Posted August 30, 2009 by Bob
That’s the name used around the world for what we here in the USA calls “football.” (The rest of the world, of course, uses that term to refer to what we in the States call “soccer.”) My friend Ralph Hass emails to say that he searched my blog and discovered that I’ve used the term football only twice before. Today is the third time because you might just enjoy Ralph’s blog post Football FEVER!
Category: General, People | Comments (0)
Posted August 28, 2009 by Bob
Rodney Saulsberry is featured in this YouTube video and there’s a cameo appearance by my friend Diane Maggipinto at the 3:30 mark.
Category: General, People | Comments (0)
Posted by Bob
VOICE 2010 registration is now open and you can save $150 with Early-Bird Registration through the 31th of December 2009.
(edited to fix link)
Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Posted August 27, 2009 by Bob
In a post a few days ago I noted that I could no longer say I’ve never won an award because I’d come in first in the Marla Kirban Shuffle Narration Voice War on Voiceover Universe.
Well this morning, the doorbell rang and when I answered it, there was a FedEx package for me.
My iPod Shuffle came today!
Category: General | Comments (4)
Posted by Bob
My friend Blaine Parker, who runs Slow Burn Marketing with his wife Honey Parker, writes a weekly email newsletter. I’ve asked his permission to re-publish this week’s edition because it’s so extremely valuable to those of us doing voiceover work.
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SEARING WHITE HOT BRAND
Sunday afternoon, I stumbled upon a Food Network series that tells the stories of their TV personalities.
The episode in question was about the life and career of Guy Fieri.
What came out of that program was a striking lesson in brand authenticity.
If you’re not sure who Guy is, you may have seen him hosting one of the single most popular shows on the Food Network, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He’s a loud, happy, joking guy with spiky blond hair, a goatee, and a fondness for wrap-around sunglasses, bowling shirts and bling.
Guy’s own cooking is wild. His Johnny Garlic Pasta Grill restaurants offer a bold and brash menu of items like deep-fried artichoke hearts, Cajun chicken Alfredo, and Lava Shrimp Sautee. His Tex Wasabi’s Sushi BBQ restaurants are as twisted as it gets, ranging from ribs & steak to nigiri & maki to items like the Jackass Roll, which is a rice & tapioca paper sushi roll of barbecued pulled pork, French fries, and avocado with a garlic chili mayo sauce.
A JACKASS CASH COW
Of all the celebrity chefs who populate the Food Network’s programming, Guy Fieri is the one whom you’re most likely to want to sit down and have a beer with.
That, or you find him the most infuriating.
Guy Fieri’s brand simply isn’t for everyone.
But the thing that’s really stunning about Guy is that his brand is The Real Deal.
He is not a manufactured personality. He isn’t the product of executive consultation. He is exactly who he appears to be: a tattooed nutcase with a kitchen ladle.
His menus reflect that.
And his personality permeates everything about the Guy Fieri brand.
AUTHENTICITY IS KING
Previously, we’ve talked about how important brand is to even the smallest business. Knowing who you are and how you’re going to convey that to your public is key.
So many small businesses, especially in radio advertising where so many of us live, have no brand identity.
They think because they have a logo or a jingle or a lame slogan, they have a brand.
“For all your widget needs” is not a brand. It’s lazy, sloppy thinking.
A brand is huge.
A brand is who you are and what you mean to people.
In the case of Guy Fieri, the brand is a crazy guy with a nutty sense of humor who feeds people in a fun, bold and flavorful way.
GUY FIERI REALLY IS THE GREAT OZ
That’s why he’s such a great example of branding: the wild and crazy restaurant brands of Johnny Garlic and Tex Wasabi would be forced and inauthentic and probably not too successful–if there weren’t an equally wild and crazy man behind them.
When Dorothy & Toto pulled back the curtain, they found a pathetic old man pulling levers and blowing smoke.
You pull back the curtain at Johnny Garlic’s, and there’s a wackjob whose flames are even bigger than in the kitchen.
