Jon Batiste takes the call from Stephen Colbert to become CBS-Late Night House Band Leader
Well ahead of his late night CBS-TV debut this fall, Stephen Colbert made the big announcement just last night. His pick to lead his house band will be New Orleans (actually Kenner, bruh) native and the insanely talented —JONBATISTE.
Hailing from a long line of incredible N’awlins musical talent that stretches from today’s Harry Connick, Jr., Dr. John & Trombone Shorty back to “Satchmo” Louis Armstrong himself, Jonathan may not be an American household name – yet.
But trust me, this star is rising. Into the stratosphere!
** Batiste & his “Stay Human” Band take us all down to the St. James Infirmary **
Concerned that way too many folks today are totally lost in their own little “plug-in, tune-out digital worlds”, Jon has named his band “Stay Human”. As he touts live music’s unique ability to unite and uplift humanity.
Now, how cool is that?
And just as personable and warm as he can be, Batiste is magically magnetic in front of the camera, too. Perhaps you’ve already caught him on HBO’s “Treme”, or in Spike Lee’s “Red Hook Summer”.
Yes, late night television is getting a shot of funked-up electrifying New Orleans jams that will make getting to bed just a little more difficult this fall.
And somehow you have to know that somewhere, some place, relaxing in front of the flat screen in a dimly lit den will be Dave & Paul, tapping their feet, smiling in approval.
Oh, and more than one or two ultra-proud New Orleanians, too!
It sure has been an interesting week around the Airlift Productions Studios here in NOLA. And a day in the life of a VoiceOver artist is certainly never boring.
There is not an ocean on the planet that Seacor Marine vessels do not sail. And multinational Shell Oil is among the largest and most powerful oil companies in the world.
This past week I had the honor of working for both of them.
Yes, the Airlift Studios were buzzing as commercial work & audio book projects gave way to industrial fare. You know, it occurred to me a long time ago that teaching someone how not to die while on the job was not only necessary… but rather noble.
Airlift Productions Proprietor Micheal Ziants working On Camera for Seacor Marine
Working alongside Tim Weston of TLW Productions here in NOLA, Wednesday afternoon I narrated Safety Videos for the SEACOR MARINE crews in an effort to get the boys out to sea from Port Fourchon safely.
Meanwhile, Friday morning, contacted and contracted by new Airlift client Launch Media in Baton Rouge, I recorded a corporate outreach effort on behalf of SHELL OIL.
In fact, this job struck like lightning! The call and email came into Airlift after hours Thursday night, and was signed-off on, recorded, tagged & bagged by 9:30 Friday morning.
Launch Media Creative Director Wes Kennison made the request, then orchestrated and directed via the Airlift phone-patch, and wave files were relayed back to Baton Rouge for post-production.
When it comes to corporate, industrial V/O jobs, the person behind the mic has to take control… cross the T-s and dot the I-s, with letter-perfect diction. With Authority. With Conviction. With Sincerity.
*** Airlift Mike, setting the pace for Port Fourchon, LA ***
Airlift’s Micheal Ziants (Right) with actor Joe Renier, On-Camera with TLW Productions for Seacor Marine … deep in the Gulf of Mexico
Like I said, a day in the life of a working VoiceOver artist is never boring. Especially if you get to occasionally play around in front of the camera too! From New Orleans …. 150 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico.
And teaching someone how not to die while on the job is not only necessary … but noble.
“Murder In Coweta County”, the true 1948 crime drama that shocked America – Now in Audio from Airlift Productions , Micheal Ziants & Pelican Publishing
It really is true: To the VoiceOver guy, if the thirty second radio spot is the 100 yard dash, then the audio book recording process would have to be the marathon.
What a marathon – and what an audio book – “Murder In Coweta County” turned out to be. An autopsy on American Ideals and Dreams that mixes prejudice, racism, big money, pride, murder and southern justice all cast against the backdrop of 1948 Georgia – I lost count after 75 all the different characters I would have to portray by book’s end.
The courtroom scenes, which dominate the back half of the book, involve questioning from agenda-filled lawyers and testimony from terrified and frightened witnesses. For they have been called to help fill in all the details and build the state’s case against the villainous, feared, arrogant John Wallace.
