I wish I could remember where I first saw this suggestion. I think it was in one of the many valuable posts on the VO-BB.com, but I can’t remember for sure. In any case, while I was doing another lesson with my voiceover coach, Nancy Wolfson today, I mentioned to her just off-hand that I always put my contact information in the ID3 tags in mp3 audio files when I send those files as auditions. That way, even if someone renames the file and loses my original email, they still have a way to make contact with me.
I do this when I’m submitting an audition to one of my agents. And I do this when I’m submitting an audition to Voice123.com or Voices.com. I hope this is a helpful idea, if you’re not already way ahead of me on this stuff.
In this article on Slate.com, Seth Stevenson points out the 12 master formats of advertising. There’s a very interesting slide show linked from the article. Both will be well worth your time.
My thanks to Nancy Wolfson for sending me this link in an email today.
A few weeks ago, a bunch of us voiceover folk in North Carolina had a delightful time together, eating lunch, bowling and then sitting around listening to demos and talking for a few hours. One of our number who couldn’t make that event at the last minute was Rowell Gormon.
So, in conversations via email and the phone in the last few weeks, Rowell and I decided we’d try to just get together somewhere between where he lives in Raleigh and I live in Charlotte. That was today. We had a wonderful late breakfast in the restaurant at the Sheraton Four Seasons in Greensboro. Then spend 3 and a half delightful hours after lunch was finished, just talking and visiting. Joining us was Rowell’s good friend Jay Shapiro, another talented voiceover guy.
Here is a quick snapshot I took of Rowell and Jay.
And Jay was nice enough to shoot a quick photo of Rowell and me.
We had a delightful time and could have stayed and continued talking for another 4 hours. I look forward to our next visit together, when and where ever that may be.
Launching a voiceover career is the desire of many hearts. Doing so successfully is the experience of a much smaller group of folks. There’s a very interesting thread on the VoiceOverSavvy board about this subject that would be well worth your time. Note especially the comments of Philip Banks and Bob Bergen.
At Voices.com, one of the three online casting services to which I subscribe (the others being Voice123.com and CommercialVoices.com), several updates have just been implemented. You can read about and comment on these changes on the Vox Daily blog.
I broke my blog, at least for folks reading it through Internet Explorer, for a few days because of a missing close tag for one of my audio widgets that play my demos over on the right. My thanks to Justin Kaiser who helped me track down the little critter.
There’s been quite a firestorm of angst and unhappiness on the forum sponsored by Voice123.com since the roll out of Version 2.0 of their site on July 9th. While I’ve posted here and there on the forum, I’ve tried to stay out of the firestorm itself. I was a beta tester for their new version, and what I saw of it looked like it would be both much more complex and would include much more information that the old version of the site. Some good. Some not so good. And while I use technology all the time both to do my work as effectively as possible and to make our home a more interesting and comfortable place to live, I’m interested to see how this technological solution is going to work in the long run. No doubt flaws have and will continue to be discovered. Some will be addressed. Some won’t. I see no reason to bail out of what has been a source for a significant piece of income during the last 3 years. You’ll find information posted here on the Voice123.com blog about what the team there is trying to accomplish and how they’re going about it. I wish them well.
And to be clear, there are plenty of constructive and instructive posts on the VoiceOverSavvy forums. It’s quite a delightful community of folks who are living through a time of significant change.
In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that I was a beta tester for both the upgrades at Voices.com rolled out earlier this year, as well as for Voice123.com.
For example, I’m not the right voice, the right talent, the right voice actor for every script. But, for those that I am right for, most people are very happy they hired me.
My friend Gregory Best was talking recently with my friend Kara Edwards about studying with Nancy Wolfson, who is not only Kara’s voiceover coach, but mine as well. Actually, if you’ve been reading this blog for the last 6 months, you didn’t need me to tell you that. I’ve written often about Nancy, and in my view, with good reason.
