Water Mill Bldg. Supply casts TC & Company to voice its Radio Summer Splash

One of the perks of voicing company VoIP's is that you sometimes get to be cast in their radio & tv advertising...as is the case with Water Mill Building Supply. Offering customers in the Hampton's, the Quogue's and in Montauk quality hardware with all the finest trimmings.

WMBS, as they are known in their condensed form for online and smartphone presence, wanted a young trusting read for a co-op radio campaign with Royal Building Products. But wait, after hearing I could put 200 words together and still make it under :60 seconds they decided to stretch the envelope ever further and throw in a few additional words for their Connecticut subsidiary; Country Lumber. Ah, a Challenge! 160 or so words is the usual amount for a Sixty.

Whoa, it's not as easy as you think to fit 1:10 seconds into :58/:59. For those who are strictly digital, it's important to point out that speeding things up can only get you so far until it's stretched to the point of sounding robotic. The initial vo track was recorded at 44,100 kHz. We sped it up to 45,300 kHz. Most sounded OK but there were pockets that weren't sounding natural. Those areas were replaced with the original track. Just a sentence or two was all that was needed. Ahhh, but we were still long by about 3 seconds. Wait a minute - how 'bout we take advantage of a well known trick used by the car industry...The 'fine print' disclaimer! You know the deal; rat-a-tat-tat the fine-print at a hundred miles per hour and EQ'd to sound like one's inner-most thoughts or an airline Capt.'s debriefing via overhead speaker. Worked perfect for the last lines.

And just when we had it...the client called and said we gotta use the entire client name for the smartphone app. So, instead of wmbs we now had to say Water Mill Building Supply.  

Luckily, before we all had heart attacks, the client gave us their blessing of taking out some not-so-essential words to help with the effort. That kept the integrity of the spot intact regardless of its bulging 223 word count. Here's the abbreviated version of the Water Mill Building Supply radio spot.

 

Click to Play

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

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Major Southeast Auto Dealer casts Tom Clifford as the voice of their TV Story Book Character

Fantastic Plastic Video & Film Production for a major Auto Group in the Southeast has chosen Tom Clifford as their character voice for their new TV ad campaign. Much like that of Winnie-the-Pooh, Tom conveys the warm & fuzzy sound of a mythic story-teller. He walks us through in rhythmic rhyme as the story unfolds with the turning of pages. This was a great vehicle for our character talents to shine.

Did our homework on the voice to the degree that I know Sterling Holloway's interpretation of 'Pooh' is somewhat different than today's - Christopher Robin's 'Pooh' which sounds a bit British. I auditioned using copy from Dr. Seuss' "Sam-I-am" . They wanted that same cadence. Came out where we split some hairs and developed a unique voice for the client's new character. Fantastic Plastic relayed the client's reaction to the finished spot:
"The client is ecstatic at the results, already talking sequel." 

There's nothing more satisfying for an actor to learn that their homework paid off with an "extremely happy client".  Equally important is knowing that as part of a collaborative effort of art and scripting, I was able to bring their vision to life. Hopefully, there will be 'life' after this initial concept.

click to play spot

Here's an excerpt from Fantastic Plastic's 'profile' page regarding the overall concept to final production of the Story-Book approach:

We're pretty happy that we were able to turn this around from concept to delivery in about three or four days. First, Honda ad guru Ben Boles (who we think pretty darn highly of), floated the Seuss idea as something his Big Boss wanted to try. At that point it was pretty much just "One car, two car," and not much more.  We jumped on it and the creative director wrote the script, and made arrangements with the artist to create all the illustrations. Before the drawings were even started, the editor began creating the book animation just with blank pages. While the artist was at work, we hit up voice actor Tom Clifford (who can impersonate darn near anyone) to see if he could do a voice reminiscent of the late great Sterling Holloway. Surely enough, he could. Then  spent a day coloring the drawings like a madman, and putting it all together. Fairly frantic days, extremely happy client. That's a good combo.

