Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Today's Under-Headphones-Studio-Bike-Geek-Headwear

Courtesy of the talented sheep and weavers at Kucharik. It has served many hours of saddle time and now is working well under the headphones for morning auditions.
mmmmmm..... wool with earflaps.

Since this now seems to be a series, yesterday's was a thinner, lighter option with traditional watchcap design. Courtesy of Rivendell Bicycle Works (though I think the light green is a thing of the past.)

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

GamingLives.com Interviews Gene Mocsy - Writer/Designer of "1954: Alcatraz"

GamingLives.com sits down with Gene Mocsy, the designer and writer (and as we learn in the interview a character voice here and there...) of 1954: Alcatraz, which hopefully will be released from Deadalic Entertainment this coming year.   He talks about the inspiring environs he found both on the famous island itself and throughout the city of San Francisco. 

This has been an interesting project to be involved with - seeing it expand from an independent venture to a fully-realized release from a major gaming company.  But through it all (as with the video games which get me most excited) is a dedication to captivating characters and interesting stories.

It's an interesting interview with insights into the long process of creating a game environment.


... yes, an at times creeeeeepy environment!

1954: Alcatraz - Interview with Gene Mocsy, Designer and Writer

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Behind the Scenes: ADR with Disney Audio Legend Doc Kane

Wonderful behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of ADR - here noted engineer/ADR artist Doc Kane talks about the process and techniques of recording the vocals and voice tracks which are laid into films and animations.



Thanks to Sirenetta Leoni's "Inside Voiceover" for passing along this engaging video!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

"I Know That Voice" Documentary Premieres in LA Tonight

Sadly, I'll be a few hundred miles away from this, but wishing I was there to see my heroes, friends and mentors share their insights, opinions and more than a few characters in "I Know That Voice" - a documentary by Lawrence Shapiro.



Tom Kenny, Charlie Adler, the amazing June Foray, Billy West, John DiMaggio, Andrea Romano, Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen and many many more...

Wider distribution should happen through December and into January, 2014, and you can order the DVD at http://www.iknowthatvoice.com

More info:
http://www.animationmagazine.net/events/know-voice-doc-premiere-nov-6/


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Two More Previews of 1954: Alcatraz video game

A couple longer previews popped up in the last week on the mojo wires in the last week and I just wanted to collect them here - the only bad news is that it seems the release date has slipped back to early 2014.  But, maybe the fine folks at Daedalic Entertainment and Irresponsible Games will
surprise us with an early delivery!  In the meantime, enjoy a couple of previews from Gamerzines.com and TheSixthAxis.com -


1954: Alcatraz Preview | ‘Pointing and Clicking In The Big House’


Escape isn’t the only option…
As far as settings go, there are few more iconic than Alcatraz Island. America’s long closed yet increasingly infamous penitentiary has been the stage for numerous films, books, plays and television series, but as far as we’re aware there hasn’t been a game set in the prison.

1954: Alcatraz Preview | Pointing and Clicking In The Big House
Irresponsible Games are looking to change all that with a beautiful, albeit it traditional, point-and-click adventure starring a robber named Joe and his long suffering wife Christine. Both of whom are struggling to put their lives back together since Joe landed himself in the slammer after pulling off a successful armoured car robbery. Where things get really interesting though is that through the fifteen hour story arc, players control both Joe stuck inside Alcatraz and his wife who is carrying on her life outside of the prison, regularly getting hassled by Joe’s former hoodlum buddies eager to learn the location of all the money he stole.

1954: Alcatraz Preview | Pointing and Clicking In The Big House

This adds an interesting new dimension to the game’s branching, moral decision-based, plot as both Joe and Christine can essentially screw each other over for their own individual gain. We were shown a brief gameplay demo involving the forcefully separated couple during a prison visit, with Joe talking to his wife behind glass over a telephone. Here we could select all of Joe’s responses, but once back on land the control shifted to Christine who was met by two gangsters pressuring her for information on what was said during her last visit; with dialogue choices varying from telling the random muscle everything or adopting the ‘dumb broad’ approach to throw the hoodlum’s off the scent of her husband’s score.

These decisions have far reaching consequences radically altering the critical path of the campaign, and they’re sure to be plenty of challenging moral decisions to ponder; should Christine just run off with the money and let her husband rot in Alcatraz or should she help him and maintain their bond before god? This is the 1950s after all, that thing was kind of a big deal back then…

1954: Alcatraz Preview | Pointing and Clicking In The Big House

While Christine has the whole of San Francisco to explore, Joe is confined to Alcatraz, but Irresponsible Games are sure to manufacture plenty of drama to keep playing as the criminal entertaining. One scene from the gameplay demo featured the protagonist Joe refusing to conspire with prisoners about yet another escape attempt, while in another the former technician was inside the house of the prison’s governer,  fixing his wife’s faulty record player. That isn’t a youthamism we promise, but there will be occasions where guards use the talents of the prison population for their own ends.