So, Kara mentioned to Greg that I’m studying with Nancy and he wrote me a very nice email with the following questions (which he has given me permission to quote here)…
Kara says that you have also taken class from Nancy Wolfson. What did you think? Did you feel you got your money’s worth from Nancy?
Here’s my answer to Greg…
Without a doubt, studying with Nancy Wolfson has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made in my voiceover career. The key reasons:
1. Nancy is plugged in to what’s really happening “on the ground” in the voiceover world in LA right now, especially in the commercial voiceover world. She has been a talent agent (she was Pat Fraley’s agent in the past), and today not only coaches all kinds of top talent who are booking commercial voiceover work all the time, she’s also involved in casting work. So, she knows what’s going on now. She’s not teaching something she learned 10 years ago, coasting on old, out-of-date information.
2. Nancy is one of the most searingly honest people you’ll encounter in this business. She’s a very decent, kind human being, but she’s willing to tell you the truth about what’s working, what’s not working and what needs work, as far as your sound, your demo and your reads. And, as I imagine you already know, finding someone who will tell you the plain truth is rare, especially among people you’re paying.
3. Nancy is terrific working with people at whatever level. She works with top pros, mid-of-the-bench guys like me, and even relative new-to-the-business folk.
4. Nancy’s instruction is extremely practical, put-it-to-use-today kind of stuff. She cuts through a lot of the myths and points out what works, what actually books and leaves aside a lot of the nice-to-know-but-not-really-practical stuff. Her instruction is clear, full of encouragement and enthusiasm. If you do decide to study with her, I don’t imagine you’ll finish a single session with Nancy in which you don’t understand more about how to better approach your voiceover work and career.
5. Nancy isn’t just about voice acting. She’s about business. She’s about helping you book work, or more work if you’re already booking work.
I hope this helps.
In the interests of full disclosure, if you decide you want to study with Nancy and you tell her that you are doing so because of me, I’ll get a free lesson from Nancy. So, if you don’t want me to get a free class, don’t tell her you learned about her through me or this blog.
Update: Stephanie has written an excellent post on Vox Daily about Voiceover Coaches. Well worth a few minutes of your time.
For more than 10 years now, there has been a reliable way to get studio quality audio from one place in the world to another. If you’ve been involved in voiceover work for much time at all, you’ve probably heard of ISDN. And while, as my friend and mentor Philip Banks would be quick to point out, ISDN continues to be not just a viable, but the dominant way that much of the very high end voiceover work is recorded; it is an aging technology. So, the search has been on for some time now to find alternatives.
One that I’ve used with many of my clients is to record the audio in my studio with the client directing over the phone. I then post the voice tracks (or finished productions, depending on the client) to my server, from which they can download what they need within a matter of minutes after our “phone patched” session is done.
Another that is in development, but not released as of the moment I’m writing this is iSpeek.
The genesis of this blog post, though, was an email I received today from Pete Newman. He mentioned that he had paid a visit to the offices of Voices.com this past Saturday, and while he was there, Stephanie suggested that he get in touch with me about Source Connect as an alternative to ISDN that is already released and working and at very reasonable cost.
For example, Pete wanted to know who is using Source Connect (studios, production houses, etc.). I pointed him to this section of the Source Connect site, which lists all current users and can be searched a number of different ways.
Now, I need to finish up this post and publish it, because I’m about to help my friend Liz de Nesnera with her Source Connect set-up. Hopefully we’ll be chatting in studio quality audio in a few minutes.
And not only was voiceover featured, but in the piece, the very talented Paul Payton figures prominently. You can see the video (and see and hear Paul) if you go to his website and look for the link near the bottom of the page. Good for you, Paul. Well done, sir.
There are a very select few radio stations for which I do imaging voice work. I’m very pleased to reveal the superb work of Colin Campbell, taking various pieces from some of these stations to produce my new Imaging Demo. Available on my Demo Page and over on the right, the second flash player down. Give a listen and let you know what you think.
