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The nicest people come to Charlotte, too

General, People

This evening I had the great delight of visiting once again with my friends Kara Edwards and Peter O’Connell. Peter was on his way through town for business before joining the rest of his family for Thanksgiving a little further South and West of here, so the 3 of us met at Cracker Barrel for dinner and conversation.

Peter had never eaten at a Cracker Barrel before, and I think we’ve made a convert to the cause. Before we left, we made a stop in front of the fireplace for a quick photo with Kara’s camera.

Peter O'Connell, Kara Edwards and Bob Souer in Charlotte, NC

Boggling

Career Advice, General, People

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “mind-boggling” at one time or another. This weekend (as I’m typing this I’ve just moments ago walked through the door back in Charlotte after flying home from New York this evening) has given me a new appreciation for this term. For my mind is well and truly boggled.

I think it will likely be weeks before I entirely get my head around all that I’ve learned. I used my Treo 680 and typed notes as fast as my thumbs would allow (and sometimes faster!) at all of the great coaching, ideas and thoughts Marice Tobias shared. A month ago, when I took my previous workshop with Marice on commercials and narration, I thought I understood mind-boggling, but this weekend has topped that experience.

Today was the promo part of the promo/trailer workshop. We worked on several pieces of copy, taking different approaches to each piece. Each of these approaches helped us understand how best to deliver the copy as ourselves. This is so counter-intuitive. After all, who else can I bring into the studio with me? Just me. My natural human tendency is to want to adapt myself to the copy, rather than finding the best way to present the copy as me.

Here’s one other inescapable conclusion I’ve reached regarding all that I learned, there’s no way to really understand how to put into practice what Marice teaches unless you are able to take the workshops with her. The experience is too tightly woven into the fabric of the entire experience.

One last note to this post before I go collapse for a few hours. With us was Stacey Stahl, owner of In Both Ears. What a fantastic experience it was last night at dinner to sit across from Stacey and learn many valuable insights about how voiceover agents like to be treated and (more importantly) don’t like to be treated by voice talent. Eye-opening and more than a little mind-boggling in its own right.

You have to be amazing

Career Advice, General, People

I’ve written before about a life-changing experience I had in Nashville in the early 90s when I attended a workshop with Marice Tobias. This weekend has been another such experience, and no surprise, it’s again involved the amazing Marice Tobias.

I’m in my hotel room in Manhattan as I type this, still trying to get my head around all that I learned today at day one of a Promo/Trailer workshop this weekend at the Sound Hound in West 45th Street. Today’s study was on movie trailers. And the one thing that stood out to me more than anything else was that everyone in the room brought their A game to this thing. Which meant that we all made ourselves better, as we listened to one another, heard the coaching and direction being given by Marice to one another, and encouraged one another. I literally cannot describe what it was like in more detail. I don’t have the words. But, I know that I’m going to go home to Charlotte tomorrow evening a different, a better, voiceover talent that when I came.

Tomorrow is the promo focus. I’ll write more when I can, but if it’s anything like today, I doubt I’ll be able to put those experiences into words either.

You meet the nicest people in New York City, too

General, People

What a wonderful evening I’ve just had in downtown Manhattan at a pub called Molly’s. I’m in New York City on a weekend business trip. A few weeks ago I posted at note on the VO-BB about the fact that I was there and that led to tonight’s get-together with 3 voiceover talents from the area at this pub.

Here are Patrick O’Connor and I. (The photo was taken by Liz de Nesnera after she got to Molly’s.)

Patrick O'Connor and Bob Souer at Molly's in Manhattan

Patrick was nice enough to meet me at my hotel and walk me to Molly’s. This meant that I actually found the place and also gave us a chance to chat for a bit on our way there.

A few moments after we arrived and took a position well to the back, right in the way of some of the staff (but they were very nice about everything), Liz joined us. A lady standing near us (I regret to say I didn’t get her name) took a shot of Patrick, Liz and me.

Bob Souer, Liz de Nesnera and Patrick O'Connor at Molly's in Manhattan

No my ear isn’t on fire. That’s a reflection off of something behind us on the wall. Patrick, Liz and I chatted together for a few minutes while waiting for a table to open up and then Melissa Exelberth also joined us.

Moments later, a table opened up and we all sat together. Melissa and I were on one side of the table, so Liz got out her camera again and took another photo.
Bob Souer and Melissa Exelberth at Molly's in Manhattan

We had such a terrific time talking about voiceover work, training, life experiences, different places we’ve lived (Melissa was far and away the winner of exotic places she’s lived) and what we like best about New York and on and on. It was truly a great experience. The time just flew and then we all had to head out our separate ways.
Patrick, Liz and Melissa, thank you for such a truly delightful evening. And Patrick, thanks for picking up the tab!

