My friend Kitzie Stern has begun a voiceover blog. You may remember that I pointed out Kitzie’s new web site a couple of weeks ago. She just emailed me to say that she now has her voiceover blog up and running too. Thanks for the link, Kitzie and I look forward to reading what you have to say.
People
Mary, Mary…how does your garden grow?
My friend Mary McKitrick is often a source of inspiration to me. Why? Because while I’ve been a professional voice talent since 1983, she’s been doing this work for a much shorter amount of time, yet she demonstrates mature insights that far outstrip her experience.
Her recent post about networking is a perfect example. I especially enjoyed her gardening metaphors near the end of the post. Here is just a sample…
…any networking you do as a voice actor and business person is like creating a garden from bare soil – you don’t plant only one kind of plant, such that your garden will look great for a week when all the flowers are blooming, and then there’s nothing going on at all. You’re planting for the present and for the future – a variety of annuals with different blooming times, a variety of perennials and shrubs and even some trees. Aim for great diversity, so that there is always something going on in your garden. Although I can’t point to concrete ways that my business has benefited from all of my networking activities, I never know when some little seed I’ve planted at a party might take root and grow into something wonderful.
But, please, read the whole thing. It’s very much worth the few minutes of your time that it will take.
Play the games
DB Cooper gives voiceover folk a wonderful place to hang out with one another on the Internet, the VO-BB. She’s a brilliant voiceover talent in her own right. And an avid gamer. These last two come together in a fabulous piece you about voice acting for video games that can read on Vox Daily today.
My thanks to my friend Jeff Kafer for posting a note about this article today on the VO-BB.
Update: And if you’d like to know more about DB Cooper, check out my interview with her.
Audiobook podcasts well worth hearing
While thinking about audiobooks, I want to let you know about a couple of podcasts that Tracy Pattin has recorded and published, interviewing Dennis Kao with Hachette Audio (formerly Time Warner Audio).
The first podcast is here. The second podcast is here.
Good stuff, Tracy. Thank you for these excellent resources.
Marketing tension
In his latest article, Tom Asacker provides some thoughtful guidance on how to stay on track with your marketing as you navigate the rapidly shifting winds of our current business culture.
And while you’re at Tom’s site, check out the post from yesterday. For a number of years now, I’ve heard the expression “a brand is a promise.” Tom has a somewhat different point of view, that is well worth a few minutes of your time and more than a few minutes of reflection and thought after you read.
Finding and directing voice talent
As you might be able to tell from my posts about narrating the Bible, I really enjoy working on long-form narrations. In fact, there’s a special thrill that comes from reading highly technical material, getting the pronunciations right and finding ways to tell the story clearly and effectively. My favorite form in which to work is documentary narrations. There’s something about being involved in that marriage of cinematic and audio story-telling that is so satisfying.
My good friend Connie Terwilliger is one of the people I know who are tremendously talented in this area of work as well. A few years ago Connie wrote a superb article about how to cast and direct long form narration work that is now published online. This is really good stuff Connie.
A small gathering of NC voice talent
On Sunday, my son Eric and I drove up the highway a couple of hours to Raleigh, NC to visit with some good friends and do what we could to get Rowell Gormon’s voiceover blog back in operation. While we did get things working again, it wasn’t quite as smooth an operation as I hoped it would be. But, we did get him functioning again. (He’s written about that experience on his blog, in fact.)
While we were there in Raleigh, we managed to pull together a few of our voiceover friends for a pleasant dinner and conversation. Thanks to the photographic skills and quick thinking on the part of my friend Donovan Corneetz, there’s visual documentation of this trip. As you can see, Eric and I wore our “I Want You for the VO-BB” t-shirts.
Here’s the whole group.
From left to right, Donovan Corneetz, Rowell Gormon, me, my son Eric, Vance Elderkin and Brian Bowman.
We had a very nice visit together. It was great to catch up with Donovan, Rowell and Vance. And equally nice to meet Brian Bowman for the first time. We also started talking about doing another Carolina Voiceover get-together this coming summer, so as those plans come together I’ll be sure to write more in the coming months.
One major hurdle cleared
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I’m working a portion of just about every day, Monday through Saturday, on the largest project I’ll probably ever tackle: reading the entire Bible for eventual release as a podcast by Thomas Nelson Publishers. We’ve now finished the narration of the Old Testament and have, as of yesterday, also finished the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. We should have all of the narration completed before the end of next week. (When we’re done, it will have taken 4 and a half months to record the Old Testament and barely 2 weeks to record the New Testament.)
