Mark Hadlow’s one of New Zealand’s most recognisable faces and voices, and he’s been ruling the stage, radio airwaves, and the big and small screen for years now. If that wasn’t enough, he also runs one of Christchurch’s most creative teams.
If you’ve ever wondered who one of the creative geniuses behind the TV2 Kidsfest is, well, Mark’s your man. We’re lucky enough to have him running our city council’s events team. The Kidsfest is on in the city right now and he says it’s the most successful ones they’ve ever run. He says kids are turning up in their droves to have fun these school holidays.
The great thing about him is that not only does he hold down this day job, but he keeps his finger in all the creative pies. He recently won a radio award for his highly characterised voice, he’s starting rehearsal for a professional Court Theatre production shortly, and, what’s more, he’s gearing himself up to shoot a film next month.
Let us say no more, and check out what he has to say as part of our Fresh Ideas:
Tandem produces commercials for local and national clients, and every couple of months an international project pops up. But nothing as adventurous as the commercials we made for the Flight of the Conchords.
We had a call from Creative Sounds – a production house in Ireland – who were working with Another Planet Entertainment, a company based in the United States which was promoting a FOTC tour. Creative Sounds was charged with the role of making commercials for the tour so, naturally, they contacted Tandem – a New Zealand-based production company – for a Kiwi male voice artist.
The commercial was promoting “New Zealand’s fourth-most popular guitar bass digi-bongo acapella rap funk comedy folk duo – Flight Of The Conchords” tour in the US.
After putting forward a few voice samples, Toby Ricketts eventually won that job. Here’s the commercial:
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And while we’re in a Flight of the Conchords mood, check out one of their most-popular clips on YouTube. It’s had over 11-million hits.
If you’ve ever wondered who one of the creative geniuses behind the TV2 Kidsfest is, well, Mark’s your man. We’re lucky enough to have him running our city council’s events team. The Kidsfest is on in the city right now and he says it’s the most successful ones they’ve ever run. He says kids are turning up in their droves to have fun these school holidays.