My friend Mandy Nelson is featured in this article in the Worcester Business Journal.
Press for Mandy
General
Everything you need to do voiceover and one thing you don’t
Blaire Hardman emails with a link to this video, a well done presentation on what you need to do voiceovers.
Voice actors, the 72 hours ends tonight
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.
What would the perfect online casting site look like?
My friend Mahmoud Taji asks that question on his voiceover blog today. I hope you’ll take part in the discussion.
More talk about Haiti
Paging Dr. Fraley
Friday, February 19th, 2010 will be a fun night of voiceover training with Pat Fraley. Two hours of:
- interpreting copy for dialogue and single voice
- honing comedic skills
- creating evocative performances.
Pat explains more about this teleseminar in this audio clip:
[audio:http://bit.ly/DrFraleyMP3]You can register as one of the live participants or just to obvserve at this link. This event is sponsored by VoiceOverXtra.
Would you buy Andy a cup of coffee?
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.
A podcast for those just starting, from the inside
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.
[audio:https://bobsouer.com/pix/Poor_mans_guide_to_a_VO_career.mp3]Thank you, Roger.
Demo World with Pat Fraley
Take a long hard look at your demos with Pat Fraley. Next month. In LA. Details on Pat’s site.
Animation teleseminar with Richard Horvitz and Nancy Wolfson tomorrow
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.
A video for Haiti
Voice actors, for 72 hours only
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.
An offer from Dan O’Day is coming
How much to build a voiceover studio?
David Brower offers some thoughts about the cost of building your own voiceover studio on his blog.
A weekend to remember in LA
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.
Coffee Dates
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.
The faux-dition doesn’t count, but your votes do
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.
Debbe shines
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.
Added to the blogroll today
It’s not what you do
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.
