All the King's Men

/

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.

A night at the museum

/

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...
 

Say cheese

/

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:

Rookie heaven

/

Back from a restful couple of weeks in the Italian sun with the family and a backlog of recording to catch up with. Promo sessions for Universal and Sci Fi (or SyFy as we now call it) plus a campaign for a cool new show called Rookie Blue running on the newly branded Diva International channel. It's about new recruits to the NYPD and looks stylish and a lot of fun.

Meanwhile in the CKUK studio, a fascinating medical narration about new developments in Diabetes treatment and a programme about oilfield exploration for French-American oil giant Schlumberger. If only a fellow could remember even a small fraction of all this stuff he'd be very knowledgeable indeed...

One for Lloyds

/

Chris dropped into Sky this week to voice some nice promos for their new season of Superman movies. The campaign majors on the darker feel of the more recent films and featured some excellent work from Sky's creative department.

Meanwhile, top UK corporate agency Speakeasy passed through the CKUK studio with a stylish branding film for Lloyds TSB and asked Chris to add the narration.

Promos and posh wheels

/

Chris continued work this week with ace London broadcast design team BDA on the current rebrand of the Hallmark Channel across Europe. This week we've been working on the identity for territories in eastern Europe to rollout the new 13th Street crime and suspense channel, so Chris has been adding some dark and sinister voice-overs to a whole raft of newly branded promos.

In the CKUK studio this week, Chris has narrated a new film for Rolls Royce cars about their "entry-level" Ghost model and learnt along the way that a Rolls Royce is on average the eighth car in an owner's fleet. 

Imagine this

/

Imagine, the magazine for animation industry professionals, featured an interview with Chris in this month's focus on voice in animation:

Who are you and what do you do?

I'm Chris Kent, director of CKUK Media, spoken word recording specialists. As an actor I've always been involved in voice over work. I originally set up a small recording studio at home which grew steadily until we acquired dedicated premises and built a high-end production facility in West London seven years ago.

What are your top tips 3 tips for an aspiring voice over person?

1. Voiceover in animation isn't about funny voices – it's about creating personalities in sound. Whether you're playing an animated carrot or Hamlet the audience has to believe in the character.

2. The essential skill is reading other people's words persuasively. Record yourself, listen back and ask whether it sounds like you're reading. It shouldn't.

3. A voice over needs a good ear. Listen to the way people speak: accent and dialect obviously, but also pitch, placement and how this relates to physicality. In animation and games recording you often have to play several characters and it helps to be able to create vocal variety if you can build a physical sense of each character for yourself.

How do you go about matching a voice with a character?

As an actor, visual clues from artwork usually spark off an idea of how a character should sound or, if there's no picture, like all acting you mine the text for clues. When casting I'm always listening first for believability and second for the ability to shift energy levels and registers. Control of accents is good but not if it sounds like the same person each time with no emotional range. Sometimes we need a very specific vocal quality but generally I want to hear flexibility and creativity.

What have you worked on/are you currently working on?

We've been quite involved with games, particularly the Worms series (which we did in several languages) and more recently Horrible Histories with Terry Deary. As a voice actor I've done hundreds of characters in games and animations, including Stronghold Crusader, Robin Hood, Short Fuzes, Speed Freaks, etc.