Actual courtroom photograph from 1948 of a smiling, confident – and headed to the electric chair (“Old Sparky”) – John Wallace
Bringing LIFE to printed words on paper, painting mental pictures, taking the listener to front-stage center in the ‘theater of the mind’ are the challenges posed to the audio book narrator & actor.
In this excerpt from Chapter 21 of “Murder In Coweta County”, it was my task to, in effect, be the Judge, Jury & Executioner, as the saying goes … as I create antagonist, protagonist and everyone in between – from the prosecutor to the service station attendant cleaning up blood-stained car mats. Even the aged father of the poor, murdered victim.
~ Airlift Mike reads from Chapter 21 of “Murder In Coweta County”, courtesy of the krewe at Pelican Publishing ~
If a printed book can be referred to as a “page turner”, urging the reader ever-onward, it’s Pelican Publishing’s and my hope that this audio book will be a tough one to turn off.
Given the fact that the outcome, which is a long foregone conclusion having been based on a true crime drama (“he gets the chair”), the magic has to be in the story telling. Or as Billy Shakespeare used to say, “The play’s the thing”.
And play it I did. My heart, soul, blood, sweat & tears … metaphysical studies & philosophical leanings, coupled with my decades of on-mic experiences are all boiled down into the tracks of every chapter of this audio book. Truly.
So, as 2015 continues to grind on – with tensions from Ferguson to Baltimore – give a listen to this fascinating autopsy on America’s roots and ideals.
Available from the krewe across the river at Pelican Publishing, it will serve as a permanent reminder around the house and to all of America, that racism must be a thing of the past, that might does not make right … and that “crime does not pay”!
The late author Margaret Anne Barnes together with Johnny Cash, who portrayed her MICC hero Lamar Potts in the made-for-TV movie version
It would appear that seeds sown through countless past seasons have now rooted, grown and indeed blossomed. Too flowery? Too poetic? Not so much. Run with me here…
While Airlift Productions clients of last century found Airlift & me via the Yellow Pages (“let your fingers do the walking…”), this Spring’s flowers have all been delivered through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and that wacky Internet of Things. Really.
Don Draper & Roger Sterling, those dashing Mad Men, would not even recognize the marketing landscape of today! And audio/video production crews of the 1970s and ’80s wouldn’t even have a clue as to what’s going down in 2015.
Through the Airlift Productions website and this blog, imagine the fascinating and interesting jobs produced already this Spring from the Airlift Productions studios here in NOLA —–
Jeorjina Tegel, the right-hand hands-on exec at Right Hat on this job. Thanks for your help, Jeorjina. To call this gig ‘interesting’ would be a gross understatement.
The call came just weeks ago from Elonide, the President of a Boston & Chicago-based Ad Agency, Right Hat, for some help – the job?A :30 radio ad, which would be overseen by the writer Andy, who lives in Manhattan… the spot would be voiced by four different voice actors (all working from their respective home studios), and yours truly was contracted to produce and engineer the finished spot (for a CPA firm) to air – in San Francisco!
All sound a bit confusing? Well, it certainly was ‘out there’ and different. The commercial involved EIGHTEEN cuts/edits – in a thirty second radio ad – and multiple attempts to find the just-right music.
And the entire job … from NOLA to Chicago to NYC to San Francisco began … with a Google/Bing search by Elonide at the helm of Right Hat.
Airlift Productions records “The Boys Who Challenged Hitler” for Recorded Books, New York
Just two weeks ago, the Airlift Studioswere really buzzing, as we phone-patched between NOLA and NYC (from the Big Apple to the Big Easy) to record the Audio Book “The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen & the Churchill Club”.
Contracted by Recorded Books in NYC, the world’s largest independent distributor of audio books to libraries, schools & the retail market, Airlift Productions warmed-up the mics to record the book’s author Phil Hoose, as he interpreted the words of it’s hero.
Imagine, if you can, 1940s Danish teens, upset by Denmark’s neutral stance, who decide to take on the Gestapo, the Nazis and the 3rd Reich all by themselves … and spearhead Danish resistance. Wow! What a story.
