Blogscapes

The Soundscapes Staff stood at perfect attention recently as Retired General Wesley Clark took command of two different studios. General Clark was recording radio and long-form audio for Growth Energy, an Ethanol support company which recently named him as Co-Chairman.

When the General was finished with audio in Studio D, he immediately marched into Studio B where a film crew from Jones Film & Video was set up to do the on-camera portion of the event. 

Ever the disciplined soldier, General Clark barely even touched his fruit plate.

Here's a really fun spot that was a great collaboration with our friends at Porcaro Communications. Soundscapes' John Crowley provided the sfx sweetening, with voicework by Michael Penn and Jen Sweeny.

Enjoy Rocketman--

We really enjoy doing automated dialog replacement in the Soundscapes recording studios, or ADR as it's known in audio production circles, and a few weeks ago we successfully pulled off our first Trans-Atlantic ADR session.

We were contacted by the producers of the award-winning British spy drama "Spooks", and we worked on two new episodes of the popular BBC program, which also airs in the US on A&E as "MI-5".

While veteran English actor Stuart Wilson was in our studio in Little Rock replacing dialog, we had a frame accurate picture lock with Goldcrest Studios over the pond in London.

The session was a lot of fun, and despite 4,400 miles, the Atlantic Ocean and a 6 hour time difference, it went off without a hitch.

David and Stuart after a long but successful ADR session earlier this month.

In April of 2006, Act 13 was passed in the Arkansas General Assembly, effectively protecting children from secondhand smoke in cars.

Since radio is a perfect medium to make the public aware of this act, Creative Director Jay Cranford and Copywriter Kelli Marks of CJRW in Little Rock provided us with a compelling radio script that takes the listener to a very uncomfortable place.

When great writing, perfectly cast talent (New York theater actor Vanessa Robolledo) and creative sound design comes together like this, it creates truly effective "theater of the mind." It grabs you by the ears and makes you think. It's the kind of spot that reminds me how much I love audio production...and how much I appreciate really good writing.

A ninety-second spot? What? You mean I actually have time to work with? In this age of squeezing 45 seconds of copy into 30 seconds, sometimes the writing becomes secondary to fitting everything in. So a well-written spot may or may not sound as good as hoped after it's produced. 

Not this time! I had the privilege of working on a fun ninety-second spot for the Renewable Resources Coalition with our friend Art Hackney who opted to make his point in an entertaining way. This nod to Sci-Fi was especially fun for me. I'm a big fan of the Force, can do a reasonably good Yoda voice and always wished they taught the Vulcan death grip in gym class.

Tommy Sanders performed all the voices, beautifully as always. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed producing it. My Yoda voice I wish I got to do, though.