 

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

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Tom Clifford celebrates another 25 years voicing Oxford & Simpson's imaging

It leaves a body all warm & fuzzy to be re-cast as the voice of Oxford and Simpson for another 25 years. They're upgrading their VoIP on which we've been a regular fixture for 25 years. When it came time to load the voice imaging they didn't want any other voice but TC's !

Celebrating long term work anniversaries seem to be happening a lot lately. O & S and TC & Co's. association started in1994. Back then the technology was altogether different and in some ways, very much the same...go figure. Back then all the VoIP voicing was done onsite via a telephone hand-piece and physically coding and assigning the prompts to record and playback. When we went back this month to re-voice the new system, we still had to do it On-Site.

However the Day, Evening and Special greetings, menus and sub-menus were able to be done via prerecorded wave files from a  professional studio. There was a bit of a learning curve on this one regarding the sample rate with these newer "advanced" systems. We had a similar case in Atlanta we kept referencing. We were told verbatim that these advanced systems require very small wave files Kilobytes not Megabytes. (8k X 8 bit) to be precise. We were also steered towards this new app software to record the files. And guess what? Really crappy sound. But wait - didn't we see somewhere within the support pages that 16 bit was also acceptable. Let's try one and see if the Phone Co. accepts it. Yep! It worked and sounded 100 % more fidelious...and no one complained.

O & S has now moved into the hotel suite and hotel specialty design area. So, it's not just about 'Relocating Corp. America' but broader aspects of commercial aesthetics. Basically, 'curbside appeal' to optimize value for the corporate landlord.

We're happy and honored to be a part of Oxford & Simpson's next 25 years. We know all too well that a good deal has gone into getting folks to call a company. That first impression has to continue supporting the entire company image far into the future. We're grateful to be included...I'll tell ya, we're grateful to be anywhere...ya know what I mean! For-a-listen -

516.935.2000

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

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Tucker Carlson takes a beatin as Tom Clifford takes the Fall

Based on the early Sunday morning political discussion panels ala "Crossfire", I had auditioned for and booked an on-camera TV spot that featured that exact set-up for a UPN parody promo. I was cast as the Tucker Carlson element..right down to the bygone bow tie.




Our four panel set resembled that Sunday political discussion look...except for a misplaced hulking figure known affectionately throughout the wrestling world as: Kane-the-Destroyer! Guess who's about to get a dose of good 'ole whupass. This could get ugly. They gave me a stunt double. But I still got grabbed, hoisted and shook like a rag-doll a full day till we made the switch.

I had asked my stunt double, (spoiler alert) the guy being thrown thru the glass table, if he knew Jery Hewitt. Did he ever - with glowing reverence. Jery is a world renowned stunt-man and stunt coordinator. Knowing Jery, who I've mentioned in earlier blog posts as a friend of George Willig's, paved the way for me to be treated as One-of-the-Guys for the entire shoot. At the time a stunt coord. was required on set. Kane was this imposing mammoth 7' bear who wore a mask. But, a cool dude out of character.

 

Dig that appearance by fellow panelist who is none other than New York's WPIX' Magee Hickey. We actually auditioned together and maybe my being a fan played a part with the chemistry between us. Magee was a total delight and helped keep me centered with the ever changing sides. Just saw her on Showtime in the Pelican Brief doing her thing.

Below is the UPN promo link where we're featured as the Tuck-ster getting pummeled by WWE's 'Kane' for being well, Tucker Carlson.

Play UPN Promo Spot

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

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Last...Last Call with Carson Daly - Tom Clifford voices John Kerry

Not much this month compares with the latest news-of-the-day...Carson Daly calls it quits as the host for Last Call w/Carson Daly.

The series began as a traditional talk show but changed formats in September 2013. At that time, shortly after Daly had been named as a host of “Today,” he began filming only the segments that aired at the opening and conclusion of each episode. The interview segments were then taken over by the show’s producers.


“Last Call” first launched in 2002 and will have aired 2000 episodes upon its conclusion.
Back in the early 2000's I got a call from my agent at Abrams Artist's to do a John Kerry imitation for Carson's show here in New York, before he left for L.A.

John Kerry at the time was running for president. I did a Kerry voice-over for a Post Run-for-President Tv spot. It went over a video montage of the worst crap Kerry could find on Tv. Got some nice laughs. Here's the sketch below:

Carson's team was 2nd to none with steppin up in the walk-the-talk department. Always thought that a good team is an extension of a good host. I remember asking one of the team if I might get an autographed head-shot of Carson. Sure - they fired back,  let us know your address. It's for my daughter and if he could make it out to her, that would be something else. Wham..Bam a week later Carson's head shot arrived with a cool sentiment inscribed to my daughter. We wish Carson all the very best as a home-dude with the F-A-M...and with his new digs at the Golf Channel.

This just in from Variety.com (3/14/19):
The Peacock network announced last month that “Last Call with Carson Daly” would end its run after 17 years and 2000 episodes.
Before “Last Call,” the show was titled “Later,” hosted first by Bob Costas (starting in 1988), and later by Greg Kinnear, and then Cynthia Garrett.

Lilly Singh, who first amassed fame as a YouTube star, has been tapped to replace Carson Daly as the host of NBC’s 1:35 a.m. talk show.
The re-titled “A Little Late with Lilly Singh” will launch in September, and as noted by NBC, will make her the only female to currently host a late-night talk show on one of the Big 4 networks. “A Little Late” will feature Singh conducting in-studio interviews, as well as feature pre-taped comedy sketches and other “signature elements.”

“Lilly is truly a star and we’re thrilled to welcome her to our NBC family,” said Doug Vaughan, executive vice president, special programs and late night, NBC Entertainment. “She is a multi-talented performer who will surely have a great rapport with not only all her guests but also with our devoted late-night audience. We can’t wait to get started.”  
Click Here - for video of Lilly w/Jimmy Fallon & Seth Meyers:

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

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SHUTDOWN Anthem (TC & Co's Musical Parody of the longest Gov't Shutdown in history)

During the Martin Luther King weekend had a chance to have a little fun with what's been said and done about the recent Government ShutDown of partial services. Now in its 33rd day, it has become the longest Gov't ShutDown in history. And there doesn't seem to be any real end in sight. OR, it could be over in a fell swoop...as its become the norm of late. With that in mind, whatever would be created needed to be done n-o-w. Or, it would be an obvious moot point to take aim at it once the ShutDown is o-v-e-r.

The idea hit me while tooling around in the kitchen to make lunch. For some reason the Beatles song Don't Let Me Down entered my head. Can't say why. Radio wasn't on...maybe social media flashed it for some sorta subliminal thing. But, it was one of those Dah-Ha moments. It had "don't SHUT me down" written all over it. Hey, this could be my ticket for the coolest video that goes viral. Yeah..yeah, especially with 6 followers! Went over to Utube. They had a piece of karaoke music of the song without vocals...or very suppressed as you can faintly hear at times. Keeping in mind that at any second the ShutDown could be resolved, I added just a few renditions of screeching DSMD without any time-intensive overdubbing or sweetening. The Rep. Senate Majority Leader (Mitch McConnell) was added, a smidgen of the real bloke's at the end and a ditty of John and voila, the soundtrack was done.

Added some shots from GooG of the ShutDown situation around the country and let Microsoft's default video editor 'Movie-Maker' do the sequencing. Done. But, Freakin Large. In the words of Charlton Heston "As god is my witness" the (58:00 sec) file was exactly 100 MB's. Blogger won't accept it. It has a 100 or larger MB max. So, I went into Movie-Maker again and made a few fades shorter at top & bottom and it came in at 99.7 MB's. AND Blogger took it. The original version is on Facebook

So, below video is a musical anthem to the quandary our country seems to be in. Forgive the strain in the voice without any benefit of harmony tracks, but it's kinda about the premise...and it sorta gives it a texture of Whining,  Painful, Anguish. Oh, The Pain (Dr. Smith). I did another pass of the music track with some enhanced (Flanged, echo delay, EQ and pitch), but it's coming in at 100 & 102 MB's for the same quality. Odd, insomuch as it's a second less than the original and an mp3 was used instead of wave for the soundtrax? So, here's an audio (only) link to the embellished ShutDown soundtrax.