Author PHIL HOOSE records “The Boys Who Challenged Hitler” at Airlift Productions NOLA April 2015
The sessions ran nine hours across two days, and all the wave files were directed via the Airlift phone-patch and neatly dropped back into Manhattan via an FTP site for use by their editors.
And Andy & his gang at Recorded Books found Airlift and me via the internet and a Google search. As he let his ‘fingers do the walking’ – 21st century style.
Finally, just this past week, the call came into the Airlift Studios from Denver and a big post-production house called High Noon Entertainment. These guys are the driving force behind many of your fave shows from TLC, Discovery, HGTV, Animal Planet & …. well, you get the idea.
As it turns out, the hot new show on The Cooking Channel is a fun one called “Taco Trip”, and it’s star, another fun one himself, is a close buddy & business partner with our NOLA chef John Besh. And he needed to record VoiceOver tracks for the show.
The Cooking Channel’s AARON SANCHEZ cooks-up tasty VoiceOvers for TACO TRIP at Airlift Productions NOLA April 2015
Chef Aaron Sanchez blew in the Airlift Studio doors like a hurricane Wednesday morning, we set mic levels, then phone-patched between NOLA and Denver as producer Matt Walker walked the good chef through all his reads for the show.
Again, voila! Within the hour, all the big fat wave files were delivered to Denver, tagged & bagged and ready for air – on flat screens via cable & satellite on The Cooking Channel … all across America!
Airlift Mike – like the local fireman down at the firehouse – ready to take the call
Yeah, I guess you could say that Spring is busting out all over at Airlift Productions. And if these are the April showers … what will May bring?
Morgus the Magnificent – aka Sidney Noel Rideau – Records VoiceOvers at Airlift Productions … for over a Quarter of a Century! Really.
I guess it would be safe to say that in operating a recording studio in America’s most colorful city – New Orleans – for what is now THIRTY years, that I’ve worked with some pretty colorful characters.
From setting microphone levels for Dr. John and Archie Manning to recording projects with all of the city’s mayors ( Morial-2X to Landrieu-2X), verbally jousting with Mary Matalin & James Carville, even coaching ‘Annie’ Quvenzhane Wallis through tough V/O copy for Chrysler … my most unforgettable – and beloved – character would have to be Morgus the Magnificent!
Sidney Noel Rideau & I go back over 25 years together now; he has the distinction (?) of being the only person who has recorded at every recording studio I’ve ever built, every incarnation of Airlift Productions; He is the eccentric uncle I never had! I love this man.
We first met in 1986 while I was producing radio ads for and operating as the Voice of WGNO-TV/Channel 26 here in New Orleans, and he was reviving his ‘Morgus Presents” TV show. Our first gig together was in my closet-studio Airlift iteration where we recorded all the E.R.I.C. (the talking skull) heavily-reverbed V/O tracks for use in the shows.
E.R.I.C. the talking skull records VoiceOver at Airlift Productions
Our relationship continues to this day. I almost feel as though I’ve become his real-life Chopsley, in that I’ve operated as his behind-the-scenes henchman all these years.
Together we’ve produced everything from radio ads for Cajun seasonings products to public service announcement campaigns for his Internet Story Club teacher-family outreach … but among my favorite sessions with my fave ‘Uncle Sid’ would have to be the one that is the subject of this post – ‘Marriage Insurance’.
As fate would have it, Sid’s Morgus character is also one of nationally-broadcast Coast-to-Coast late night radio host George Noory’s favorites too! And Sid stopped by the Airlift Studios in February 2006 to record a few ‘pilots’ for segments to possibly be used in Noory’s nightly broadcasts. I kid you not.
The proposed segments never did materialize (radio marketing in the 21st century is a very tricky thing), but this never-before-heard audio is just way too-funny and priceless.
It’s for the “Morgusian Marriage Insurance Company of America”, protecting your marriage from divorce, and includes not only Sid’s outrageous take on the state of marriage in America today – but I’ve also left in all the out-takes! I particularly love the way he slides in/out of character, and oh, that laugh …..