That’s not to say every business owner is Mr. Toad, and every business’s brand needs to be his Wild Ride. That would be silly.
The point is that every small business brand is in some way a reflection of the business owner’s personality–and that personality typically infuses everything that happens in the business.
TAKE 10% OF YOUR PERSONALITY, AND MAGNIFY IT 100 TIMES
This is actually a piece of advice that a popular Hollywood comedy coach gives to aspiring stand-up comics.
Her lesson is that stand-up comedy is all about persona.
To be more marketing-oriented about it, stand-up comedy is all about brand.
Is your preferred brand Larry the Cable Guy, Steve Martin or Andrew Dice Clay?
Each of those comics has a distinct onstage personality. Their comedy reflects that personality. There is no confusing the brands. And each brand means something specific to the customer.
The Virgin airlines brand is in so many ways a reflection of Richard Branson. And like Sir Richard, the brand is sophisticated yet approachable, with equal parts refinement and fun.
OK, you ask. What about companies where the man running the company isn’t out front and isn’t a big personality?
YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE ABOUT THE BRAND
Look at Southwest Airlines.
Herb Kelleher is the co-founder and former CEO. He is a tall, gray-haired man who, if you called up Central Casting and asked for a grandfather, would land on your soundstage.
He is not Guy Fieri, Steve Martin or even Richard Branson. He’s a lawyer from Haddon Heights, New Jersey who’s married with four grown kids.
But his no-nonsense, down-to-earth approach to the idea of Southwest Airlines informs everything about what happens there and has happened there since 1969.
Herb Kelleher is a pragmatist with a colorful personality, and Southwest is a pragmatic, colorful airline.
The airline reflects his personality and his mission to keep prices down while keeping a sense of humor about business.
Southwest and Virgin might be big companies. But what happens there also happens in every small business everywhere–as evidenced by Johnny Garlic and Tex Wasabi. They are distillations of Guy Fieri’s personality.
EVERY SMALL BUSINESS HAS A BRAND WAITING TO BE UNCOVERED
And most small business advertising professionals never take the time to uncover it.
Branding is a process of sugaring down.
In the making of maple syrup, “sugaring down” means boiling 10 gallons of sap until you finally have one quart of actual maple syrup.
That’s a 40:1 ratio of raw material to end product.
In working with a small business, the advertising consultant needs to gather roughly 40 gallons of brand identity sap and boil it down until they finally find the essence–that one quart of potent, flavorful syrup that becomes the brand.
And it’s always going to start with the business owner.
That individual’s personality is the core of the brand.
How they run the company, what they choose to sell, how they treat their customers, their philosophy on life–everything about all those business choices is the basis for brand. That, and the kind of person the business owner is. These are gold.
ACTUAL GOLD–NOT FOOL’S GOLD
These are not things you can fake.
These are the essential components to brand authenticity.
And they MUST be found before any truly effective advertising campaign can take place.
To borrow from a Fortune magazine article written in May of 2007, “Playing the authenticity game in a sophisticated way has become a requirement for every marketer, because the opposite of real isn’t fake–it’s cynicism.”
I would argue slightly with the wording here. I’d say the opposite of authenticity is fakery, and it leads to cynicism.
But I’m splitting hairs.
Because the real challenge is that we already have plenty of cynics listening to our advertising.
Wouldn’t it be nice to melt those cynical hearts to the point of unfreezing their wallets–and in the process of creating brand giants of small business?
Brand is essential, authenticity is king, and you can take that to the bank wrapped in a Tex Wasabi Jackass Roll.
As always,
Blaine Parker
Your Short, Fat Creative Director in
Park City
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In our email exchange about my request to republish this article Blaine commented that many voice talent have become commodities. My reply to that thought was:
Commodity. That is one thing I am not and do not ever wish to be. The only answer to that dilemma is to pursue the voice work that’s for me, not the voice work that’s for a “middle-aged guy with a nice voice.” I am the world’s exclusive source for voiceovers by Bob Souer; but, there are tens of thousands of other middle-aged guys with nice voices. So, if you’re looking for a middle-aged guy with a nice voice, yes, I fit that description. But listen to my demos. If that’s the sound you’re looking for, call me. You won’t find that anywhere else.
