With my thanks to my friend David Houston for linking to this, here’s a nice conversation featuring Nancy Cartwright.
Blog
It’s Just Talk
Would you care for a dash of cold water? But, a funny dash, to be sure! Here it is, with my thanks to Tom and Jim at VO-BB.com for pointing out this article in the Los Angeles Times.
So you want to record audiobooks?
In the last three months, I’ve been asked an amazing number of times about how to get started recording audiobooks. I suppose this is because I’ve had some success finding work in this corner of the voiceover marketplace.
One of the guys asking me for some comments was my friend Tony Craine from Chicago. In Tony’s case, he was asking specifically about the value of attending Pat Fraley’s audiobook class. I gave him my honest opinion, which is that Pat’s audiobook class was exactly what I needed to prepare to get work narrating audiobooks. Because it was. Within a few weeks of my class in July of 2006, I had been signed as a regular narrator for one audiobook company, and in the following months, I’ve signed with 2 more and I’m in conversations with 2 others.
What’s equally important is that Pat, and his teaching partner Hillary Huber, were bluntly honest about the fact that in general audiobooks pay the least of any kind of professional narration, given the amount of work involved. So, why do them? Because there’s so much work and because it’s usually not work tied to really tight deadlines. Which means that in your otherwise down times, you can be earning some money narrating audiobooks, while still having time for the commercial (and other voiceover) work you do that pays more per hour.
One valuable part of Pat’s audiobook class is that you record an audiobook demo as part of your classwork. Now let me be bluntly clear, if you are just getting started in voiceover work, taking Pat’s class isn’t the smartest thing for you. Because without a solid foundation in voiceover basics, (including mike technique, breathing, how to break down copy, making solid acting choices and so forth) you’re almost certainly wasting your time and your money. Get a solid foundation started. Study with a solid professional coach. (My top recommendation is Nancy Wolfson.) Then, if you’re still interested in audiobooks, take Pat’s class.
By the way, you can hear Tony’s audiobook demo on his site, (recorded during his class with Pat) along with his other demos. Good work, Tony. May you, and all the readers of this blog post, experience much success.
A look through Spongebob’s porthole
Check out this post on YouTube, for a look at the voices behind the show.
SurePay
Stephanie and David over at Voices.com are introducing something new, and in my opinion something truly wonderful, with the latest updates to their service. It’s called SurePay. You can read Stephanie’s extensive description of the service here. And in the comment thread beneath you’ll find a number of posts from David answer questions and offering further clarifications.
Calling all North Carolina VO folk (update)
Check out this thread at the VO-BB.com and if you’re a member there, post your interest (or lack of same) in a get-together for all us voiceover types in North Carolina. If you’re not a member of VO-BB.com, leave a comment here and I’ll post about your interest for you.
My thanks to Donovan Corneetz and Brian Hart for helping to organize this. I look forward to seeing you real soon now, Winston-Salem.
UPDATE: The date and time are Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 11:00 AM at the Village Tavern Restaurant in Winston-Salem. After lunch, we’ll head over the to AMF lanes for some bowling. I’m looking forward to seeing and/or meeting you there next month.
Listen to a conversation with Rodney Saulsberry
From the Tavis Smiley Show on NPR, you’ll find a conversation with voice actor Rodney Saulsberry, here. And you’ll find Rodney’s main site, here.
(Note, you may have to go through a free registration process with NPR’s site to listen. But, it’s worth the trouble. You’ll see.)
Another excellent learning opportunity is coming
Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino are going to host a free Webinar through Voice123.com on Saturday, May 5, 2007. The focus will be on how to work your brand to get more voiceover work. Sign up to be one of the 1000 who get to listen in and watch live by clicking here.
You can get more information about Nancy and Anna and their teleseminars, here.
Want to know what it will look like?
I noted just below that Voices.com is about to begin beta testing their new updates. And if you’d like a preview of what the new site will look like, check out Stephanie’s post on that subject at VoxDaily.
In the interest of balance and fairness, I should note that Voice123.com announced during VOICE 2007 that they are in the process of making some significant updates to their site as well. As I learn more, I’ll post links there as well.
Voices.com is looking for beta testers
Voices.com is looking for folks to help beta test the new version of their website. The testing will start Friday, April 27th. Details are at Vox Daily, here.
Update. I’ve been accepted as one of the beta testers, but have been so busy most of this week that I’ve only had a chance to look around a couple of times. I’ll update more as I dig deeper; but I must say, I really like what I see.
Another option for building a voiceover booth
I was reading my friend Bobbin Beam’s voiceover blog today and noticed some very interesting information about her and her husband’s efforts to build a voiceover booth. Very interesting and I’m looking forward to reading the follow-up posts with more information. I’ll try to bring you updates as things move forward.
Something you may enjoy reading
Don LaFontaine is interviewed by Radar. My thanks to Tim McLaughlin for posting about this one, thus letting me know about it.
Some words of wisdom you should read
My friend Mary McKitrick doesn’t write a post to her blog every day, but when she does post what she writes is always worth reading. Her comments about What You Want Versus What You Need As a Student of Voiceover is a superb example of wisdom and thoughtfulness.
There may be reasons someone would want to attend a large conference like VOICE other than those Mary has dealt with in her post, but whatever those reasons are, they need to be based on both thought and feelings. At least, if you want to be sure that your voiceover business (you do realize it’s a business, right?) shows a consistent profit.
Good words, Mary. Thank you for writing. Even more, thank you for making me think.
Sound Effects Library information
With my thanks to William Spear and his Lit Between the Ears blog about Radio and Audio Drama for posting about this, check out the sound effects library now available from Dreamseed. High quality and available for immediate download. Very nice.
DB Cooper’s brilliance
DB Cooper, voiceover talent and hostess of the VO-BB.com, gave a brilliant presentation at the VOICE 2007 conference on doing voiceover work for video games.
Stephanie, over at Vox Daily, has done a superb job of summarizing Deirdre’s presentation. This completes my series of posts about the presentations at VOICE 2007. I’ll have more stories to share with you in the coming days. And, I’m indebted to Stephanie and her team for their great work documenting all that happened in Las Vegas. But, let me close this post with these thoughts.
The experience of VOICE 2007 was amazing on at least 2 levels. On the one hand, we had a chance to learn from, meet and interact with some of the very top people in our voiceover profession. Rodney Saulsberry. Bob Bergen. MJ Lallo. Frank Frederick. James Alburger and Penny Abshire. Connie Terwilliger. Deb Monroe. Pat Fraley. Don LaFontaine. Just to name a few.
In addition, we got to spend a week sharing time, conversation and relationships with over 200 people who are just like us, voiceover freaks. After spending years living and working in small padded rooms, modified closets and basements, converted bedrooms and the like; to be able to be with so many people who understand, well, that was nothing short of amazing. I’ll let you know about VOICE 2008 as soon as I know. And I hope you’ll be there, too. I’ll do everything I can to be there, where and when ever “there” is.
10 rules for your small business home page
While I’m not a big fan of lists of rules, there are times when they can be extremely helpful. This is one of them. Excellent suggestions by Sue Polinsky for things to make sure you’re doing or not doing on your web page. This is written for small business people in general, but applies to we voiceover folk very well indeed.
The new podcast is available
For the last year, it’s been my privilege to serve as the narrator for the podcast called “bridges” from the Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria in Washington DC. The latest issue, Vol. 13, is now available both in text form and as a podcast.
Can you touch your toes with your nose?
Kara Edwards can. OK, I guess maybe I didn’t quite get that quote exactly right; but you really should spend a couple of minutes reading Kara’s blog today. Her post Mrs. Flexibility has some very good words for you, especially if you’re tempted to fill your day with lots of low rate jobs just to guarantee a certain amount of monthly income.
A Dream, A Pig and a young man named Bob
When you want something bad enough, and work hard enough, is it possible to achieve the impossible? From the time Bob Bergen was 12 years old, he wanted to grow up to be come the voice of Porky Pig. To read the story, don’t miss Stephanie’s superb review and summary of Bob Bergen’s presentation at VOICE 2007.
One of the great highlights of that evening was learning that a tape Bob made (when he was 14!) talking with Mel Blanc on the phone, still exists. Bob has posted the conversation on his web site.
Hallelujah Nuns
My friend David Colburn sent me this link today. Enjoy.