**** Sidney Rideau – aka Morgus the Magnificent – takes on the perplexing problem of marriage & divorce for the Airlift Productions microphones in February 2006 ****
Today, Uncle Sid is enjoying retirement on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in a tiny hamlet known as Covington, LA with his bride of all these years Dainya. They met in the late 1950s in NYC where Sid was being considered as a side-kick to Johnny Carson, and she was an interpreter at the United Nations.
For true! No, I could not make up a story as unique as theirs.
What a character, and truly fine & gifted, spirited human being this man is. Lucky to have had him in our lives we all are, and to have been able to bask in his light and genius.
Because, at the end of the day (as the white man is often wont to say), in the mythology of the American Tribe – Superman will always have his Clark Kent, the Batman his Bruce Wayne … and Morgus the Magnificent will always be remembered as the man who gave him Life – Sidney Noel Rideau.
Sidney Noel Rideau Records VoiceOvers and More at Airlift Productions New Orleans
Everything changes. Count on it. Even – and especially – in the world of VoiceOver. If you want to get addicted to anything – get addicted to change.
For the Out-of-Towners, today’s Front Page News for Sunday, March 22nd, 2015 ~ courtesy the boyz down at the Times-Picayune, New Orleans
America’s most fascinating city – New Orleans – is only now beginning to return to ‘normal’ after the developments of the past weeks.
Thrust begrudgingly into the spotlight of national and international news by (1) eccentric millionaire Texas fugitive Robert Durst – picked up downtown in our Marriott (packing a gun, mask, fake ID, and 5 ounces of pot, medicinal I’m sure) on the lam from the law… and HBO, and (2) this weekend’s machete-wielding miscreant (God rest his troubled soul) who decided Friday night to whup-up on some unsuspecting TSA agents out at Louis Armstrong … we’re only now beginning to catch our breath.
But as I type these words, yet another parade, the annual Irish-Italian parade is marching one block from the Airlift Studios, tossing cabbages & other assorted goodies to the eager, jubilant crowds. Oh, and passing out a kiss or two.
You see – everything changes. And the beat … goes on.
When I began my radio and VoiceOver career, the voice artist (we used to just call them announcers) Demo was distributed via the archaic audio cassette and reel-to-reel recording tape. Then, in the early 80s, it evolved to compact disc. Today it just has to be available via a digital file, wave or mp3, and easily downloadable to someone’s phone, tablet, computer, or digital device.
Only problem is, from what I can gather surfing the web and various voice artist sites, many Voice dudes and dudesses are still employing Flash files on their sites to play their voice demos. Not good.
The Flash format is simply ignored by many devices, including many iOS Apple devices, like the ever-present iPad! So the quest began for a more cross-platform compatible approach that would make the voice demo playable most anywhere and on most anything in 2015.
Ah-hah! Necessity being the mother of invention, the solution seems to be – to make Videos out of our audio. The VoiceOver audition demo, sampled, stored and uploaded as a video plays on the iPad, a Mac computer, Android phone & tablet, and, of course, on all Windows PCs. True cross-platform compatibility! For now.
Case in point, I spent the better part of yesterday in the Airlift Studios toying around with Window’s ‘Movie Maker’, available free on most all PCs or as a free download.
Airlift Productions, New Orleans
Watch – as well as Listen – to my new Commercials Voice Demo on the Airlift ProductionsWebsite Welcome Page by clicking here.
OK, so maybe I got a little carried away, a little too artsy-fartsy with it, as I took jpegs from the studio, art work, even a shot from the banks of the MS River, to punch-up every read. As I alternated from serious to light, dramatic to frivolous.
This same video-from-audio approach can also be as simple as displaying a gif image (bouncing analog or digital vu meters, for example) as ‘eye-candy’ while your demo rolls before their ears.
In any event, you’ve got to love the ‘StarWars-ish’ scroll at the top as an attention-grabber, plus the ‘credits’ at the tail, which gives the listener/viewer the opportunity – the Call-to-Action – to get you by phone right then should they choose. Try doing that with an audio-only file.
This approach also gives the VoiceOver talent an opportunity to ‘display the goods’ via YouTube, Vimeo, or a Facebook page near you. Not bad, huh?
Yeah, we used to snail mail our cassettes, reel-to-reel tapes, digital tapes & CDs to chase voice work with UPS & Fed Ex as the middlemen. In 2015, not so much.