(edited to fix typo)
Category: Career Advice, General | Comments (12)
Posted by Bob
Life Magazine has a photo gallery of famous voice actors from Mel Blanc to Nancy Cartwright and back again. My thanks to Stephanie Ciccarelli for tweeting and blogging the link.
Category: General, People | Comments (2)
Posted August 26, 2009 by Bob
Pat Fraley is holding an ADR/Voice Match/Looping event on Saturday, September 26, 2009 in Los Angeles. Casting Director Barbara Harris will join Pat for the one day event that is sure to sell out very quickly. All the details are on Pat’s site.
Category: Career Advice, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted August 25, 2009 by Bob
With my thanks to my friend Jane Ingalls for sending me the link, take a look at this fascinating article in the Washington Post about Changing Targets Media, a new company that aims to ad much more precision to the process of buying political ads.
Category: General | Comments (2)
Posted by Bob
For most of 2007 I studied voice acting with Nancy Wolfson. While not everyone has the same experience, I loved everything about working with Nancy, even the times when she was hard on me; because I could tell I was getting better. How?
In that one year my voiceover income went up by over 40 percent. Let me put that into context for you. For almost 10 years in a row my voiceover income was enough to live on and support my family. Then in one year, I started booking bigger jobs and better paying jobs. More of both. Enough to raise my voiceover income by more than 40 percent.
As a former agent and casting director, Nancy’s sole goal as a voiceover coach is helping the performer book the audition.
One of the methods she teaches is identifying the VO character as either “referencer” or “expositor.” It’s a completely different way of looking at voiceover performance.
Her one-to-one coaching is very expensive. But now you can download a nearly 3-hour audio seminar of Nancy teaching and demonstrating her revolutionary approach.
I think you’ll also be intrigued by her explanation of the difference between acting for theatre and acting for advertising.
Category: General | Comments (2)
Posted by Bob
I received an message today asking for some thoughts about networking and getting “out there” in voiceover work. Here are my thoughts, distilled into a couple of paragraphs.
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Honestly I really don’t network. I know it may look like I do, but all I’m doing is making friends. Sometimes that’s online, sometimes it’s in person. Just make friends and don’t worry about whether you’re doing the “networking” thing.
As for getting out there, all I’ve done is take the opportunities that I’ve found. Not even all of them. I’ve missed some important ones along the way, but those that I have taken have been done to the best of my ability.
The perspectives that have served me best are:
1. Voiceover work is a lot like farming. (I grew up on a farm in Minnesota.) You have to plant, tend and harvest. One (harvesting) follows the other (planting), but usually not immediately. It takes a lot of time, patience and effort to build a successful voiceover business.
2. I’m not really in the voiceover business. I’m in the problem-solving business. Most of the time the problems I solve have to do with my providing a voice for someone else, but not always. And it’s those “not always” situations that can make all the difference.
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I hope there’s something here you can find useful.
Category: General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (6)
Posted August 24, 2009 by Bob
My friend Janet Ault is one of the brightest marketing minds I’ve ever encountered. Take a few minutes to read her excellent article on marketing at VoiceOverXtra. Great stuff, Janet!
Category: General, People | Comments (3)
Posted by Bob
From my friend and manager Stacey Stahl comes this fabulous quote today.
“The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.”
– Peggy Fleming
I don’t think I need to spell out the connection to voice acting for you do I?
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Posted by Bob
Yes, I meant to write the title that way. When you click through to this article about voice actor Jim Cummings in the Ventura County Star, you’ll see why. My thanks to my friend Nancy Wolfson for emailing me the link this morning.
Category: General, People | Comments (0)
Posted August 21, 2009 by Bob
Bettye Zoller has done a series of podcasts on vocal health. Number 10 has just been posed at VoiceOverXtra. Links to the previous 9 entries are on that page as well.
