Voice Stuff and Other Stuff.
I developed my notes into 20 pages of audio script. I thought what I'd do rather than dive into something, I'd do a little test first. I picked one of the supporting characters in HG World and I wrote out a part of his radio call-in show, talking about the Algonquin Valley and Wishwell, PA before the outbreak. It helped me set up the world and some of the native conflict between the residents that would play a role later on.
It ended up being four archive segments that help build the world. It sounds and feels like the background stuff you saw and heard on the Blair Witch Project site before the film came out. It's basically this angry old man, Vietnam veteran and lifetime resident of Wishwell, railing against the coming of the evil HGW Corporate empire, sparring on the air with the Chair of the County Commission about the sorry state of affairs in the valley and setting up what happens to him.
There are four clips, each set up by a narrator that cover Talk Show host Todd Rage as he initially fights the power, then succumbs to it in the face of his wife's mounting medical bills, then as he rebels against HGW Corp when they want to change his entire station, then deals with the death of his wife and the rise of strange deaths in a pandemic sweeping through Asia. Each segment contains threads and clues about what's happening in the main story.
So I'm looking for voice talent to put this together. The hardest part is you'd be reading My dialogue. I've been told my dialogue can break a strong man's jaw. But I'm proud of the work. If anyone would like to lend a voice, here are the audition bits I have. Contact me with question.
TODD RAGE, late 60s, a legacy of the do-wop and sixties radio days, but wears his rural drawl as a badge of honor. He is quick to rant, but can be almost bi-polar in switching subjects and tone. He is an infantry veteran in vietnam, but spent the rest of his life hunting and fishing the valley, working in radio and once ran for Town Marshall.
LINE: (angry) Yeah, the local businesses that survive being run out of business by HGW Corporation. Jake, their range of products reads like a hit list for all the local shops in the valley…how is it going to help if Murt’s lumber yard or Ike’s Gun Shop or the plumbers, masons and carpenters of the region run out of work because HG World comes in and demolishes the market?
LINE #2: (sad) Hello everyone. This is Todd Rage broadcasting live from I-80 on the rebound trip from Mary’s final send off. I am alone… and I mean that in every conceivable way. The map tells me I could take this highway west all the way to the Golden Gate and see so many places beforehand. I could just drive until I run out of money or gas or I fall asleep. Reaching any of those won’t take very long.
County Commission Chair JAKE WELDON, 42, a transplant from Philadelphia in the early 90s, Jake practices some family and estate law, but takes his job as commssion chair seriously. He cares about Wishwell and the valley, but he feels deep down that the only way to save the isolated beauty is to open up the region to new business. Jake is a formal, deliberate speaker who has an easy-to-like personality, almost childlike at times when he talks about family and friendships. He wants to be liked and respected above all else.
LINE: I did everything I could to save Victor Vance’s farm. I even loaned him money to try and catch up on his property taxes. A lot of us did. The County even retained an attorney to try and sort it all out. But even if we’d fixed the tax problem and held a bake sale to pay off the $2.3 million he owed on his loans, let me ask you, man…how long would it have lasted?
:LINE #2: Did you know that when HG World outlets come to town, they put 5% of their gross revenue back into the community? They have an exclusive contract with the developers of those 42 units to furnish every brick, every plank, every pipe and shingle for the job.
JENNY JOE is the perky and high-energy Regional Operations Manager for the HGW Corporation which means she is in charge of all 45 HG World Super Stores in the northeast. Type-A. Obsessive personality. She has an MBA from Penn State and a degree in Marketing and Communications. She never speaks candidly when a cliche would do the job. She is fanatical about presenting the HGW brand in as positive and upbeat a way as she can. She speaks almost entirely wth exciting announcements and explanation points and never asks a question she doesn't know the answer to. The best way to disrupt her groove is to take her out of zone of control or present her with a problem she cannot solve or tlak her way around. When stressed, she implodes emotionally, shutting down everything until she regroups and reboots.
LINE: Hi, Todd. Thanks for inviting me in. Let me say right away that Wishwell is a beautiful place and I’m just so happy to have met you and Mary and all the folks of this community and I’m looking forward to setting down some roots here.
