People

My friend and long-time mentor Charlie Glaize has given me permission to quote something he’s recently posted on the Yahoo! VO group. Charlie had been planning for a while to make a short trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Here’s his story …

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Whenever I leave town I always pack my full-blown mobile studio in a handy, small suitcase on rollers. It has all my accessories from firewire cables to an electrical power strip, to a small mic stand. I just drop in the hub of the studio, the Mac Book Pro, and I’m out the door.

However … this was a last minute getaway, and we were leaving Monday afternoon, returning late Tuesday afternoon. So, I figured, what are the odds I’ll really need to record much over 24 hours after a really busy Monday? … Besides, I am editing my niece’s wedding using iMovie on the MacBook Pro and I have it plugged into an external hard drive …. So, I decided to take “Mobile Junior” …. my Mac Book (not the Mac Book Pro) in a smaller travel bag, about the size of a brief case. That, a mic stand and a USB mic (a RODE, instead of the Sennheiser 416 that I usually hook to the MBox, which I didn’t want to pack this time), should do the trick, right?

Anyway …. a couple of quick jobs did come up … naturally. You may know how that is. You like being wanted and needed …. but not as you are headed out the door to the beach …. Yes, I was beach-bound from our friends’ condo, when I realized I had forgotten the Alltel high-speed modem that allows me to connect to the net wherever I can find a cell signal … just in case there is no Wifi connection available …. like then, at that “bare feet wanting to jump in ocean” moment.

My trusty Blackberry was keeping me up-to-date on client emails … and here came one now, asking for just 4 quick promos …. could I deliver them by Monday evening? Yikes! I could normally record and send from a hotel or condo if I could read from the computer screen while recording using Amadeus software and the USB mic. But without the internet, I couldn’t do that.

One solution … I have done this on other vacations, before buying the Alltel modem. I would go to a Wifi spot, download a script from the client’s email, then record in my mobile “soundproof booth” – you guessed it – my car … then head back to the Wifi hotel or wherever, and send the file.

Why would I stay where there is no Wifi? Good question. Last summer, it was a family reunion at Lake Junaluska, NC. Beautiful area, but all the family was staying in rustic old houses around the lake … with no Wifi or internet access, except in the nearby conference center. And this week? we were staying with some friends who did not have internet access …. arghhh!

To handle this week’s situation, I was able to use the Blackberry for reading the scripts while I recorded in my car! Yes, it was 90 degrees, but it was quiet for the 5 minutes I needed to record. It worked great … even though I still had to drive to a hotel nearby to send the sound file.

All this to say, for the folks who are recording on flash recorders, maybe a Blackberry – or, of course, an iPhone, might work for reading those scripts.

This leads of course, to my APPLE friends wondering why I have a Blackberry rather than an iPhone ….. we can get into that later if you like, or you can email me off list. But basically, I did not want to change from Alltel which has served me wonderfully from as far as California to Hawaii to Florida and New York with no problems. Also, I needed the “push” technology that Blackberry offers that the new iPhone is about to offer in a few days with their big upgrade. I DO want that iphone, but now, I am afraid I have gone too far with Blackberry and really like what it offers. I was not prepared to like it, but I really do! It’s mainly for email and phone use, and it works fabulously! Now, when Verizon buys Alltell in a few months …. maybe I’ll change service – and phones, then. Who knows?

So there you are folks. And my lesson …. always pack the full-blown studio!
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Thanks, Charlie. I agree and I’d suggest a second lesson: always deliver the goods for your clients, however many speed bumps you have to clear along the way.

Update: You’ll find this story on the VoiceOverXtra site as well.

The latest Ask Joe video is now live on the Voiceover Universe.

Find more videos like this on voiceover universe presents…

Good stuff, Joe. Thank you.

Bob Bergen will be holding an animation workshop in Dallas on Saturday, October 11 and Sunday, October 12, 2008. My thanks to Marian Massaro for posting the details on the VO-BB, including registration information.

… that is, if you enjoy playing games, especially Xbox 360 games, then you’ll want to know that the latest Platform Biased (Episode 2) podcast is released by my friend Jeff Kafer and 2 of his work buddies.

My friend Patrick O’Connor, a New York City based actor and voiceover talent, is featured in two of the trailers on this MySpace page. Click on The New World – Trailer. And One Way – Trailer. Both feature Patrick.

My friend Chris Fadala has her new web site up. The work on the site was done by the stunningly talented DB Cooper. Looking good, Chris. I look forward to seeing and hearing more from you in coming days.

My friend Anthony Mendez is the real deal. Check out the MTV Artist of the Week Promos that he now has posted on his site. Very cool, Anthony. No further questions.

Mark Evanier posted last month about an entry in the Archive of American Television which features a four hour interview with legendary announcer Don Pardo. Like Mark, I wish I had time to watch this piece.

My thanks to my friend Charlie Glaize for sending me this link.

Joe Cipriano has posted his third video as part of his Ask Joe group on I Rock the Mic VO.com. This time he answers a question I sent in, about auditions.

Joe also provides an update on the new 3.0 version of Source Connect and takes us on a road trip to the space where his new home studio is in the early stages of construction.

Find more videos like this on voiceover universe presents…
Good stuff, Joe. I look forward especially to seeing updates on your new studio as it gets closer to completion.

Thomas Bromhead, one of my friends on the Voiceover Universe called I Rock the Mic VO.com, has just won an Emmy (collectively along with the rest of the team) for I Got a Rocket.

Find more photos like this on voiceover universe presents…
Good for you, Thomas.

… in an interview on Vox Daily. Charlie is the voice of the carnival barker in the Garnival Games release for the Wii.

With thanks to my friend Jeff Kafer for posting about it, Dan O’Day has posted a brilliant essay on his blog about generosity in the voiceover world. Dan’s summary comment perfectly illustrates the whole post.

I learned this a long time ago:

If you have a dollar and I have a dollar, and we trade dollars…We each end up with one dollar.

But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we trade ideas…We each end up with two ideas.

And while I agree with the thoughts Dan remembers from Steve Morris, I think there’s another layer to the story. It’s not just that the odds of booking the job are small, because that’s also true of film and television acting auditions; it’s because the voiceover talent is almost always not in the spotlight. Gigantic egos and intense self-interest are characteristic of performers who spend their time in (or striving to reach) the spotlight. The sort of folks who are drawn to voiceover work tend to be cut from a different cloth.