For many voice actors today, especially here in North America, much of our work comes through auditions. So winning more auditions means more work. During 2007 when I was studying with Nancy Wolfson, my ability to win auditions went up dramatically because of what I learned from her. Which is why I’m delighted to say that Nancy is going to hold a teleseminar about winning more voiceover auditions.
From my manager and friend Stacey Stahl comes this wonderful quote today:
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
— Abraham Lincoln
The Princess and the Frog is the new hand-drawn animated film coming from Disney. In this video we get to see actor Keith David working on his part, the villian in the film, Dr. Facillier.
My thanks to my friend Justin Barrett for posting the link to this video on the VO-BB.
Recently Harlan Hogan hosted a teleseminar during which he fielded questions “live” from voiceover people around the world.
The topic? “Should I Start My Own Voiceover Business?”
He expected it to last 90 minutes. Two hours, tops.
Instead, he answered questions nonstop for 3 hours, 24 minutes.
The entire mp3 recording available for download. Lots of invaluable information from one of the industry’s top pros.
You’ll find a complete list of questions here.
My thanks to be nice, Ed Hunter emails with the link to this video. It’s an episode of the Kevin Pollak Chat Show, featuring an interview with Hank Azaria. Note, there is some “Not Safe For Work” language in here, but I think the interview is well worth your time.
Here’s what Ed wrote about why you might want to watch this long (over 2 hours) interview.
Of particular interest to voice actors comes about 50 min. or so into the show where Azaria tells how he was originally cast in The Simpson’s. It seems that someone else was already doing the voice of Moe, and there was apparently no complaint with this actor’s performance. However, the guy had a really bad attitude. “He was very rude to everyone,” said Azaria. He got annoyed at the amount of takes and blew a gasket … “threw a tirade.” Fox decided to let him go, and hired Hank. The line that stuck with me is when Azaria said, “If this guy was a nice guy, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
Thank you for sending the link to the video, Ed.
(edited to fix link and typos)
My friend Zurek, founder of Voiceover Universe, blogs about his experiences at the Voices.com mixer in Los Angeles this week. Cool photos, Zurek. Wish I could have been there with you.
My friend Craig Crumpton features an interview he did with voice actor Jim Cummings on his blog.
You’ll find an extensive update on what’s been happening with Scott Brick’s Share the Experience audiobook contest on his blog.
Yesterday for lunch I had the great joy of spending some time with three really nice people. Diane Merritt, Ted Stewart and my oldest son Eric. Ted, Eric and I all live in the Charlotte area and Diane is a couple of hours a way in South Carolina. We’d been working on a voiceover get-together for some time and finally managed to pull it off.
Spending time with other voice actors is one of my favorite things, right after spending time with my family. In this case, I was able to combine the two, which was even better. We’re starting to make plans to do this again in about a month. If you are a voice actor in the Carolinas, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to give you some advance notice.
Tracy Pattin has done a three part podcast series with Peter Rofé on the VideoVoicebank Blog. Part one. Part two. Part three.
Each week Edge Studio adds to their Voice Over Mistake Chart. This week’s additions have to do with “How not to set the mood” for a session in the section called Tone Mistakes.
I first heard headphones called “cans” when I worked at a radio station in Chicago back the early 80s. Like a lot of people who have worked in radio for a while, I used to wear headphones all the time when I did voiceover work. It wasn’t until around 1993 that I started moving away from them.
The first push in that direction came during a Marice Tobias seminar I attended. She spoke about the value of being able to concentrate on the story being told rather than on hearing myself. More recently, now that I’m studying with Marice, I’ve heard her explain the value of working without headphones with even greater clarity. The essence of the matter is that when you’re wearing headphones, it’s as if you are having lunch with yourself. (I made the transition completely away from wearing headphones around 1997.)
You may think that being able to hear yourself more clearly is helpful. I used to think the same way, but if your goal is to sound real (you know … natural, conversational) then you need to take the headphones off and leave them off. OK. Wear them when you’re editing if you need, but don’t wear them when you’re voice acting.
But, Bob, what about during an ISDN or Phone patch session? Clearly, you have to be able to hear the director; so, in that situation, wear one of the cans over one ear.
Look, do you walk around in real life (that place outside your studio) with a microphone, mixer and headphones? Then, if you want to be able to sound more like a real person inside your studio, leave the headphones off.
My thanks, by the way, to my friend Justin Barrett for emailing me the other day, prompting me to write this blog post.
