Exclusive: "In A World" Interview with Joe Cipriano

It opens in LA and NYC on August 9th…then more cities the following weekend.

Finally…a full feature film about the wild & wonderful world that is voice-over. In A World looks hilarious, is loaded with celeb cameos, and will probably poke some good fun at the industry’s quirks…..and it’s already gotten acclaim at Sundance Film Festival!

Joe Cipriano Weighs in on In A World…

Last week, we caught up with Joe Cipriano, who appears in the film as himself, and got his thoughts on how the movie will play out…..

We’re very lucky to know Joe as well as we do, and we thank him for so generously sharing his time with us!

What is your role in the film? Who approached you about it, or how did you end up on the cast?

I am playing myself in the movie. When it came time for Lake Bell to cast her film, she decided that she wanted to have a couple of “real” voice over people in the movie. A casting call went out and I was one of the many voice over people who were brought in to audition for Lake. On casting day, I saw several vo folks who had call times that were close to mine, it was like being at a voice over party. When it came time for me to go into the room with Lake and the producers, she gave me a warm welcome and I said to her, “You know Lake, you and I worked on a television show together for entire season, but we never met.” She was quite surprised to hear this and said, “How can that be?” I then lowered my voice and said, “Previously on Surface…” I used to do the voice over recap of last week’s plot before every show on a program called Surface on NBC, which just happened to star, Lake Bell. Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped and she said, “Oh my gosh….it’s YOU!” She had me read all the parts she was considering for what she calls here “voice over heavyweights” and I was lucky enough to be one of the three chosen. Mark Elliot and Marc Grau are the other two “real” people from the voice over world.

I would imagine just about every VO artist has thought up some idea for a movie about the industry…and they probably all think they’re hits. Why is this one such a success?

Simply because of the writing. Lake won the writer’s award at Sundance Film Festival this year, that is not an easy task and it is quite prestigious as you know. This film is not as much about voice over as it is about a rather dysfunctional father/daughter relationship and also there is an underlying theme about how women are perceived in just about every business. Lake makes several very strong statements about women in this film. So this movie is funny, it’s touching and it’s successful because of the writing and the performances, not because it is set in the voice over world.

One of the things Lake does a great job of pointing out in a very funny way is the trend many young women have fallen into…what she calls, “sexy baby voice” or “squeaky-toy voice,” the combination of vocal fry, up-talk, and other linguistic tics that many young women employ. She believes the female voice and should “sound sophisticated and sexy, à la Lauren Bacall or Anne Bancroft or Faye Dunaway. Not a 12-year-old little girl that is submissive to the male species.”

Is the title “In A World” a nod to the great Don LaFontaine?

Of course. The underlying premise in the film, is about the loss of THE voice of movie trailers, the man who coined the phrase, “In a World…” and it’s all about WHO will take over that mantle.

What do you think this film will do for the industry as a whole? Now is EVERYONE going to want to do VO?

Everyone already wants to do vo LOL and that’s ok, because it’s a great career and it’s worth setting your sites on. It won’t happen over night, but it may happen if you are persistent and if you “treat” it like a business. What the film will do is shine a light on this very specific little part of the acting, entertainment and marketing world, a world that many folks don’t even know exists.

Voice Over artists will LOVE this one line in the film which is delivered by a very famous actor in a cameo appearance, that always has the audiences buzzing. The line is “Voice Over matters! Everyone in the world watches movie trailers and hears commercials…and that is power!”

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/71009477 w=819&h=461]

‘In A World’ Clip from The Playlist on Vimeo.

Here are some more clips and info about the movie: