Val Kilmer documentary worth a watch & a listen If you haven't seen the new Val Kilmer documentary from Amazon Studios, I highly recommend you should. The film examines the actor's life through personal videos from his early years as an aspiring performer, on-set footage from many of his well-known films, and something else - something...more real than what usually happens on film. Kilmer lost his voice due to throat cancer and uses a voice box to communicate instead. The documentary, narrated by his son, Jack, and follows the actor in his current state which is where he has been over the past 6 years since the diagnosis. Recently, Val Kilmer's voice has been recreated using AI. Using samples from earlier voice recordings, the company Sonantic has given Val the opportunity to use and license his voice - truly fascinating!

Turbo Tax's Ingenious Ad on Mundane Tasks Tax season has come and gone, and with it, the unpleasant yet essential yearly chore. As voice actors, we have the opportunity to audition for various creative commercial campaigns. One such campaign, the new Turbo Tax ad, caught viewers' attention around Super Bowl time this year. If you paid close attention, you likely thought, "Wow, the head of marketing deserves a raise," or you may have simply ignored it and enjoyed some tasty wings. Regardless, this campaign effectively takes a universally dreaded task and transforms it into something more palatable.

Big congrats to radio host Jayde Donovan The Gracie Award Winner was honored for her Saturday morning show, The Jayde Show for Westwood One! #radio #imaging #voice #award

Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana just opened a new restaurant location in Burlington, MA. If you live in Massachusetts and love New Haven-style pizza, you won't have to travel all the way to Connecticut for this classic pie anymore! Congrats to the Pepe family on this new addition. Let the tradition continue! #frankpepespizzeria #napoletana #pizza #newhaven

Abrams Artists Podcast Studio Among the many things happening at Abrams Artists Agency these days, a chic new podcast studio for clients is one of them. Don't you just love it? Hollywood Reporter broke the story a few weeks ago. Check it out! #abramsartistsagency #podcast #studio #voice

PIZZA SPECIFICS WITH MY FATHER My father, Francis Rosselli, knows pizza.  He has his entire life.  Since he was a teenager, he’s kept a careful eye on the family pizza business and what makes for a traditionally consistent pie.  With an in-depth understanding of ingredients and baking requirements, Dad strives for the absolute best in quality and giving customers new and old a stellar (and delicious) product. Because pizza has just three basic elements — crust, sauce and cheese — each one must be reliably perfect and perfectly reliable. To accomplish this, every fall two grandsons of Mr. Pepe conduct a blind tasting of new-harvest tomatoes from the area around Naples, Italy.. Like his grandfather Francesco Pepe, my father knows that if one element of the process is inconsistent or lacking, the entire pizza will be off.  And it always boils down to specifics.  In this case, the best canned tomatoes for the job.  Late last month, he was featured in this article for the NYTimes.  I couldn’t be more proud of him. Moskin, Julia.  It’s Canned Tomato Season. Here’s What You Need to Know.  New York Times. Web. 25 September 2017.  12 Nov 2017.

Ad Agencies are hard at work reinventing the ad landscape It goes without saying that the world of advertising is in a constant state of change.  We are bombarded with all types of ads on a daily basis.  So much so that there are now even premium subscription options for an ad-free experience.  While many simply can't handle the onslaught of ads, some people, myself included, love it.  As a voice over talent, marketing research is part of the job.  Moreover, advertising professionals are always hard at work trying to find new ways to be creative, engage audiences and ultimately make brands stand out more. This recent article from Adweek profiles several seasoned and influential creatives in the business as well as their most impactful work in the last year.  It's refreshing to see how forward-thinking minds approach an ever-evolving market.  These executives are able to discover all creative possibilities with a firm grasp of each project challenge's challenge.  Luckily, I've been fortunate enough to work with one of these agencies on notable campaigns over the last couple of years and am glad to be a part of their story-telling process. My personal favorites: Samsung: Ostrich and Seamless: How New York Eats. Check it out! Nudd, Tim. 22 Creative Directors Who Are Completely Reimagining What's Possible In Advertising. Adweek. Web. 12 June 2017. 16 Feb 2017. #creative #adweek #advertising #adcampaign #story #commercial

A new ad from Lacoste is not to be missed. Is it me or are brands getting really good at story-telling? The editing, imagery, and, of course, music, make this one powerful spot. Great work, BETC! Video Source: Lacoste #lacoste #advertising #betc #voice