Late last week, I started working with a new client, an eLearning company, thanks to a referral provided to me by my friend Janet Ault. (I love eLearning narration work. I always learn something interesting with each project.)
Less than 24 hours after my initial email exchange with the folks at this company, I was provided with my first project to work on. They gave me 5 days to get it done and asked if that would be enough. It was not a gigantic project, so I knew meeting their deadline would not be a great problem.
Instead, I jumped right in to the project. My oldest son Eric, who provides script direction for me as part of his apprenticeship with me in my voiceover business, helped to make sure I recorded everything clean. We finished before the first day was finished. I started editing that evening and completed the editing, file-naming and format conversions the following afternoon. I was then able to deliver the finished audio 3 days ahead of schedule.
Will this ensure this company keeps hiring me? No, of course not. But delighting your clients is always a good idea, regardless of any other factors.
From my friend and manager Stacey Stahl comes this quote today …
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
— Albert Einstein
That’s the name used around the world for what we here in the USA calls “football.” (The rest of the world, of course, uses that term to refer to what we in the States call “soccer.”) My friend Ralph Hass emails to say that he searched my blog and discovered that I’ve used the term football only twice before. Today is the third time because you might just enjoy Ralph’s blog post Football FEVER!
Rodney Saulsberry is featured in this YouTube video and there’s a cameo appearance by my friend Diane Maggipinto at the 3:30 mark.
VOICE 2010 registration is now open and you can save $150 with Early-Bird Registration through the 31th of December 2009.
(edited to fix link)
In a post a few days ago I noted that I could no longer say I’ve never won an award because I’d come in first in the Marla Kirban Shuffle Narration Voice War on Voiceover Universe.
Well this morning, the doorbell rang and when I answered it, there was a FedEx package for me.
My iPod Shuffle came today!
My friend Blaine Parker, who runs Slow Burn Marketing with his wife Honey Parker, writes a weekly email newsletter. I’ve asked his permission to re-publish this week’s edition because it’s so extremely valuable to those of us doing voiceover work.
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SEARING WHITE HOT BRAND
Sunday afternoon, I stumbled upon a Food Network series that tells the stories of their TV personalities.
The episode in question was about the life and career of Guy Fieri.
What came out of that program was a striking lesson in brand authenticity.
If you’re not sure who Guy is, you may have seen him hosting one of the single most popular shows on the Food Network, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He’s a loud, happy, joking guy with spiky blond hair, a goatee, and a fondness for wrap-around sunglasses, bowling shirts and bling.
Guy’s own cooking is wild. His Johnny Garlic Pasta Grill restaurants offer a bold and brash menu of items like deep-fried artichoke hearts, Cajun chicken Alfredo, and Lava Shrimp Sautee. His Tex Wasabi’s Sushi BBQ restaurants are as twisted as it gets, ranging from ribs & steak to nigiri & maki to items like the Jackass Roll, which is a rice & tapioca paper sushi roll of barbecued pulled pork, French fries, and avocado with a garlic chili mayo sauce.
A JACKASS CASH COW
Of all the celebrity chefs who populate the Food Network’s programming, Guy Fieri is the one whom you’re most likely to want to sit down and have a beer with.
That, or you find him the most infuriating.
Guy Fieri’s brand simply isn’t for everyone.
But the thing that’s really stunning about Guy is that his brand is The Real Deal.
He is not a manufactured personality. He isn’t the product of executive consultation. He is exactly who he appears to be: a tattooed nutcase with a kitchen ladle.
His menus reflect that.
And his personality permeates everything about the Guy Fieri brand.
AUTHENTICITY IS KING
Previously, we’ve talked about how important brand is to even the smallest business. Knowing who you are and how you’re going to convey that to your public is key.
So many small businesses, especially in radio advertising where so many of us live, have no brand identity.
They think because they have a logo or a jingle or a lame slogan, they have a brand.
“For all your widget needs” is not a brand. It’s lazy, sloppy thinking.
A brand is huge.
A brand is who you are and what you mean to people.
In the case of Guy Fieri, the brand is a crazy guy with a nutty sense of humor who feeds people in a fun, bold and flavorful way.
GUY FIERI REALLY IS THE GREAT OZ
That’s why he’s such a great example of branding: the wild and crazy restaurant brands of Johnny Garlic and Tex Wasabi would be forced and inauthentic and probably not too successful–if there weren’t an equally wild and crazy man behind them.