The ANNOUNCER is the kind of voice you'd hear on a history channel documentary about contemporary American life but with an edge, like Mike Rowe, or perhaps even Keith David.
LINE: WRAG Radio of Wishwell, Pennsylvania was a low-power AM band station for the Algonquin Valley owned and operated by Todd Rage since the mid 1970s. The station broadcast Golden Oldies and 60s Rock until 1978 when Rage moved the station to the top of Kulshruck Mountain north of town and downsized to pre-programmed music and a staff of himself, his wife Mary and Todd’s army buddy Jim Johns.
HG WORLD ANNOUNCER (or announcers) This is for a high-energy commercial for the HG World grand opening. I would prefer to divide the lines up between a strong male and female voice so it can sound like a rapid-fire, popcorn of information about the grand opening and employment opportunities. Otherwise, this could be an announcer with an everyday, pleasant voice of authority because the spot is playing to rural PA. No "big city" voices need apply. :)
LINE: Coming next weekend Friday to Sunday: The HG WORLD CAREER FAIR AND GRAND OPENING EXTRAVAGONZO!! Come out and meet the new HG World team and tour the 200 thousand square foot facility designed to bring you the best in quality home, garden and industrial materials at competitive prices. HG World is the industry leader, so come on out and join our team. Currently hiring managers, cutters, plumbing and masonry specialists, landscapers and nursery technicians…cashiers and heavy equipment operators also needed!
17 year old VANITY RACE is a guest at the grand opening, so she has a line inviting everyone to come and see her. She's a typical CW or Fox drama teenager with the sexy yet spunky voice of a soon-to-be-megastar.
LINE: Hey there, Algonquin Valley. This is Vanity Race, Julie Sloan on the top-rated daytime drama Days of Destiny. I’ll be signing autographs and talking to ALL my fans this weekend at the HG World Grand Opening Extravaganza! I hope to see you there!
ABS NEWS ANCHOR, a mid-thirties news reader to contrast Todd Rage's elder, Marlboro growl.
LINE: Reports from the World Health Organization indicate that the outbreak of an ebola-like virus in southern India and along the coast of indo-china in the wake of last year’s late fall cyclones continues to baffle health officials around the world. As of Tuesday, over 2,000 people are reported dead from the virus. As a result, a quarantine on all travel to effected regions is strictly enforced by agreement of all G25 nations.
It ended up being four archive segments that help build the world. It sounds and feels like the background stuff you saw and heard on the Blair Witch Project site before the film came out. It's basically this angry old man, Vietnam veteran and lifetime resident of Wishwell, railing against the coming of the evil HGW Corporate empire, sparring on the air with the Chair of the County Commission about the sorry state of affairs in the valley and setting up what happens to him.
There are four clips, each set up by a narrator that cover Talk Show host Todd Rage as he initially fights the power, then succumbs to it in the face of his wife's mounting medical bills, then as he rebels against HGW Corp when they want to change his entire station, then deals with the death of his wife and the rise of strange deaths in a pandemic sweeping through Asia. Each segment contains threads and clues about what's happening in the main story.
So I'm looking for voice talent to put this together. The hardest part is you'd be reading My dialogue. I've been told my dialogue can break a strong man's jaw. But I'm proud of the work. If anyone would like to lend a voice, here are the audition bits I have. Contact me with question.
TODD RAGE, late 60s, a legacy of the do-wop and sixties radio days, but wears his rural drawl as a badge of honor. He is quick to rant, but can be almost bi-polar in switching subjects and tone. He is an infantry veteran in vietnam, but spent the rest of his life hunting and fishing the valley, working in radio and once ran for Town Marshall.
LINE: (angry) Yeah, the local businesses that survive being run out of business by HGW Corporation. Jake, their range of products reads like a hit list for all the local shops in the valley…how is it going to help if Murt’s lumber yard or Ike’s Gun Shop or the plumbers, masons and carpenters of the region run out of work because HG World comes in and demolishes the market?
LINE #2: (sad) Hello everyone. This is Todd Rage broadcasting live from I-80 on the rebound trip from Mary’s final send off. I am alone… and I mean that in every conceivable way. The map tells me I could take this highway west all the way to the Golden Gate and see so many places beforehand. I could just drive until I run out of money or gas or I fall asleep. Reaching any of those won’t take very long.
