The Erik and Ember podcast has a new update. Be sure to check out Episode Three featuring the exceptionally talented Ann DeWig.
Update: And if you can’t get enough of Ann, she’s also featured on Ryan Drean’s podcast. My thanks to my friend Joe Szymanski for having the link to that podcast on his blog, thus leading me to it.
Dave Temple offers some mighty valuable counsel on his blog. As strange as it may sound it has to do with Eating a Frog at the start of the day. Read the post. You’ll understand.
A few days ago on her voiceover blog, my friend Bobbin Beam provided some solid advice for how to find and keep your connection with the stories you’re telling as part of your voiceover work.
Scott Brick, audiobook narrator without equal, is featured in a podcast interview with Tracy Pattin on the Voice Registry Podcast and the Voicebank Blog.
With thanks to my friend Craig Crumpton for posting a link on the Yahoo! group he runs called Voice Actor Appreciation Society, you can pop over to the forum at Billy West’s site and wish him a Happy Birthday today.
My friend Greg Houser helps you look at your voiceover business from four key points of view in this blog post called “It might be time to take a SWOT at your VO Business.” Excellent stuff from an excellent mind.
The Quasi Glamorous Life is a podcast featuring Mercedes Rose and Harold Phillips, which I’m adding to my blogroll today. Their episode 9 features an interview with Brian Vermier and Kristina Hughes from HoldonLog, the company that makes PerformerTrack.
I’ve posted a number of times on my blog that I believe the very best way to launch yourself into the world of narrating audiobooks is by taking Pat Fraley’s audiobook master class. Next month, May 9, 2009 specifically, you have your next opportunity. The event is called, this time, The Audiobook Reading Royalty Event, and takes place once again at World Famous Buzzy’s Recording in Los Angeles.
Pat has, as usual, provided a free first lesson which you can hear when you click the audio player.
[audio:https://bobsouer.com/pix/PatFraley_RoyalOverview.mp3]All the details including registration information is at Pat’s web page for The Audiobook Reading Royalty Event.
(Updated to add:) Oh, and about the name? That’s because Scott Brick and Renee Raudman will be co-teaching at this event with Pat. Scott and Renee really are the King and Queen of audiobook narrators, with Pat playing the role of Court Jester I think. In any case, it will be a great experience that will set you up for audiobook work like nothing else you can do.
That’s the title of a television commercial voiced by my friend Roger Tremaine.
Pace Yourself, Eleanor from Roger Tremaine on Vimeo.
Nice work, Roger.
When you see that headline, if you have any connection to the voiceover world, you can’t help but think of Don LaFontaine, sometimes known as the King of the Movie Trailers. The New York Times today features an article on the unseen stars of the movie trailer business. I don’t know how many days the article will be available to the general public on their web site, so click through while you can.
My thanks to my voiceover coach, and more importantly my friend, Marice Tobias for sending me the link to this article today.
My friend Anthony Mendez has crafted a brilliant set of tutorials about how to set up Google Apps. Why would you want to do that? Because you can continue to use your own email from your website, but use Google Mail’s powerful spam filter.
Now, it actually gets better because in addition to powering your own site’s email through the Google Mail system, you also get access to a calendar you can share, Google documents and a host of other utilities and applications. I’ve been using Google Apps in my business for some time now and I highly recommend you start, too.
Once you’ve signed up, keep digging. You’ll be amazed at that you can do.
My friend John Florian emails with a link to an article just published on his VoiceOverXtra site by Miata Edoga on taking control of your finances. Good stuff here. Very good stuff.
My friend Greg Houser is a man with a comprehensive knowlege of voice acting, microphones and martinis. He’s managed to combine these interests into a blog that I’ll be visiting with some frequency.
Also, while looking at Greg’s blog today, I saw a link to the Adventures in Voice Acting blog from BangZoom.
My friend Michael J. Schoen is the new imaging voice of the New York Yankees Radio Network for the 2009 Major League Baseball Season, according to a new I received this morning. Good for you, Michael.
OK. You probably don’t actually want to know how to derail your voiceover business. But, maybe it’s work thinking about whether there are some traps into which you’ve fallen that aren’t helping you. In that case, take a few minutes to check out my friend and mentor Philip Banks and his latest blog post on Voiceover Universe. It’s called The ten top traps Voice Overists love to put their feet in. It’s well worth a couple of minutes of your time.
I love reading Kara Edwards’ blog because she writes about food and lots of other topics I like in addition to always having something valuable to say about voiceover work. Her entry from a couple of days ago asks some good questions and points out some things you should think about for your own career.
Erik Sheppard through his Voice Talent Productions invites you to a day of fun with your VO peeps (as a cool guy like Erik would say) on Saturday, May 30, 2009. The location is Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey and you’ll find details on this events page of Erik’s web site.
My friend Doc Phillips has release the Sixth edition of the voiceover blog carnival called Voices That Motivate. Lots of good and interesting material again.
Harlan Hogan is a voice actor with a long and distinguished career. Whether you recognize his name for the moment isn’t critically important, because if you click through on the link I’ll give you in a moment, you’ll find out everything you need to know about Harlan, and more.
I mention his name today because he’s about to launch a class on the business of voiceover. No performance evaluations. Just business. And of all the people I’ve meet in voiceover work Harlan is, in my estimation, at the very top in his understanding of the business of voiceover. The classes are going to take place 2 nights each week in the month of May 2009.
You’ll find all the details at The Voiceover Class site.
By the way, if you decide to join me in signing up for this course, and you put a comment in the “comments box” of the registration form mentioning that you learned about the course from me, I will receive a commission. Your price doesn’t change one penny. And of course, if you don’t want me to get the commission, don’t mention me in the comment box of the registration form. Either way, I think this class is going to be tremendously valuable.
Again the web site to learn all about and sign up for this 4 week, 8 session class on the business of voiceover taught by Harlan Hogan is The Voiceover Class.
Roger King, a voiceover agent in Canada, emailed this evening to let me know that he’s started a blog specifically for the voiceover business in his home country. There’s lots of good material on his site that’s relevant to any voice actor, no matter the country of residence or origin, I’ve adding Voiceover Canada to my blogroll today. Here’s just one example, a fine analysis of what an agent is look for from a voice actor.
