Airlift Productions & Micheal Ziants Add the Voice & Sizzle to Tujague’s Radio spot
I was reminded of this gig just last night when I caught the spot on WRNO-99.5-Rush Radio in New Orleans. Man, how times … and dimes have changed.
When it came time for legendary French Quarter restaurant Tujagues on Decatur to roll-out it’s new Brunch menu and shout it from the rooftops via WRNO, the bat signal went out into the night sky for Airlift Mike.
What followed is kind of like the ‘alley-oop’ play in basketball – Bo Walker (then-production chief at Clear Channel) emailed me the copy … I voiced it and sent it back to him, along with some sound effect cues … he added his music track and mixed it down, then ping-ponged this mp3 back to me … and voila!
Part history lesson, part menu … and all sizzle! And when it all comes out of your car speaker on WRNO or worldwide via their I-Heart radio app, ‘Tujagues Brunch Menu’ radio :60 sounds like this….
Yeah, pretty amazing times we’re living in, huh?
Please though, do not attempt this kind of radio production at home. These men are trained professionals.
Note: No animals were harmed in the making of this commercial.
Tujagues Brunch Menu Radio :60 Voiced by Micheal Ziants & Airlift Productions
Veteran New Orleans VoiceOver Talent Micheal Ziants, 2012 Promotional Pic
You know, when you think of a VoiceOver in the 21st century it is so much different than a VoiceOver in the 20th century.
In radio & television’s infancy last century the V/O was all about “Announcing” – Loud, shout-it-from-the-rooftops, in-your-face … arresting and intrusive, with letter-perfect pronunciation and tones. Also read ‘abrasive’.
Just as in all things, the VoiceOver has changed too. Today, think of the candid, reflective, pensive tones in Morgan Freeman’s work in ‘Shawshank Redemption’, or even DiCaprio’s V/O tones in ‘Wolf of Wall Street’.
While these were movies, indeed all VoiceOver work today – radio, tv, industrials, software, etc – is the domain of the actor. The ‘announcer’ is just so passe.
The challenge for the VoiceOver talent today is to ‘inhabit’ the copy, get ‘inside’ the words, convey and emote so as to make the words jump off the paper – and live and breathe … and motivate!
(tone shift…) As America prepares for yet another 4th of July, with hot dogs, apple pie, beer, fireworks and … family, allow me to share a project of mine that takes the VoiceOver and applies it to matters of the heart.
In one of America’s fave romantic comedies, one of America’s fave Brits, Hugh Grant opens up ‘Love Actually’ with a rather poignant and pointed soliloquy about love and families … and heartbreak.
With poetic license, I changed the name of the airport from ‘Heathrow’ to ‘Louis Armstrong’, borrowed the movie music and a few sound effects and came up with this …
You know, in the last century – somewhere between the ‘Mad Men’ and the beginning of the 21st, there used to be an ad that contained the line, ‘If you want to get someone’s attention… just … whisper.’
