I love the advertising that big oil is doing now. Look at us we’re “Saving the Earth”. This kind of advertising sure makes us all feel so much better when we’re paying record prices at the pump. I know that we all think, as we watch the dollars click by on the pump, WOW...I’m actually help save the Earth by filling up. If you think that...it should be against the law for you to drive. With the record profits that big oil is making they could afford to reforrestate the entire Earth. Well that’s a start...lol I thought if David Letterman can do a Top Ten why can’t Big Bry ? You know gas is expensive ....... 10. When the gas station attendant is in a tux has white gloves when filling your car. 9. You fill up your Mercedes Smart Car once and you get a platinum card from AMEX 8. When auto maker web sites have a mileage and gas fill calculator 7. When your car payment is lower than the fill. 6. When the prize on Survivor..... is a tank full of gas 5. When society has terms like “The Homeless” “Less Fortunate” and “The Tankless”. 4. When Food Banks build next to the gas stations. 3. When it becomes a family issue... to fill up or send your kid to college. 2. When Los Angeles applies for Third World Nation status And the #1 reality check to tell you that gas is expensive is 1. When you can impress Paris Hilton just by showing her your gas receipt.
Thanks for the read...and if you can come up with any more...just "comment"
As a voice over actor you will ask yourself 2 questions at some point in your career. “Should I join the Union”? and “Why do they always hire the A-List actors for parts that I could do”? Here’s a great article from the NY Times.... Don’t Forget the Middle People By BROOKS BARNES Published: June 30, 2008
LOS ANGELES — From his break in 1992 playing Bank Nerd No. 2 in the sitcom “Married With Children,” to his supporting role on the HBO hit “Six Feet Under,” to a part in last year’s “Spider-Man 3,” Tim Maculan has navigated Hollywood more successfully than most actors. Members and supporters of the Screen Actors Guild are calling for better terms than another actors’ union is seeking. It is pressing studios for more lucrative terms. Lately, though, Mr. Maculan, 45, says the actor’s place in the entertainment industry’s economic food chain has changed. And for middle-income working actors like him, it’s not for the better. “It’s not about networks being cheap or evil,” Mr. Maculan said. “It’s just that the industry is dramatically different than it was even five years ago.”
Mr. Maculan, a sarcastic character actor with a wicked grin, rattles off a list of industry shifts that have made it harder for middle-income actors to earn a living. Reality shows have crowded out scripted programs, comedies in particular. The studios are making fewer movies, and the ones they are making are less actor-driven. Networks like NBC have virtually stopped filming pilot episodes, meaning they are hiring fewer actors. Voice-over work, once a staple for less-known actors, is outsourced to other countries or given to A-list stars.
The Screen Actors Guild, now embroiled in negotiations with film and television producers over a new contract, has made the plight of the middle-income actor the centerpiece of its campaign for more lucrative terms. The guild is seeking increases for everything from reimbursement rates for car mileage to continuing payments called residuals. Guild leaders say the economic situation is so severe that they have no choice but to take a militant stance at the negotiating table.
The guild’s contract, which covers about 122,000 actor members, expires at midnight Monday. Because the two sides remain far apart on most issues, Hollywood has been on edge about a strike, taking care, for instance, to wrap production on films so costly location shoots are not drawn out.
But no strike can take place until about Aug. 1 at the earliest. Guild leaders have yet to call for a strike authorization vote, which must be put before the entire membership and approved by 75 percent of voters. Carrie White, a spokeswoman for the Screen Actors Guild, said on Friday that the process would take up to three weeks.
The guild has strongly indicated that it will not consider calling for a strike vote until July 8, when a second actors’ union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, releases the results of a ratification vote on its new contract. That union reached an accord with studios and networks in May and shares about 44,000 members with the Screen Actors Guild.
“Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction,” Alan Rosenberg, the president of the guild, said in a statement Sunday. He added that guild negotiators have been “coming to the bargaining table every day in good faith.”
The two unions have been sparring in recent weeks, with each side lining up marquee stars to push its own agenda.
Aftra, the smaller of the two, wants members to ratify its deal and move on; SAG thinks the rival union negotiated a bad deal, particularly on issues of digital media, and wants to keep fighting for a better one. It worries that its leverage at the bargaining table will evaporate if Aftra members approve their contract by a solid margin.
Like most Hollywood labor organizations, SAG bears little resemblance to unions as most Americans know them.
