General

My friend Janet Ault emailed me with a link to this very good article on vocal health. Well worth a few minutes of your time.

If you’re of a certain age you can probably finish that line with the original from the television commercial about a tape company; but this post isn’t tape. Rather, I’d like to encourage you to visit VoiceOverXtra today to read the excellent article by my friend Dave Courviosier about synthetic voices. Excellent and thought-provoking stuff.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in Canada!

(edited to fix typo. If only I could do a better job of proof reading myself!)

My friend Pam Tierney tells the story of why Leo Burnett Agency has a bowl of free apples in every office. If you don’t know, or even if you do, check out Reaching for the stars at Pam’s blog.

You’ll find details about the latest updates at Voices.com at Vox Daily.

In today’s fast-paced world, is it a big surprise that iMinds has launched a series of 8-minute audiobooks? Also, check out the Vook which blends a book with video and audio to create a new kind of multimedia experience for those who don’t want to haul around traditional books. My thanks to my friend Robin Holcomb for emailing me these links.

The day you first made your appearance was a life-changing day. A very Happy Birthday to my first-born and my only daughter, Karen.

Again today, a worthwhile email from my manager and friend, Stacey Stahl.

Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now. 

       —  Jonatan Martensson

No, not cheese. The Internet. I think it’s well worth the 19 minutes of your time.

As one who strongly believes in the value of generosity, I have to say I love that video. I hope you enjoyed it too.

My friend Frank Frederick is the voiceover of this movie trailer.

Further update. The trailer can be seen now here.

Wonderful work, Frank.

You? Even if you don’t want to, you are going to be you.

Stacey Stahl, my manager and friend, emailed today with a link to Drew McLellan’s blog A nickname does not make you more cool. Reading it right after I read my friend Peter O’Connell’s take on lowball voiceover rates got me thinking about the voiceover business.

In 1983 when I started doing voiceovers professionally there were lots of men and women doing voiceovers, but no where near the number there are today. For a plethora of reasons, voice acting has become a “cool” thing to do. A whole cottage industry has grown up of voice actors offering training to those who want to get starting doing voiceover work. I’m not saying that is bad. More attention and activity and focus has led to more work for all of us. (And as my friend and mentor Philip Banks has been saying for a few years now, there’s an ever increasing rush to quality in this business. He’s quite right.)

Each of us has a unique place we occupy in the voiceover universe (speaking of which and I hope you’ll forgive the bunny trail, you really should be part of Voiceover Universe) with our own areas of expertise and ability. Joe Cipriano is a great promo voice. Wally Wingert is a great animation voice. Nancy Cartwright is best known as the voice of Bart Simpson. (She even has Bart as her favicon!) Each of these stars does lots of other work, of course. But they have a focus, not just on what they’re known for, but who they are. Every successful voice actor, ever successful performer of any kind, does.

I love telling stories. I love narrating documentaries. Audiobooks. eLearning. Corporate training or marketing. It’s all good.

There’s room for all kinds of voiceover pros. There’s even room for folks trying to pick up a little pocket money to supplement their meager radio salary. But, if you want to make a living in the voiceover business, forget about trying to find some “cool” way to re-position yourself. Forget about trying to “become” whatever is “hot” right now.

Find your focus and feed it. (And if you need some help with that last idea, the very best person to talk to is my friend Kristine Oller.)

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in my studio at home, waiting in between takes of a commercial session over ISDN, when it hit me like a ton of bricks: I get to do this (voiceover work) for a living! What an amazing flood of joy and delight poured through me at that moment. Now, I don’t write about me every day here because I like to share the spotlight with my friends; but I just had to put this into words today.

Telling stories for people is a great experience. It doesn’t matter if it’s a documentary, a television commercial or an eLearning project. I love my job! I’m so grateful for every one of my clients. Thank you for indulging me and reading.

Sent to me by my manager and friend Stacey Stahl.

A thousand things went right today.

       —  Ilan Shamir