Piece from Adweek shows the Humor in Moments of Chaos Recording voiceover is not always a picnic.  Sometimes it's a breeze and other times, a complete disaster.  Nine times out of ten though, the commercial is recorded and produced and, in the end, people do actually get what they want from each other.  Well, we hope.  As voice talents, a chaotic recording session is our worst nightmare and we try to avoid it at all costs.  We never intend to make things difficult and do love it when our clients are happy.  Moreover, getting the job is what matters most as we are usually extremely grateful for the opportunity.  A recent video that appeared in Adweek the other week took the cake and made us all laugh hysterically, proving that, in those moments of chaos and disorder, humor really shines through. What I love about this particular video is the lengths to which these writers go in making their point.   In addition, they never sacrifice credibility for the sake of comedy.  All of what occurs in the video is quite accurate.  Personally, I can't ever think of a time when this happened to me but I do know the psychological and technical ramifications of keeping your phone on during the recording session.  Some voice talent realize that keeping your phone on can cause unwanted static or feedback during the recording, even if the ringer or notification sounds are turned off.  This particular voice talent does a considerably good job, given that the recording is already off to a bumpy beginning, what with the creatives already not inspiring much confidence in their abilities.  We do our best to buckle down and try to read people's minds. Rudd, Tim.  Watch The Voiceover For An Ice Cream Ad Go Horrendously Comically Wrong. Adweek. Web. 22 Aug 2016. 28 Aug 2016. #voiceover #recordingsession #funny #Adweek #advertising #directing

...with new trains! (Let's hope) We've been saying this for years.  America needs better trains. As many of you are aware, I live and breathe trains and will stop at nothing to talk about them any chance I get.  Whenever I post something railroad-related online, someone somewhere will say "You and your trains!"  Can I blame them?  Nope. Frankly, I'm addicted everything about them.  Both old and new types. Different locomotives, passenger and freight cars, spans of tracks heading miles into the distance, old stations, photographs, etc.  You name it.  If it involves trains in some way, I want to be involved.  And I often think of what made America classically glamorous in the past.  Passenger trains.  The New York Central, New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, Burlington Zephyr, The Hiawatha and more. Of course the technology has changed. So when I decided to see if Amtrak had added any new locomotives to its rolling stock, aside from the   ACS-64, now currently the face of the Northeast Corridor line, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they are upgrading it's fleet for the Cascades Route from Seattle to Vancouver, BC with brand new Siemens Charger Locomotives.  Certainly a step in the right direction. This cool new video from Siemens on train restoration in the state of California made me think for a moment about the importance of having a viable rail system in this country.  The people in this video clearly take pride in their work and the equipment is manufactured right here in this already great country. THIS is moving America forward. Siemens. “Made In America” Video. YouTube 20 June 2014 16 March 2016. #trains #Siemens #Amtrak #infrastructure #USA

Co-Star Remembers an Acting Legend But it was Heath — a natural storyteller, and always reliable for a cheesy joke — who transfixed us. Before I knew it, the cast was experiencing what I’ve since found to be all too rare: a unified chemistry throughout the ensemble, without a single bad apple in the bunch. The experience was communal, it sang like a well-tuned chorus both onscreen and off-, and we all agreed that we were having the best summer of our lives. When you think about it, I'm sure we all look back at some of our high school experiences with vivid recollections.  It's that time we refer to as blissful ignorance.  Before all our life's major decisions.  Before any major growing up.  We were growing but we didn't think of it as "growing" in any real adult sense.  We were just having fun.  Or maybe we weren't.  And I'm sure each of our high school experience didn't include being mesmerized by Heath Ledger in person.  In a recent article for Vulture, actor David Krumholtz fondly remembers his experience with the rest of the cast, as well as Heath's effect on the group as a whole, and it's pretty amazing... Do you remember the first time you watched  10 Things I Hate About You? I most certainly do.  Obviously it was during high school.  And it was in a movie theater with a bunch of screaming teenagers, especially during Heath Ledger's break-out singing scene.  And yes, I may have even been on a date!  More importantly, what I remember most about this movie was that it quite accurately summarized the feeling of high school romance.  The movie was simply golden.  It had a magically quality all its own... Krumholtz. David. "David Krumholtz Remembers Heath Ledger and the Rest of the 10 Things I Hate About You Cast" Vulture. Web. 2 Nov 2015. 29 Nov 2015 #movies #film #heathledger #motivation

When it comes to the Millennial market, anything is possible. Marketing and advertising gurus alike are left scratching their heads and willing to expect the unexpected.    In a more digital world, we are either completely sure of how to reach them or daunted by the task of their most influential medium.  Early predictions led many to assume mobile content was the sole driving factor in getting their attention.   And let's not forget- brand transparency.  This recent Adweek article from several weeks ago highlights a series of recently conducted studies showing the millennial market actually engaged in TV over YouTube.  It is yet a clear indication of their newfound willingness to give more traditional avenues a chance.  Maybe they're getting sick of their phones. Lynch, Jason. Millennials Care More About TV (and Its Ads) Than YouTube. Adweek. Web. 31 Oct 2017. 4 Nov 2017. #advertising #TV #millennial #youtube