The End of the (Oxford) Road.

I worked for ten happy years at the BBC in Manchester, at the regional centre on Oxford Road. At various times, I was involved in regional television news, for Radio Manchester, (later GMR) and for BBC2’s Travel Show.

These days, I’m accustomed to being asked back only for social reasons, such as the retirement or landmark birthday of a former colleague. Last week, though, I was invited in to say a few words for a series of short pieces to be broadcast in North West Tonight, just before the building closes for good.

For many years, Oxford Road served five related inhabitants; network TV, network radio, regional TV, local radio, and the BBC Philharmonic. Regional TV has been the last to leave, rejoining its former neighbours in Media City in Salford. The site has been sold for £10m, and the building is likely to be demolished.

I doubt anyone will mind – it’s an ugly pig of a thing, with no redeeming architectural features. Legend has it that the BBC had massively over-spent on Pebble Mill, its regional centre in Birmingham, leaving a cash shortage for completing and fitting out its Manchester counterpart.

But I digress. My final visit was really quite saddening. The BBC’s North West flagship had become a rusting hulk, with a skeleton crew taking care of her before the inevitable trip to dry dock for scrapping. I encountered a few scavengers, too – a team of engineers from BBC Plymouth were looking around, listing items they thought they’d like to have. It was like a bring-and-buy sale of broadcast gear, except no-one was bringing, and few were buying. Apparently, a lot of serviceable equipment will go in a skip, because it isn’t valuable enough to bear the cost of PAT testing. Without a certificate, it can’t be sold. Health & Safety strikes again.

But what was saddening was the absence of people. The old joke went, “Oxford Road has closed, with the loss of 400 jobs, and 800 employees,” but it seems less funny now. There had been a buzz about the place, and it sometimes felt like a sort of cultural holiday, with occasional breaks to do some work, but in reality the place had a lot of dedicated, hard-working people, taking justifiable pride in their work. It really was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of that. I wish them all well in their new home.

Posted By: Phil
22 November 2011

The SayerHamilton Summer Camp.

Ahh… the lovely sounds of summer. The crackle of the barbecue, the gentle breeze tickling the branches of the trees, birds flying free… and the cacophony of two six year olds knocking seven bells out of one another on the lawn during a closely-contested footy match.

Here at SayerHamilton, like most voice overs, we live “above the shop.” Several years ago, we looked into the idea of working from town centre premises, but since most of our voiceover work is done over ISDN or down the phone, it seemed pointless to be in a potentially noisy inner city environment when we live in a quiet suburb – a much better start when you need to be fully soundproof. When clients come, we reckon we make cuppas to die for, and there’s always a parking space right outside. So, as long as you don’t trip over the boys’ toys or the cat, a warm welcome always awaits.

Working from home certainly has its benefits, and being around in the summer time while the boys are off school is – in one way – a good thing. Now they’re a little older, our twins understand what we do and how we do it. Even better, they’re getting more and more voice work of their own, and proudly have a local authority license to perform as child voice overs (or CVOs). We don’t force them into it, but they’ve always been interested in our work, so it was a natural progression to become something of a “V.O.n Trapp” family (geddit?). Alex and Ben have recently appeared together on a commercial for the new Vauxhall Zafira, as well as for countless summer kids’ activities (so much so, they need a new showreel!) Having them at home this summer has been great – they deliver their lines brilliantly, and – even better – they know it’s important not to start playing musical instruments (or football) right outside the studio if one of us is recording.

At the end of one of Ben’s voice sessions last week, I decided I would take the opportunity to finish a quick voiceover I needed to get back to a client, while I was still in the studio anyway. I didn’t realise how funny it was for him to hear me speaking in my “normal” voice, and then switch quite naturally into my “voice over” voice. Of course both the boys have heard us all over the place: on the TV, on the car radio, and even at the inevitable train stations, and they always recognise our “work” voices. I suppose it’s just strange for them – as it is for most people – to suddenly hear us switch into a deeper, slower, more enunciated read, when they’re far more used to us either giggling with or bellowing at them in equal measure.

Fortunately (or perhaps UNfortunately) all this happened AFTER I’d pressed the “record” button, so the whole giggle-fest has been saved and uploaded online for all to hear… right here at http://soundcloud.com/sayerhamilton/the-sayer-hamilton-summer-camp. We may well dig it out again when we celebrate a double 18th in 12 years’ time… In the meantime, it may help to explain why our summer break (and our sanity) has been saved ever since the boys discovered the “awesome” Football Camp at Bury FC. We’ve had a wonderful summer with plenty of projects to keep us occupied – both work-related and family-related, and it’s been fun to juggle the two. When the boys go back to school this week, we’ll really miss them (though we admit we’ll get FAR more done without them. Sorry, boys.)