Most unions represent workers with wallets of similar size, but SAG is a hodgepodge of wildly varying careers. On one extreme, SAG represents stars like Will Smith, who will take home well over $20 million from his coming film “Hancock” once all the receipts are counted. The bulk of its members, about two-thirds, according to some estimates, make less than $1,000 a year from acting, either because they can find no work or because they have moved on to other careers but kept up their dues.
SAG said the average annual income for its membership was $52,000 a year. The guild said it could provide no other economic statistics about its membership, however.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the organization that negotiates on behalf of studios, said its analysis of SAG membership showed that fewer than 4,000 of its members could be considered middle-income actors, that is, people making $25,000 to $100,000 from acting in a given year. Only 5 percent of SAG’s membership earns more than $75,000 a year, according to the alliance.
The alliance rejects the notion that a richer contract is necessary to offset changes in the industry that make life harder for actors. Cast costs rose at more than twice the rate of overall production costs between the 2000-1 television season and the 2007-8 season, according to alliance statistics. Total cast costs for television rose 78.4 percent during that period, compared with a 33.6 percent increase in overall production costs.
“Making a living as an actor is ultimately a function of how often someone works, and that can’t be guaranteed by the minimum terms that are set by the SAG contract,” said Jesse Hiestand, an alliance spokesman. “Our offer to SAG contains a number of increases that will benefit actors that do work, especially guest stars.”
He added, “SAG’s negotiators should be working with us to keep scripted TV and the film business healthy so that it generates more work for their members.” Full Article Here.
Thanks for the read and comments are welcome. Bryan Cox
There is a trend in advertising to use the voice of a celebrity...or an impersonation of one to plug a product. The main reason that a company would use an impersonation of a celeb, is that they’re too cheap to hire the actual voice. I've been doing impersonations ever since hell was a grass fire and what really bothers me is that the ad agencies, the folks that write the commercials for companies, don’t understand how to use an impersonation to get the biggest bang for the advertiser. In a commercial you need to say something that grabs the attention and imagination of your audience. If you use one voice, unless really dynamic, you audience will get bored an tuned out. This is called listener fatigue and we all have it. So you say use two voices...yes much better. When one of those voices is a celeb impersonation...you have a spot that rocks. I was asked to audition for a commercial recently and the ad agency asked for full 30 sec read in the voice of Don Lafontaine. If you don’t know who he is, he’s the voice you hear on a billion movie trailers. For one thing you would never hear Mr. LaFontaine do a full 30 sec read, maybe 3 or 4 lines tops. What this agency didn’t understand, is that when you want your commercial to stand out...use the celeb impersonation as a supporting role. Keep the impersonation SHORT. This will ensure that the listeners attention will spark up and they will hear what’s being said. You might wonder how I found out how to use impersonations? Many years ago it was explained to me from one of the best in the business, Rich Little. If you’re thinking of using a celeb impersonation in a commercial, you should be aware that some folks are being sued by celebrities now for using their vocal likeness. Thanks for the read and comments are always welcome. Bryan Cox--Voice Over Guy
This week coming up will very interesting for moi. Last week I got asked to audition for Canada’s #1 sitcom, “Corner Gas”. At first I thought it was for a voice over part, but after a bit of explaination, I understood it was for a speaking, on camera scene. Now you have to understand that for every 10 auditions for on camera and voice over work, you might and I say “might” get one. So you realize how shocked I was to find out that I got the part. I should be on set this week and will let you all know how it goes. Thanks for the read Bryan Cox
Bryan has worked
through
the ranks
of Voice
Over
Artists in
Canada
and the US. With over 25 years
in the business of Voice, it’s no
wonder that when people hear
what he is saying, they believe it.
His voice and sell, can be rock
hard, to as soft as a summer
breeze.
His clientele is as varied as
the styles he can portray.
From the Bay/Spielberg
Transformers movie,
Pink Floyd, Universal
Studios Florida, Sony,
The Humane Society,
Whirlpool,
Countrywide and more.
Bryan’s command of voice also
enters into impersonations
when needed. Bryan’s voice has
also carried him to be the
opening act for greats, such as
Tom Jones and Engelbert
Humperdinck.
The Comedian.
From Conventions, Clubs and
Fundraisers across North
America, Laughter is KING.
Bryan never disappoints, with
his own unique style of
Prairie humor. After suffering
a broken neck, heart attack
and Cancer all with in 3
years, Bryan knows how
important laughter is and can
be. Laughter is the Best
Medicine.
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