March 27: World Theater Day
Have you ever wondered “What world day is today?”.
In recent years, thanks also to social media, the question of the various “world days” has entered the daily life of each of us. Practically every day of the week we discover that there are days and anniversaries dedicated to many different situations and topics. But for those who love the theater, today March 27th is the day that is worth more than all. But what is this day? How was it born and why? World Theater Day was born in 1961 on the initiative of the members of the IX Congress of the International Theater Institute. To be precise, the proposal to establish a day for the theater was made by playwright Arvi Kivimaa on behalf of the Finnish Center. The idea was so popular that since March 27, 1962, “World Theater Day” has been celebrated every year.
The International Theater Institute was born in the aftermath of the Second World War, in 1948. It is one of the largest international non-governmental organizations dedicated to the theater and was founded in Paris by UNESCO and by important personalities of the theater of the time.
We like to highlight this date and this event because, as you can imagine, many of the voices in our gallery of speakers and dubbers come from the theater world. Actresses and actors who, when they are not on the stage, lend their voice and their talent to the reading of our texts, commercials, documentaries, audio books, etc. To all these professionals who, often with great sacrifices, carry on their passion, we say thank you for their availability and for how they know how to put themselves on the line every time. Long live the Theater.
Finding the perfect voice talent will no longer be hell
This is how we introduced ourselves from 2017 until a few weeks ago, when our new site came out. Anyone who knows us knows that we love hyperbole and irony and for this reason the concept of the old site was inspired by the art and history of Florence, our city, where the Voxon recording studio has been based for more than 12 years. And so an austere Dante, but well “miked”, warned and reassured that finding the right speaker for us is easy, fast and convenient. The first slide of the new site still has Dantesque references, thus establishing a line of continuity with the past and emphasizing the values we believe in. Working with art, taking care of each audiovisual project with the best attention and above all always ensuring the perfect voice for each of your projects.
Fiat Panda Social Media ADV
La Nuova campagna social di Fiat dedicata alla intramontabile Panda è diventata virale in un soffio. La voce di Omar della galleria voci di Voxon, sostiene con ironia il concept. Riportiamo di seguito una porzione dell’articolo che Caterina Varpi ha scritto su Engage.it.
Realizzata da Publicis Groupe, la comunicazione è stata lanciata su TikTok e tutti i canali social attraverso formati interattivi e UGC content.
Fiat Panda celebra la sua storia attraverso il lancio di una nuova campagna social, “La mia Panda è leggenda”.
Un hero video celebra, in stile native su TikTok, la personalità di Panda, “social since 1980”, capace di superare tutti gli ostacoli e di far vivere esperienze straordinarie a intere generazioni di persone, racconta il comunicato stampa. La narrazione si estende poi a tutti canali social ufficiali del brand – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter – e su YouTube, attraverso un piano di contenuti editoriali dal tone of voice iperbolico, a tratti ironico, e una visual identity dal forte impatto visivo.
Utenti e creator sono incoraggiati a prendere parte al racconto, liberando la propria creatività e contribuendo così a incrementare i contenuti e l’affiatamento della community.
Sono coinvolti nell’operazione creator affini al mondo automotive che svilupperanno lo storytelling mettendo in luce l'”epicità” di Fiat Panda e costruiranno momenti di engagement, reaction, condivisione. La pagina Commenti Memorabili posterà il video hero e permetterà la realizzazione di un video celebrativo con i commenti più belli.
Clicca qui per visualizzare lo spot.
Brain-fade or typo?
During dubbing sessions, unintentional mistakes can create really amusing situations. There are many examples, both real and legendary, of lines where the sense is transformed by a typo or by the dubber’s distraction.
For example:
“Let’s eat, Grandpa” can become “Let’s eat Grandpa”! Or,
“We’re going to learn to cut and paste, kids” becomes “We’re going to learn to cut and paste kids”!
Or even,
“The animal eats shoots and leaves” can become “The animal eats, shoots and leaves”!!
Experience tells us that dubbers are always very focussed but that texts are not always well written, presenting us with a sequence of mistakes that can cause enjoyable hitches but also irritating delays in production times.
Moral of the story? Always recheck texts before sending them to be recorded; even a comma in the wrong place can have unwelcome side effects.
