Gene Davis wrote to ask…
I've been reading your blog for a couple of years now and really enjoy it. Thanks for all the information and entertainment.
You've done so much work involving voice actors for television programs. Have you ever done any similar work for advertising interests making radio or television commercials? If not, was it a personal choice or an understanding that people in your position don't work both sides of that street? How does working for advertisers differ from working on programs for voice actors? I'm not referring to a famous actor or entertainer who lends his/her well-known voice to a company (for example, Gene Hackman for Lowe's).
I directed Lorenzo Music a few times for Garfield-related advertising. It was exactly the same as directing him for the cartoons. He read the copy, I said either "Let's try it one more time" or — more often — "That's fine. Let's do one more for protection, then move on to the next line." Lorenzo needed about as little direction as any actor who's ever worked in animation.
And I directed Gary Owens once for some network promos — oh, and I also once directed promos with Mark Elliott, a veteran announcer that most folks think of as The Disney Movie Trailer Guy. This is Mark Elliott but that's not the thing I directed him for. It was the same amount of effort on my part as it was with Lorenzo. They read it once, it was fine, we did it again just in case…and we moved on. If you've hired the right voice folks, it's real easy. The casting and booking are often the hard parts.
But that's about the extent of it. I haven't done any more advertising stuff not because of any personal choice but because no one's asked me. The above minor instances were easy because no one who outranked me was present. I've heard (and even witnessed as a spectator) times when the sponsor or the ad agency was present, kibbitzing about every syllable of every word uttered as if the wrong read of a "the" would cause the entire commercial to fail and the company making the product would go bankrupt and the ad agency would follow them into receivership and everyone's children would starve to death.
I've had a little of that in directing cartoon voices…producers or network people sitting behind me, telling me they didn't like the way a line was read. But not much. I'd have no overall objection to working on commercials. It would depend on the product and the circumstances — who I'd be working with, whether I'd have a boss sitting behind me, etc.
