenic designer loved it. "Hey, what's not to love", she said. It was on the cuff, the props were in storage and it was one more thing she didn't have to worry about. Plus, it turned out to be a great bit. The early Batman show used a facsimile of it every week to introduce cameo celebs. And I learned early on that it's always about what's best for the show...and no gloating allowed.  

Click for: Letterman Show video opener - with George & Dave

By: Tom Clifford, VoiceOver Youtube Channel

IMDb Page
https://www.facebook.com/tomcliffordvo/
https://voiceoverguy.tv

516.488.8840 (Studio)

516.448.9900 (M)

Keller Williams Gold Coast Sponsors Red-Day 2015

It's that time of year to 'Give-Back' ...and what better way than with donating my voice-over and production skills for the non-profit activities of Keller Williams Gold Coast Red-Day 2015. 

Red-Day is Keller Williams year 'round commitment to improving their local communities. Each year tens of thousands of associates, from across-the-globe, participate in a wide range of good will projects. This year they're collecting donations for the Vincent Smith School; A co-ed educational facility for children with special needs. 

 

The school offers a well integrated program of studies for boys & girls utilizing a multi-sensory approach to learning.
This is my second time around working on the Red-Day event along with my partner Mildred Tassone. I produced the voice-over and music track and she did the video production and the social media end.

By: +Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services

516.488.8840

TC & Company - Bringing the movie-going public together in the UAE

Grand Cinemas opening up the movie-going experience with the partnering of its SR & Co division. Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services is the voice of choice to brand the Call-to-Action video Plan-A Advertising produced. The video is a vivid bi-opic of sorts with stylized graphic animation depicting the cinema exhibition business growth in the UAE. It matter-of-factually shows there are certain dynamics at play that don't exist in too many other places of the world.

The video gives a good breakdown of the players, the interesting landscape and how at times, certain segments of the region are up for grabs that present opportunities. Featuring western and  regional film titles, the region is becoming more sophisticated than ever and equally thirsty for Hollywood content.

I'm more than happy to be able to represent the agency, but I particularly like being able to represent this part of our country's customs and way of life. Then I started to wonder if this part of the region might have entered into the picture making business. Have the resources to provide the necessary elements - sound and film stages, talent pools and crews that are checked out and know the lay of the land. So, I Googled it and sure enough the UAE does have a film commission at: http://www.film.gov.ae/en/  ...Complete with cash rebates, no less!

By: +Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services

516.488.4643

Super Bowl commercial with Tom Clifford marks 25th Anniversary

Tom Clifford's On-Cam as the 'Wimp' in Humongous Gas & Electric
Click above link to play

Super Bowl XXIV

On January 28th, 1990, new head coach, George Seifert, led the San Francisco 49ers to their second straight Super Bowl Title, blowing-out Dan Reeves' Denver Broncos 55-10 at the Louisiana Super-dome in New Orleans.

This game remains the most lopsided game in Super Bowl history to date. San Francisco's 55 points were the most ever scored by one team, and their 45-point margin of victory was the largest ever. The 49ers are also the only team to score at least eight touchdowns in a Super Bowl and at least two touchdowns in each quarter (the only mistake was a missed extra point attempt).

It was also a damn Big Night for the fans of Tom Clifford... his wife and infant child - LOL!

Because, during the game's commercial interruptions or as the industry calls 'em - commercial clusters,  the On-Camera commercial I had done for the Oil Heat Industry "Humongous Gas & Electric" aired in one of its 'commercial clusters'. I had a ball doing the spot (there were a series of them) and had a chance to work with Bill Bryden the star voice of those "Oxy Five" (prepubescent pimple ad) spots. We went from cloud nine to cloud ten when we later learned that the spot had gone on to win the prestigious Clio Award amongst the other nominees. In the ad business, the Clio was tantamount to getting an Academy Award Oscar...or something of that nature.

 

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

VoiceOverGuy
IMDb Page

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tomcliffordvo@gmail.com

SAG - Screan Actors Guild Awards - Member voting countdown is On!

As a select Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member who receives DVD's and Streaming videos for voter consideration - this time of year becomes Movie Night every night it seems...compliments of SAG! 

The countdown is On as another years Sag Awards loams ahead. Hunkering down to watch and vote for about 15 of this years nominated performances. The Guild will tally votes by Noon, January 23rd, 2015.

 

Just about a week into the year the landslide of DVD's start arriving at the door or Film streamer links are in our emails. 

 

The studios & networks have provided different options for members to view their Award-nominated projects. These include DVD's , digital streaming, free iTunes downloads, brick & mortar on-site screenings and Movie Cash. iTunes is the marquee of choice for streaming films. Some take a while to download and require a good sense of computing to work the ID's and secret PIN numbers. And some seem to be fired-up and ready to play right outta the gate! We download them onto our laptop and simply connect the HDMI patch into the big screen TV and watch them precisely as if they were DVD's. And you can re-visit them again and again till they expire. They're actually in a way 'squatting' on each members computer till a magical beam goes out just before the SAG Awards begin and deletes them from each members computer. Someone say - Big Brother.

It starts to get intense the week before they broadcast the SAG Awards. These little 5" x 5" DVD squares sent through Snail mail are arriving two at a time. Sag just introduced 5 more new digital streamers. It gets to the point that some days you can't remember which one was watched or anything about it. So, early in the process remarks are jotted about the SAG performances before early dementia sets in. And we take particular pride knowing that our vote is being counted. Feel like we're part of the A-list...till the next morning where it's time to make the Bagels...again.

By: +Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services

516.488.4643