My friend Bill Pryce emailed today with the link to this video which he voiced using his Sennheiser 416.
Bill’s voiceover blog has a bit more detail for you, if you like to know more. (Nice work, Bill.)
Hear the Sennheiser MHK-416P48 at work
General
Spotlight on my friend Dan
My friend Dan Nachtrab, as I mentioned some weeks ago, is the voice for the movie trailer for the Disney move “Jonas Brothers — The 3D Concert Experience.” That job has also landed him some nice publicity in the Dayton Daily News.
Siftables
With thanks to my friends at Ambassador Advertising Agency, check out this mind-boggling video about technology that’s not coming soon, it’s all ready here.
Very cool. And did you notice, there are several places where voices are needed?
Learning opportunities in the West
Pat Fraley will be teaching two classes in the coming weeks, once in Los Angeles and the other in San Francisco. Details are available on his web site.
Never stop learning?
I strongly believe in study. In fact, I believe more strongly in the value of continuing to study about voiceover now than I did 25 years ago when I was first working steadily in this field. Why? With my thanks to Nancy Wolfson for passing along the link, here’s the answer that that question.
Speaking of continuing your education, tomorrow evening is the next Acting for Advertising teleseminar with Nancy and Anna Vocino. Sign up to be part of the call. You’ll be glad you did.
Something you know
Your actions always trump your words. Drew McLellan provides a very potent reminder today of just how true that is. My thanks to my manager, Stacey Stahl, for emailing me the link to this article.
Pat Fraley explains Krang
Pat Fraley has posted a video with his story about how he came up with the voice of the the TMNT villian Krang on Voiceover Universe.
Find more videos like this on VU
Teleseminar coming up with Nancy Wolfson
With recent discussions of downturn and a flurry of fear in the swirl these days, it is all too easy to feel helpless.
When that feeling pounces, I have 3 points of advice:
BE GRATEFUL, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, GET PRODUCTIVELY PROACTIVEÂ
• Be grateful this business has changed to allow those with top skills the power to access to national and international job opportunities without having to move to the pricey major markets. Honor your foresight – you have chosen to pursue a career that is moving forward with technology, not being replaced by it.
• Take responsibility: Whenever I got in scuffles with friends as a kid, and I’d whine, “Yeah, well SHE started it!” my mom would yell back, “I don’t care who started it, YOU FINISH IT.” Maybe you got yourself in over your head with a house you couldn’t afford, maybe, like me, you are horrible at playing the stock market, or maybe unfortunate things have befallen you or your family that were beyond your control. Now is the time to BAIL OUT YOURSELF. It’s hard to strategize a life plan in the midst of demanding tasks that need to be done for someone ELSE’S company. Now might be the first quiet moment you’ve had in years to be thankful for the lack of distraction so you can focus on creating a new map for a new career and invest in developing a BETTER YOU.
• ARE YOU PROCRASTINATING OR ADDING VALUE?
Have you written your “25 Things” on Facebook but not a list of 25 Tangible Goals To Achieve by June 1?
Have you been Friend Requesting other VO talents but not UPDATING YOUR SKILLS?
With all the talk of failed financial investments, I’ve never before seen such an abundance of wasted time.
Time is the most precious and irreplaceable thing we have, and wasting it is worse than wasting money.
And investing smartly in your time can yield amazing financial returns.
This teleseminar on February 25, 2009 aims to help you do just that.
Join Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino on February 25th 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific for Acting for Advertising Part 8.Â
This is not a sequel. Each of these Teleseminars reveals a chapter from Nancy’s core curriculum, useful Q and A from your peers, plus more marketing and business tips that you can put to use immediately.
Each moment offers unique “behind the velvet rope of the agency/casting scene” advice not available anywhere else.
60 minute lecture, 15 min QandA…so bring your questions and notebooks!
Just $39 gets you on the call. Go to www.breakintovoiceover.com to sign up.
Better than I deserve
Several years ago I heard a talk show host give this answer to the question, “How are you?”
“Better than I deserve.”
