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WHAT A SURPRISE

This morning, Friday November 6, I was watching C-SPAN as HearTheBill’s Kat Keesling was slated to be on Washington Journal to talk about the website and our volunteer efforts. Imagine my surprise when the host introduced an audio clip, and…….

NOVEMBER 2009: New Clients & Readin’ Bills

There has been a nice influx of activity in recent weeks – welcomed some new clients and continued serving my existing clients as well.

Of course I have spent a lot of time in the booth volunteering to read health care legislation for HearTheBill.org – we’ve been scrambling to keep up with Congress on all these revisions and new bills introduced, but we’re doing it! By this point I can read those subparts and subclauses with the best of ‘em!!!!

Thanks to the generosity of one of my fellow VOs, I am taking care of one of his clients and producing auto dealer spots for the agency. This has been a great exercise and learning process in production for me, as despite the fact that I have been producing music recordings for 25 years, I had never done actual spot production before, which is certainly a totally different animal…But thanks to the chops I do have getting around a PC multitrack recorder, it was quick work to arrive at some killer sounding auto spots. So thank you to Sid Whatley and to Martha Kelly of KF&B Advertising in Dallas, this is a great stretching exercise and I’m glad to be able to fill your needs quickly and effectively.

The ISDN is finally getting a decent workout, doing live hookups for spots for the Beau Rivage resort in coastal Mississippi (airing in Atlanta), First Energy (Cleveland), United Way (also Cleveland), and “MySims Agent” for EA Games, which is going to air on Nickelodeon. So I must say, it’s been a decent fall so far!

SEPTEMBER 2009: In Print and On Air

As part of the media push for HearTheBill.org, I have been contacting local and regional news and media outlets letting them know of the project. On Saturday 9/5 an article about the site, myself, and voice acting in general, ran in the Raleigh News & Observer! You can read it here. Then on Labor Day, a news crew from Wilmington’s WWAY-TV3 News came to my home studio to interview me about the site, and more about voice acting, it was quite interesting! You can read the article and see the video here.

Listen, then Decide. Voice Actors Read HR3200

In an effort spearheaded by my extremely talented and driven colleagues Diane Havens and Kathleen “Kat” Keesling, over 80 voice actors and other volunteers have banded together to record the entire text of House Bill HR3200, the current version of the health care reform bill. It was done in the spirit of public awareness and an attempt to make the task of taking in and digesting 1,088 pages of legislation, perhaps a bit less daunting.

Each talent took a chunk of 5, 10, or 20 pages (or more as needed) and recorded them following conventions for legislative text (sections, paragraphs, clauses, etc.), the files were then cataloged and matched to the corresponding text version so the public can download and listen as a podcast, as an audiobook, or in whichever manner they need to hopefully better understand the legalese behind the scrappling at town hall meetings. Voice actors will re-record portions of the bill that change with subsequent revisions and developments.

There is absolutely no agenda or position taken by the site or any of its participants, it is a strictly-volunteer, strictly-public service offering.

Listen or download for yourself at www.HearTheBill.org.

Hello, NEUMANN!

I have completely upgraded the signal chain in my booth, and am now recording on a Neumann TLM-103 microphone through a Grace 101 mic pre-amp, for broadcast-ready sound.

Director of SaVoa

I am pleased and honored to have been asked to become a member of the Executive Board of Directors of the Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists, and will be involved in overseeing the activities of the guild, as well as helping to develop programs and other items to educate and assist accredited voice talent members of the guild in their own voice businesses.

Now with 100% more ISDN!

I have taken “the plunge” and now have ISDN lines installed in my home studio. My codec is a Telos Zephyr Xstream and is capable of transmitting/receiving G.722, AAC, L2 and L3 audio up to 128k! I also offer APT DDD-2 (”3D2″) by appointment.  So if you are a studio or voice seeker in need of an instant voice, get in touch!

Added to StudioCenter.com and Skillsoft.com

I’m gratified that the folks at StudioCenter.com (the very busy ISDN-only production house) and Skillsoft.com (a major e-learning producer) have added me to their talent rosters. I look forward to serving many new clients through StudioCenter, and have had a good time providing narrations to Skillsoft on our Skype-to-phone sessions between my studio here in Wilmington, and their offices in Dublin, Ireland.

