Airlift Productions RADIO work, New Orleans VoiceOvers

Airlift Productions Answers Chicken Versus Egg Conundrum

May 20, 2024 Micheal Leave a comment

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Around the Airlift Productions Studios, I still get into this one with my video production pals – when it comes down to audio versus video, which of the two is more powerful and packs the bigger punch?!?

I mean, what is all televison except radio… with pictures? Which came first? And where are the more powerful emotional cues?

You know, the ones that capture attention, motivate, inspire, scare … and drive someone to action?

Pause to consider, the very first sense that develops as the human develops within the mother’s womb is …. wait for it – the sense of HEARING! The growing infant HEARS the mother’s heartbeat and the rush of amniotic fluid, almost like ocean waves, surrounding it’s ears.

The eyes are nowhere in the picture yet.

Now, picture yourself in a movie theater. You are terrified by the motion picture – from b/w ‘Psycho’ in the ’60s to the latest flick about some camp counselor gone crazy chasing teens through the woods with an ax – and you can very simply close your eyes.

But you cannot close your ears!

The shrieks of terror, the ragged breathing, the sound effects, the dramatic music pulsing and pounding. Even when all sounds disappear and come to a complete … heart-pounding … stop!

Interestingly, the Creator gave us eyelids… but He didn’t give us EAR-lids!

Now, talk to a hospice caregiver, and they’ll quickly tell you from experience that in the majority of cases the final sense to leave us at death – is the sense of hearing.

More to the point, in the case of television advertising, when an ad comes on, many are off to the bathroom or into the kitchen. In this case, all the expensive video editing software and fancy visual zips and zaps are superfluous! They are not even there in the experience of the intended viewer.

The AUDIO portion of the ad, however, is still there – OUT LOUD for all to witness!

And since time immemorial, the story-telling tradition, as one generation passed legend and myth and bedtime stories down to the next, the entire presentation was aural – powerful, memorable and impact-full.

Sorry, video aces, but audio trumps video. It will always be AUDIO that drives the emotional train.

Airlift Productions, driving that emotional train from NEW Orleans …. since 1984.

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“Airlift is THE place to go for a top quality demo. With Mike behind the board you are in very capable hands. His vast knowledge and command of all things audio blends with his laid-back fun environment to bring out the best in any voice. Airlift Productions has the experience and all the tools necessary to make a voice-over reel that is on par with anything you would find in New York or LA!”

– – – HARLON MILLER, Voice-Over Actor

** Harlon’s Airlift-Mike-produced VoiceOver Demo **

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Airlift Productions – we’ll leave the mics hot… and the light on for you.

Airlift Productions ~ Audio Alchemy & Digital Magic from New Orleans… since 1984

mystical micheal musings, Native American Sympathies

Mother’s Day & The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

May 10, 2024 Micheal Leave a comment

Many thoughts are rambling around my head on this Mother’s Day weekend, so I came here to unpack a few of them. Allow me to wish you & yours a Happy One as I attempt to sort some things out.

It’s been said that, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”. Indeed, mothers, and the way in which they raise their children, most definitely mold and form society and the world in which we live.

Rightly or wrongly (and yes, there are bad mothers), through motherhood, women leave their indelible mark on the planet. Some seek to leave their footprints in the sands of time…while others leave but skid marks at the intersection.

Did you know that America’s first people, the Tribes – from the Sioux to the Cherokee – had quite a different view when talk of the planet and mothers was involved?

To them, four simple words summed-up all of existence – “Mother Earth, Father Sky”.

ALL food, all sustenance – indeed all life – grew from the Earth! Berries, fruit, maize, corn, wheat ALL came from the dirt beneath their feet. Mother Earth.

And all this nourishment, the very essence of life, would not be possible without the rains and the sun to make it grow. Father Sky.

Pretty simple, huh? And pretty true, too.

Well, if you’ve run with me this far on this Mother’s Day, let’s run just a bit further. I’m haunted as of late by a line from Paul Simon’s tune “Questions For the Angels”, wherein he poses this question…

“If every human on the planet and all the buildings on it should disappear… would a zebra grazing on the African savanna care enough to shed one zebra tear?”

Wow! Ponder that one a moment. Let that one sink-in a bit.

And I realize that it’s more than a tad on the dark side (for Mother’s Day weekend), but couple that thought with this troubling nightmare that persists… in my New Orleans nights.

The whole planet Earth – all now-Eight-billion-and-counting – all humanity…the very planet we call home – gone! Disappeared. And the epitaph on the tombstone says rather succinctly, “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” ~ signed, the Father.

No. Despite all human ‘advancements’ and technology and progress and religion and culture…in the eyes of the Creator Spirit that is ALL { the One the Tribes called ‘Wakan Tanka’} — we just didn’t cut it.

And the kicker? In the Big Picture? In the eyes of the vast universe… the disappearance of this one little planet in the backwaters of the Milky Way, here in what we call the 21st Century…didn’t even make the front page in the Sunday Universal Times.

Yet, from the palaces of Kim Jong Un to Vlad Putin, the games persist. And from the streets of Anytown USA to today’s nearby college campuses… peace, love & respect for human dignity increasingly get lost in our crazed, frantic and hyper-connected digital world.

And the beat goes on. Until it doesn’t.

I only wish that I had a rosier picture to paint this morning, but we’ll save that ‘rose’ for the Mother’s Day bouquet sitting on kitchen tables all over the world at this moment.