Desiree Akhavan in my studio

Great to have Iranian-American filmmaker Desiree Akhavan in my recording studio last week so that she could be interviewed on Studio 360 over in New York by VICE journalist Hannah Harris Green.

Desiree conceived and starred in Channel 4‘s comedy -drama series ‘The Bisexual’ and she is doing an interview for a show that coincides with Valentine’s Day (today!) – I’ll post a link when I have it.

Hannah Harris Green has written some amazing pieces on sexuality and contraception – read more via the links below:

https://howwegettonext.com/the-future-of-birth-control-mean…

https://daily.jstor.org/very-real-plight-lgbtq-refugees/

https://howwegettonext.com/translating-identity-across-the-…

Also, here’s more info about my studio – it’s available to hire (with optional air b&b accommodation too) and it’s always great to help people tell their stories:

http://piersgibbon.com/studio/

Filming with A. Lange & Söhne

Look at that serious face! I just did some serious filming with A. Lange & Söhne at The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva. I love their beautiful watches – hand made in Saxony. It’s always an absolute pleasure to work with a great European team, for a product that speaks for itself.

Natural World: Birds of Paradise

Lovely to see the Natural World ‘Birds of Paradise’ documentary that I did some voiceover work on is on BBC​ iplayer again! I recorded my parts in 2010 and the incredible David Attenborough​ narrated the rest of the documentary. The series was edited by Tim Martin for the BBC Natural History Unit​ and produced by Mary Keevil at Tigress Productions.

If you are in the UK you can watch the full documentary here for another couple of weeks or if you just want to see my part, it’s below! 

Thank you Paul Bridge​ from Voiceovers.co.uk for the heads up!

Hosting CVS Conference 2018

I had a fantastic couple of days last week hosting the CVS Group Plc Conference 2018 at the Hilton in Birmingham. It was particularly fun to share the stage with the hilarious James Nesbitt, star of The Hobbit and Cold Feet, and meeting vets from all over the UK, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands. Thanks to Protec European Events for doing a fantastic job organising the conference.

Theresa’s Brexit Fantasy…

I am now a newsreader! My voiceover did a spot of time travelling on the news with The Jeremy Vine Show this morning on BBC Radio 2.
 
The headline – BREXIT is all going to be MARVELLOUS!
 
Well – what do you think?! Could Theresa May pull off a miracle last minute brexit deal? Is this a possibility or a distant dream?

Balkan Triangle – Documentary Voiceover

Recently I have been working with Dutch Director Stef Brok to record a voiceover for his documentary Balkan Triangle.

Balkan Triangle follows three different stories of men who were vital in resisting nationalism before and during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s (which you can read more about here). The film is set in Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The characters talk about what happened, mixed with archive footage from the 1990s, in many cases on the actual spot where it happened. Balkan Triangle highlights how their experiences contain lessons for us all on the dangers of nationalism. It all feels horribly relevant right now in these days of Brexit and Trumpism. 

The documentary was produced by Stef Brok and Janneke van Doornik and the music is by Formel. It will be doing the rounds on the film circuit really soon – I will keep you posted on where you can see the full film – it’s worth a watch.

Below is a clip from the trailer. You’ll spot my voice almost immediately!

Cheers

Piers x

Elearning – A ‘mid-atlantic’ accent

Where exactly is the Mid-Atlantic..and what accent do they speak with there?

One of my lovely German clients is using elearning to train their contract negotiation teams worldwide. So they decided a Mid-Atlantic accent would be appropriate. We tested various styles (and various voiceovers!) and in the end the people doing the courses actually preferred my British accent. But they definitely preferred the USA pronunciation of schedule.

Americans say it “skedule”…and the way to remember the difference is that in Britain we rather like our “sheds”.

Here is the text – obviously all of my vowels could have sailed further across the Atlantic…and there are so many words that they could have wanted Americanised – dooty, doo dates – any others?

But I’m intrigued as to why “schedule” is the only word that they felt needed to be changed. Any ideas?

TEXT:
These duties on the customer’s part must also be described in detail in the contract documents. Also the due dates for the contract partners to fulfill their respective performance obligations are specified in the contract, often in the form of a time schedule or by dates for completion.

Whitakers Chocolates Advert

I’ve often been told I have a chocolatey voice so it’s wonderful when I get to put it to good use! Click below to listen to an advert I recently recorded for Whitakers Chocolates LTD to promote their personalised chocolates.