Posted December 31, 2009 by Bob
I just about never make New Year’s Resolutions, but John Florian asked me for a few for VoiceOverXtra, so I obliged. So did several of my friends and fellow voice actors. If you’d like to see what we wrote, check out Take One, here. For more, visit Take Two, here.
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Posted December 30, 2009 by Bob
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Posted by Bob
My friend Jane Ingalls emails with a note about an article in the Washington Post a couple of days ago, another look at the new genre (a mash-up of video and text) called the vook.
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Posted December 29, 2009 by Bob
My friend Anthony Mendez provides a very cool demo of how to not only how to set up a demo player, but also an auto download of the file.
Very cool Anthony. Thank you.
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Posted December 28, 2009 by Bob
Bob Noble‘s article at VoiceOverXtra on making a New Year’s REVOLUTION is well worth a few minutes of your time. (And thank you John Florian for the email alert about this article.)
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Posted December 27, 2009 by Bob
Just ran across this video previewing the new MMO of the Star Trek universe.
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Posted December 26, 2009 by Bob
My thanks to my friend Eddie Eagle for posting the link to this video on the VO-BB.
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Posted December 25, 2009 by Bob
This was posted several days ago on Facebook by my friend Scott Feighner.
(update: this time with video!)
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Posted December 24, 2009 by Bob
I’m bumping this old post back to the top today as part of an annual celebration of the Christmas holiday. It was originally posted on Christmas Day in 2007.
The inimitable Philip Banks, my friend and mentor, has been the source of many of the very best posts at the VO-BB. I’ve quoted some of them here (search on Philip Banks if you’d like to read them) and now it’s my great pleasure to again point you to something truly special. (Note: Kudos to Peter O’Connell for being the first to blog about this.)
On Monday, Philip proposed to us that we jointly record the classic Christmas poem T’was the Night Before Christmas.
The script made it way around the world, from the UK to the USA, Japan and back again. Then Mr. Banks put his final stamp on the entire proceeding, adding a wonderful musical background.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I think you’ll agree, a beautiful Christmas gift. I’m so grateful I was able to take part in the fun.
Here are the talented members of the VO-BB who took part, and the order in which they appear….
1. Philip Banks
2. DB Cooper
3. Peter O’Connell
4. Kara Edwards
5. Bob Souer
6. Diane Maggipinto
7. Todd Ellis
8. Connie Terwilliger
9. Brian Hart
10. Moe Egan
11. Greg Littlefield
12. Mary McKitrick
13. Michael Rhys
14. Liz de Nesnera
15. Frank Frederick
16. Tammy McDaniel
17. Greg Phelps
18. Marcy Worthington
19. Greg Allen
20. Caryn Clark
21. Frank Frederick
22. Liz de Nesnera
23. Michael Rhys
24. Mary McKitrick
25. Todd Ellis
26. Liz de Nesnera
27. David Monteath
28. Mary McKitrick
29. Philip Banks
30. Kara Edwards
Merry Christmas to you and to all those you love. And may your new New Year be filled with joy, peace and much success.
(Update: I’m bumping this to the top of the page again for Christmas Day!)
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Posted by Bob
A few days ago I was party to a lesson on the difference between persistence, a vitally important characteristic of any successful voice actor, and being stubborn. I had been away from our home in Charlotte for several days and was planning to make my way back home on Saturday, December 19th, the day before my birthday, so that I could celebrate my birthday and then Christmas and New Year’s Eve with my family.
However, I didn’t check with AAA before leaving on my drive toward home. As I started out from Western Pennsylvania I could tell that the roads were not in great shape because snow was falling pretty quickly and the plows weren’t able to keep up. Lots of snow on the roads. Slippery. It’s wasn’t going to be a fun day of driving.
When I got to West Virginia on my drive south things got worse. There were sections of the Interstate that weren’t plowed at all and where the plows had been through the snow was piling up again very quickly. In fact the snow was falling much harder in West Virginia that it was in Pennsylvania. I almost lost control of my car twice while I was driving. Thankfully, having grown up in Minnesota, my old snow-driving habits kicked in and I was able to keep my car on the road each time. Needless to say I was praying fervently as I drove.