Natural emphatic
Ordinary mortals generally accept what they’ve got, but let’s imagine that for some reason or other you wanted a different voice from the one you’ve been given. We know that it all comes from the vocal cords, and we also have a rough idea of how they work, but a quick surf of the internet leads to some really interesting discoveries: that rather than cords they are vocal folds; that there are a total of four but that only two speak; that the larynx is defined as a secondary ‘sexual’ organ; that our psyche influences our voice to the extent that there’s such a thing as ‘hysterical dysphonia’.
Still on the net, you’ll also come across psychological and/or scientific explanations as to why your voice has that particular timbre, and the various ways of altering it. If you aim to be a voice professional – actor, dubber, speaker, or even a salesperson, teacher, lawyer, politician, tourist operator, call centre operator or wedding planner – there are schools and courses (also online) for all requirements: vocality, diction, pronunciation and articulation, public speaking, acting, improvisation, mimicry, micromimicry, elimination of dialectal inflections, and seduction!
Even if we were just tired of our normal voice and decided to ‘repitch’ it, we would have to revise our way of doing that apparently most normal of things, breathing (no to ‘high’ clavicular breathing, yes to ‘low’ breathing), become aware of our diaphragm, and exploit to the full our cavities (oropharyngeal, cranial, tracheal).
But fear not, by means of an ad hoc course to “release the tensions that inhibit the voice and tone up the imagination, intellect and body so as to render the person open to the full expression of thoughts and emotions” we will be able to recover our ‘natural’ voice.
Two crazy English researchers, starting from a survey asking people which their favourite voices were (Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, BBC journalist Mariella Frostrup, and actress Dame Judy Dench), tried to find the formula of the perfect voice. The result, synthesized at the computer, came out as “a clean and comprehensible phrase, but with an indelible aftertaste of station announcement”.
The doubt remains: natural voice or ‘repitched’ voice?
I’d say every voice requires those nuances and imperfections that give it an identity and seductive power: Anna Magnani, Vittorio Gassman, Toto, Sophia Loren, Eduardo, among others. The mysterious balance of their voices is perhaps the most convincing answer to our question.
Beautiful and soulful.
Voxon, the voice of places
Places speak, in fact places talk to us. Some in the song of crickets on a summer afternoon, others in the silence of mountain valleys. In castles, villas, abandoned towns you can hear the voice of the wind whisper stories of lives long passed. But there is one place in particular that really needs a human voice: the museum. Beyond its role as cultural custodian, a museum must transform observation into words, words that can interest, inspire and entertain the visitor.
Hence the importance (and the difficulty) of providing the right voice for the words of an audio guide. There’s nothing more compelling than a discrete, empathetic voice that, whatever the content, is able to transport the visitor through the museum with the ease, pace, precision, clarity, variety and coherence of which Calvino writes, and transform a visit into an authentic pleasure. Scrolling through our recent collaborations with public bodies and museums, we discover a list both long and varied….
Voxon voices accompany enthusiasts of two and four wheels on roaring journeys through the histories of a legendary motorcycle in the Ducati Museum at Borgo Panigale, of the world’s most famous car manufacturer in the Ferrari Museum at Modena, and of the race that has obtained mythical status in the Mille Miglia Museum at Brescia. The less sporting can meet up with the voices of Voxon for a tour of the Archeological Park in Ravenna, or of the antique port of Classe built by Augustus, or among the ghosts of Lari Castle, or else of the Executioner’s House in Lucca, recently reopened to the public and housing an important multimedia centre dedicated to the Via Francigena, or again of Miramare Castle, set in a park overlooking the Gulf of Trieste, or perhaps walking through the lanes of Venice guided by our voices on a brand new app. The voices of Voxon will be your companions on your visit to the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale in Turin, a masterpiece of architecture and landscaping; they will lead you through the Diocesan Museum of Parma in the presence of the archangels Michael and Gabriel; and they will perform the ritual honours when you enter the ‘House of the Gods’, the National Archeological Museum of Paestum. Contemporary art enthusiasts can hear us at the Depero House of Futurist Art, or else at the MART, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto.
So at this point I’d say we could sum up by coining a slogan something along the lines of: ‘where there’s culture, art, history, sport or entertainment, there’s always a Voxon voice.’