County Commission Chair JAKE WELDON, 42, a transplant from Philadelphia in the early 90s, Jake practices some family and estate law, but takes his job as commssion chair seriously. He cares about Wishwell and the valley, but he feels deep down that the only way to save the isolated beauty is to open up the region to new business. Jake is a formal, deliberate speaker who has an easy-to-like personality, almost childlike at times when he talks about family and friendships. He wants to be liked and respected above all else.
LINE: I did everything I could to save Victor Vance’s farm. I even loaned him money to try and catch up on his property taxes. A lot of us did. The County even retained an attorney to try and sort it all out. But even if we’d fixed the tax problem and held a bake sale to pay off the $2.3 million he owed on his loans, let me ask you, man…how long would it have lasted?
:LINE #2: Did you know that when HG World outlets come to town, they put 5% of their gross revenue back into the community? They have an exclusive contract with the developers of those 42 units to furnish every brick, every plank, every pipe and shingle for the job.
JENNY JOE is the perky and high-energy Regional Operations Manager for the HGW Corporation which means she is in charge of all 45 HG World Super Stores in the northeast. Type-A. Obsessive personality. She has an MBA from Penn State and a degree in Marketing and Communications. She never speaks candidly when a cliche would do the job. She is fanatical about presenting the HGW brand in as positive and upbeat a way as she can. She speaks almost entirely wth exciting announcements and explanation points and never asks a question she doesn't know the answer to. The best way to disrupt her groove is to take her out of zone of control or present her with a problem she cannot solve or tlak her way around. When stressed, she implodes emotionally, shutting down everything until she regroups and reboots.
LINE: Hi, Todd. Thanks for inviting me in. Let me say right away that Wishwell is a beautiful place and I’m just so happy to have met you and Mary and all the folks of this community and I’m looking forward to setting down some roots here.
The ANNOUNCER is the kind of voice you'd hear on a history channel documentary about contemporary American life but with an edge, like Mike Rowe, or perhaps even Keith David.
LINE: WRAG Radio of Wishwell, Pennsylvania was a low-power AM band station for the Algonquin Valley owned and operated by Todd Rage since the mid 1970s. The station broadcast Golden Oldies and 60s Rock until 1978 when Rage moved the station to the top of Kulshruck Mountain north of town and downsized to pre-programmed music and a staff of himself, his wife Mary and Todd’s army buddy Jim Johns.
HG WORLD ANNOUNCER (or announcers) This is for a high-energy commercial for the HG World grand opening. I would prefer to divide the lines up between a strong male and female voice so it can sound like a rapid-fire, popcorn of information about the grand opening and employment opportunities. Otherwise, this could be an announcer with an everyday, pleasant voice of authority because the spot is playing to rural PA. No "big city" voices need apply. :)
LINE: Coming next weekend Friday to Sunday: The HG WORLD CAREER FAIR AND GRAND OPENING EXTRAVAGONZO!! Come out and meet the new HG World team and tour the 200 thousand square foot facility designed to bring you the best in quality home, garden and industrial materials at competitive prices. HG World is the industry leader, so come on out and join our team. Currently hiring managers, cutters, plumbing and masonry specialists, landscapers and nursery technicians…cashiers and heavy equipment operators also needed!
17 year old VANITY RACE is a guest at the grand opening, so she has a line inviting everyone to come and see her. She's a typical CW or Fox drama teenager with the sexy yet spunky voice of a soon-to-be-megastar.
LINE: Hey there, Algonquin Valley. This is Vanity Race, Julie Sloan on the top-rated daytime drama Days of Destiny. I’ll be signing autographs and talking to ALL my fans this weekend at the HG World Grand Opening Extravaganza! I hope to see you there!
ABS NEWS ANCHOR, a mid-thirties news reader to contrast Todd Rage's elder, Marlboro growl.
LINE: Reports from the World Health Organization indicate that the outbreak of an ebola-like virus in southern India and along the coast of indo-china in the wake of last year’s late fall cyclones continues to baffle health officials around the world. As of Tuesday, over 2,000 people are reported dead from the virus. As a result, a quarantine on all travel to effected regions is strictly enforced by agreement of all G25 nations.