My friend Rowell Gormon offers some thoughts about how everything, even life’s frustrations, have some utility in the life of a voice actor.
People
Audition Technique Master’s Event
Pat Fraley is a superb teacher as well as a very gifted voice actor in his own right. He’s put together an event on January 31, 2009 called The Audition Technique Master’s Event. As have many of Pat’s seminars, this one is going to be held at Buzzy’s Recording in Los Angeles.
Only 12 participants will be able to register, so it’s probably a good idea to act quickly if you think you might want to go.
Pat has provided an MP3 file with a free first lesson called
Auditioning For and Booking the Job
. You can download the file from that link, or listen with this flash player.
[audio:http://patfraley.com/Free/FreeLessons/RootCanalVO.mp3]
Registration details are on this page of Pat’s site.
(edited to fix typo)
Spotlight on Rick Gordon
Rick Gordon is a Canadian voiceover talent and the brains behind CommercialVoices.com and E-LearningVoices.com. He’s featured in a two part interview by John Florian on VoiceOverXtra, the first part is focused on Rick’s background and how he started the two sites. The second part is chock full of Rick’s adivce for keeping your voiceover clients and keeping them happy.
Hillary Huber and the People’s Choice Awards
My friend and audiobook teacher (along with Pat Fraley) Hillary Huber was an announcer at the People’s Choice Awards. Stephanie interviews Hillary about her experience and includes several photos over at the Vox Daily blog.
Sword of the Lamb
The latest audiobook release from Scott Brick is Sword of the Lamb, volume one of the Phoenix Legacy by M. K. Wren. He blogs about the book, and provides and audio sample, on his site. Scott has his own audiobook publishing company called Brick by Brick that is publishing quite a number of interesting titles.
Physical adjustments and character voice work
My friend LindZ Reiss blogs about how she has discovered that in order to do different character voices, she often makes physical adjustments to how she stands or moves. What about you? Do you do the same thing? Or do all your characters come from basically the same physical space?
Rodney Saulsberry vocal warm-ups part 2
Some time ago I linked to a fabulous video by Rodney Saulsberry that included some superb vocal warms. He’s back with another even more.
Wow! Now I need someone to untangle my tongue.
Drain the poison
Bonnie Gillespie writes a brilliant column every week called The Actors Voice. It’s always excellent, but her post this week is especially brilliant. (I hadn’t yet looked at so my thanks go to Nancy Wolfson for pointing it out to me in an email today)
They key thought?
I spent years in friendships that served the friendships and not the individuals. We could actually feed off each other’s negativity and live forever. And all we’d have at the end of any bitch session was a righteous feeling of, “Yeah! The world sucks! Screw ‘The Man’! Let’s show ’em!” But when you are so sure the world sucks, owes you something, or needs to be put in its place, how much creative energy does it take to overcome that stacked deck in order to actually create even a tiny bit of light? In comparison, when you weed out the Poison Playmates, you find you’re filled with extra creative energy, you have more enthusiasm for creating your own projects, and you suddenly have an astonishingly abundant source of free time (because you’re not sitting around grousing about how hard it’s gonna be to actually do it).
That paragraph is good, but believe me, for this column you want to read the whole thing.
(Edited to correct typos and clarify point.)
Philip’s star shines, too
My friend and mentor Philip Banks as the promo voice for CNBC. For real.
Names and branding
Karen Commins has written a very fine post on her blog about how she is working to strengthen her brand as a voiceover talent.
Amy shines brightly
My friend Amy Snively is featured in this delightful ad for LowFares.com
Good for you, Amy. Wonderful work.
A voiceover learning opportunity coming to Detriot
Teri Clark Linden has teamed up with Sherri Berger for 2 days of voiceover training in Detroit, Michigan. Saturday and Sunday, May 2 and 3, 2009 are the dates. Details about times and locations along with registration information are available at Teri’s web site.
Success in 2009
My friend and mentor Philip Banks has posted on his Voiceover Universe blog today a list of 10 action points for voice actors in 2009. I don’t know about you, but I will be putting these in to practice in the coming year. (I’m not positive but you may have to be a member of Voiceover Universe to see Philip’s blog.)
CATCH 3.5 trailer
My friend Amy Snively has only a bit of screen time right in the middle of this chilling trailer from a new web series called Catch. She plays the Mom of the male lead.
My thanks to Amy for posting the link on the VO-BB.
Expand your horizons
If you do voiceovers and you read this blog there’s a high probability you’re located somewhere in North America. I say this not just because this blog is written in English, but also becasue I look at my server logs. I know where the traffic is originating, at least in general terms. (I’m pleased to say that lots of folks visit from Europe, South America, Australia, India and so forth, too.)
John Florian recently published an interview on VoiceOverXtra with Nick Ivanov, CEO at Graffitti Studio, which is based in Sofia, Bulgaria. I recommend that you take a few minutes to read because you’ll find lots of interesting and thought-provoking comments in the article. I hope it expands your horizons, as it did mine.
The Zatarain’s Man Sings Too!
Rodney Saulsberry has released his CD Better Than Before. Rodney isn’t just a superb voice actor and coach, he’s a mighty fine singer as well. Previews and purchase are available through his CD Baby page.
Update: Rodney emails with news that Better Than Before is now available on iTunes as well.
Rest in Peace, Eartha Kitt
Yesterday singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt passed away at the age of 81. You’ll find a great write-up about her and her contributions to the world of voiceover in this article at Big Cartoon Forum. My thanks to my friend Moe Egan for posting the links on the VO-BB.
A Christmas Gift
My friend Dave Courvoisier blogs from his heart this morning about Christmas and a special first-born child.
Happy Blogiversary Kara
My friend Kara Edwards celebrated her second blogiversary yesterday with a tour of her new studio in Tampa, FL where she and her husband have recently relocated after living in Charlotte, NC for the last several years. We miss Kara here in Charlotte, but the move (as she explains in her post) has given her an opportunity to build her new studio to her own custom specifications.
Dan the man
My friend Dan Nachtrab has just done a really cool bit of work.
Yep. His first trailer. For Disney! Good for you, Dan. I’m thrilled to see how well things continue to go for you.