When Dorothy & Toto pulled back the curtain, they found a pathetic old man pulling levers and blowing smoke.
You pull back the curtain at Johnny Garlic’s, and there’s a wackjob whose flames are even bigger than in the kitchen.
That’s not to say every business owner is Mr. Toad, and every business’s brand needs to be his Wild Ride. That would be silly.
The point is that every small business brand is in some way a reflection of the business owner’s personality–and that personality typically infuses everything that happens in the business.
TAKE 10% OF YOUR PERSONALITY, AND MAGNIFY IT 100 TIMES
This is actually a piece of advice that a popular Hollywood comedy coach gives to aspiring stand-up comics.
Her lesson is that stand-up comedy is all about persona.
To be more marketing-oriented about it, stand-up comedy is all about brand.
Is your preferred brand Larry the Cable Guy, Steve Martin or Andrew Dice Clay?
Each of those comics has a distinct onstage personality. Their comedy reflects that personality. There is no confusing the brands. And each brand means something specific to the customer.
The Virgin airlines brand is in so many ways a reflection of Richard Branson. And like Sir Richard, the brand is sophisticated yet approachable, with equal parts refinement and fun.
OK, you ask. What about companies where the man running the company isn’t out front and isn’t a big personality?
YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE ABOUT THE BRAND
Look at Southwest Airlines.
Herb Kelleher is the co-founder and former CEO. He is a tall, gray-haired man who, if you called up Central Casting and asked for a grandfather, would land on your soundstage.
He is not Guy Fieri, Steve Martin or even Richard Branson. He’s a lawyer from Haddon Heights, New Jersey who’s married with four grown kids.
But his no-nonsense, down-to-earth approach to the idea of Southwest Airlines informs everything about what happens there and has happened there since 1969.
Herb Kelleher is a pragmatist with a colorful personality, and Southwest is a pragmatic, colorful airline.
The airline reflects his personality and his mission to keep prices down while keeping a sense of humor about business.
Southwest and Virgin might be big companies. But what happens there also happens in every small business everywhere–as evidenced by Johnny Garlic and Tex Wasabi. They are distillations of Guy Fieri’s personality.
EVERY SMALL BUSINESS HAS A BRAND WAITING TO BE UNCOVERED
And most small business advertising professionals never take the time to uncover it.
Branding is a process of sugaring down.
In the making of maple syrup, “sugaring down” means boiling 10 gallons of sap until you finally have one quart of actual maple syrup.
That’s a 40:1 ratio of raw material to end product.
In working with a small business, the advertising consultant needs to gather roughly 40 gallons of brand identity sap and boil it down until they finally find the essence–that one quart of potent, flavorful syrup that becomes the brand.
And it’s always going to start with the business owner.
That individual’s personality is the core of the brand.
How they run the company, what they choose to sell, how they treat their customers, their philosophy on life–everything about all those business choices is the basis for brand. That, and the kind of person the business owner is. These are gold.
ACTUAL GOLD–NOT FOOL’S GOLD
These are not things you can fake.
These are the essential components to brand authenticity.
And they MUST be found before any truly effective advertising campaign can take place.
To borrow from a Fortune magazine article written in May of 2007, “Playing the authenticity game in a sophisticated way has become a requirement for every marketer, because the opposite of real isn’t fake–it’s cynicism.”
I would argue slightly with the wording here. I’d say the opposite of authenticity is fakery, and it leads to cynicism.
But I’m splitting hairs.
Because the real challenge is that we already have plenty of cynics listening to our advertising.
Wouldn’t it be nice to melt those cynical hearts to the point of unfreezing their wallets–and in the process of creating brand giants of small business?
Brand is essential, authenticity is king, and you can take that to the bank wrapped in a Tex Wasabi Jackass Roll.
As always,
Blaine Parker
Your Short, Fat Creative Director in
Park City
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In our email exchange about my request to republish this article Blaine commented that many voice talent have become commodities. My reply to that thought was:
Commodity. That is one thing I am not and do not ever wish to be. The only answer to that dilemma is to pursue the voice work that’s for me, not the voice work that’s for a “middle-aged guy with a nice voice.” I am the world’s exclusive source for voiceovers by Bob Souer; but, there are tens of thousands of other middle-aged guys with nice voices. So, if you’re looking for a middle-aged guy with a nice voice, yes, I fit that description. But listen to my demos. If that’s the sound you’re looking for, call me. You won’t find that anywhere else.
(edited to fix typo)
