Tag Archives: Dog Trainers

An International Charity Outreach Involving Dogs, Humans… and Man’s Potential

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Ziants & O’Shea applying “The Good Dog Way” with Airlift Mascot ‘The Shadeaux”

I first met SEAN O’SHEA innocently enough when hired by a Los Angeles-based Video Production House to record him for VoiceOver tracks on a dog training DVD series.

Sean and I have subsequently recorded several audiobooks together… and have become close friends & running partners.

Mr. O’Shea is one of those rare souls whose genuine good nature and caring spirit shine through in every recorded track and on-mic performance.

After recording his “The Good Dog Way”, he returned to the Airlift Productions Studios earlier this year to record the audiobook which is the subject of this blog.

And when he wasn’t totally satisfied with his first effort, he returned to work with me last month on version two.

Wow!

“Closing the Gap” is Sean’s testament to the power of the human spirit, and its ability to reach its utmost potential.

As a student of Jim Rohn, Napoleon Hill, Wayne Dyer, Zig Ziglar, and a host of others, Sean sure knows whereof he speaks.

This dude has gone from the outhouse to the penthouse, from zero to hero, from the breadlines … to the headlines!

And now he wants nothing more than to share. How.  He.  Did.  It.

Oh, and while he’s at it – pay it forward at the same time.

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Sean O’Shea teaching Humans how to fetch … a better Life, at Airlift Productions NOLA Nov. 2017

100 percent of the profits – book and audiobook – will go to help build a school, to “Pencils of Promise”, to “Acumen”, to “Charity: Water”.

I mean, it’s one thing to give a man a fish dinner, and it’s quite another to teach him to fish. And yet quite another to give every man equal access to the stream!

You’ll find SEAN O’SHEA online at http://www.thegooddogway.com/ and you can follow his exploits on Instagram by clicking HERE.

The “Closing the Gap” hard copy and audiobook will make the perfect stocking stuffer this holiday season.

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Micheal Ziants & Sean O’Shea, navigating the twists & turns of AudioBook production, Airlift Productions New Orleans, June 2017

Talk about a gift that keeps on giving.  And giving.  And giving.

Oh, and should you be fortunate enough to talk personally with Sean, tell him that wacky Airlift Mike down in NOLA sent you.

Doggone it, Sean. You are the Best, my brother.

 

 

 

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Amy Landon recording audio books at Airlift Productions New Orleans, March 2017

“Working with Airlift Mike in NOLA was an utter pleasure. I was in town for business for a month and needed to maintain my audiobook recording schedule. Mike was accommodating and a pure professional. He mastered the punch and roll technique in 24 hours to be ready for our first session, and over the course of the month we laid down 5 books and a number of auditions. His studio sounds great. The vibe & atmosphere can’t be beat. You’d be hard pressed to find a better recording studio in the southeast – no matter what your needs. I wish I could have stayed!” ~ AMY LANDON, Los Angeles-based actress & AudioBook narrator

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To Communicate is the Beginning of Understanding.

         Airlift Productions communicates.

 

AudioBook Production 101… Goes To The Dogs!

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Sean O’Shea, the dude who’s got Los Angeles on a leash, records his New AudioBook “The Good Dog Way” at Airlift Productions New Orleans

 

The email came into the Airlift Productions Studios, innocently enough, from Los Angeles in mid-Spring, it was Sean O’Shea, looking to make the AUDIO version of his new book, “The Good Dog Way”, a reality.

Having worked with Sean a year and a half ago, recording VoiceOver tracks for his DVD series, I knew what I was working with.

And how.

With tens of thousands of followers on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, Sean’s like-ability factor, as well as his talent, is more “off the chain” than many of the dogs he’s tamed and trained.

But, he confessed, he was an “AudioBook Virgin”.

Knowing it was his first time, I committed to being gentle.

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Micheal Ziants & Sean O’Shea, navigating the twists & turns of AudioBook production, Airlift Productions New Orleans, June 2017

Our pre-production meeting included tips on studio mic technique, definite ‘Dos and Do-Nots’  – no dairy products the day of recording (audible phlegm), petroleum jelly on lips to limit vocal artifacts, etc. – and I taught him how to “punch & roll”.

We edited his AudioBook masterpiece AS WE RECORDED IT!

Mistakes were fixed right then and there – on the fly. No tedious post-recording editing sessions here. No. We got it right – right there!

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Ziants & O’Shea applying “The Good Dog Way” with Airlift Mascot ‘The Shadeaux”

And roll, we did, through six days of recording, every afternoon, Monday-through-Saturday, teaching America – and the world – a more human, and humane, approach to LOVING our favorite, four-footed, furry friends by LEADING them.

As the sessions progressed, Sean’s confidence and studio savvy grew, as we plowed through chapter after chapter… “Dismantling Dogs”, “The Drug that is You”, “Arousal is the Enemy”, “What you Pet is what you Get”….

Sample just a taste of “The Good Dog Way”, with this one track that Sean calls, “Bar or Therapist”, here…

By Saturday, all 1.73 gigabytes of edited material were ready to be normalized, properly mastered, and prepared for AudioBook internet consumption.

I saved all the edited wave files for future use to create CDs down the road, and crunched the entire project into 192 kilobyte-per-second mp3 files for quicker internet downloading purposes.

What a week. What a project. What an AudioBook!

Andy Rooney once opined, “The average dog is a nicer human than the average human”.

And, no doubt, you’ll put your nicer human’s best paw forward by putting “The Good Dog Way” through your earbuds today.

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“Mike was a saint, and ridiculously patient and supportive (and helpful!!) for this audio book virgin. In another environment, without the support, and with pressure to perform “right”, I probably would have completely fallen apart. So the MVP for this getting done goes 100% to Mike and the chilled out environment he’s cultivated…personally and within his studio.

A big heartfelt thanks to Mike Ziants and the years of expertise he brought to this project to ensure I sounded my very best. If you’re ever in Nola and need the best audio dude, and the best dude dude, holler at my man Mike with www.airliftproductions.com

Thanks for the great week my friend! :)” ~ Sean O’Shea

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