Like I said, everything changes. Even the nature of change.
Best of Luck from NOLA as you chase that VO dream.
My Pop – Charles Edwin Ziants – at his favorite place, the beach, enjoying his last year, 1995
Yesterday, March 17th, was St. Patrick’s Day 2015, tomorrow will be St. Joseph’s Day 2015, and today (as the old Temptations record out of Motown would extol) … “was the day my daddy died”.
Some of my earliest recollections as a child are of trying to fall asleep in New Castle, PA, while listening to his raucous laughter from down the hallway, as he sat in front of a b/w TV watching Jackie Gleason in ‘The Honeymooners’. I would later join him.
What a character! ‘Good time Charlie’ to the gang around the golf course or bowling alley, ‘Mr. Ziants’ to many around the power plants (coal, then later, nuclear), ‘Chuck’ to Phyllis, his wife of 40+ years … and ‘Sir’ or ‘Pop’ to my brothers and me.
Chuck Ziants, who would later master the thing, at the accordion in 1935 Windber, PA, flanked by his Uncles Steve & Joe. And boy, could Charlie make that thing … sing!
Felled way before his time, at only 70, by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, pop was otherwise healthy as a horse, as the expression goes. Extremely rare, CJD is often called the human equivalent of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) … in short, he ate something that didn’t agree with him. CJD, named for the doctors that first discovered it, is incurable and invariably fatal.
Towards the end, he and I would joke about his going out like a Viking – sword in hand, ship ablaze, on his way to Valhalla! What really happened was … they kept his brain for further study before the cremation.
The various faith traditions around the planet have different takes on the afterlife. Buddhist tradition holds that in the bardo (the in-between-world) the spirit gets to choose the parents into whom’s lives it will incarnate. If that’s true, thank God I picked this guy.
Charlie Ziants – in a pic he sent home from Europe to his sweetie Phyllis – trying to look all macho and all that. I’d say, for only 21, he pulled it off.
Courageous – a veteran of both World War II & Korea … Brilliant – Ohio State Buckeye Grad & accomplished engineer …. Trustworthy – he raised five kids … Loving – a pat on the back or kick in the butt when needed …. Gregarious & Fun – always there with a joke, laugh, and a cold adult beverage … Supportive – a treasure trove of sage advice & counsel … Resilient & Resourceful – never without a job or paycheck … Athletic – a true bowling & golf ace … Musical – you should have heard him on the accordion & piano … and with a Sense of Humor, coupled with a Voice and a Laugh, that could fill a hall and really grab attention.
Rumi, the Persian mystic & poet once wrote, “When you are dead, seek for your final resting place … not in the dirt, but in the hearts of men”. Charlie even pulled this feat off too!
Charlie Ziants quietly celebrating a rather good day on the golf course with his mates, Beaver Falls, PA, 1971
Have you ever been on the interstate and found yourself in between two big semi-trucks as you barreled down the highway, knowing that you were safe from state police radar because you were ‘in the cradle’, safe between these two big guys?
I would later comfort my mother, at both the funeral and today, that Charlie dropping his body on this date – the 18th of March, in between St. Patrick’s and St. Joseph’s day, on his way to the ‘other side’ – did exactly the same thing.
Pop, as the family today commemorates the 19th year of your passing , may God Bless You, sir. Many thanks for your service, both on foreign shores in the U.S. Army … and on these shores raising the tribe of Ziants.
The Airlift Productions Studio doubles as the Ultimate Home Theater!
So I’ve got the Airlift Studios in the ‘home theater mode’ the other night to catch another blockbuster in 5.1 surround sound. It’s my favorite way to watch a movie. No texters, no talkers, no cell phones! I get to actually hear every word. And imagine my surprise!
McQueen’s ’12 Years a Slave’ – 2014’s Academy Award winning Best Picture – is a brutally painful one to watch for sure. But I reveled in it. For personal reasons. Very personal.
Astonished I was to catch not one, not two, not three, not four… but FIVE different and wildly talented individuals who’ve recorded, laughed and spent time with me at Airlift Productions …. IN THE MOVIE!