Build-it-yourself voiceover studio

General, Tools

Home Recording Connection is a site I stumbled upon this evening. It’s filled with interesting ideas. Some are better than others, but one that I thought especially worthwhile is this article about how to sound proof your garage on a budget, thus turning it into a studio.

In the case of this article, the writer was building out his garage to use as a practice studio for his rock band; but the ideas will work just as well for making a quiet space to put your home voiceover studio. What I especially like is that the article is filled with ideas about how to do this build-out for very little cost.

(edited to fix typo. Thanks Chris Eder for helping me with that one.)

Acting for Advertising teleseminar tomorrow

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover

Tomorrow evening, Wednesday, November 14th at 6:00 PM Pacific, (9:00 PM Eastern) you have another opportunity to take part in a teleseminar presented by Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino. Each of these teleseminars has been worth far more than the $49 price of admission and this time you can join the call for just $39. Registration details are on the front page of the Break Into Voice Over site.

What does the writers’ strike have to do with me?

Career Advice, General, People

I don’t know if you’ve been following the saga of the Writers Guild strike or not. Depending on where you live and what sort of work you do, your interest may be very high or you might not even be aware there’s a strike taking place.

Whatever your level of interest, I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes to read the open letter from David Lawrence published at Vox Daily today. David has taken a significant risk to express himself. You need to read it all.

My thanks to Bobbin Beam for posting the link that led me to this article today.

Stay focused on your passion

Blogging, General, People

With thanks to my friend Chris Eder for posting the links on his blog, I read a couple of really thought-provoking posts today on Peter O’Connell’s blog and on a blog new to me called The D-Ring, written by military public relations specialist Steve Field.

I started this blog because I love to write and I wanted to give myself an outlet for writing that would also help me connect with other like-minded souls: other voiceover talent.

I also want to connect with the producers, writers, agents, studio engineers and others who are part of our world of voiceover because they hire or refer us. At the same time, like Peter says in his post, I’m really just writing this for you and me. Because we’re the only 2 people here.

Peter says he is concerned that his posts might be too long. I wonder if you think my posts are too short most of the time? Let me know. Comments are open.

Equipment wants, Equipment needs

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

I hope you make a regular practice of visiting Kara Edwards voiceover blog. There’s much worth reading there, not only the new things she writes, but in the archives as well. Sometimes whimsical. Sometimes very practical. Always worthwhile.

Her latest post offers some very solid advice about how to manage the purchases of equipment, either first time or upgrading what you already have, for your studio. I’d only add that the same kind of thinking needs to be applied to training, seminars, conferences and demo production. It’s not possible to do everything all at once. If you try, you’ll

sink out of sight so fast no one will notice.

I’m going to put Kara’s list suggestion into practice immediately.

Digidesign 002 for sale (updated)

Career Advice, General, People, Tools

My friend Brian Haymond is selling his older Pro Tools set-up as he’s upgrading his system to a more current model. This is your opportunity to pick up a truly superb system, including the control surface mixer for a truly amazingly low price. (You’ll see what I mean when you click through to his site on the link above.)
Here’s a photo from his blog, so you can see just how clean this system truly is.

Update: Brian has sold this unit on eBay!

Acting for Advertising

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People, Tools

Voice acting, while it is acting, has a different palette than acting for stage or film. This is one of the key things I learned through my studies with Nancy Wolfson. Now, thanks to the site that Nancy and Anna Vocino have launched jointly called Break Into Voice Over, you can purchase MP3 audio files with much of the key information Nancy teaches in her private lessons, at a fraction of the price of just one of those private lessons.

Looking at the site this evening, I see that there’s a new teleseminar for which you can sign up that will be held on Wednesday, November 14th at 6:00 PM Pacific (9:00 PM Eastern). And the previous teleseminars are all linked for purchase right on the main page. There is a ton of solid, valuable, actionable information there. Highly recommended.

Standing out

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover

There are thousand and thousands of people with a shingle out these days proclaiming themselves as voiceover artists. To be charitable, there is a range of professionalism, experience and quality among those multiplied thousands. Obviously, not everyone can be the best there is. Indeed, only one person can occupy that position in any given category or subcategory. To be successful, you don’t have to be the best, but you do need to meet certain standards both from a performance and from a technical standpoint.

SaVoa is an effort to uphold professional standards among voiceover artists. Read their FAQ. Look through their published standards. Get some background information. If you like what you see, think about joining.