With thanks to Russ Renshaw and his VoiceOverture site for posting the link, this is a video interview with Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario for Nintendo since Super Mario 64.
General
If you do production as well as voiceovers …
Then check out the site my friend Brian Haymond found and posted about on his blog the other day.
VGA Dreams #4
I don’t know how I missed this (maybe because I haven’t been checking my friend Juan’s blog often enough for the last few weeks?), but video number 4 of the VGA Dreams series by Ben Lepley is released.
See more funny videos at Funny or Die
My thanks to Juan for pointing out in the comments below that the therapist is played by the very talented Lynnanne Zager.
Voiceover and cowbell
While catching up on a bunch of posts on Seth Godin’s blog this afternoon, I clicked through from this post to read More Cowbell, a post on Brian Clark’s brilliant Copyblogger site.
The key point Brian makes about blogging, and writing in general for that matter …
Successful content relies on the hook, the angle, the tiny little element no one else takes time to notice. It’s not that others are more talented than you, it’s that they work harder finding the winning difference.
Applies equally to voiceover talent who consistently book work. It’s not about standing out in some completely random way, it’s about finding the twist or slightly different point of view that’s just different enough.
A tip I picked up from Pat Fraley during Summit 2008 is a great starting point. Read the copy completely flat the first time through. Don’t add any inflection or “acting choices” to the copy right away, because you can lock yourself in to those choices and you can’t know right away if they’re the right ones. After you have a grasp of the whole piece, then begin making some choices based the clues that are right there in the script.
Caryn Clark featured in the Sebring News Sun
My friend Caryn Clark has a very nice write-up in the Sebring (FL) News Sun about her voiceover work and specifically her role as the voice of five Hannah Montana television commercials.
Not just once a year
As I’ve been learning to be more business-like about running my voiceover business, I’ve been learning the value of not only planning but of re-evaluating and revising one’s plans. My friend Bobbin Beam offers some terrific and valuable suggestions on her blog about what to do with your plans for this year now that we’ve reached the end of the summer season.
Desperate Creativity
My friend Adam Creighton moved from Austin, TX to Durham, NC some months ago. He offers some very candid and pointed insights into how this has affected his acting and voice acting career in a Point of View article published a few days ago on Showfax.
What I think is pretty cool is that The Actors Voice – POV (the point of view site) is overseen by casting director Bonnie Gillespie. I’m not positive, but I think I might have played a small role in helping to introduce Adam to Bonnie a couple of years ago. Regardless, of whether that’s the case or not, I just love seeing how the lives of people I know intersect like this.
Here’s another example, I met Anna Vocino as a result of studying in 2007 with Nancy Wolfson. (Anna and Nancy jointly run the Break Into Voice Over site.) I first connected with Bonnie Gillespie because I responded to one of her superb The Actors Voice columns. She not only responded to my comments, but even linked to this blog from there. So, I was truly delighted when I was at dinner with Nancy, Anna and several of our mutual friends a year ago and discovered during our conversation that Anna and Bonnie are also good friends with one another.
In any case, back to Adam and his column, I think that term “desperate creativity” is spot on. Everyone who works in a creative field knows what it’s like living through a season where things aren’t clicking. No one wants to live there, but once we get through those times we have the benefit of being able to look back and see just how much we learned from the experience. May this be such a time for you, Adam.
If you once worked in radio …
Check out this blog post by my friend Doc Phillips. He’d like to know if there is enough interest to get a board going for former radio folk, which sounds like it might be a lot of fun.
Very cool
Pat Fraley’s web site has just been updated and it looks simply fabulous. My friend Deirdre Williams (known professionally as DB Cooper) is the site designer. And while you’re there, don’t miss the wonderful free lessons Pat provides.
Making .Wavs
If you enjoy cruising and voiceover, Deb Munro wants you to know that you have an opportunity to combine your passions next year if you take part in VO Cruise 2009.
Another interview with me
Doug at RadioCreativeLand has recorded and posted an interview with me.
Something Different
The other day I mentioned my friend Anthony Mendez and his site focused on horror voice work. My friend Dick Terhune has a similar site with a slightly different twist on things.
Ralph the sports maniac
My friend Ralph Hass emails today with news about some of his latest professional voice work in the world of professional sports. Ralph is far more of a sports fan than I, so it’s a natural fit for him to do this kind of work.
