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Thread: Mid-west reporter accent

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    God/dess Nautilus's Avatar
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    Default Mid-west reporter accent

    i have this audition in the morning for a TV commercial where i have to be a news reporter with a mid-west accent. as an aussie, it's not easy to pick up the dialectic subleties of certain US regions.

    does anyone know of a website with the following:

    1) some good pics of mid-west regional reporters - big hair and all; and
    2) maybe some webcasts, vids with examples of the accent...

    reporters in our country have their own weird inflexions and tones... so i need to see how your newsreaders/reporters do it.

    the brief just said mid-west -- i'm guessing someone here can help me out.

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Well, you mentioned the Big Hair, and I automatically thought of Rhode Island (where I'm from). You'll probably get a kick out of the accents of the newscasters, but the site is below for you. Hope this helps a bit.

    RI isn't Mid-West though, it's Northeast.. But it may give you some idea. I don't know.. Heh.

    Good luck on your audition.

  3. #3
    madmaxine
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Midwestern accents- tend to be flat-voweled & slightly nasal (New England accents have long flat vowels). Some regional differences. I had a boyfriend from Wisconsin who spoke in a uniformy flat tone, but my friend J in Minnesota speaks in a very cute accent with occasional pitches....she'll say the word "cute" like "cyyyuuuaaat", "you know" like "ya knoow"....."Fargo" is a good movie to watch for "Minnesota Nice" dialect.

    PPS I was working in Fargo, North Dakota a few times last year, and actually the local newscasters spoke in fairly un-accented English, because sometimes local TV stations are included in Satellite TV packages, so people across the Nation are seeing news from far away. When I was in the Carribean, some people had Los Angeles, CA TV stations on their cable packages.

    PPS Didn't Rachel Griffiths have to change her Aussie accent to Standard American for HBO's "Six Feet Under"? I read that's how she won the part, by doing such a good accent. So..don't despair!!!

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Thanks very much for that. Am researching feverishly...

    They have specifically requested this accent because the TVC is set in middle america. it's a shame, coz the ozzie one comes naturally, mate.

  5. #5
    madmaxine
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    I saw Kate Winslet on "Oprah" and she was asked to do a spot-on "American" accent, after a glass of wine & she did fine. Maybe moderate drinking might ease up the brain to let you speak differently?

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    i like the cut of your jib! didn't want to admit that i was eyeing off the red wine downstairs just now...

    maybe a quiet tipple will help lubricate the acting muscle? it may be somewhat unorthodox to have a drink for breakfast... but i'm willing to try for $16,000

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Quote Originally Posted by Nautilus
    does anyone know of a website with the following:

    1) some good pics of mid-west regional reporters - big hair and all; and
    2) maybe some webcasts, vids with examples of the accent...

    reporters in our country have their own weird inflexions and tones... so i need to see how your newsreaders/reporters do it.
    I am totally not in agreeance that mid-west reporters have big hair. But anyways, I got some links for you. They are very clear...

    http://www.wcpo.com/video/weathertracker.html







    Some Douchebag: "[Pimp C] 12:43 am: its true we got to stick together the black people on SW CK you is teh condoleeza of SW"


  8. #8
    madmaxine
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Some people are gifted at doing accents & impersonations, like Eric Bana, who did a bunch on the "Tonight" show with Jay Leno.....I was so impressed......I wish I could do that! It's being able to mimic/ parrot the sounds.....

    But in all seriousness, American TV & culture is kinda prejudiced against regional accents- like Southern accents are dying out because of the misconception is that Southern culture is "dumb"...Californians are made fun of...but overall, broadcast TV has to sell Nationally, so they try to keep serious inflection out of the speech.

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    Senior Member Vixen608's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    I think the best midwestern accents would be those from Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and central IL! The reason for this is because the northern midwestern states have a different accent, and people from the bigger cities in the midwest Chicago for example have an accent.

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Considering that this is coming from Austrailia, we want to be careful because "Midwest" covers a large area of the U.S., and they could be looking for two completely different things.

    Generally speaking contemporary Midwestern accents are considered the "General American" accent, because there's not much accent at all. Many sales companies will put their customer service or telemarketing representatives in the Midwest because the dialect can be most easily understood by those who would talk to such people over the phone.

    In another context, "Midwest" sometimes is meant to be conveyed in a rural Bible Belt sort of way, is much the same way as "Southern" is, only less pronounced. So they may be looking more for something out of Green Acres or Hee-Haw than a contemporary Midwesterner.

    The best I can do is to link you to some websites of Midwestern TV stations to get the "contemporary" accent. Go to these websites and click on the videos to see clips from newscasts. (If you're on a slow connection it could take awhile for these to download).

    http://www.ketv.com/video/index.html
    http://web.kshb.com/kshb/video/index.shtml
    http://wcco.com/video
    http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/video/index.html
    http://www.wthr.com/

    For the more "countrified" accent, I don't know if you can find clips of Hee-Haw or Green Acres online, but if you've seen those shows (I honestly don't know how much of our pop culture eventually gets down there) you'll know what I'm talking about.

