What’s New With ROWELL GORMON Spring 2021 is part of a series in which MVO: The Voice-Over Guys checks-in with one of our male voiceover talents to learn more about a recent media project he has voiced. Here’s what Rowell shared with us.
1. You mentioned a really cool voiceover project in your recent MVO: The Voiceover Guys update. Can you talk about who the project was for and where it was heard or seen?
For me, voiceover projects come in different degrees of “cool”. Sure, there’s the adrenaline surge of booking that spot for Disney World, or Coca Cola, or being cast as a robot in a NASA video or being the Alexa-style voice of Col. Sanders for KFC in Canada. But there are not-so-famous name brand jobs that give a similar feeling of worth and accomplishment. That’s the case with last month’s narration on an explainer video for Olympic Veterinary. Sure. Not a household name.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
2. What made the media production’s content interesting from your perspective?
What gave this job such a high degree of “cool” for me was not so much the product — which is a line of uniquely designed medical tables for veterinarians and their patients — as it was the people behind the creative, and the level of value they’ve placed on me as the voice of their products. I’ve done a series of these over the years. The client/writer/and the studio engineer who work with me all agreed the reason they thought I was the perfect choice was that I sounded like an experienced veterinarian myself, talking to his fellows.
But what makes this particular VO project worth mentioning wasn’t so much the events during the session. I had just put out a courtesy email to my clients and studio friends with a heads-up that I’d be out of commission for at least a month due to some upcoming dental surgery. I heard back from this group almost immediately, thanking me for letting them know because they were planning to send me this next script the following week (when I wouldn’t be able to speak)! Because of the rapport and relationship we’ve built over the years, they didn’t want to re-cast. But they couldn’t wait up to six weeks either. So they pushed the script through final approval in record time and we booked the session for the same day as my dental appointment. I literally went from that’s a wrap&” to “now open wide” in the space of an hour.
Where most of our great voiceover feedback (when we get it) usually comes during or right after a session — in this case it had been established over a period of years. They knew I would do a great job for them, and they liked working with me.
That kind of customer loyalty carries the same satisfying rush for me as being able to say, “Oh yeah, I was the Narrator on a Lego Star Wars animated short.”
3. As the voice talent in the media project, were there any technical or performance challenges during this voiceover recording session?
The initial performance challenge early on was finding the right balance of an informed, authoritative, believable voice which also sounded relaxed, friendly, and conversational while extolling the many virtues of this big rolling metal contraption. Once that was established, a simple phone-patch between my studio and the video production company did the trick. And on the days when my phone-patch box wouldn’t co-operate, I just kept my cell phone up to one ear for direction while recording.
4. Is there anything else you would like us to know about this voiceover project?
My friends in charge of this account echo compliments I’ve received over the years, whether for medical projects, computers, or automotives: I had a believable sound — even though as Rowell Gormon, I had no idea what I was talking about!
The best compliment I’ve ever gotten (aside from repeat business) was a writer who said, “Man, when you say it, it makes sense!”
ABOUT ROWELL GORMON
Rowell (conveniently rhymes with “role”) Gormon is a full-time professional voiceover talent. He provides commercial voices (for TV, radio & web), narration voices and of course, character voices.
Known to many as the “Man of 999 1/2 Voices”, Rowell is equally at home doing a relaxed guy-next-door read in one session, then a convincing businessman or senior citizen in the next, shifting to laid-back storyteller, to a toy robot, to a stuffy butler, or an animated light bulb…all before lunch.
Rowell provides full audio editing and production too! Rowell works from his ISDN-equipped studio, making his clients’ lives a lot easier as “Mr. Warm and Friendly Voice…with Character”.
Rowell is also available for quick turnaround voiceover projects like e-learning, documentary narration, animation, explainer videos as well as audiobooks.