Thursday, April 10, 2008

Voice-over Networking: NATURE Edition.

NATURE logo


You just never know what cool events are going to pop up in my little town. A few days ago I heard, rather at the last minute, that the local PBS station was hosting an evening with Fred Kaufman, Executive Producer of Nature. I love those shows, and documentaries are of course of great interest to a voice-over artist since they are almost always narrated. So I inquired and there had been a cancellation and I managed to get a ticket. The event was held at my beloved Garden House at Look Park, just a mile and a half from my house, so that made it all the more appealing.


The Garden House at Look Park



The lovely stone fireplace was once again blazing with a welcoming fire, just as it was the last time I attended an event at the Garden House. On exhibit were the winning photographs from the WGBY Wild About Nature Photography contest, as well as a number of other excellent nature photographs by local artists. I marveled at these wonderful works and had a very pleasant conversation with a WGBY staffer, who kindly requested my business card so he could pass it along to one of his colleagues at the station.

Ample h’ors d’oeuvres prepared by the Blue Heron Restaurant were available, and I helped myself and took a seat next to the small band, Cidade, which was playing Latin music. A guitarrist, violinist, bassist and percussionist made up the group, and whereas I suppose I should have been networking, I couldn’t tear myself away from this wonderful music. I had never before heard a band play tangos as listening music – most bands don’t even seem to know what they are.

Before long it was time for the warm-up act for Mr. Kaufman: Julie Ann Colier, a raptor rehabilitator from Wingmasters, brought along several owls and hawks to show us. Julie grew up in western Massachusetts and she talked about some of the changes in status of these birds since her childhood, such as the drastically reduced numbers of the American Kestrel – our smallest falcon – due to pesticide use. The owls she brought, as well as the Red-tailed Hawk, are doing fine, but numbers of the beautiful Golden Eagle have declined sharply in the northeast in the last 40 years.

Fred Kaufman gave a wonderful talk about some of the highlights of the projects he has worked on over the last 25 years with Nature. He also showed film clips from several of them including the famous footage of a fox hunting mice during winter at Yosemite, and an incredibly touching scene of two female elephants being reunited after two decades apart. One clip he did not show is included in a two-part program currently airing entitled “What females want and what males will do” (6 April and 13 April 2008). Featured in this footage is the courtship dance of a manakin (I believe it’s the red-capped manakin, Pipra mentalis). I found a video of this on Youtube, set to Michael Jackson music (you’ll see why). [UPDATE: The video has been removed from Youtube, for reasons unknown to me. My apologies for the inconvenience.]





I talked with Mr. Kaufman after the program, and learned that they now have one narrator whom they use for all their Nature documentaries – the wonderfully talented F. Murray Abraham. A great choice! Of course, I had hoped that they were adrift and scanning the small towns of western Massachusetts for a voice actor to take over this job, but I cannot deny that Mr. Abraham has more film credits than I. I’m working on that though!

A most enjoyable evening! As always, the WGBY staff did a super job of organising and publicising a wonderful event.

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Forgotten Ellis Island Picked Up by PBS

I just got word from Lorie Conway this morning that her film Forgotten Ellis Island has been selected by PBS "as a prime-time national special for late spring or early summer broadcast". Elliott Gould narrated this documentary, and Bruce Miles, Drew Hadwal and I provided historical voices. You can read more about the film and its grand premiere in my blog post of October 2007.

In addition to this good news, Lorie reported that "the Smithsonian Institution is planning on creating a traveling exhibit using clips from the film and images from the book and film--it will be a free exhibit and be placed in museums, libraries, schools, all sorts of public spaces across the country...they need to find a corporate sponsor to underwrite [it] but are confident it will happen."

This is very exciting news for many reasons, but the most important reason of all is that the film tells a story that needs to be told, and Lorie Conway tells it well. Congratulations to her not only for her artistry, but for her skill and savvy in the pursuit of distribution. That it took such a short time for her to get it says volumes about the film's merits.

Cover of Lorie Conway's book, Forgotten Ellis Island

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Monday, October 22, 2007

Forgotten Ellis Island.

This was an amazing day. I went with my family to the premiere of Forgotten Ellis Island, a documentary for which I recorded voice-over this past spring and summer. The premiere was held at the Ellis Island Museum on the island. A particular delight for me was to attend this screening not only with my family but with Bruce Miles and his wife Emma. The film-maker, Lorie Conway, had asked me to recommend male voice talent and I suggested both Bruce and my colleague Drew Hadwal, and Lorie hired both. Bruce and Emma made a vacation of the event and were in New York for a total of 5 days whereas my family and I just went down for the event itself. It was a gorgeous, warm and sunny day, most unusual for October, and we enjoyed the ferry ride over to the island.