I liked it so much I started using it too. If you’re not sure what you think of that response, I refer you to Seth Godin’s blog post on a related subject today.
Rob Ellis hit a new low
Like to hear an interview with Scott Brick?
Then pop on over to Scott’s blog when you’ll find links to an interview with Scott by Joel Michalec and his Behind the Mike podcast.
A free teleseminar on recording voiceovers at home or on the road
Dan O’Day is going to do a free teleseminar with Harlan Hogan and Jeffrey Fisher to answer your questions about how you can setup for and record voiceovers at home or while you’re traveling. The web page with the form to ask your question and sign-up for the free teleseminar is here.
By the way, if you’re wondering why you would want to ask Harlan or Jeffrey these questions, it’s because of this excellent book that they’ve written together.
So, put your question in the form, sign up to attend. It should be an excellent (and free!) resource that will be well worth your time.
Do you wish you knew more about how to use Google Analytics?
The brilliant folks at Future Now, and in particular co-founder Bryan Eisenberg, have prepared a brilliant blog post with oodles of links, videos and guidance on how to setup and use Google Analytics.
Too many eggs in only one basket?
Tracy Pattin emailed this evening with a question about what I’m doing to keep my voiceover business going during the current economic season. Here’s what I wrote for her.
———————
I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as “recession-proofing” one’s voiceover business. Everyone is going to have some ups and downs; but here’s a quick thought for you.
One critical key for doing well in the long term is to avoid putting all of one’s eggs in a single basket. If a voice actor is doing a ton of commercials and not much else, that’s maybe a voice actor who will go through some lean times in the next year or two.
Those of us who do some commercials, some documentaries, some imaging, some promos, some corporate, some eLearning, some audiobooks? I think we’ll all be OK as long as we continue to work hard at our craft. Work hard at exceeding the expectations of our clients. Work hard at always raising ourselves to the next level in our work.
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Be sure to check the VoiceRegistry Blog to see the first entry in this series, from my friend Caryn Clark and to see what Tracy gleans from a wide variety of voice talent.
(update: Tracy has now published my response to her question on the VoiceRegistry Blog.)
Audiobook narration tips
Scott Brick and Grover Gardner are two of the top names in the audiobook narration world. They are both featured in a new article on VoiceOverXtra written by Anthony Goff, President of the Audio Publishers Association.
Voice acting vs. Stage acting
With thanks to my friend Craig Crumpton for posting the link to this video, here is a panel discussion featuring 4 voice actors at the Phoenix Comic Con 2009.
Marice Tobias is featured yet again on the VoiceRegistry Blog
Tracy Pattin concludes her conversation with Marice Tobias (with whom I continue to study) in part 3 of her podcast on the VoiceRegistry Blog. Really insightful stuff, which comes as no surprise to anyone who has studied with Marice.
How do you know you’re authentic?
You all ready know this. We live in an age that values authenticity above just about everything else. Do you ever worry that maybe you’re not being sufficiently authentic? That sometimes at your core maybe you’re not being all you can be, every day? Seth Godin has some words of comfort for you. Worry not about whether you’re being authentic enough. Just do what you promise to do.
You do back-up, right?
Kara Edwards’ recent blog post prompts me to ask this question because sooner or later something is going to happen that means, if we don’t, we’ll wish we did have a back-up of something. (How’s that for a vague and unfocused sentence?)
For example, my son Eric’s laptop crashed a few weeks ago. Thankfully, nothing of consequence was on the hard drive that died. And replacing the drive, re-installing the operating system, the applications and so forth hasn’t been too hard; but it serves as a reminder that backing-up isn’t just a good idea … it’s a requirement.
Kara mentions that she’s using external hard drives for back-up. That’s a good idea. I go a couple of steps farther. I have an external drive for the initial round of back-ups. I then back-up to optical media (data DVDs) and I have another RAID drive attached to my network at home that holds back-ups of all critical files as well.
Can you do better at auditioning?
I’m guessing the answer to that question is … yes. If so, give serious thought to joining Pat Fraley in San Francisco on Saturday, March 7, 2009 for The Audition Technique Master’s Event. All details are available through that link.