- Elinor Hamilton

Posted By: Ellie
15 November 2011

Allyson Lee - A Tribute.

Last week, I was devastated to learn that my former Performing Arts tutor, Allyson Lee, had died in Switzerland by assisted suicide. It’s always sad when people who’ve had an astonishing level of influence in your life have passed on – but perhaps even sadder when you know they’ve left their life tragically early, because they had no possible way back to health.

Allyson was an inspirational teacher – a woman who, in the traditional Yorkshire way, took no nonsense from anyone, but was gentle, kind and understanding (though only when completely necessary, mind.) She taught me at Thomas Danby College, Leeds, from 1999 to 2001, and I probably learned more in my two years there than I ever did sitting behind a desk in the various lecture theatres of my university - a place I loathed for its stuffiness and contempt for those of us who wanted to show off on stage more than we wanted to write deathless prose analysing what Ibsen really meant (I didn’t really care). But anyway… One of the key lessons I learned from Allyson was that the superfluous use of props in the theatre can (in certain circumstances) be quite distracting, and one single, carefully selected item can be far more effective than a fancy set with equipment to match.

You may think this has no bearing on my subsequent career as a voiceover artist, but that’s not true. We’re all influenced by the people around us, and my time at Thomas Danby (with Allyson Lee and Ken Reid at the helm) gave me more opportunities to hone my performance and observational skills than any educational establishment I’ve been to before or since. So much so, that I can’t help putting pieces of other people in to my work here and there, which I suppose is what gives me versatility as a voice actor. Learning to create a character without an endless supply of props is one legacy of Allyson’s which lives on in my work on a daily basis. Imagine if I couldn’t get into “posh housewife,” “chavvy teenager,” or – heaven forbid – the “tube lady” character without donning a wig, a costume, and goodness knows how much beastly costume jewellery which would jingle and clink right in front of the mic? One of the skills of this job is being able to walk into the studio and immediately BE whoever’s voice is written on the page, without the need for hours of character development. I might imagine the pen I’m holding is a tennis racquet, or the headphones are a hat… OK, so it might look a bit silly as I sit in our padded room all day talking to myself, but it works for me, and our clients seem happy.

The use of props (or lack of) is something I know would delight Allyson, and it’s particularly evident in the one-man play “An Instinct For Kindness.” Here, Allyson’s ex-husband Chris Larner tells the story of her illness and eventual death at Dignitas, using only his memory and the help of one chair. I was privileged to have seen a preview last week, and it really is the most wonderful piece of theatre I’ve ever seen, as well as being a fitting tribute to Allyson herself. It’s surprisingly funny, illuminating , and deeply moving – if you’re heading to Edinburgh Fringe this year, I’d encourage you to put it on your list (oh, and you can book tickets and read more of Allyson’s story here).

Whatever your views are on assisted suicide, it sparks an important debate; but most importantly, it keeps alive the spark of a remarkable woman whose legacy lives on in my work (and that of many others), in the most compelling piece of theatre. When you have a role to play, sometimes the only props you need are a full heart, a story to tell, and an empty chair. Thank you, Allyson, for teaching me that.

Posted By: Ellie
14 July 2011

Just Ignore Me.

It's an odd thing sometimes, being a voiceover artist. Phil and I are employed because we need to be heard by many different people in many different environments, but sometimes it's NOT being heard that's the important part. I don't mean that literally, of course, but what I do mean is that in some circumstances, it's important to have a voice which doesn't stand out like a sore thumb.

We record commercials for all sorts of clients  - much of the time we play different characters (for evidence of this, all you need to do is to hear our showreels) but the rest of the time, we need to play it as straight as possible. I'm often cast as a young mum, or a friendly announcer - Phil, likewise, frequently plays the "dad" character, or a straight, clear announcer (just wait until you hear those speedy caveats at the end of a commercial - an in-house speciality from both of us. And don't forget, your home is at risk if you set fire to it.) But I digress...

It's fun to record those commercials, because it's nice to get in the studio and record something with our producer colleagues (many of whom have become good friends), and make an ad go from being words on a page to a real life sales pitch heard on the TV or radio all over the world. When we hear the finished product mixed together and broadcast over the airwaves, we still get a buzz from it, even after several years on the job - because that's often the first time we get to hear the finished article, with the sound effects and all the clever stuff put on. Where commercials are concerned, our bit, really, is the easy part.

It's another thing entirely when we're recording voiceovers for corporate or on-hold use, or for public address systems (the train announcements being an obvious example.) A client of ours recently directed us to a number of internet discussion boards for rail enthusiasts (yes, they do exist!) who wax lyrical about the Phil Sayer announcements on the mainline rail network. The vast majority consider him to be far and away the best announcer in the country. The reason for this seems to be that he's clear, well spoken without being posh or condescending, and authoritative without being bossy.  That's harder to achieve than you might think, but we like to transfer this style into much of the work we do. While advertising is a hugely fun part of our business, the corporate market, for us, has boomed over the last few years. If you need a health and safety training module delivered in a clear way, but which never sounds boring, Sayer Hamilton have two voice artists in-house who can do just that. If you need to keep your clients on hold for longer than you'd like, here are two voices who won't grate on them by being overly enthusiastic or affected... that is, unless that's the brief and you WANT it like that!