Category: General | Comments (0)
Posted by Bob
Mandy Nelson is a wonderfully talented voiceover performer. Exhibit A is the video below.
Nice work, Mandy. (edited to add link to Mandy’s site)
Category: General, People | Comments (2)
Posted August 20, 2009 by Bob
Tracy Pattin collected a bunch of “worst voiceover experience stories” from voice actors over the last several weeks. You now get to pick your favorite among them. The list of the 10 finalists. And the place to click through to vote. Oh, and since several of my friends are finalists, I can’t give you any hints about for whom to vote.
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Posted by Bob
According to the official site VOICE 2010, you can save $150 with Early-Bird Registration through the 31th of December 2009.
(edited to fix typo)
Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Posted by Bob
With thanks to my friend Rowell Gormon who posted the link on the VO-BB, check out the fascinating new technology coming soon to a magazine near you.
Category: General | Comments (2)
Posted by Bob
From my manager and friend Stacey Stahl comes this gem today.
To avoid criticism say nothing, be nothing, do nothing.
– Elbert Hubbard
Category: General | Comments (3)
Posted by Bob
For the last few months over at Voiceover Universe, Marla Kirban has been sponsoring the VoiceOver Shuffle competition. There were a total of four rounds of competition. Female commercial voice, Male commercial voice, Promo voice (male or female) and Narration voice (male or female). I just learned this week that I won the Narration round! I don’t know how long the audio is going to be live, but for the time being (if you wish) you can hear award announcement on the Voice Wars page at Voiceover Universe.
Category: General | Comments (12)
Posted August 19, 2009 by Bob
Pat Fraley emails today with news about The Demo World Masters Event to be held Saturday, September 12, 2009 in Los Angeles. Click through the link for all the details. This is going to sell out fast, so if you like what you see, you might want to act quickly.
Category: Career Advice, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted by Bob
Kevin Delaney is hosting a live video chat on Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 4:00 PM Pacific / 7:00 PM Eastern. The topic will be self-employment. Details are on Kevin’s blog.
Category: General | Comments (2)
Posted by Bob
Edge Studio has many resources for voice actors. One of the best is their on-going and ever growing Voice Over Mistake Chart.
Category: General, Tools | Comments (0)
Posted by Bob
With my thanks to Nancy Wolfson for emailing the link this morning, check out the superb blog post “Your Copyright Questions Answered” by Amy Everhart, Amy is a trademark, copyright and entertainment attorney.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (1)
Posted August 18, 2009 by Bob
Michael Lenz is blogging about voiceover at Paid to Talk – A Journey into Voice Acting. I ran across his blog today thanks to a tweet from my friend Stephanie Ciccarelli of Voices.com. You might want to take a moment to check out his post You Got a Job!
Category: General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (4)
Posted August 17, 2009 by Bob
Emailed this morning from my manager and friend, Stacey Stahl.
“We can do anything we want if we stick to it long enough.” |
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Posted by Bob
My friend Justin Barrett provides the voice for Pterry in this short clip promoting the Webosaurs site.
Category: General, People | Comments (2)
Posted August 16, 2009 by Bob
Bob Fraser sends out a series of email newsletters to his new subscribers. Over the last few years I’ve been re-publishing them (with his permission) here for folks who don’t subscribe.
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YOU MUST HAVE A WEBSITE
by Bob Fraser
A while back I posted an old actor’s joke to the many acting groups I belong to. The joke goes like this: How many actors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
100. One to screw it in and 99 to sit around Starbucks saying, “I could have done that – if I could only get a break.”
The reason this is a funny joke is that it reveals an underlying truth – a truth about actors’ attitudes. The joke, however, caused many actors to react negatively.
“That’s not funny,” was a common response.
Anyway, it caused a little stir.
I posted the joke because the attitudes it reveals are so widespread among actors, that they have become fodder for jokes. Look, the fact that you know how to do a job is not sufficient grounds to be offered the job. And please don’t wait for someone else to take action in order to have your dreams come to fruition. My friends, if you do, you’ll be waiting a long time – like forever.