    And no, I don't get the big hair thing. In fact, compared to the rest of the country I consider our hair pretty smallish.
    Former SCJ now in rehab.

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    So to clarify...

    are we leaning towards 'veronica corningstone' in Anchorman or the reporter Ange Jolie played in that other one... what was it, 'life or something like it?'

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Well, the story, "Life or something like it" was filmed and based in Seattle, WA. They have a Pacific Northwest accent going on. And very, very far removed from the Midwest.

    If you want to see Chicago Northwest accent (it's different than the rest of IL...the "c" sounds are a little harder...). Go to the local Chicago news channels, http://www.nbc5.com/index.html, http://www.cbs2chicago.com, http://www.abclocal.go.com/wls

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    Featured Member pixiepower329's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    LOL...this is so funny to me. Having worked so near a major military base for so long, I've learned to mimick the accent of any custy I get....to the point that sometimes I can't turn it off...actually impressed a few friends with my Brit accent...lol.
    !

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    good point about the variety of midwestern accents. Ohio, Indiana, lower Michigan, central Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas tend to be the "American Accent" that most foreigners would recognize. However, within the Midwest, there is the UP of Michigan/Minnesota/North Dakota accent, the Chicago accent, the Wisconsin accent...just like southern accents (Cajun, Virginia, Texas, etc) there are too many to define a Midwestern accent as a single way to speak.

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    Veteran Member susie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Hyde
    good point about the variety of midwestern accents. Ohio, Indiana, lower Michigan, central Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas tend to be the "American Accent" that most foreigners would recognize. However, within the Midwest, there is the UP of Michigan/Minnesota/North Dakota accent, the Chicago accent, the Wisconsin accent...just like southern accents (Cajun, Virginia, Texas, etc) there are too many to define a Midwestern accent as a single way to speak.
    There are to many variences. I can go 200 miles down into ohio, and people talk way different from Cleveland. People from Detroit Michigan speak different also, and thats only 2-3 hours from Cleveland.
    Here is the sight for a Cleveland station though. The blonde actually has a very noticable accent : http://www.wkyc.com/video/player.asp...&sid=45991&bw=
    Susie

  16. #16
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    When industry people say "midwest accent," what they generally mean is "no accent." Obviously everyone has some kind of accent, but when we say they don't have an accent, it means they sound like someone from the midwest region. That accent is the "unaccented" standard for broadcast news.

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    thanks Y, i think you were spot on. i stuck with the non-regional, CNN loud melodic accent and they loved it. interestingly enough, if i don't get this gig, i've still got a shot at a network audition because the casting broad is mates with the TV station casting person.

    ah, it's not what you know, it's how good you look in a thong!! (heh)! <<kidding, sorta -- i did have to show a bit of cleavage. **gasp** << what a stretch

    thanks to everyone for your advice. always research at the source i say!!

    i shall now cross fingers, toes and anything else and wait for the news. best case scenario, y'all will see me on the tooob in your country! ha

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    God/dess montythegeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Quote Originally Posted by Yekhefah
    When industry people say "midwest accent," what they generally mean is "no accent." Obviously everyone has some kind of accent, but when we say they don't have an accent, it means they sound like someone from the midwest region. That accent is the "unaccented" standard for broadcast news.
    Yek is right. Much of the midwest has a variety of accents like people in Cinicnnati dropping h's in works like herb, or Huey to people in chicahgo who put a hard A in the towns' name.

    The standard Midwest/no accent is Nebraska which is why early national TV hosts like Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett (etc) were from Nebraska. If they want an upper midwest tone google Lake Wobegon and find the Prarie Home Companion on National Public Radio. I am sure NPR has a sound bite somewhere. That is Wiscansin and Minnesotar pure bred.

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    big thanks to all you cool americans who helped me out with my accent research.

    i have a call-back on monday to meet the american producers!! the competition pool has thinned to about 4 people - although i'm up against a couple of fricken naturals...

    (scary - must practise....)

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Good Luck! Those aren't bad odds!


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    Senior Member Widget's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    I don't know...but I lived in Indiana for several years for university and I would say it is like a southern accent without as many stretched out sounds (southern accent but spoken more quickly, but not as fast as new york/new jersey), and it has a sort of serious soft-spoken tone usually on the news, kind of like the tone when speaking seriously but friendly to a young child. Words like roof are pronounced ruff, and the r's are dragged out. I keep remember the word envirnoment pronounced "envirrrrment".

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    Ok first of all not all Minnesota people talk like they did in the movie Fargo. Second most Mid West people do not have big hair. You want big hair go southern. I think most of here in the Mid West really dont have an accent. People living just below Iowa have a southern accent, people above the Iowa border really dont have one at all. People west of Illinois seem to have one too. Think bland and monotone.

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    Default Re: Mid-west reporter accent

    in the first audition, i did angelina jolie style big hair with loose curls and did the 'no accent' melodic CNN style. it worked a treat. (i know americans don't think that's big - but it is downunder)

    i like the fargo accent for entertainment purposes - but i think the 'no accent' was the ticket for this one.

    (please don't fight amongst yourselves...)

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