Some interesting work this week with Rareday Films, the production company headed by former More 4 supremo Peter Dale, who are handling the launch of the new PBS channel in the UK. PBS, of course, is the venerable and celebrated US public service broadcaster. Here at CKUK we spent a day putting together the audio for several test promos and a promotional film. Launch is slated for later this year.

Meanwhile The King’s Speech swept all (or nearly all) before it at the Oscars, amid much rejoicing at Momentum Pictures. It’s hard now to remember now how difficult it was to get this movie off the ground a couple of years back. Here is another of the original trailers I voiced on launch late last year:

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An interesting project that’s been gathering steam over the last few weeks has been Onetonnelife, an initiative between Volvo Cars, house designers A-hus and energy company Vattenfall. They have installed a Swedish family in a climate smart house for six months with the aim of lowering average output of CO2 from 7 tonnes to one tonne per person per year. The eco-designed house generates it’s own energy from the sun, and even powers the family’s Volvo C30 electric car. Their journey is being charted through webisods, blogs and articles at onetonnelife.com. Here is the trailer for the project with my voiceover:

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A late session came in from The Fox Soccer Channel in the US
who were wanting some British promos for the big Liverpool-Chelsea game in London last weekend, which had been given additional spice by the £50m transfer of star player Fernando Torres from Liverpool to Chelsea just before. We set up a Friday evening ISDN session to LA and knocked out a raft of high-octane promos and teasers for broadcast across the US in the runup to the game. Football/soccer fans won’t need reminding of the result…

Meanwhile, great excitement at the BAFTAs, where The King’s Speech triumphed with seven awards, including deserved recognition for all three main actors. Having voiced the trailer campaign, loyalty naturally dictated that I had voted solidly for Speech in all the main categories, but the competition is stiff this year and without home advantage the Oscars may be a tougher ride. The Social Network is a very sharp and superbly scripted piece of work which is packing a lot of heat and there is a groundswell of support for True Grit though personally, much as I enjoyed it, I found it a fairly conventional film, given its Coen Brothers pedigree…

Over to NatGeo this week to record the narration for a new documentary, provisionally titled The Truth about T Rex (TX date TBC), which tells the fascinating story of the discovery of fossilised feathered dinosaur remains and subsequent research suggesting that, far from the scaly grey reptiles of popular myth, some dinosaurs may have been covered in brightly coloured plumage. According to this school of thought poor old T Rex might end up being downgraded from fearsome monster to a remote ancestor of the common chicken. How the mighty are fallen…

Meanwhile, work has continued on another intriguing documentary for London production company MS Productions examining the recent elections in Bahrain. Not democracy as we know it but highly interesting in the light of current upheavals in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Two weeks after opening, The King’s Speech has already become the number one film in the UK and is on the BAFTA longlist in multiple categories. Naturally, we like to think the trailer campaign has had something to do with it… I’ve been back at Angell Sound in the last few days recording additional TV and radio spots to pick up on some of the press coverage. Here’s the original TV spot:

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Desperately sad news this week of the death of the British actor Pete Postlethwaite, who had been suffering from cancer.
I mentioned in a previous post that I had been covering some of his work on the Cathedral City campaign and it seems likely now that his illness was the real reason he wasn’t available. He was a wonderful actor (the best in the world according to Spielberg, no less) and an inspiring person. He will be sorely missed.

A busy week working with Momentum Pictures on the UK trailer campaign for the major new movie THE KING’S SPEECH, starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter. Nominated for seven Golden Globes, the film tells the true story of King George VI, his unexpected rise to the throne following the abdication of his brother Edward VIII and the unconventional speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his crippling stammer. The Tom Hooper-directed film has outstanding central performances and is already generating a lot of Oscar buzz. Watch this space…

And meanwhile, a very Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year to everybody.

Some fascinating work this week narrating a documentary film for a major new Smithsonian exhibition called SHIPWRECKED: TANG TREASURES AND MONSOON WINDS. The exhibition tells the story of the discovery of the coral-encrusted remains of an ancient shipwreck in the Java Sea, which contained tens of thousands of ceramic, gold and silver treasures – the largest find of Tang Dynasty artifacts ever discovered. Many of these priceless objects feature in the travelling exhibition, which starts at the Smithsonian Singapre before moving on to Washington DC and finally reaching the V&A in London in 2012. Well worth catching…

Some interesting medical narrations this week and a slew of Mercedes dealer ads recorded via ISDN from the CKUK studio.

Then over to Sky for a couple of sessions on promos for their big Harry Potter season. Warner Brothers very hands on about every aspect of this:

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Well, I guess we all like to think we’re first choice for every job, but sometimes being second choice throws up some interesting assigments. The great Pete Postlethwaite has been voicing an ongoing campaign for Cathedral City cheddar but when filming commitments meant he was unavailable for the latest radio spots, London agency Canvas Media gave Chris a call instead. Have a listen:
Cathedral City radio 30″
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