Congratulations on the work, Ralph. May there be many more.
It’s not about your voice
So much of life is counterintuitive. In my work, one of the prime examples of that it the mistaken believe that the key factor in being a voiceover talent is the voice. Just because someone has the money to guy a Guarneri doesn’t mean he or she can debut next week at with the New York Philharmonic playing the Sibelius violin concerto.
Having a nice voice certainly isn’t an obstacle to a successful career in voiceover work, but it’s no guarantee, either. By way of illustration of my point, be sure to check out Some Audio Guy’s very interesting post on How Bad Can a Voice Be?
Pamela Lewis featured in Ann Arbor News
Voice talent Pamela Lewis is interviewed in the Ann Arbor News. My thanks to my friend Liz de Nesnera for posting the link to this article on the VO-BB.
Update: My friend Joe Rodriguez adds this bit of information that might be of interest if you live in or near New York City. Pamela is teaching a 2 day “Talking Funny for Money” workshop this weekend, August 23rd and 24th. Details are at TalkingFunnyForMoney.com
Not another metaphor from the Olympics
Yes, but one well worth a few moments of your time, I think. Tom Asacker offers some some marketing insights based on his observations about coverage of the Olympics here that make two salient points, one directly and the other implicitly.
Contrasting marathoning with gymnastics, Tom points out that a focus on the racing metaphor has an unanticipated down site.
Do you compete? Are you like a marathoner or cyclist? Are you trying to “catch” someone. I certainly hope not. The competitive paradigm is an extremely dangerous one in business: it forces you to both compare yourself to, and align your thinking with, others. And inevitably, you begin focusing on the wrong things.
At the start of a race you have a panoptic view, don’t you? You’re aware of everything and everyone. But as the race progresses, you tend to focus narrowly on those few runners nearest to you – your “competitors. And what inevitably happens? You get blind-sided.
His point is that marketing and branding are ultimately not about competing but about excelling and being unique.
Great brands visualize each days “routines,” with the goal being to “stick it” every time. They’re driven by something inside of them; something that pushes them forward and allows their uniqueness to shine through. This notion that brands need an enemy–someone or something external–to motivate them is a bunch of old, white guy horse hockey.
The implicit point comes back to a theme I’ve sounded on this blog a number of times in the past. There is no competition in voiceover. And ultimately it’s Tom’s point about branding that underscores why I see things this way. If you wish to be a generic voice doing “happy” “sad” “upbeat” or “smooth” reads on cue, you’ll find there’s a lot of competition. Tons.
But, if you concentrate on marketing your voice, your unique experience, values and take on things, you’ll discover that you are the world-wide exclusive source for voiceovers by you; just as I am the world-wide exclusive source for voiceovers by Bob Souer. There is no competition because no one else is you.
It’s up to you
While digging around the Voiceover Universe site, I ran across this gem of a post by Rick Party the founder of the site. Take a moment to read the solid gold advice Rick offers from his perspective as a real working pro voice talent. Some advice isn’t worth any more than you pay for it (nothing), but what Rick has to say is worth more than one reading. And then look in your mirror and ask yourself if you are willing to pay the price of success, keeping in mind that price is denominated in effort and time far more than it is in money.
And while I have your attention, I’ll mention Banksey’s axiom, first documented (to the best of my knowlege) in this post on the VO-BB from June 2005 by my friend and mentor, Philip Banks. To wit: “95% of people launching themselves onto the voice over market will not make any money at all.” If you’re sure you want to pursue voiceover work as your new career, you have to make up your mind you’re going to be one of the 5 percenters.
A new Garfield is coming
With thanks to my friend Charlie Glaize for sending me the link in an email this evening, check out the delightful post and photo by Mark Evanier about his experiences directing the voices for a new animated Garfield series.
From the Outback to the Cosmos
My friend CC Petersen has some of her very fine writing and voice work featured in a new video available on the MIT (yes, the world famous school) web site.
Faces behind the voices
With thanks to my dear friend Deirdre for posting the link on the VO-BB, here’s a look at some of the people whose voices you probably recognize from various animated television shows and films.
Note: Yes, the caption for the first entry is wrong, at least as I’m typing this.