There was – for all the world to see – Quvenzhane Wallis, John “Spud” McConnell, Donald Surtain, and that dynamic mother-daughter combo of Deneen & Devyn Tyler! Wow!
And they all comported themselves quite admirably. No. No starring roles, but in very key supporting ones.
Quvenzhane as Margaret Northup in ’12 Years a Slave’
Playing Solomon Northup’s daughter Margaret as a child was little Quvenzhane, all dolled-up. And in the critical closing and final scene, playing Margaret as an adult and mother … was Deneen’s real-life daughter – Devyn Tyler!
In fact, as she cried while holding the lead character (Chiwetel Ejiofor/Solomon), Devyn had the final words in the entire movie! Double wow.
Deneen Tyler On-Camera teaching Mathematics for JRL Enterprises & I Can Learn
In scenes where Solomon was seen playing the violin, Chiwetel was faking it, but Donald Surtain – who was in the Airlift Studios just two months ago now, recording with Greg DiLeo – was on-camera and laying-down the REAL thing!
Violin Virtuoso Donald Surtain lays down his totally awesome violin tracks at Airlift Productions January 2015
Spud was a plantation owner picking up a slave down along the Mississippi River in the French market and Deneen, as Phoebe, sure cried a lot.
OK, so my work with this talented crew was nowhere near as dramatic.
John “Spud” McConnell as slave owner Jonus Ray, on-screen in ’12 Years a Slave’
Spud McConnell sold air conditioning installation & maintenance via radio spots for Comfort Engineered Systems, Deneen & Devyn Tyler worked on educational software tracks for John R. Lee and I Can Learn at the Airlift Studios, and little Quvenzhane , the youngest actress ever to earn a best actress Oscar nominee nod, recorded VoiceOvers with me to sell cars for Chrysler & Maserati.
God, but I truly admire, love and respect talent. At the Airlift Productionsmicrophones … and on the big silver screen.
Congratulations, Kudos & High-Fives gang! Proud to work shoulder-to-shoulder with you … and know you I am.
So as Hollywood South continues to explode in NOLA (they’re starting to call Hollywood ‘New Orleans West’!), I’ll see you at the cinema. And next time, the popcorn’s on me.
Airlift Productions Proprietor Micheal Ziants along with the youngest Best Actress Nominee in the history of the Academy Awards – Quvenzhane Wallis – at the Airlift Studios 2014
To Communicate is the Beginning of Understanding. Airlift Productions Communicates.
The life of a VoiceOver Recording Artist in 2015 is never boring. I mean, no sooner do you think you have all the answers, than they change all the questions!
In the early days of the craft we were all called ‘Announcers’, as we all tended to speak rather loudly, with perfectly pear-shaped, authoritative tones… think preachers, teachers, parents, carnival barkers and military sergeants.
In 2015 not so much.
Consumers today worldwide are more savvy. And the delivery method has become more personal. The big box styled TV set of the 1950s has given way to personal, pocket-sized screens … and the tinny, brittle speakers have given way to earbuds and headphones.
All that being said, today’s blog is all about mixing it up – as Airlift Productions and I toss an audio potpourri that helps to capture the changes, and runs the gamut from newly-produced radio ads and audio books … to a soliloquy!
This week, tasked to amp-up the crowds at a local night club, like the old radio days – where shock jocks would walk a fine line between good taste on the radio … and the unemployment line – the very first word out of my mouth is (OMG) “S-E-X!” (well, now that I have your attention….)
*** Airlift Mike talks (sort of) for “Legends Encore” ***
Like I said, never boring.
Back to the 1950s for a second. Not only were all TV sets huge pieces of furniture dominating your living room, all books were found doing a Dewey Decimal System search in a library, trees had to die to produce them, and they were read – page by flipped page.
Today, not so much.
In 2015, we google search and download to our personal digital device (mp3 player, I-Pod, I-Pad or phone) and LISTEN to the printed word – again read and cooed into our ears by a sympathetic, compassionate, yet dramatic voice.
My very first fully-Airlift-produced, narrated and read-by-yours-truly Audio Book is now on the market, and available for download on a digital device near you. But, fair warning, it is not for the faint of heart.