Eventually, while I never slid off the road, I did lose traction and couldn’t go forward any more. At the same time, the power steering pump on my car failed. So, it didn’t matter how much I wanted to get home, I was stuck. AAA got there to tow me into the little town of Weston, West Virginia in less than 30 minutes even in the blizzard. They were just amazing. The folks at the Holiday Inn Express were as nice as could be and thankfully had a room for me.
I then learned that the turnpike in West Virginia was closed several miles ahead of where I was. They had received 4 feet of snow in less than 24 hours. I wasn’t going to get through no matter how much I wanted to.
Persistence is an irreplaceable characteristic for a voice actor. The finest performer without persistence isn’t likely to have much success, but someone of modest skills and persistence can be very successful. On the other hand, to insist on following a given path that is completely closed isn’t being persistent, it’s being stupidly stubborn. I could have, after being towed out of my spot at the side of the road, tried again to finish my drive home to Charlotte; but the end result would have been the same or worse. I wasn’t getting through. The roads were closed.
After spending the night in Weston, and taking one more day of waiting, I was eventually able to make my way home to Charlotte.
If your burning desire is to be a voice actor you can get there. Persistence is vital to your eventual success. But, pushing forward on a given path when the road is closed may not always be the wisest path. Sometimes you have to retreat and try again either taking a different path or different timing.
Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (7)
Posted December 22, 2009 by Bob
My friend Mahmoud Taji has written a blog post about voiceover life in the current economic climate. Well worth a few minutes of your time to read.
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Posted by Bob
For the last few years it’s been my joy and delight to narrate the podcasts for “bridges” the online journey published by the Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria in Washington, DC. The latest edition, Vol. 24, is now live. I hope you enjoy.
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Posted December 19, 2009 by Bob
From Roy H. Williams, near the bottom of one of the Monday Morning Memos that I’ve been behind on reading:
“May you live all the days of your life.”
- Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels
Maybe it would be more accurate to say this is the quote of the century?
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Posted December 17, 2009 by Bob
Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino have been doing a superb series of teleseminars for nearly 3 years now. I’ve been there for every one of them and each has been worth way more than the price of admission. Now comes an opportunity to dig into the topic of voiceover for animation with not only Nancy and Anna, but also Richard Horvitz. This teleseminar will be held at 6:00 PM Pacific / 9:00 PM Eastern on Wednesday, January 27, 2010. You’ll be able to sign up soon at Nancy and Anna’s site, but right now they need you to email your questions about how to break into animation to Anna ASAP.
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Posted by Bob
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Posted by Bob
You might be surprised. My friend Anthony has some cogent thoughts for you on the subject.
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Posted December 16, 2009 by Bob
Bob Bergen posted a link on the VO-BB to this blog post from last year, which includes a video for Christmas I hope you’ll enjoy.
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Posted December 14, 2009 by Bob
With thanks to my friend Dave DeAndrea for posting the link on the VO-BB, here’s a wonderful article about the voice actors who do the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated television series.
Update: With thanks to Dan Roberts for posting the link to this in the comments, here is a table reading from Clone Wars.
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Posted by Bob
My friend Peter O’Connell has started an annual tradition for the end of the year, a tradition he’s now called the Faux-dition. Have fun!
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Posted December 13, 2009 by Bob
I only got to meet him once, briefly, in March of 2007 in Las Vegas at the first VOICE, but like all of you I heard his voice thousands of times.
Joe Queenan writes a lovely tribute to Don LaFontaine in the LA Times. I hear you Joe. I miss him too.
My thanks to my friend and mentor, Philip Banks, for posting the link to this article on the VO-BB.
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Posted December 12, 2009 by Bob
If you’ll be at GDC in March at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, don’t miss this session by my friend DB Cooper.
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Posted December 11, 2009 by Bob
I was in California on a very quick visit earlier this week and had the delight of having dinner with one of my favorite people, Nancy Wolfson.
We talked about voiceover some, of course. She is one of the very best voiceover coaches extant. But family and life and friends and food were all in the mix too.
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Posted by Bob
Not a lot of my work ends up in a place where I can share it with you easily. Thankfully, this is one exception, a video for HHS Robotics.
Update: If you’d like to know more about Highland High Robotics you can visit their web site.