1954: Alcatraz Preview | Pointing and Clicking In The Big House

The nuts and bolts of appeared very traditional for a point-and-click experience, with the visuals sharing a lot in common with early Telltale releases. Basic gameplay involved searching scenes for clues, combining items and talking with NPCs in order to further the story, but a suitably atmospheric 1950s soundtrack helps keep the action engrossing. Irresponsible Games has absolutely nailed down the period detail of this release, but what interests us is how far they’re going to take the Alcatraz source material.

Will the Penitentiary’s most famous prisoners feature? Will issues associated with solitary confinement, violent guards or dropping soap in the shower rooms be communicated to the player at all? Time will only tell, but we have high hopes that this release will make the most out of its iconic setting.

 

1954: Alcatraz Preview (PC)
Escaping The Rock.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/10/23/1954-alcatraz-preview-pc/

It’s not particularly surprising, but 1954: Alcatraz features one of the most famous prisons in the world as its backdrop. Filled with the least desirable elements of society – or maybe just the ones stupid enough to get caught – it’s an oft-romanticised setting, despite having only operated as a prison for 29 years.

It’s in the middle of this period that Joe is caught and incarcerated for his role in a bank heist gone wrong. However, he’s the only one who knows where all of the cash is stashed, and at the heart of the game is this one secret, which Joe has to ever-so-carefully manage as he tries to escape and make off with the swag.

In true form for the setting, he has to make uneasy alliances with other characters in order to facilitate his escape from prison in this point and click adventure. The main man initially seems to be Hank, a 99-year-old prisoner who has been planning for years and years. However, he and other members on the team need persuading to work together.

1954Alcatraz-IL1
This is where the game can get increasingly complex, as you have to barter and convince him through dialogue. How much do you let on about about your riches on the outside? Do you reveal all and put your trust in these out-and-out criminals, who you really should be wary of trusting, or do you keep it all to yourself and try to convince them using other methods?

Whatever path you choose, the game will branch out based on your decisions. This branching is only amplified by Joe’s wife, Christine, who is a second playable character. The level of trust you have Joe place in her is even more paramount, because she’s the one who can actually go and act upon the information you give her, courtesy of Gaspipe causing a little distraction so you can talk openly without a guard listening in during a visit.

There’s bound to be a strain on that relationship, as Joe has to keep a hold of his secret, while Christine is being pressured and intimidated by the gang on the outside, who would also dearly love to get their hands on the money. What you choose to do will see you hurtling towards one of several endings, where you can go out of your way to see Christine screw Joe over, or work together to share the wealth and live happily ever after.

Their two worlds couldn’t be more different, as Joe makes do on the inside in a fashion which is reminiscent of the Shawshank Redemption. As a bit of a handy man, one scene sees him called in by the Warden’s wife to fix her TV via traditional point and click puzzling, and able to chat to her while waiting for the guard to get the spare parts Joe demands.

Doing favours and staying out of trouble in the day-to-day will be key in the run up to the big escape attempt. Christine, in contrast, has the freedom of the city, with a larger variety of locations to go to and people to interact with.

1954Alcatraz-IL2
Her side of the story – you’ll be hopping between the two fairly regularly – will allow the game to really explore the period and San Francisco. All of the locations have wonderful hand drawn artwork in the background, married to 3D models, to really evoke the 1950s and a particular aesthetic; something which is pushed further by the jazz-based soundtrack accompanying the game.
One particularly interesting factor to the story and setting stood out to me, as Joe is an African American and Christine Caucasian. Speaking to Daedalic’s PR Director, Claas Wolter, as he demonstrated the game to us, it doesn’t sound like the racial discrimination of the period is something which the game will tackle head on, but rather deal with in a more subtle manner.

Just as players can see the story branch based off decisions made during the game, it could be that Christine is better able to handle a particular task than Joe. In addition to the gender divide, there would also be an element of a racial undertone where Joe might be flat out turned away from a nightclub, and Christine is able to sweet talk her way in.
It’s these kinds of things which could make this game quite special. A handful of developers are tackling stories which branch and flow towards distinct endings based on your decisions, but this is still something very much in the minority, and combining it with this setting and story genre will hopefully make 1954: Alcatraz stand out from the crowd.

Dave Fennoy "In the Booth With Adam & Erik" #5

Video Game News - they give a shout-out to the talented Cissy Jones-Lin - New segment "In the Director's Chair" with the always awesome Julian Kwasneski and the big interview with the inspiring and amazing Dave Fennoy - voice of Lee Everett in "The Walking Dead" as well as "the Hulu Guy".  Enjoy!




Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Alcatraz Dreams

The teasing continues...
8 new screenshots have cropped up for "Alcatraz: 1954"courtesy of the folks over at GamersHell.com.

I dunno, looks pretty heavenly to me!

Monday, May 20, 2013

In the Booth With Adam & Erik #3


This episode brings both footage from Erik's Whiskey-A-Go-Go gig and an interview with Bay Area talent Gavin Hammon.  Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Monday Night Board Work


Monday Night Board Work, originally uploaded by Jim Edgar Voices.
--
sent from some phone

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Retro Newscaster Character

Got to use on of my favorite characters for this Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ad - my Retro Newsreel Announcer!  Great and creative team to work with in the production of this. 



And thanks too to Mr. Thom Pinto, who gave me the feedback to "put a bow tie on him!" in a workshop once upon a time.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Thom Pinto – Smithsonian Candy Store & Jack Nicolson - LTVO! Interview Pt 3

Thom Pinto – Smithsonian Candy Store & Jack Nicholson

We get the third installment of this enjoyable interview with VO and Voiceactor Teaching legend Thom Pinto -
"What do the Smithsonian and Jack Nicolson have in common? Who is Alison Krauss or Marty?  Learn the answers as Thom Pinto discusses voice-over TV narration for documentaries, aka the ‘serious read’ and the human side. Find out how have ‘how-to’ videos changed? How do you balance the budget as an entrepreneur? A BIG question – Do you have to live in LA? And one more ‘celebrity’ influence on the VO jobs…"

Thom Pinto, a Commercial, Promo and Documentary voice actor since the early 80s, has national campaigns including Pacific Life, NetZero, Honda Motorcycles, Chevron and Staples.  He’s doing promos for every major network and is currently heard daily on the CBS Evening News as well as affiliates across the country.  Thom’s narration credits run the gamut of serious documentaries on the History Channel and Smithsonian network to lighter projects for the Travel Channel.
Learn more at www.thompinto.com and on Facebook.

Love That VoiceOver is an internet radio show unveiling the personalities and projects behind the mic, with your fun loving host LoveThatRebecca, aka Rebecca Michaels Haugh.  Every week it's a new interview with a fresh perspective on the art and artistry behind the voice-over microphone....
Follow on Twitter @LoveThatVO

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

April = Autism Awareness Month - Voices for Autism 2013




Find out more information about Autism at http://autismspeaks.org and http://http://www.autism-society.org/ and don't forget to LIGHT IT UP BLUE with blue clothing and/or blue porch lights!

The producers of this video send a VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO:

DINO ANDRADE
STEVE BLUM
GARRY CHALK
MAILE FLANAGAN
TOM KANE
DAVID KAYE
TANIA GUNADI
KYLE HEBERT
DAVID SOBOLOV
LEE TOCKAR
DANIELLE MCRAE
ZUREK
STEVE VALLO
OTIS JURY
NANCY KASZERMAN
PETER O'CONNELL
SARIANN MANACO
ASIA MATTU
JAMES FERRERO
TED MCALEER
DAVID STONE
CONNIE MUSTANG
LAURA BEDNARSKI
JEN KROMPEL
DAVE DEANDREA
DEB COLOMA
DANA ABRAM

Friday, April 12, 2013

Oracle Endeca - "Changing the Game"

Finding this video was kind of driving me crazy, as I could see the link on the Oracle site for a few months (this recorded back November), but it wouldn't work (though the other video recorded that day with the talented Lara Asmundson seemed to work fine).  While poking around the site today figured out that they had added a gap in the video play string in the page code (and also found another page where it served up without a problem).  Gaps don't play nice in code...  Of course, it was about that time that I realized had also been posted directly to youtube. 



I'm the guy who speaks second, and has the info about how Oracle Endeca Information Discovery helped make things work so well.  My "boss" in this was read by Bob Makohin

(The corrected string on the Oracle site is here.)


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Interesting Mozilla/Epic Games Hack from GDC

Got steered to this via a TechCrunch feed

"...to show off what game developers can do with a modern browser and without plugins today, Mozilla and Epic teamed up a little while ago to port Unreal Engine 3 to the web, something that was unthinkable back in 2011.
As Vladimir Vukicevic, Mozilla’s engineering director and the inventor of WebGL told me earlier this week, Mozilla wants to make the web a viable platform for modern games. About six months ago, Mozilla started to work on using its emscripten compiler to port C and C++ code to asm.js, a strict subset of JavaScript. This combination allows the JavaScript code to run at a speed within 2x of native performance and the latest versions of Firefox Nightly now support these optimizations. Given the complexities of modern game engines and games, getting relatively close to native performance is a necessity for running something like Epic’s well-known Citadel demo and Unreal Tournament, which Mozilla showed running natively in the browser at the Game Developers Conference today."