Thank you, Colin. I’m very pleased with your work.
The Project Studio Handbook is a gold mine of valuable information about just about everything you’d ever need to know regarding how to set-up your studio, record and process the audio, and mix it down for delivery. You’ll find links to Internet articles on everything from The Basics, to Compression, Effects, Microphones, Wiring and much more. While a lot of the information linked is targeted to musicians, there’s a lot of valuable and useful information here for us involved in voiceover as well.
My thanks to Charles Minx for the pointer to this site.
One of my greatest challenges as a voiceover talent (tell me if this is familiar) is inertia. As you may remember from your time in school, inertia is defined as a pair of rules.
Things at rest tend to stay at rest.
Things in motion tend to stay in motion.
In both cases you can add…
…until acted on by external forces or factors.
What does this have to do with voiceover work? Just about everything. First, I should note that my thinking on this subject was prompted by a recent post on Tom Asacker’s blog. He writes about the way he will often start a talk on this subject with this story…
“Do you remember when, as a child, you’d wake up to a pristine, snow covered landscape? You’d rush out the door on your way to school, zigging and zagging, pushing and dragging your feet to create a one-of-a-kind path? And invariably, the next kid in the neighborhood would leave his home and follow your crooked path, kicking away more snow on his way. And then the next kid, and the next, until eventually there was a well-worn, precisely defined route all the way to school.
Well, that’s what happens with your mind as well. If you think the same thoughts, or preformed the same task over and over again, you will develop a neural pathway in your brain. Like a dry path in wet snow, it becomes a comfortable route; a path of least resistance. To remove this habit or old way of thinking takes a focused effort. It requires that you step out of your rut and get your brain wet, cold and uncomfortable.”
Tom then drives his point home with these words…
The audience members typically nod, signaling their understanding. And then they go right back into their subconscious ruts, rejecting new concepts and rationalizing familiar ones. Men, and women, love inertia. And to my way of thinking, inertia is the silent killer of most businesses and, in some cases, entire industries as well.
All of this came home to roost recently when a friend was kind enough to point out that I had fallen into a terrible rut in my auditions. That everything was not only sounding very much the same whether I was auditioning for a hospital or an athletic shoe company, it was all very dark, slow and somber. In other words, not very appealing to the clients who are casting these jobs. So, it’s no great surprise that I’ve had a dry spell for a while in my efforts to book new commercial work, huh?
Now, you can always identify your true friends because they are the ones willing to tell you the truth, even if it hurts. And this is the kind of truth I need to hear, all the time. It’s so incredibly easy for me to fall into ruts, and not even recognize that I’m in one. While voiceover work is often a solitary business, as we talk all alone in our quiet little rooms, there’s no question that I’m learning just how important it is to stay connected with true friends.
Thanks for reading. Let me know if any of this has been helpful to you, today.
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Speaking of audiobooks, the New York Times has an article about Jim Dale, the actor who read the audiobook version of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Not his wife nor even his grandchildren have been able to get Mr. Dale to reveal what he knows. Good for you, Jim. Both on your superb audiobook work and for keeping your commitments.
By the way, my thanks to my voice coach, Nancy Wolfson for sending me the link to this article today.
Steve Mathews runs a company called Radio Garage, an audio production company. And Steve blogs about his work as well. I make a point of stopping by pretty often, because he often has something interesting to say. Recently he asks a question with a pretty obvious answer…
Okay, so the question is simple. Would you rather be bored to tears, or would you rather have fun?
Like I said, a pretty obvious answer. Is there anyone who would rather be bored than have fun? Now, if you have to create a project where you need a voice, you could just pick someone you know who has a nice voice and have her (or him) do the recording for you. But, we’re talking about fun, here, remember? Doing take after take after take, trying to make sure everything is said correctly isn’t fun. It’s drudgery. It’s painful. This is why it’s always better to hire a professional voice talent. That might be me.
