Voices.com sponsors the Voicey Awards, as they call them, each year. And the nominations are now open.
People
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, practice, practice! That’s an old joke, of course; but it’s also a truism about the voiceover business. While there’s not a lot of voiceover work on the stage at Carnegie Hall, working in the big leagues of voiceover requires much more than a pleasant voice and smooth delivery.
This point is underscored brilliantly at the VoiceBank.net VoiceRegistry Blog in their post called Practice Makes Voice Over Perfect. And after you’ve read the article, be sure to click through on the link at the bottom of the post for the podcast interview with voiceover teacher Bill Holmes.
My thanks to my friend and fellow voiceover talent Dan Nachtrab for pointing this article out to me today.
The Hyrde
Here’s a strangely wonderful video that features the voices of two of my good friends.
Those voices being DB Cooper and Philip Banks.
Blogging training from a self-described moron
I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
- The best blogging techniques.
- How to get traffic to your blog.
- How to turn your blog into money.
I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.
Dana Detrick-Clark posted about this on her blog.
Having looked through this material now, I am removing the links from the above.
Kitzie’s new digs
I received an email this evening from my friend Kitzie Stern about her new website design and her new demos. Great stuff, Kitzie. Much success to you in this New Year. And I’m looking forward to what you add to your blog, when you get that up and running.
Update: Added a link to Kitzie’s blog now that she’s launched it.
Study with Ed Asner
My friend Pat Fraley has a voiceover workshop he’ll be teaching with Ed Asner on February 9, 2008 at Buzzy’s Recording in Los Angeles. Price is $595.00. Email Pat Fraley to register. This event is limited to 12 participants. It will fill in hours.
Update: Even if you aren’t able to attend, listen to this excellent bit of audio that Pat sent me via email the other day. Yes, there’s a shameless plug for the event included; but there’s also a terrific lesson here that will be helpful to just about everyone.
[audio:https://bobsouer.com/pix/FraleyAsner.mp3]Cheerleader voiceover
For real? Yes, indeed. On the Babble-Blog, from BabbleOn studio in Minnesota, we find this report of former Denver Broncos cheerleader Michele Beisner recording a voiceover at their studio for the NFL Network. Interesting stuff, guys.
(Update: The Babble-Blog doesn’t have permalinks, or if they do I can’t find them, so the link above goes to the main blog. Scroll down to the posts for January 14th to find the specific post.)
The unofficial results are now released
Peter O’Connell has released the results of his unofficial poll for a new voice for the NBC Nightly News intros as part of his Voxmarketising podcast episode 101. There’s a bunch of other interesting pieces to this podcast, so the whole episode is well worth listening.
Should Liz have a blog
My friend Liz de Nesnera has been a frequent commenter on this blog for some time now. She’s also a very gifted voiceover talent, as you can clearly hear in her demos, right there on the front page of her web site. In the comments to a recent post, it was suggested more than once that Liz would be a natural to start her own voiceover blog.
Register your vote, yes or no, in the comments to this thread. You’re also welcome to suggest some possible blog names, and sites and/or software that she can use. (As you might be able to tell, I’m rather partial to WordPress, but it’s not for everyone. There’s also WordPress.com, where you can host your blog free.)
Life is full of uncertainty
You already knew that before you stopped by here, of course. But, I was thinking about this truism because of a heart-felt post from my friend Dave Courvoisier on his voiceover blog. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time and, I hope, will give you some insight into a fundamental truth: be careful where you build your foundation. If it’s not on solid ground, the consequences won’t be good, for you or your foundation.
Study opportunity in Florida
My friend Bobbin Beam has posted a note about a voiceover training class that will be held in late April in Sarasota, FL.
New blog from Voicebank.net
VoiceRegistry Blog is a brand new release from Voicebank.net. You can get an overview of some of the folks who will be posting from their initial post. In addition to blog posts, they’re also doing interviews and releasing them as podcasts. The first is with British actor Martin Jarvis. Looks like a place I’ll be visiting often.
My thanks to my friend Dan Nachtrab for alerting me to this new blog.
Insomnia podcast
Recently I had a chance to work on a couple of podcasts about insomnia. They’re each a bit over 20 minutes long. I’m the narrator for both, so if you’re having trouble sleeping take one of these and call me in the morning.
Seriously, I love working on technical narration projects, so these were great fun. It’s nice to hear the finished product. By the way, the other two voices are Jyl Woolfolk and Joel Haberli.
Clearing away the clutter
My friend Philip Banks is one of the most prolific members of the VO-BB. Since encountering many of his brilliantly insightful (and often rippingly funny) posts on that board, I’ve also had the delight of talking with Philip on the phone several times. My every encounter with him has been helpful, encouraging, challenging and pleasant. Not everyone thinks as highly of Philip as I do, but I care not a fig about other opinions.