Murder in Coweta County, a true crime drama set in 1948 Georgia, well before Dr. King, Selma and the Civil Rights movement is indeed a shocker. It tackles racial prejudice, arrogant power and southern justice head-on. Give a listen to just a bit of Chapter 7 through the Airlift Productions microphones here ….
** Micheal Ziants interprets Chapter 7 of Murder in Coweta County ~ courtesy Pelican Publishing, NOLA **
Download the entire “Murder in Coweta County” Audio Book from the krewe at Pelican Publishing across the Mississippi River in Gretna by clicking either of these links. On sale for a mere $17.60, about the price of a good pizza. And this story will stay with you a lot longer. Truly.
But better strap yourself in for the ride first. And keep your hands and feet inside the car… and your 21st century sensitivities intact.
To wrap-up the Audio Potpourri, the VoiceOver Recording Artist of today is always sowing seeds for future work. We create demos to showcase our reach and talents wherein we cast ourselves in arenas within which we’d like to work.
Well, my favorite Rom-Com ever (and I’ve viewed many with the ladies through the years) would have to be ‘Love Actually’. In the opening sequence, Hugh Grant does this reflective monologue VoiceOver shortly after the events of 9-11, while we watch loved ones embracing at the airport.
Poetic license affords a name change from Heathrow to Louis Armstrong, and for demo purposes, re-casts the V-O with none other than yours truly, and it sounds like this ….
** Love Actually Soliloquy from Airlift & Micheal Ziants **
Airlift Productions Proprietor Micheal Ziants, in a photo shoot for Q-93/WQUE-FM back in the day, to promote that afternoon M&M Mike McCann Show for New Orleans
As Mardi Gras rumbles through the streets of NOLA yet again (bands, beads & boobs), and just ahead of the opening of “50 Shades of Grey” at a cineplex near you … a few thoughts from Airlift.
It’s kind of funny the way life works sometimes. The Chinese call it ‘wu wei’ …. living with the give and take, the flow of life, but the biggest industrial VoiceOver job I got all last year centered around an unbelievable set of circumstances.
The CEO of this major Chicago-based supply house needed VoiceOver work recorded for a huge upcoming convention in Dallas. As fate would have it, the CEO was female, and her request to the video producer was, “Have Micheal read it like he did ‘The Highwayman’ on his website.”
Now, the read in question came from an audio book on CD that I had finished recording in the mid-1990s, “Soft Words, Warm Nights“, and was a far cry from anything I’d been cast to record at that point. Not even close.
Passionate. Dramatic. Cinematic. As you may recall from high school or collegiate English classes, this epic poem tells the tale of highway robbery, torrid passion, star-crossed lovers, suicide & murder!
Certainly not what one would call ‘commercial fare’.
Yet across the decades, this recording of ‘The Highwayman’ was the clincher. This was the approach, the mic technique, the raw emotion that this woman – the corporate decision maker – based her final decision on.
All that being said, here comes another Airlift Mike stretch.
In her sizzling, poker-hot, best-seller “50 Shades of Grey”, E. L. James set fire to the smoldering libidos of women all across the planet.
And now, just ahead of it’s big box office release, Airlift Productionspresents ’50 Shades of Grey ~ the Ziants way’ – no reverb, no special effects, no music. Naked. Raw. Real. Sensual. Oh, and fun!
Plug-in the headphones (no kids allowed) and give a LISTEN to Airlift’s audio book audition track here …
***** Micheal Ziants reads from ’50 Shades of Grey’ *****
To the uninitiated who’ve never heard an audio book, yes, the narrator/reader performs all the parts. It’s all about treating the microphone not as a cold piece of metal … but as a warm, human ear. Making sterile technology & internet downloads all warm … and fuzzy.
It has been said that the most important sexual organ is between the ears, not the legs … the human brain, the gray matter. So, let’s tickle it a bit.
Whether this read influences the next corporate narration VoiceOver job or not is purely an academic question at this point … but for now, let’s just consider this a bedtime story for the 21st century woman.
Airlift Productions’ Micheal Ziants putting in another day at the office in 2015. “Ah, can I really say THAT on the microphone?”