Talkin’ silly for Microsoft!

Via my California agent Shane Cormier at CWA, I landed a fun project from the Creature agency out of California, a web film for the Microsoft Windows Home Server. I play the server! It’s an animated film for the web called “Mommy, Why is there a Server in the House?”, and we did an ISDN linkup, once again with me at NorthStar Post at EUE/Screen Gems Studios, with voice actors and creative people in 3 different locations in California as well as Seattle! Gratified that the creative folks and the client liked what I brought to the character, can’t wait to see it! Thanks again to all!

Chris on MTV2!

The MTV Networks series “Invincible” has been airing on MTV2 in conjunction with its worldwide release on iTunes and other online media outlets. It is an animated comic using Bomb-XX technology to really bring the comic panels to life. Chris portrays Mr. Hiles, teen superhero Invincible’s high school physics teacher, a rather meek man who may well be hiding something. Check out the series! Produced by GAIN Interactive in association with MTV New Media.

About Chris

Chris Mezzolesta is a professional voice talent, and a member and director of the Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists. With over 19 years experience as a professional voice talent, Chris provides affordable and engaging voice overs for commercials, corporate narrations, radio and TV stations, audiobooks, jingles, phone prompts / IVR / on-hold, and much more. With an in-home digital studio and high-speed Internet, Chris can deliver high-quality voice recordings in under 24 hours, in some cases completed within an hour of receiving a script. Real-time interactive sessions can be conducted via ISDN phone lines. If you wish to interact with Chris during your remote session with e-mail or FTP delivery, take advantage of cost-free “phone patch”-type monitoring by downloading free Skype software, and use your computer speakers or headset to monitor or direct sessions in real time.

For total flexibility in planning your project, Chris is able to voice both union and non-union productions. Audio files on remote sessions are quickly returned via email or FTP, and credit cards are easily accepted via Paypal. Chris has worked in the Wilmington, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati markets as well as for clients around the world from his own studio. You have carefully crafted your copy, contact Chris Mezzolesta to help get your message across.

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“I have worked with Chris for over 15 years. His versatile voice and humor still amazes me. From a rapper to Homer Simpson, from Beavis to a serious father, Chris can do most anything he is directed to do. Plus he plays a wicked guitar. He continues to be in my pool of must-use voices.”

Jeff Gates
Vice President
Commercial Recording Studios, Inc.
Cleveland, OH

“You’re so fast, so professional and we’re so grateful.”

Drew Heriot
Director, The Secret

“Chris is the consummate professional. He is accurate (but more than willing to do a second take when necessary), versatile (he does a mean Robin Leach) and timely. He is a talented guy and has been a tremendous find for our company. “

Dave Warm
Broken Sound Productions
Boca Raton, FL

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Contact Chris to help you with your next project, such as:

Commercial Voiceover:
Television
Radio
Jingles [vocals and music production]

Corporate & Industrial Narration:
Trade Show Videos
Marketing Videos
E-Learning and Training Programs
Sales Presentations
Product Launches

Video Brochures:
Real Estate Virtual Tours

News Releases

Narration:
Audiobooks
Children’s Audiobooks
Infomercials
TV Documentary

Telephone Systems:
Messaging on Hold
Voice Mail
Prompts/IVR

CD-ROM:
Educational
Video Games

Voice Acting:
Characterizations for:
..Animation
..Video Games
..Museum Exhibits and Interactive Displays

PodCasting:
Narration and production of your podcast scripts

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• Telos Zephyr Xstream ISDN codec
• Custom built isolation booth
• Neumann TLM-103, Audio-Technica AT-4040 studio and ElectroVoice RE-20 broadcast microphones
• Grace 101 pre-amp
• dbx286a signal processor
• M-Audio Firewire Solo interface
• Sound Engineering (sE) Reflexion Filter room ambience filter
• Acer Aspire desktop and notebook computers, Dell Optiplex desktop computer
• Sony Sound Forge 9
• Steinberg Nuendo 3
• various VST plugins
• KRK Rokit Powered 8 Generation 2 studio reference monitors

Coming soon: Source Connect.