Earlier today, Philip posted another exceptional piece that I hope you’ll take time to read. He’s titled his piece Zen and the art of Voice acting? There are few things you’ll read today that will offer greater benefit to your voiceover career. More likely, none.
Don is on the mend
As I posted last month, a note from Don LaFontaine was released to Vox Daily about some heath problems he’s had. Today, there’s a follow-up note posted on Vox Daily with the good news from Don that he’s on the mend.
This provides me with the ideal opportunity to feature this rather wonderful interview with Don from last year, as posted to YouTube.
It’s good to know that you’re doing better Don. I continue to pray for your full and swift recovery.
2008 Voicey Award nominations are open
The Voicey Awards are now open for nominations in several categories, though as my friend Jeffrey Kafer points out there are a couple of wrinkles in the nomination rules that leave some folks out in the cold.
Update: As you can see in the comments below, the rules for New Talent have been updated to reflect the many new voiceover talents who are above 30 years of age when they get started.
What are you planning in 2008?
Among the many things at which I could be better, goal-setting and tracking are near the top of the list. My friend Dave Courvoisier has taken the bold step of publishing his voiceover goals for 2008 on his blog. Good stuff, Dave. And I highly recommend if you’re serious about audiobooks that you plan to take Pat Fraley’s audiobook seminar. I’m sure there will be one later this year. When I took that seminar in 2006, it was, without a doubt, the best thing I did to get myself started doing audiobooks.
The Voice speaks
My friend Frank Frederick, who has wisely trademarked his slogan “The Voice” (TM), is featured in a new Voice Over Experts podcast. He’s talking about his book “LoveNotes: Marketing and Branding for Voice Over Artists”. Good stuff, Frank. This is a great way to start the New Year.
Brilliant blog marketing
Among the many people I got to meet in person during the course of my travels in 2007 was a very talented gentleman named Peter O’Connell, a genuinely brilliant voiceover talent and an even more brilliant marketer of his voiceover services. How brilliant? Well, here is a survey of what I see as the single greatest bit of blog marketing, at least in the world of voiceover blogs, that I’ve ever seen. One that it’s been playing out right before our eyes in the last 2 weeks.
First, Peter identified a subject about which he felt passionately, and not only he, but quite a few others. That subject being the decision by NBC Television to hire Michael Douglas to provide the voiceover introducing the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Mr. Douglas is a well established star in the movie business both in front of and behind the camera. And he has a wonderful voice. But, Peter didn’t think it was the right voice to introduce something as important as the nightly network newscast. So, he blogged about that. And for most folks, that’s where we would have stopped. But Peter was just getting started.
Next, he created an (unofficial) casting call for voice over talents to submit an audition for the News intro voice, even providing a clean copy of the NBC Nightly News theme music to use with the auditions. Entries began to pour in from all over North America as well as at least one entry from the UK. Not only did Peter blog about his contest, he posted notes about it on the VO-BB, the Yahoo! Voiceover Group and prepared and distributed an official press release about the contest.
Naturally, lots of us other voiceover bloggers posted about this contest, as well as putting our hats in the contest ring.
By the time the dust had settled, Peter had received 60 entries to his contest, not counting his own initial example entry.
Taking his game to even greater heights, Peter then invited everyone to vote for their top 3 favorite entries. As I type this message late New Year’s Eve night, 61 voters have been entered their top picks. Again, Peter posted an invitation on the VO-BB, the Yahoo! Voiceover Group and prepared and distributed another official press release.
By the way, the voting is still open through at least New Year’s Day, so if you haven’t cast your vote yet, go here to listen to everyone’s entry and then go here to enter a comment with your top 3 picks.
So, the story isn’t done, but from the standpoint of voiceover marketing and blogging, this has been the story of the year in 2007 and carrying over into the early part of 2008 of course. I don’t have access to his server logs of course, but I’m sure this has taken Peter’s blog traffic to new heights, and while some of those visitors may not return, Peter has very wisely invited everyone to subscribe to his blogs feed each stop of the way, including links to his own favorite blog reader for anyone who doesn’t already use one.
Really brilliant stuff Peter. I am in awe of what you’ve accomplished. I’ve learned so much from you in this past year, and not just through this series of events. But watching all of this unfold has multiplied my admiration for you and your business savvy. You are doing a great job and I wish you much continued success in the coming year.
Oh, and while we’re at it, if you’d like to subscribe to this blog, here is the link you need to add to your feed reader. ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheVoiceoverBoblog ) Peter uses the Google Feed service. I use Thunderbird. There are lots of other choices. Just search on the term “feed reader.” If you’d rather just have the posts sent to your email inbox, you can do that here.