Dinosaur Secrets - The History Channel

[Mike Cooper]

You guys were all so nice about my National Geographic "Megastructures" gig that I thought I'd put up a little clip of something else I've got running at the moment.

I voiced "Dinosaur Secrets" for the History Channel in the UK. In the US this was known as "Jurassic Fight Club", but they decided to play down the fight aspect for the British market and amp up the palaeontology aspects instead, hence the change in title.

The series is airing at 9pm on Wednesdays on History (Sky 529 / Virgin 234 and on Sky HD 545) with plenty of repeats!

This one's a clip from last Wednesday's programme, "Ice Age Monsters"…

Here's the link (http://www.mikecoopervoiceover.com/video/tv-and-radio/Mike_Cooper-Dinosaur_Secrets_Ice_Age.mov) (video opens in new window…)

[Diane Havens]

Splendid work, Mike! I love this stuff. (And I agree with the Brit decision of playing down the sensationalized "fight" phraseology. Interesting cultural perspective there.) Well done!

[John Bigl]

:afro:

[Emorgan_Voiceovers]

Very nice work Mike.

[Brad Venable]

I concur. Nicely done. :)

[spartacus]

Great job. The accent threw me off of "Glacier" .... but I picked it up after the pic went accross the screen.

[Scott Pollak]

Mike,

What a great piece of work! Both visually and vocally. Like Diane, I LOVE this kind of stuff. My favorite type of film or video is always a good documentary. Your voice was perfect for this and I admittedly envy you because my ultimate goal is to do v/o for the History Channel, Discovery or NatGeo.

Congrats and well done!

[Jodi Krangle]

Fantastic job, Mike! Congratulations! :)

[Chrisrice]

Great job Mike, that looks like a terrific show... oddly, I had no interest in anything called "Dinosaur Fight Club" but would have watched had your UK version aired here.

[Lee Gordon]

I echo everything Scott has said (including the part about wanting to do VO for Discovery, History or NatGeo -- and I'll add the Science Channel to the list.)

I wish they would just play your version here in the States, although if everything has to have a British narrator for over there and a North American narrator for over here, I guess that's double the job opportunities for everyone. I can live with that.

I really don't understand the need on the part of some TV programmers to re-name shows, often appealing to the lowest common denominator, as in the case of "Dinosaur Secrets." For quite a while, I skipped over "Jurrasic Fight Club" until I relized what it was actually about, so I've probably missed quite a few episodes.

Sometimes, the show re-naming doesn't necessarily involve trying to appeal to a different audience but seems to reflect a low opinion of the intelligence of the audience as perceived by the network execs. They must think we Yanks are too dense to comprehend certain words. Is there anybody in America who doesn't know that a scrapheap and a junkyard are essentially the same thing? Why was it necessary to change "Scrapheap Challenge" to "Junkyard Wars" unless they thought "wars" was more macho -- in a "fight club" sort of way?

And why the need to convert "Changing Rooms" to "Trading Spaces?" I could understand if the titles contained terminology we just don't use on our side of the pond. If there were a British show called "Bung it in the Skip" I could see changing the name to something like "Toss it in the Dumpster" but otherwise, leave 'em alone.

[SeptemberDay]

I watched this over in the States when it was Jurassic Fight CLub and I gotta say it...I liked yours a lot more! Well done sir!!

[Mike Cooper]

Great job. The accent threw me off of "Glacier" .... but I picked it up after the pic went accross the screen.

Hey, this kind of material's nothing if not "literal" :cheesy:

That you preferred my version to the US version is a bit humbling, admittedly! Thanks so much for your support, guys and girls - it means a lot to me. There's another clip on my demos page here (http://www.mikecoopervoiceover.com/listen/) if you want to do another comparison.

The Nat Geo stuff goes out on Thursday this week and next, so I'll put up some clips when I've got them ready.

[haneen]

Mike, Very classy and sharp... I've only done a couple of history/nature style documentaries...frankly this is my dream gig!

[michelleann]

Very cool stuff! :D Great job.