Once I have details about how this podcast will be distributed, I’ll be sure to post that information here.
A study opportunity in Oregon and Florida (updated)
Elaine Clark and Harlan Hogan are planning study weekend in Portland, OR and Sarasota, FL. The dates for Portland are April 12 and 13 and the dates for Sarasota are April 26 and 27, 2008. Elaine is teaching on Saturday. Harlan on Sunday. Sign up and find more information on Portland are on this page at Harlan Hogan’s site and for Sarasota on this page at Harlan Hogan’s site.
My thanks to Lee McCard for posting the Sarasota info on the VO-BB and to Bill Ballenberg for posting the Portland information on the VO-BB.
A writer writes, brilliantly, about writing
Michael Oates Palmer, a friend of a friend, has posted a genuinely beautiful piece about why he’s a writer. Take a moment and read. If you enjoy writing at any level, it will make your heart sing. (Even if you don’t enjoy writing, your heart will likely sing.)
My thanks to Nancy Wolfson for sending me the link to this today.
Voice Overs On Demand Podcast, Episode 9
My friend Liz de Nesnera is featured on Episode 9 of the Voice Overs On Demand podcast from Terry Daniel and Trish Basanyi.
The tiger and the recording studio
Mitch Collins, better known in the voiceover world as Tiger Mitch, loves tigers and is a talented voice actor. These two great passions are highlighted in a terrific article on VoiceOverXtra that’s well worth a few minutes of your time. And as an interesting side note, I learned from the article that Mitch and I started our professional voiceover careers in the same year, 1983.
This has nothing to do with voiceover…
And yet, it actually does. Please take a few minutes read my friend David Houston’s heart-felt story about Mindy. Thank you for sharing this with us, Dave. After you’ve read, I think you’ll see the connection.
New digs for Doug
At the Marice Tobias Promo/Trailer workshop I attended in New York City in November 2007, one of the guys I met for the first time there was Doug Medlock. Doug has worked in radio for many years and is just one of those guys with such an amazing load of talent you can’t help but be impressed with him as soon as you meet him.
Doug emailed me yesterday to let me know that he’s launched a new web site. It looks great. His demos sound amazing. (I knew they would.) Good for you, Doug. Thanks for letting me know.
Space Cow
This fun little video features the audio and voiceover talents of my friend Bruce Miles. Only the “Captain’s” voice is someone else.
Here are the details from the YouTube post by Bruce: “This is an animated intro and epilogue for an industrial video promoting a high tech welding firm. Bruce Miles assisted in the writing, produced the audio track and voiced all but the Captain’s voice, which is the work of Jonathan Abel.”
And now Liz has a blog!
My good friend and voiceover talent Liz de Nesnera has just started a voiceover blog. I’m adding her to my blogroll right away, of course. Liz has contributed so much to the VO-BB that I can’t help but look forward to reading what she has to say on her blog.
Update: Based on Liz’s comment below, I’ve updated the link to point to her new blog location.
Added to the blogroll today
I’ve added a non-voiceover site to my “Other Blogs” section today. It’s a blog called PennyWise PCs. I started building my own PCs and audio workstations in the early 90s and have continued to do so ever since. It’s not been so much to save money, but because I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of building systems, making use of as much what I already have as I can, and still getting them to work. The other benefit is that when something goes wrong, I usually know enough to be able to fix the problem. So, I’m linking to them because I’m seriously impressed with these young men and what they’re doing.
Update: I noticed in their archives that they see things much as I do regarding building your own computers.
A great character actor has died
Allan Melvin has just died at the age of 84. My thanks to Craig Park for posting this link on the VO-BB.
Update: You’ll find some wonderful comments from writer Mark Evanier about Allan Melvin on Mark’s blog, too. My thanks to my good friend and fellow voiceover pro Charlie Glaize for sending me this link.
Kara Edwards on camera and off
My friend Kara Edwards is featured in this television ad, both on camera and voiceover. Check it out.
Really nice work, Kara.
Update: And Kara provides a bit of background about what it took to make this commercial in this post on the VO-BB.
Further update: Kara has written about this on her blog as well.
Easy Entrees
My friend Bruce Miles produced the audio for this television ad.
The woman announcer is another of my friends, Amy Snively.