Lorie Conway and Bruce Miles


Lorie Conway and Bruce Miles


Bruce and I were as excited as children. Although we had been brought in for the final stages of production, we had gotten very attached to the project not only because it is such a compelling one – who among us Americans cannot relate to the story of immigration? but also because of Lorie Conway’s enthusiasm and passion for the story of the Immigrant Hospital that she was telling through this film. Also, at the time we were hired, the film still did not have a primary narrator, and we had been bursting with anticipation in the last months, waiting to hear who it was going to be. We have known for about two months that the narrator would be Elliott Gould, and we were very much looking forward to the possibility of meeting him. We were not disappointed!

The lights finally dimmed and the film began, and we were riveted. It was a poignant story, movingly told. A number of surprises revealed themselves: on the dock back in Manhattan, while we waited for the boat that would take us to the island, we got into a conversation with a woman who had come all the way from Australia for this occasion. We did not have a chance to ask about her involvement with Lorie’s project, but as we watched the film, we learned who she was. Part of my script had included a description of the final hours of the life of a patient at the Immigrant Hospital who had died of scarlet fever. It was a very sad story, but it wasn’t until I saw the film that I realised just how sad it was. This patient, a young man of 19, was not an immigrant seeking citizenship in the United States; rather, he was a visitor, with gainful employment elsewhere. Unfortunately, he had forgotten his passport on the boat, and was detained at Ellis Island until officials could determine his status. During his detention he had the great misfortune to contract scarlet fever, from which he never recovered. The Australian woman we had chatted with on the dock this morning was that young man’s niece. If you go to the Forgotten Ellis Island website and click on Patient Stories, then click the right arrow twice, you will hear this young man's story told by Elliott Gould, and the account of his public health nurse, Lucy Simpson, read by me.

Another surprise was to learn that in the audience today was a man who had come over from Germany as a small child and had caught the measles. He was nursed back to health at the Immigrant Hospital, and he remembered the place with great good will. The hospital staff had been kind to him, as they were to so many; a great majority of the people who were treated at the hospital recovered fully and were allowed to leave and pursue their dream of citizenship.

After the screening we did indeed get to meet Mr. Gould, and Emma took a picture of him with Bruce and me, which I will post here after she and Bruce get back to Phoenix and have had a chance to rest at home for a few seconds after which I will start pestering her.

[Note on 25 Oct - here is the picture! Thanks Emma!]

Bruce Miles, Elliott Gould and Mary McKitrick


Bruce Miles, Elliott Gould and Mary McKitrick

There followed a lovely catered lunch which was held in a part of the old hospital that has been renovated thanks to the efforts of the non-profit organisation, Save Ellis Island. It was a bit of a hike to get to that area and we had the chance to see some of the hospital and its grounds. It was eerie, I must say, to see it. One cannot help but feel the presence of an extraordinary segment of American history in that place. Without immigration, none of us would be here today.

Elliott Gould did a superb job narrating the film. Bruce – I have known Bruce for a couple of years and we’ve worked together and I knew his talent. But I was blown away by his work on this project. It was really impressive. So was Drew Hadwal’s. And you know what – I even was impressed by my own work! I hope you all will get a chance to see this beautiful film. Lorie Conway is truly to be congratulated on an excellent piece of scholarship and artistry. With luck this documentary will air on television this winter.


Forgotten Ellis Island cake


Lorie's cake!



Lady Liberty

Lady Liberty


Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital


Part of the Immigrant Hospital and Grounds


Inside the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital


Inside the Immigrant Hospital


restoration at Ellis Island


Part of the restoration project at Ellis Island




My guys


Ellis Island Museum


Part of the facade of the Ellis Island Museum


Manhattan skyline


Manhattan skyline

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I’m just the narrator, but I have opinions too. Good ones.

Last weekend I attended a screening of a documentary that I narrated. I’ve been working with the filmmaker for 2 years so I was looking forward to seeing the finished product. As it turned out, I was disappointed. The film was energetic; the narration was slow-paced and dramatic in places. It didn’t fit. I had done as I was directed, and of course I didn’t know at the time of recording what the film would be like.

In voice-over, we do as directed and try to stay out of the director’s way. But is that always the best way? In this case, I admit that from the beginning I didn’t care for the style that was being requested of me, but I did it and had no way of knowing just how poor a choice it would turn out to be. Now that it’s done and the filmmaker is trying to sell the film, I feel compelled to express my opinion and have indeed emailed him to mention, briefly, that I didn’t think the pace of the narration matched that of the movie. If he doesn’t like my opinion he can ignore it. If he agrees and I re-record, cool. Since my name is associated with the film of course I want it to be as successful as possible and because of this pace mismatch, I truly don’t think it will be as successful as it could be.

So yeah, I don’t think it’s always the best course to keep one’s opinions quiet. I’m not advocating questioning everything you’re directed to do, but neither should you stand by and watch a project go down in flames, especially if it might take you with it.

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