November 2007 RAP
November 2007 Highlights
Production 212: Dave Foxx Pop Ups
by Dave Foxx
Just about every month, I start thinking that I’ve already written
everything I can write for this column without total repeats. Then, a day or
so later, something pops up that reminds me once again how dynamic this
business is and how we producers really live on the engine of change. This
time, THREE things have come up that merit time in my little corner of RAP.
Interview: Jude Corbett, Chicago, IL
by Jerry Vigil
Not too long ago, Jude Corbett was a production guy at a station in Terre
Haute, Indiana, but paying “small market dues” wasn’t going to take him very
long. Jude quickly raced up the market ranks through St. Louis and Chicago
before landing in New York as K-Rock’s Creative Director. With exceptional
writing and production skills on hand, it was Jude’s voicework that enabled
him to finally take the “big leap” just a year ago, and he now works from
home, delivering his voice to clients across the globe, for some 30 radio
stations and numerous television clients, including HBO, CMT, CBS, Sears,
Nickelodeon, The People’s Choice Awards, Miller Lite, VH1, TLC, and more.
This month’s RAP Interview gets an encouraging story about transitioning
from the radio production world to national voiceover. Be sure to check out
the RAP CD for an awesome sampler of Jude’s production work over the years,
as well as his voicework.
Test Drive: Fostex FR-2LE Field Memory Recorder
by Steve Cunningham
Fostex has always produced high-end field recorders, beginning in the
early 1990s with its timecode-capable PD-2 portable DAT recorder. The PD-2
and its successors are still a staple among sound mixers working in film and
television, and the $1500 FR2 Memory Recorder is widely used by these pros.
When the company announced a lower-cost version of the FR2 late last year, I
put it on my to-do list. The FR2-LE began shipping last May, so it’s high
time we take a look.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks! - What was the
inspiration for your latest creative commercial or promo? (Accompanying
audio on the RAP CD!)
Q It Up: Tell us about the last promo, commercial, or
imaging piece you wrote and/or produced that was inspired by something
outside the context of the commercial or promo/ID itself. What was the
inspiration, and how/why did you incorporate it into the piece? Was the
inspiration something you saw on TV? Something a family member said or did?
Something you saw on your way to work? Tell us about your creative process,
and then attach the production to your response! We’ll put ‘em on the RAP
CD! Please note: we’re not looking for award winners here; just an example
of using external influences to raise your work a notch above the ordinary.
Feature: Don't Forget the Details - How Radio's Biggest
Asset Can Be a Producer's Biggest Liability
by Mitch Todd
Most of us in radio have heard many of the proverbs relating to our
industry: “We’re just one rung above carnival barkers in the show biz
ladder,” or my favorite from Hunter S. Thompson, “The radio business is a
cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and
pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” A
lesser known saying goes, “There are three elements to great radio
production: Time, time and more time.” Herein lays the paradox.
...And Make It Real Creative
by Trent Rentsch
While Radio And Production is always first on my lips when people ask me
what magazine is a must read for radio Creatives, I must admit that I do
browse a few other audio trades (or as my dear wife calls them, “That damned
pile of magazines in the bathroom!!!”). I was paging through a new one last
week, when an ad took me time-traveling. The product is called an Echo Verb,
and it is a tape-based echo and reverb unit. Yes, TAPED-BASED!
Radio Hed: Deconstruction
by Jeffrey Hedquist
“Deconstruction” is an approach you can use for an advertiser who offers
more than his competitors and wants to demonstrate that to his audience. In
your commercials, keep taking away benefits until what your client offers is
the same as the competition. Here are some approaches:
Feature: A Comment on "A Comment on Gunning For My Job"
by Craig Jackman
When I first started crafting a response to Forrest’s heartfelt criticism
[Letters to the Editor - Ocbober 2007 RAP], going through each of his points
with my explanations, I came up with something that was probably twice as
long as the original article. I’d like to thank him for his criticism of my
somewhat unstructured writing style, and apologize for offending him so
much. The article was written from my perspective and from my experience, so
anyone else’s experience may be understandably different.
Monday Morning Memo: The Four Faces in Every Store
by Roy H. Williams
“You can be anything you want to be,” was once the anthem of America. But
we seem to have twisted that sunlit dream into a shriveled demon that
whispers, “Hurry, hurry, hurry and you can be everything you want to be.”
Too much to do, too little time. Tossed and turned by a too-much world,
we’re as tired as a termite in a yo-yo. And all along, we were just trying
to find our way home. “Why am I here? What is my purpose? Who are my people?
Where is my tribe?”
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