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

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TC & Company's Year-End Roundup

 

With last years focus on M-O-R-E, 2018 found that we had to real-in the generosity a bit if only to retain the overall values of our services. Also, it was a time to unearth who are the serious clients...and who's just pullin your chain. Case-in-point, a client who was in desperate need to add a integral part to their media, finally asked to ...whip something up and they'll pay cash!

Then, the 'We're not In till you don't need us anymore' dropped by for a visit...a lovely Christmas present for the season. You might be familiar with the drill; a client you've been working with for 5 or so years puts in an order and you don't heed the 1st principle of business and ask for a deposit first. Then, they abandon their commitment with all sorts of avoidance's. They were almost funny. Funny how...like a clown! It sucks. And it's my own fault for not asking for a deposit 'cause I thought it might be insulting to the Client. To boot, the area we developed had been absent. So, anything would be better than silence...and we covered all the bases. But, alas, it was falling on deaf ears.

Then the client finally surfaced and emailed us revealing they didn't have any time to come up with anything new and will leave things as they were for now. WTF! They didn't come up with anything. This was a page right outta Kelly-Ann's playbook! Alright, try and shake it off. Oh, what was a main-streeter business person do? Read that client the R-I-O-T act and burn a bridge? To make things even more sobering - this client was a referral. So, it's more than just one bridge burning. 

Is there any recourse to recoup the cost of all the work that was done?

We'll see what develops for the New Year. If nothing else, now that the client has tangible product, we have skin in the game as it were...whether we invoice for it or not.

Otherwise, this year's tally's weren't half bad. Lots of different angles an opportunities...some gotten, some lost. 

We ended the year on a mournful note with the passing of George H W Bush (41). As a tribute to our past President we featured an animated cartoon of Tony Auth's I voiced while with the NBC Sunday Today Show. We voiced a number of cartoonists almost every Sunday from the likes of: Paul Conrad, Doug Marlette, Don Wright, Szep, Gahan Wilson, Oliphant, Mike Peters, MacNelly and a dozen or so more political cartoonists back in the late 1980's and early '90's.

We had our long time collaborator & friend George Willig (WTC human-fly) appear on the M @ the M show after the producer saw our video  "Unclimbable"  on Utube. Only hitch was...they never told us! To boot, we wound up having to pay for the privilege to watch the episode! It was a Mystery to us. Blog Post George, in his inimitable way, deferred to it as maybe being his fault. "You know how I can be...don't be too hard on 'em". Either way, no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth and we made the best of it from the SEO we garnered from the itunes link of the episode.

Phenomena Advertising chooses TC & Company to launch their branding company. They're half-way around the world so wanted to give it all I got...and be g-o-o-d. They wanted an authoritative, confident and middle-aged sound to market a shoestring amount of copy. So, the pressure was ON to make every word count and do something unique, or as the 'Thing' would say...it's 'Brandin time! Blog Post

Was given the chance to work with a company based in the United Kingdom, called Brit Deals. Brit Deals Limited is an Amazon-like online retailer. BDL offers wholesale & closeout deals on merchandise in more than thirty different categories. This is not as easy as it sometimes sounds. And here's the rub; British pronouncements of key words can trip-up your delivery from sounding as though one is trying to do an accent to one that sounds authentic & believable. Blog Post

Another referral has been landed with the American Broadcast Employees Federal Credit Union. We were hired to voice their VOiP and multimedia with New York & California as initial starts points. With hopes that it'll catch on to their other satellite branches. Blog Post

Canobie Lake Screeemfest continues In-House with Tom Clifford as Halloween Season unfolds. What anyone in this business...or any business fears is the changing of the guard.

Changes are inevitable and will have little to do with your past performance. The best thing anyone in business can tell you after a new rank & file comes in... they STILL want you On-Board to continue representing their company image.

 

by:+Tom Clifford, VoiceOver & Creative Services   

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