Working with the MadBid Team is a fantastic experience. The brief for this one was to sound as much like the brilliant, lantern-jawed actor, Patrick Allen as possible (now sadly deceased). Patrick appeared in many great British films but will probably be best remembered for his amazing voice overs in the commercials for Barratt Homes (sitting in a helicopter) or his ‘protect and survive’ lines from Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Two Tribes.”
Here’s one of the many MadBid.com TV commercials.
Anyway, trying to get an accurate imitation of Patrick’s voice wasn’t easy at first and I had to produce several takes before everyone was happy with the outcome. It comes a lot easier now and slipping in to the Patrick Allen character is second nature – although I have to add a touch of madness to it!
Here’s the Christmas commercial (with very quiet sound!)
In addition to the TV commercials, I was also asked to provide the same vocal style for the radio commercials to keep the MadBid brand consistency – but for some variety, I was asked to do an impersonation that sounded ‘a bit like’ Alan Carr, mixed with the slightly mad version of my Patrick Allen. The two opposite ends of the scale I think you’ll agree, but it makes for an interesting conversation and it stretched my impersonation skills a bit!
Here’s the edited take after the ad was cut down to the standard ‘radio 29 seconds.’
I’ve been very lucky to work with a top team and full credit to Lee Pritchard of Media Music Now for enhancing my vocal efforts and adding some great sound effects – first class editing!
Finally, here’s another slightly different take on the MadBid theme – no impersonations, just my recording of the Madbid Tutorial from the website itself. If you fancy having a go after watching this (and it is great fun) just click HERE!