The early bird discount for VOICE 2010 ends at midnight, tonight, the 31st of January 2010. If you’re planning to go, you’ll save a $100 off the registration price if you sign up in the remaining hours today.

Posted January 31, 2010 by Bob
The early bird discount for VOICE 2010 ends at midnight, tonight, the 31st of January 2010. If you’re planning to go, you’ll save a $100 off the registration price if you sign up in the remaining hours today.

Category: General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Posted by Bob
My friend Mandy Nelson is featured in this article in the Worcester Business Journal.

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Posted January 30, 2010 by Bob
Blaire Hardman emails with a link to this video, a well done presentation on what you need to do voiceovers.

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Posted January 29, 2010 by Bob
Dan O’Day has released an absolutely briliant MP3 file containing 2 hours and 48 minutes of solid gold about voice acting for advertising from Nancy Wolfson. And if you order during Dan’s 72-Hour special, you’ll be invited to submit your own follow-up question and then receive a free bonus recording of Nancy’s answers to the Top 5 questions asked. Click here and place your order before 11:59 PM Eastern, Friday, January 29, 2010. That would be tonight at one minute to Midnight, Eastern.

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Posted January 28, 2010 by Bob
My friend Mahmoud Taji asks that question on his voiceover blog today. I hope you’ll take part in the discussion.

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Posted January 27, 2010 by Bob
My friend Pablo Hernandez has released a shorter version of the video for Haiti, today.

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Posted by Bob
Friday, February 19th, 2010 will be a fun night of voiceover training with Pat Fraley. Two hours of:
Pat explains more about this teleseminar in this audio clip:
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You can register as one of the live participants or just to obvserve at this link. This event is sponsored by VoiceOverXtra.

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Posted by Bob
My friend Andy Boyns has written a web page about his hopes and plans to travel to VOICE2010 this June. If you watched the Haiti video I posted a couple of days ago you heard Andy’s voice right next to mine in the opening minutes. He’s a good guy. Take a couple of minutes to read his page and help him out if you can.

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Posted by Bob
My friend Roger Tremaine has prepared a podcast on his experiences with starting his voiceover business over the last few years. Roger shares with great candor and I think you’ll find these 4 minutes and 17 seconds well worth your time.
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Thank you, Roger.

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Posted January 26, 2010 by Bob
Take a long hard look at your demos with Pat Fraley. Next month. In LA. Details on Pat’s site.

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Posted by Bob
Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino have been doing a superb series of teleseminars for the last 3 years and I’ve been there for every one of them. 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 the amazingly talented Richard Horvitz.
One look at his website and you’ll see why Richard is the guy who can give you the no-BS inside Animation scoop. He’s going to answer as many questions as he can in 90 minutes, with a promise to do a Part II in the not so distant future.
Exactly and only the Animation Voice Over info that YOU WANT TO KNOW.
Beware: some unpopular realities (better ya know now).
Behold: lots of encouraging truths!
Some of the great questions all ready submitted:
I do a lot of funny voices, shouldn’t I be doing animation??
Are there really only 10 people who do every animation job out there? I’m really good, so how can I break in??
Do I still need an agent? An animation demo? Improv comedy or acting classes? An interesting voice???
How do I get cast in the next Pixar film when celebrities take all the roles?
Seriously, how much money is there in animation?
This animation thing seems like a tough nut to crack, so tell me the action steps I can take NOW to get my animation career going!
This teleseminar taking place at 6:00 PM Pacific / 9:00 PM Eastern tomorrow, Wednesday, January 27, 2010. Sign up now at Nancy and Anna’s site.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (0)
Posted by Bob
My friend Pablo Hernandez started an ad-hoc group of voice actors to help raise awareness and funds for the tragedy in Haiti.
Thank you Pablo.

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Posted by Bob
Dan O’Day has released an absolutely briliant MP3 file containing 2 hours and 48 minutes of solid gold about voice acting for advertising from Nancy Wolfson. And if you order during Dan’s 72-Hour special, you’ll be invited to submit your own follow-up question and then receive a free bonus recording of Nancy’s answers to the Top 5 questions asked. Click here and place your order before 11:59 PM Eastern, Friday, January 29, 2010.

Category: Career Advice, General, People | Comments (3)
Posted January 25, 2010 by Bob
Sometime early tomorrow you’ll have an opportunity to order something from Dan O’Day that will be a tremendous boost to your voiceover business. Once Dan tells me what’s what, I’ll tell you.

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Posted by Bob
David Brower offers some thoughts about the cost of building your own voiceover studio on his blog.