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Posted December 9, 2009 by Bob
Paul Strikwerda has moved his blog to a new address so I’ve updated my blogroll with that new location. I also took a few minutes to read some of his excellent posts today. Well worth your time.
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Posted December 7, 2009 by Bob
Last year we did an audio version of the classic ‘Twas the night before Christmas and this year the VO-BB gang got together for a video version of the same. Enjoy!
Kudos to Jeffrey Kafer for compiling all the multitude of video clips into that one delightful piece.
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Posted by Bob
My friends Dave DeAndrea and Peter O’Connell have also blogged about their experiences this weekend in New York.
Update: Dave Courvoisier has posted his thoughts and photos, too. Dave’s also done a video of many of his photos.
Further Update: You can find John Florian’s wonderful write-up of the weekend’s events on VoiceOverXtra.
And yet some more, including this video montage of photos posted by Voice Talent Productions Erik Sheppard on YouTube.
Also don’t miss VoiceChasers coverage of the event.
(I’ll add additional links to this post as I find/learn about other blogs with photos and stories.)
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Posted by Bob
With thanks to my friend Dan Nachtrab for emailing me the link, there’s an article in the LA Times about the latest Interactive Agreement between SAG and the video game industry.
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Posted by Bob
I’m posting this to verify with Technorate that I am the author of this post.
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Thank you. Nothing more to see here.
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Posted by Bob
As I mentioned in my post about the New York voiceover trip, one of the highlights was the marriage proposal of Erik Sheppard to Lindsay Reiss. You can read all about it on VoiceOverXtra.
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Posted by Bob
This weekend I made a trip to New York City to meet up with a bunch of my voice actor friends from not only New York, but lots of other places in the world.
Dave Courvoisier and I shared a hotel room to keep our costs to a minimum. He arrived Friday evening.
Dave and I drove into Manhattan around lunch time on Saturday, where we caught up for lunch at the famous Katz’s Deli with Doug Turkel.
And Anthony Mendez. 
We hung out at Katz’s as long as we could, but the place was so busy that we didn’t feel we could keep our table forever. Eventually we found a table at a Starbucks not too far away and spent a wonderful afternoon talking about everything from the joys of being a Dad to how to field strip an M-16. OK. I made up that last part, but we did cover a wide variety of topics, including some stuff about voiceover, of course.
We met up with Philip Banks, Elaine Singer, Moe Egan, Liz de Nesnera, Melissa Exelberth and Elisa Cañas and then made our way across the street to the Boca Chica for our dinner. Also joining us was John Florian of VoiceOverXtra.
Doug Turkel and Philip Banks, sitting across the table from me.
Just to my right were Liz de Nesnera and Elisa Cañas.
Across the table and next to Philip Banks was Melissa Exelberth.
Also with us at the dinner, but of whom I don’t have good photos were Peter O’Connell, Tony Impieri, and Lee Gordon.
Making a dramatic, late, appearance were DB Cooper …
… and her husband DeWitt Hardy, Mary McKitrick and Mandy Nelson. And and even later and more dramatic appearance was made by Pam Tierney. Oh, what a wonderful evening of fun, laughter and joyous conversation it was.
And things were just getting started, because after our dinner we walked across the street and down a block to the White Rabbit for the New York VO Mixer organized by Erik Sheppard and his Voice Talent Productions. With Erik was the lovely and talented Lindsay Reiss.
One of the more dramatic moments during the mixer was at the end of the “door prizes” when Erik announced that Lindsey had won a prize, then pulled out a small box, knelt to one knee and asked Lindsey to marry him. Fortunately for Erik she said “yes.”
It so much fun meeting Elaine Singer before the event, and seeing and spending time with Doug Turkel again for much of the day.
One of the highlights of the mixer for me was getting to meet Dave DeAndrea in person.
Dave Courvoisier taught Bob Bergen how to tweet from the floor of the event. (OK, not really. Tthey were talking, but about what I don’t know.)
Here’s a shot of the crowded floor from near one end.
Getting a hug from Pam Tierney.
And it was a great delight to see September Day Leach at the Mixer, too.
Aside from the music being so loud it was almost impossible to hold a conversation and the name tags being hard to read, it was a whole lot of fun. I’m very glad I went. Thank you Erik and congratulations Erik and Lindsay. May you have much happiness and a long life together.
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