It's pretty slick and smooth, as the video shows.



Innersting, innersting stuff...

Friday, March 15, 2013

Love That Voiceover! Thom Pinto Interview - Pt 2

I've been lucky to have trained with Thom Pinto over the years. It's always a pleasure to hear his perspective on the industry, technology and talent. His love for the craft and attention to detail always comes through.

Thom Pinto – "Seedy Hollywood to Ninja Turtles" 

from Rebecca's announcement:
"Rejoin Thom and Rebecca as they pick up from last time… He takes us from the Hawks Recording studio in the seedy part of Hollywood to new paths as his VO career dominated running a commercial studio. Follow Thom from the early 90’s to present, witness the shift from external studios to home studios and how other busy industry leaders like Rob Paulsen and Don Lafontaine led that very shift which now creates a conundrum for some of the profession even now… Some producers don’t like it! Learn Thom’s pointers about camaraderie, spontaneity, self-direction and keeping himself fresh – Great tips! And hear Thom reflect on his numerous credits, selecting the most notable including some hilarious guest appearances on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Finally, gain his insights from the Pinto Soapbox – Breaking VO myths, Ultra Marketing, Fostering Relationships, Managing Delicate Balances, How Agents Really Help and VO 2.0, Finding Your Niche, Celebrity VO and the fate of the ‘middle class’ VO."
Learn more about Thom at www.thompinto.com

Love That VoiceOver is a podcast showcasing in-depth interviews unveiling the personalities and projects behind the mic, with your fun loving host LoveThatRebecca, aka Rebecca Michaels Haugh. Every week it's a new interview with a fresh perspective on the art and artistry behind the microphone....
Follow Love that VoiceOver on Twitter @LoveThatVO

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Science of Sample Rates (When Higher Is Better — And When It Isn’t)

The Science of Sample Rates (When Higher Is Better — And When It Isn’t) by Justin Colletti.


Interesting article identifying where the errors actually creep into digital recording.  Distills a lot of the fact and history of sampling challenges very well.  As a (semi) reformed studio rat and computer music geek, I really enjoyed his descriptions of where things start to go haywire.  The idea of "Optimal" sampling rate provides a nice contrast to the constant more-faster-cheaper trend of technology.


Monday, March 4, 2013

And God Made a Voice Actor

The talented Cissy Jones tipped this my way via the FBook.  It's one of those things which is probably only completely-laugh-out-loud funny if you are in this crazy, wonderful business.  There are a bunch of wild fabrications and complete truths herein.  I leave it to you to decided which are which.

(And yeah, it does turn out to be pushing the VO Conference in Atlanta, which I shan't be attending nor do I have a specific opinion about...)

Anyway, enjoy!


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Another Microphone Manufacturing Video

This one just popped up while I was searching for something else online, but since I had just shared the video on how the gorgeous AEA Ribbon Microphone went together, it seemed that seeing how the coveted Neumann U-87 large diaphragm condenser mic goes together might be interesting.



Now I will say that the video and voiceover seems a bit "intro" level and slightly dated (cleanroom? cotton gloves? At least cleaned fingernails?)  But, they probably couldn't really shoot where they are truly assembled.

It was interesting to watch the curve being drawn during the computer/anechoic chamber test.  Within the stringent Neumann tolerances, there's definitely a unique arc to the test mic.  Not outside the +/- to be sure, but it has a slight character which will probably be unique to that mic.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Lea Guilino's Floating Studio Newsreel

What a great way to start the week - enjoying fellow voice actor Lea Guilino's retro newsreel coverage of her floating studio!



Another of the supremely talented and creative voice over talents located here in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Sim City Advance Looks At March Delivery!

With EA's recent closed beta preview, it looks like they are in the home stretch for releasing the new SimCity experience.  I've seen a few "real-time" videos of the beta play and it looks pretty impressive - with a gorgeous look and compelling detail.

Here's a quick promo of the city expansion packs and basic setup -


Reviews have already popped up as well - games.com and mashable, for example -  most of the folks seem to have spent their weekends looping back to the limited-to-one-hour beta and going through things again.  Certainly a testament to the quality of this upcoming release.

Can't wait to see it myself!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

"How It's Made: Ribbon Microphone"

Obviously, my daily workspace involves microphones.  They run from the hard-working and ugly to the sublimely beautiful.  This is definitely in the latter category.  There's nothing like handcrafted gear which is designed to be used - probably one of the things which draws me to handcrafted bicycles...

Ribbon mics are reasonably rare creatures, requiring a bit more care and feeding than your typical modern large-diaphragm or shotgun mic.

Follow along as you see this gorgeous AEA  Ribbon mic come together:



Tip o' the mouse to the always awesome Jory over at Studio Jory for sharing this.
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