Now, I’m not going to be right for every project. (I’m not very good at women’s voices, for example!) So, that might be someone on Steve’s roster of male and female talent. Or from anynumberofotherplaces.
Here’s the bottom line. Spend the money for a professional who is going to turn that recording project into fun, by eliminating the drudgery and pain. And delivering your message effectively. Or spend the same or more money getting your project edited and produced because George in accounting (your know, the guy with the nice voice) took 3 hours to record your 20 minute script.
“bridges”, the publication of the Office of Science and Technology at the Austrian Embassy in Washington DC, has just been updated with their latest release, Vol. 14. The articles that were narrated for the podcast version feature my voice. You can listen to or download all of those articles on the podcast page, as well as the collected earlier releases as well.
Stephanie at the Vox Daily blog, has done an interview with me about how our entire family gets involved in my voiceover business from time to time. Thank you for preparing such a gracious and kind post, Stephanie.
Since 1996, Dan O’Day has been presenting a 2 day conference that’s called The International Radio Creative and Production Summit. I’ve attended every year since 1997 and have gained an amazing amount of valuable and useful information every year.
Each year is different. Some years the focus is on station imaging and production, some on writing, some on voiceover work. All 3 categories are represented every year, what changes is the emphasis. This year with Pat Fraley, Terry Berland and Don LaFontaine presenting, I think you can tell, voiceover is going to be in the spotlight. You can still save $100 on registration if you sign up to attend before the end of July. Click here for registration details.
And if you do attend, I hope you’ll make sure to say hello. I’ll be the large guy in the long-sleeved white business shirts and ties. I don’t think you’ll be able to miss me.
My friend and fellow voice actor Joe Rodriguez has been in Savannah, Georgia for the last several days shooting a film in which he is playing the lead. He’s been blogging about the experience. Day 1. Day 2. Day 2 follow-up. Day 3. Update: Joe has added comments about Day 4.
I’ll update this post with additional links as Joe posts his reports. Good for you, Joe. It’s so much fun to share this experience with you as you write about it.
If your work involves production, editing and mixing at least some of the time, there’s a handy and valuable PDF chart available which shows frequency ranges of various instruments and how to EQ to achieve certain sounds. While the chart is geared toward musicians, anyone doing production involving music and sound effects will be able to draw at least some valuable information from it.
Deb Munro’s latest newsletter (link is a PDF file) provides these study opportunities in the UK and Canada in the coming few months.
• LONDON UPDATE!! Reminder – MIC & ME in the UK has been postponed to September 28th through October 1st. Contact us at info@debsvoice.com to register immediately. Check out www.debsvoice.com for more details.
• MIC & ME – Creating Voices Level 1 will be in Calgary August 25-26. This class is also filling up quickly. There is only 1 spot left for private coaching or demo sessions with Deb Munro in Calgary on August 24th. Register now to hold your spot. We will be teaching a newer variety of courses for upcoming classes, so this will be the last time for this course for a while.
•MIC & ME – Audition Voice Workout/Demo Prep will be in Regina on September 7/8/9th , Edmonton, Sept. 15/16, Vancouver on September 22/23, Toronto Oct 13/14, Vancouver Oct 20/21 .This popular class is filling up quickly, so advance registration is highly recommended. More dates to come.
•MIC & ME – TeleWorkout At Home each final Wed. of the month. This is your opportunity to learn from home on the phone and your webcam (if you have one). July 25th this month, Aug 29th for next month. Our most cost efficient way for you to stay in practice and discover new skills. All levels welcome. ONLY $75.00 for 2 hours of class time. (more registers means more free time for you.) Don’t forget our MIC & ME – CV 1 PowerPoint/Audiobook Home course. See www.debsvoice.com for more details.
