General

Marice Tobais will be traveling to Boston soon!

My daughter Karen is my favorite proofer when I’m working on an audiobook. This isn’t just because she’s my daughter (so of course I love her); but equally because she’s brilliant at it. Her attention to detail is amazing and most of the time when I have her proof one of my books, it comes back no further corrections needed.

But, proofing isn’t just for audiobooks. She also proofs (and often edits as well) eLearning projects for me. As she writes there are 5 Benefits to having Proofed Audio. I can add nothing more to her insightful piece.

I was reading my friend Pam Tierney’s blog yesterday and took note of her recent post What’s in Your Toolbox?, which reminded me that I have a ton of insights, notes and material from numerous events I’ve attened, workshops I’ve taken and seminars I’ve signed up for; many of which remain unexamined in the aftermath of these events.

A valuable kick in the pants for sure. Which leads directly to this question, which is pointed and me even more than it is at you: what action am I going to take in response to this insight?

Pat Fraley emailed this morning with news about a teleseminar he is doing with Scott Brick and Bob Deyan. Here are the details including links to sign up.

The 2013 Audiobook Gold Rush Webinar
Tues. May 21 6PM-7:30PM PDT

Join Robert Deyan, the audiobook producer
who hired over 500 narrators in a
two month period last year,
with Scott Brick and Patrick Fraley
for a meaningful, inside view of how
to work the audiobook market.
$47. Recording of all comes with the price.
Details: http://www.voice-overwebinars.com/Audiobook_GoldRush.html

100% of the money goes to performer
Nicole Nielson who has been stricken
with an incurable disease.

This is a great bargain for anyone who wants to know more about voicing audiobooks. It’s also a great cause.

The final day of Faff Camp started with an opening circle, which was as it should be.

Then the first main presentation of the day was given, by me. The topic was Invite the Avalanche, and was based on (but not identical to) talks that I’ve given a couple of times at various Faffcons. The best way to get the substance of what I spoke about would be to put the word avalanche into the search box of this blog and read the articles that you find.
Here though is something you won’t find in any of those previous blog posts:

Beware of the cheap. It’s so very easy to self-justify either looking for something cheap because we think it will represent a bargain (but in reality what we’re buying is just cheap trash) or to self-justify selling ourselves for cheap.

Bottom line: it’s not about what you would like to do, nor about what you can do. It’s all about what you will do, and then actually doing the thing.

When I first saw the line-up of speakers for Faff Camp, I was so relieved and grateful that I was up first on Sunday; because the final main presentation was given by Doug Turkel. I did not want to have to follow Doug, who provided us with a virtual MBA of ideas and insights about how to improve our marketing, how to think more like a business person and less like just another starving artist.

Bottom line: the options and opportunities are nearly endless, but all of those options are worthless if you don’t actually take action.

After the main presentations, we again spent an hour taking part in the table top mentoring. This time I didn’t have to lead a discussion, so was able to enjoy discussions about transition from radio to voiceover (led by Don Brookshire, and for whom I don’t seem to be able to find a web site!) and about corporate narrations (led by Peter Bishop).

We then broke for lunch and in the afternoon did some breakout sessions; among which the stand-outs for me were Tom Dheere‘s on personal and business organization and time management and Sean Caldwell‘s on rates.

Faff Camp proper wrapped up with a closing circle and the day ended with a memorable Faff-ter party that was great fun, tinged with sadness as various people had to depart for the airport.

Truly a memorable weekend, chock full of both good times and excellent ideas. Now the challenge is to translate those ideas into actions!

A week ago I posted some thoughts following the first day of Faff Camp and I had intended to post follow-up reports each of the next couple of days. However, the experience proved to be so powerful and so exhausting at the same time that I simply couldn’t push myself to do those reports.

Now, a week has passed and I have both recovered from the exhaustion and have gained a bit of distance on the event. I hope my thoughts here will help you understand some of what it was like if you weren’t there and help you process what you expereinced if you were.

I begin with some thoughts not directly related to the Faff Camp experience itself. I have to admit I am truly puzzled about why attendance wasn’t higher than it was. Yes, there were other things happening in that part of the USA in the weeks before Faff Camp. Yes, there was another voiceover event going on in Canada that same weekend. But, the number of people who expressed frustration at not being able to attend Faffcon would have seemed to indicate the level of interest was high enough for a larger attendance at Faff Camp.

Maybe it was because it wasn’t Faffcon, but something else? I truly don’t know; but I can say that having now attended all 6 Faff events that while Faff Camp is different from Faffcon, the similarities are greater than the differences. At least in terms of the opportunities to learn and connect and grow.

However, I don’t intend this post to be some sort of scolding of those who didn’t come to Faff Camp. If you were not there, I respect your decision and your reasons. So, on with my thoughts and observations.

The first full day of Faff Camp began with an opening circle meeting to provide some background and set the state for what would happen over the next two days. Aside from the fact that the topics and topic discussion leaders were picked in advance, it was very similar to the start of a Faffcon. Next came a truly excellent presentation and discussion led by the wonderful Dan Friedman on Audio Quality and Auditions. Dan presented a bunch of helpful and insightful observations from casting directors, talent agents and production houses on what sort of difference it makes when an audition arrives with excellent audio quality versus one that arrives with marginal or poor quality. No surprise, the better audio quality books pretty much every time even if the peformance of the poorer quality audio is somewhat better.

Bottom line: even if your performance is top notch marginal or poor audio quality will mask your terrific performance.

The second main presentation on Saturday was a brilliant presentation on the creation and use of character voices by Rowell Gormon. I have been friends with Rowell for a number of years, so my views about his presentation are no doubt colored to some extent by that friendship; but it really was an eye-opening riff on ways to create characters to use in audiobooks, commercials and any where else we need to present a sound other than our “normal” voice.

Bottom line: even “bad” character voices can be useful … if we will simply use them when appropriate.

Then we had a hour of table top mentoring in which a number of us facilitated conversations about numerous topics. I led discussions about doing audiobooks at my table. There were loads of other conversations going on all around the room. I enjoyed this idea a great deal and thought the discussions provided a good exchange of insights from those doing the various kinds of work being discussed (in my case, narrating audiobooks) with those interested in pursuing that kind of work.

This was followed by an hour for lunch and then an afternoon of break-out sessions on again a wide variety of topics; the most memorable of which was a discussion on union, non-union and financial core that was led by Melissa Exelberth. All in all, a wonderful day.

I’ll write more tomorrow, with observations about the final day of Faff Camp.