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Posted January 24, 2010 by Bob
I’ve spent this past weekend with some truly wonderfully talented people “playing full out” to use the term Marice Tobias uses and learning how to raise my voiceover work to the next level.
I always have at least one “aha” moment during these weekends of study and play with Marice. This weekend was no exception. More about that in a moment. First, though, here’s the group, or almost all of us.
From the left, Sheldon Smith, Peter Cutler (our engineer), Karen Hutton, me, Bill Lloyd, Scott Fischer, Sadie Medley, Marty Wall, Thompson Howell, Robyn Moler, and Steve Lawrence. Missing from the photo are Marice Tobias (she’s behind the camera) and Alex Vishniakoff, who was … uh … indisposed while we were shooting this quick photo during an afternoon break on Sunday.
This was a unique weekend because this time we dealt with all of the major areas of voiceover work (trailer, promo, commercial and narration) and how to keep a given genre from “leaking” into another as we switch from one to another through the day … just like we have to do in our real work.
It was also unique because the group got to hear everyone’s performances. Usually Marice will have us do at least a couple of reads in isolation from everyone else, but this time we were all in the studio for every performance. It was really enlightening to hear how we all were true to our own personalities even though we were hearing one another reading (some of the time) the exact same piece of copy.
My own “aha” moment came on Saturday when for the first time I began to grasp just how important it is to have a personal connection with the copy in order to deliver an emotionally honest performance. I think this one insight is going to have a significant influence on my work, especially as I incorporate this insight into my performances in the coming weeks and month.

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Posted by Bob
My friend Kristine Oller is a genius. About organization. About career. About building relationships. Here is a video with just one of her superb ideas.
“If you have $5 and an hour to devote to your career each week.” What a great idea! There are tons more great ideas on Kristine’s site. Check all of them out. You’ll be glad you did.

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Posted January 22, 2010 by Bob
My friend Peter O’Connell has been doing a fake audition for the last three years as a way to add a bit of amusement to the end of the year and the start of the next. This year’s finalists have been announced on Peter’s blog and that means you can now vote on your three favorites.

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Posted by Bob
My friend Debbe Hirata has such a lucious voice. Exhibit A is this video.
Seattle University 7D Shoot from Terence Brown on Vimeo.
See what I mean? There are many other exhibits. No doubt you’ll find some of them on your own, before long.

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Posted by Bob
Did you know that the legendary voice actor Don Morrow has a blog? You do now.

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Posted January 21, 2010 by Bob
As Seth Godin points out brilliantly, your real marketing isn’t the stuff you do to try to grow your voiceover business. It’s what happens in-between and outside the boundaries of what you do that’s the real marketing. This is the stuff that separates those who thrive from those who struggle.

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Posted January 20, 2010 by Bob
My friend Janet Ivey does a fabulous television program called Janet’s Planet. Here’s a tasty example of the fun.

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Posted January 19, 2010 by Bob
Tracy Pattin does a wonderful series of podcasts for the VoiceRegistry blog. She’s done a five part series of interviews with Chris Allport that is so worth your time.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

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Posted by Bob
With thanks to my friend and mentor Philip Banks for posting the link on the VO-BB, check out this hilarious bit by British voice actors Phil Sayer and Elinor Hamilton.
I got to meet Phil and Elinor at VOX 2009 and hope to see them again at this year’s VOX. And, you can read the whole article in the Daily Telegraph, here.

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Posted by Bob
This time I get to showcase one of my own narrations. This was produced by the geniuses at Point7West, a fabulous production company in California for whom I’ve been voicing the last few years. My voice doesn’t appar until almost a minute in, but enjoy the wonderful visuals while you wait.

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Posted January 18, 2010 by Bob
From my friend and manager Stacey Stahl:
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Posted by Bob
Now, it’s true. There are times we get so sick we can’t talk. In that case you do have to tell your clients that you can’t record for the day (or week or however long it feels), but sometimes it’s worth pushing through the fog of not feeling well. Check out Peter Nevland’s wonderful post for one such example.

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Posted by Bob
It is with great sorrow that I note the passing of my friend and fellow voice actor, Justin Kaiser.
(Update: My friend Peter O’Connell has a beautiful tribute to Justin on his blog.)
(Further update: Obituary on the website for Justin’s home town paper is here.)

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Posted January 17, 2010 by Bob
From my friend Andi Arndt comes the following excellent information:
If you can read IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) or have a good ear for accents, you might enjoy practicing dialects of English at http://accent.gmu.edu/ where there are examples from all over the globe! Another great source is Paul Meier’s website at http://www.paulmeier.com/ which has great resources and links to all kinds of accent-related information.
Thank you, Andi. Good stuff.

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Posted January 15, 2010 by Bob
My friend Mandy Nelson is a very talented voice performer. You can hear her narration on this video.
Really nice work, Mandy.

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