There is a lot of grunt work involved in convincing others to hire you. If you don’t do the grunt work, your avid aspirations will not suffice.
“Could have” is no consolation for a dream neglected. Don’t ignore the truth just because it’s in a joke.
On another subject, I have also made it clear, on occasion, that I think every actor should own a computer – since it’s helpful for keeping records, printing résumés, sending emails, finding auditions, sending and receiving faxes and many other day-to-day chores.
I’ve also urged all actors to get a web site. There are nay-sayers, who rail against the computer and all its works.
One recently posted opinion stated that having a web site was of no help to an actor. The main point of the post was that casting directors were not out there, hiring actors off of websites.
And no one was looking for actors’ websites, in hopes of finding the “next big thing.”
There are two false assumptions here.
One, that casting directors hire actors – they don’t. (Producers hire actors. Casting folks are the personnel office.)
And two, that the whole idea of a website is that people will look for it.
If you approach this website business with the idea that, “if you build it, they will come” – you will be sorely disappointed in your results. Doing that is like putting a bumper sticker on a car in Oslo, Norway and hoping that a big important director will eventually see it.
A website is nothing more than an electronic brochure. It gives you “space” to promote the benefits of your product – trying to land a contract for your services.
Once you realize that your website is an opportunity to sell yourself – and you begin to use it to sell – you will start getting better results. It is worth doing your homework to learn how to sell with your website. There are lots of free guides about how to do that – out on the digital highway.
A FEW RULES …
1. Get your own domain name — HarrisonFord.com is much better than the free “HarrisonFordareallygoodactor/Yahoocommunities/Hollywood.net/hford.html (… and you should use your name instead of Harrison Ford, because that one
is already being used.)
Your own domain name is not expensive. It costs between 60 and 90 bucks a year to have space on a web server – and when you order from most companies, they will throw in the registration of your domain name for free. There are also places that sell domain names for as little as $4.95 a year (when you buy ten years – which isn’t a bad idea if you are planning to stick with one name during your career.)
2. Get professional help – there are thousands upon thousands of people who do web design. Get one of them to help you. Again, it’s not really expensive. I’ve seen designers who will do the basic job for under a hundred bucks. Try looking on google for one near you.
3. Don’t wait for people to find your site. Remember, this is an electronic brochure and like all brochures you have to “hand it out.” Put your web site address on your resume, on your cards, on your headshots, and heck, even a bumper sticker on a car in Calcutta – or NYC if that’s closer.
When you talk to casting directors, directors, other actors, etc., make mention of your website. Make it part of your schmooze. Think of your website as a ’silent salesman’ who is at work 24/7/365 – selling you. BTW, that’s why it should be done professionally.
There’s no point in sending people to an amateur-ish site – it just makes you look, well…
- like an amateur.
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PERMISSION TO REPRINT: You may reprint articles from Actor’s Tool-Kit, on your website or electronic newsletter.
However, in order to comply with my copyright, you must also include the following paragraph with your reprint:
“Reprinted from ACTOR’S TOOL KIT, the email course just for subscribers of Show Biz How-To — The Free Actor’s Monthly. Get your own free subscription by going to: showbizhowto.com Copyright © 2006 Bob Fraser Productions All Rights Reserved”
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PRIVACY STATEMENT: Bob Fraser Productions will NEVER share your personal information with anyone. Ever. Period.
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Category: Career Advice, General | Comments (0)
Posted August 15, 2009 by Bob
I don’t get to my friend Justin Barrett’s blog nearly enough. Exhibit A is that fact that his fabulous article entitle Beware of Epic Fluff! has been there for 2 months and I only ran across it today.
Category: General | Comments (0)
Posted August 14, 2009 by Bob
No, he wasn’t a voice actor; but Les Paul’s innovation with multi-track recording has touched all of our lives.
My thanks to my friend Liz de Nesnera for posting the link to this video on the VO-BB.
Category: General, People | Comments (4)
