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Strange film advert voices

 
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Has anyone else noticed the strange trend in the voice used in film adverts? You know the kind - a few short clips of attractive people are shown and then a voice comes on saying "They came looking for a holiday, and now they're going to have the experience of a life time. The movie of the centaury out Friday Four" or some such rubbish.

The thing is that its not a normal voice. Somewhere they must have a school of trained bears to do the reading, because recently the voices seem to have been getting ridiculously deeper and growly. That's fair enough for the occasional horror film, but now it seems to be done for all films. A film may be a light hearted comedy, but the voice will sound like Satan after a night on the town smoking 400 cigarettes.

Why do they do this? Do they need to make every single film sound like the dramatic event of the year even if its a comedy? The advert I watched a couple of days ago was ridiculous. It sounded like the guy/bear reading it needed to have a good cough. It even made me think slightly less of the film - if it needs a freakishly deep and over dramatic voice to market it, then perhaps it isn't so good after all.

While on the subject of film reviews, why is it they always say things like "out Friday four" instead of "out on Friday the fourth"? Is this standard usage when saying dates in the US, or are they just being lazy? And why have they started using this strange date description method for British films for goodness sake?
 
Dave Lenton
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I remember once hearing a story about a film producer being at a train station and hearing a deep voice announcing the train times. He realised that the voice would be perfect for advertising films, and hired the announcer. This must have been in the pre-bear days though - I wonder if the guy is out of a job now?
 
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Come to think of it, I believe you're right. I haven't been to the cinema in a while but I think the trained bear thing has been a trend for some time now.

It is not only strange that they all seem to be the same bear-like guy, I also wonder why they're always men? I can (sort of) understand why they'd pick a man to do an advert for a Vin Diesel type of action movie. But when advertising a romantic comedy or a Harry Potter movie, wouldn't a female voice make a nice change?
 
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I remember once hearing a story about a film producer being at a train station and hearing a deep voice announcing the train times. He realised that the voice would be perfect for advertising films, and hired the announcer. This must have been in the pre-bear days though - I wonder if the guy is out of a job now?



Yes ! I saw this guy (on TV). He also did voices for spooky games ( blood ? ). I dont know if he lost his job or something ( unlikely ). Female voices also feature in film trailers now days ( I dont know why i put this bracket here ).
 
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I think there are about a half-dozen voice over actors who sound like this. I even once saw a youtube(?) video with them, poking fun at themselves for that very thing.

also, i've never heard anyone say "out friday four", so i'd say it is NOT common here in the U.S. at least, not in my part of the world
 
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Originally posted by Dave Lenton:

Is this standard usage when saying dates in the US, or are they just being lazy?



Nope, never. Nobody ever says this here.

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure previews and Tv commercials give a release date very rarely, if ever. They occasionally say "starts Friday", but I actually think that's not common anymore. DVD release commercials do generally include a date.
 
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When goth/death rock singers use this voice, I believe it's called "cookie-monstering."

Originally posted by Iris Hoekstra:
It is not only strange that they all seem to be the same bear-like guy, I also wonder why they're always men?

How do you know they're all men? If they hired a woman with a deep, gravelly voice, how would you know?
 
Iris Hoekstra
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I suppose theoretically it's entirely possible for a woman to sound like a growling bear if she has some kind of problem with her vocal cords but I'd have to see and hear it to believe it.
 
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Yes, there are a small handful of voice actors that tend to do the majority of film trailers. The most prominent is Don LaFontaine (aka "Voice of God"), who is credited with numerous trailer cliches. For this reason, he's also known as the "in a world guy."
 
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Here's a link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyYpp44qSFY ...and who said a woman can't growl?
 
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out friday four



I dunno about US - but in Australia I have disocvered this is the norm. Some poeple even seem to get confused and have to rethink what I've just said when I say "December the 25th" instead of "December 25".

I find it very unpleasant to listen to (although I recognise that its no less valid to say 25 than it is to say 25th - just a cultural difference)
 
marc weber
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Originally posted by Dave Lenton:
..."out Friday four"...


If I heard that, I would assume I was missing some obscure reference.
 
Dave Lenton
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Originally posted by Adrian Wallace:
I find it very unpleasant to listen to (although I recognise that its no less valid to say 25 than it is to say 25th - just a cultural difference)

Same here, hearing cardinal numbers for the day number just sounds really strange... and yes, a bit unpleasant. I just assumed that it was another example of strange American expressions (like doing the dates backwards) being used to market stuff in the UK, but from what's said on here perhaps it isn't.

Very odd.

Oh, and as far as I'm concerned, the only people on the planet who can actually get away with the strange deep voice thing are Barry White and James Earl Jones. Any other suggestions?
[ October 19, 2006: Message edited by: Dave Lenton ]
 
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