•Special Guest JOYCE CASTELLONAS is coming to VANCOUVER Nov. 3/4/5 Joyce is from L.A. area this is her first time in Canada. Working for many companies such as, Warner Bros. and more, she’s recently started her own company. Joyce is happy to share her secrets, tips and tricks of the TV Promo and Narration world. She is more than amazing. Contact Deb Munro at www.debsvoice.com for more details. Joyce wants to discover more talent and loves to use Canadian talent.
There are only a few places left before registrations will close, so you should act immediately if you want to take advantage of a 3-Day Intensive on The Art of Voice Acting. The book is by James Alburger but this 3 day class is being taught by both James Alburger and Penny Abshire.
If you look right now at the VOICE 2007 DVD-ROM, (click the “Order CD” on the left side of that page, near the bottom) you’ll see the price is $357.00 with shipping included. I received my copy a few days ago, and just finished listening to Rodney Saulsberry’s presentation.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I had to miss much of that presentation when Rodney gave it live in Las Vegas; because I was overcoming obstacles to serve one of my clients, putting into practice some of the very things Rodney was teaching. So, this was my first chance to hear the entire thing. As far as I’m concerned, this one seminar was worth the price of the entire DVD-ROM by itself. Great ideas. Great stories. Great encouragement. I’m looking forward to hearing every one of these presentations from beginning to end, including those I heard in person.
By the way, yes, even though that button on the VOICE site says “Order CD” it’s actually a DVD-ROM that you get, but one that will allow you to burn CD copies of all of the presentations or even copy the audio to your MP3 player.
So, $357.00 is a good bit of money. But, there’s way more value stored on this DVD-ROM. Highly recommended.
I’m sure I’m not the only voice actor whose work is always better when I have good direction. And the excellent thoughts that Johnny provides you will help you get a better performance from everyone with whom you work. Here are a couple of key examples…
Be as descriptive as you possibly can so you can get that right delivery or you are just wasting your time, the talents time and everyone connected in producing a good audition in the first place.
Whether you want them to be excited or flat, give them a level to shoot for. Some-what excited, excited, real excited, over the top excited. That desired vocal delivery can experience many levels – please give your talent specifics.
If they are to play a role, define that as well. Doctor, theologian, story-teller. guy-next-door, best friend, lawyer, stubborn receptionist, etc.
There are also excellent suggestions for the number of words to use for specific lengths of commercial announcements, dealing with address and telephone numbers and regional pronunciations, among other things. Read the whole thing. Very worth your time.
With thanks to my friend Dave Houston for the post that lead me to this article, take a few minutes to read these superb thoughts from Robert Dwyer, chock full of information that every voiceover talent should keep in mind.
Here are a couple of key thoughts from Robert’s article:
Over the years I’ve heard them all. The great, the good and “who ever told this guy he could do voice-over work,” and there are a few things that make the good ones hang around. The first is a solid voice, second flexibility, and lastly consistency…
A solid voice is…
They listen to national commercial spots. They take the time to learn what word to hit hard. What it means to add or subtract emotion. They are solid! Solid from the start of the read to the end with no softening up or losing focus. They pay attention to their voices, the copy and then they learn to demonstrate how to be flexible with a paying client.
Flexibility means…
VO people must learn to be customer service people. TV stations are 24 hours a day businesses and they want someone who will jump when called, or won’t give them attitude when a revision needs to be made.
And consistency…
Consistency day in and day out is money in the bank. When you create your mix bag of reads for sports, dramas, comedies, or whatever your client asks of you. Make sure you deliver the goods the same every time.
Those intrepid minds at Voices.com are at it again, this time with a contest they’re calling The 60 Second Pitch.
Details on the contest and your gateway to enter are here on their site. Total prizes at stake add up to over $4000.00, so it should be well worth our time to enter.
You’ll also find information in this YouTube video.
The contest opens for entries on Friday, July 6, 2007 and closes Friday, July 20, 2007.
. The book is by James Alburger but this 