As voice over artists, we can be as versatile as you like, or as straight as you like. Usually, we can tell what you need just on sight of your script, and sometimes (just sometimes) having a voice artist who sounds like part of the furniture, actually makes you stand out more.

Posted By: Ellie
23 May 2011

Twitter - a valuable business tool, or maybe just something else to worry about.

When we're not voicing, parenting, keeping the house tidy (well, when I say ‘we', I do of course mean ‘I' when it comes to keeping the house tidy) we're trying to get our heads around Twitter - since our own site was redesigned, we've been signed up, and it's taking a while to get used to. We've been keen Facebookers for a few years now, but set up the Sayer Hamilton page when this site was developed. (Feel free to join us and keep in touch with what we're up to, by the way, but we promise not to update too often - nobody likes a clogged-up News Feed, now, do they?)

I'm still not quite sure if I really ‘get' Twitter yet, and feel like I must be the only voice talent in the industry who isn't updating their feed on a daily basis. I always feel as if I HAVE to say something about the day's work I've just done (or am about to do). Then, I wonder if anyone is remotely interested, or if I sound as if I'm boasting when there's been a nice tasty job on the table. And if there HASN'T been a massive job that day (nobody is that busy all the time... er, are they?) well, what do I say then? Then, I think - well, they DO care; that's why they're following us. Why else would they? And then, I think, I have a house to tidy, children to collect from school, a dead mouse to remove from the office floor which the cat has so charitably brought in for us, and a new conservatory/pair of shoes at crazy discounted prices/club anthem album which I haven't got but I must pretend I need and talk about enthusiastically into a microphone... so when all those jobs are done, I just tweet about them... and hope somebody, somewhere enjoys what they read - almost as much as I hope that people enjoy what they hear.

Elinor Hamilton

Posted By: Ellie
28 January 2011

A lament from a nerd

I won't forget the first time I ever heard music in stereo. It was the beginning of my love affair with audio. Slowly, I scraped together enough money to buy various bits of kit and assembled my hi-fi. Every spare penny, as they say...

These were the golden days of hi-fi. It was generally agreed that the best speakers in the world were British and that only the Japanese made good cassette decks. But everything else was up for heated debate. We knew all the brands, bought the magazines, and argued for hours about the relative merits of vinyl versus cassette, and valve versus transistor.

Today, many voice over artists (and I'm one of them) will spend hours debating which is the best mike, the best pre-amp, and the best recording software until the cows come home, chasing that last 1% of quality... because we care passionately about what we do. But do we care too much?

At the domestic level, no-one seems very concerned. Sales of component hi-fi are on the floor, and even the more modest music centres have been consigned to the dustbin long ago. How did that happen?

My guess is that we traded quality for portability, a process that began with the Sony Walkman cassette player and continued with mp3 devices. In fairness, the sound from even quite modest mp3 players is really very good, but it surely isn't hi-fi as we used to know it. On the other hand, before the digital revolution, you couldn't take your entire music collection with you on holiday...

In consumer electronics, the quality focus seems to have shifted to television; unless you own a TV the size of a barn door, people think you're a bit weird. Even ten-year-olds can tell you about plasma versus LCD versus LED.

Just don't bother asking them if the speakers are any good... because they won't be.

Recently, I bought a pair of B&W speakers, second hand and plugged them into the audio output of our TV. Although they are ugly big black boxes, intruding into the feminine chic of our living space, the audio experience is stunning - there is so much more detail and depth in the output than I'd realised, particularly in the soundtracks of modern movies. 

Maybe, when screen size and quality reach their limits, and the industry needs a new selling point, hi-fi sound will make a return. So don't write off the hi-fi nerds yet - we're all lurking, biding our time, waiting for the opportunity to bore you to death about Fletcher-Munson curves, Fourier analysis, and why valve amps are still the best.

You have been warned - one day, the Geeks shall inherit the earth, the live and the neutral.

Phil Sayer

Posted By: Phil
21 January 2011

All Your Voiceover Needs Covered

It always surprises me how many applications actually need voiceovers - I don't just mean WHERE you hear them, such as on the radio, TV, internet or on computer games. I mean, how many different companies there are, and how they all benefit in their own way from having professional recordings made - whether it's a large arena needing to announce their latest acts down the telephone, to smaller, more specialist companies who need a bit of a web video recorded to grab the attention of their visitors online. You can always tell a professional job when you hear it, and it does make a difference.

Here at Sayer Hamilton (UK Voice Talent Extraordinaires) we'll always do our utmost to record your voiceover scripts EXACTLY as you want them - and if you're recording us by ISDN we'll do take after take if that's what it takes (err, if that makes sense.) It's performance without the prima donna at Sayer Hamilton - no matter if it's a 10 seconder being aired at the lowest Equity radio rate, or the most highly paid TV commercial, everyone gets the highest level of professionalism and courtesy. We'll do everything we can to find a time slot which suits you well, and you can have as many takes as you like within it.

Corporate narrations are generally recorded here in our own time (but we can set up an ISDN link or phone patch if you want to listen in), and we tend to guarantee a ‘same time next working day' turnaround (but let us know if yours is more urgent than that... we'll squeeze you in sooner if we can.) We love how varied our voice work is, and we're always excited by new and different projects.
On Friday afternoon, I recorded some educational material for schools (in Spanish!), on-hold prompts for Tesco Mobile, a commercial for an organic farm somewhere dahn sarf, followed by one for breast enlargements (no, they weren't joining forces on chicken fillet retailing, before you ask) then a training programme for an accountancy software package, rounded off with an impression of Saffy from Ab Fab... remember her? In between all that, Phil was recording and editing a lengthy narration all about Health and Safety on oil rigs, among other stuff. Diverse? I should co-co. And we love it.

Elinor Hamilton

Posted By: Ellie
19 January 2011

New Year, New Batch Of Randomness

I'll start this year's first blog with the phrase we've read on many a commercial over the last week or two: "New Year, New [insert product/lifestyle choice/gym membership here]!" Well, in our case it is - of course - the new website, and what a difference it's made. Of course, we still have the same client base as before of voice over recording studios, corporate clients and telephony companies to name just a few (our voice over work and past experience hasn't changed just because we have a shiny new site) but because we've come to know and work with lots more new clients too, who we've really enjoyed getting to know and, we hope, have enjoyed working with us too.

Without wanting to come across all "we're mad, us" (we're not), we're a fun company, and the old site just didn't really reflect who we are, and how we like to work. While much of our core business is corporate narration and presentation, which we really enjoy and are particularly noted for, one of the things we really enjoy is spending an ISDN session recording radio and television ads, and getting to know clients old and new ‘down the line'.

We particularly enjoy ‘double headed voiceovers' - which are usually ISDN-recorded voice overs of Phil and Ellie chatting in That Voiceover Voice about a new kitchen/conservatory/bathroom which the characters we play so desperately need (I can relate to them SO well). One new client, who had recently stumbled upon us online, emailed the other day to tell us how much he'd enjoyed the session and couldn't wait for the next "batch of randomness". That was a huge compliment... we do take our work extremely seriously - but we also enjoy speaking to you about how YOU are, and we have several clients who we've come to know very well over the years.

The majority of our colleagues in the voice over recording industry sit on their own in little padded rooms for much of the day, and only come out for a bite of lunch or a cuppa, which is why we all sport the good old "studio tan". We like to think that a Sayer Hamilton session makes the day go a little more quickly, and we're proud to say that, in nearly ten years of marriage AND working together, we have never killed each other - or had a domestic down the ISDN line (we leave that until we've finished - our professionalism never fails to impress even us.)

Give us a call - randomness... professionalism... new kitchens (yes please)... it's all part of the service.

Elinor Hamilton

Posted By: Ellie
18 January 2011

Welcome!

Our new website is live, and we hope you enjoy using it.

The tricky part was deciding what to leave out, rather than what to put in... our business really is so varied. We're not unique in that respect. Most voice-over people, voice artists, voice talent - whatever our job title is - have a wider range of activities than you might think. And it's not just about speaking into a mike - there's a depth of techie knowledge that might surprise you. It's a cottage industry, staffed almost entirely by geeks with nice voices...

In our case, we also appear in front of cameras and on stage quite frequently, so we needed the new site to showcase that important side of our business, too. Maybe that's why our original plan for an ultra-simple, minimalist website, with no more than four pages, grew to more than twice that size.

All credit to Elinor, who after much internet trawling, found our dream team of designers, Ahoy Creative.  Many of the ideas were entirely theirs, but they incorporated Elinor's thinking, too.  They understood that we wanted to go beyond the ordinary, and they developed a new "shop window" that we think delivers the right message - we're serious players in our market, but we're fun and friendly to work with, too.

Finally, we're very grateful to the producers and customers who have allowed us to use the recorded material you can see and hear on the site, notably Clive Goodall at Blue Sky Intermedia, who went the extra mile for us more than once... thank you!

We hope you enjoy our new site, and that you'll feel free to comment.

Phil Sayer

December 2010

Posted By: Phil
29 November 2010