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People

An exceptional archive (updated)

Career Advice, General, People

With my thanks to Bob Fraser for pointing this out in an email I received today, you’ll find an amazing archive of in-depth video interviews (many of them around 3 hours!) conducted and archived by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the people who hand out the Emmy Awards) with so many interesting and inspiring actors, writers, producers and so forth. How many? 1,351 as I type this noted tonight, although that is actually the number of 30 minute segments, not the number of people interviewed. Here are just a few of the names, as Bob noted in his email…

Norman Lear, Andy Griffith, David Wolper, Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart, Steven Bochco, Phyllis Diller, Grant Tinker, Jay Sandrich, John Frankenheimer, Dick Wolf, Alan Alda, Quincy Jones, Kim Hunter, James Burrows, Barbara Eden, Gene Reynolds, Angela Lansbury, James Garner, Diahann Carroll, Phil Donahue, Don Knotts, Dennis Weaver, Joan Ganz Cooney, Ricardo Montalban, George Takai, Bob Mackie, Stephen J. Cannell, Larry Hagman, William Shatner, Betty White, Bob Carroll & Madelyn Davis, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Jane Wyatt, Dick Clark, Grant Tinker, Ossie Davis, and a host of other luminaries of the television industry.

I’ve used Google’s search functions to sort the archive for you to include only the interviews, and in alphabetical order, just click here.

Details and background about these archives can be found at the Academy’s web site.

UPDATE! Thanks to Karen’s comment below, you’ll find a lots of information and plenty of direct links to the archived videos at this wonderful blog. There are many productive hours of reading, listening and watching available.

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Where do you have to live to be successful?

Career Advice, General, People

Joe Cipriano answers this question in detail in his latest blog post. These are words from one of the most successful voiceover people in the United States. But, more importantly, there words from a genuinely nice guy, who’s telling it like it is.
Here are a couple of key paragraphs…

I always tell people who ask me if they should move to Los Angeles or New York for voice overs to only do so if they have a job waiting for them in the new location.

And…

Too many people come to Los Angeles with no job and a dream of acting or getting into voice overs and find themselves struggling to pay the grocery bill. All this does is make your chances for success in the business even slimmer. No one…NO ONE…wants to be around, let alone hire, someone who is DESPERATE for the J O B. Do not have the stench of desperation follow you into auditions and interviews.

Read the whole thing. Please.

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Being There

Career Advice, General, People

If you have 3 minutes to read something that will help you remember the things that are truly important, pop over to Kara Edwards-Suchan’s blog and read this.

And since she mentioned it, if you haven’t made up your mind yet about joining us in Las Vegas for the V.O.I.C.E. Conference, I hope you will. If you can’t, you can’t. If your hesitation is about whether it will have been a worthwhile expense, I can’t answer that for you; but I know it will be for me.

I hope I get to meet you there at the end of March.

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One of the keys (updated)

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

The other day I was digging through the blog archives at my friend Dan Nachtrab’s site and came across this thoughtful and well written post from some time ago. It’s not long, but well worth a moment of your time.

Update: Dan was part of a meeting of the minds among 3 of us voiceover guys when we all got together for lunch in Central Ohio recently. He’s posted about it here.

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Focus and facets

General, People

In a recent post on her blog, Kara Edwards examines some of the many things that fascinate her. One of her key fascinations is working as a voice actor, but she has many other interests, too.

I am a multifaceted woman. I am a voice actor, a television spokesperson, a writer, a producer, a gardener, a scrapbooker, a painter, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a wife. I pray often. I fall down a lot. I am a terrible speller. I record voice overs from home, and I travel half-way across the country to bring characters to life. I am also an amateur photographer. I sell stock photos online.

Kara looks around her and wonders how other people do it…

I see so many talented people in the world, men and women doing the exact job I do- and they seem to have it all together. I’m assuming they’ve been given some Divine advice I missed out on.

The key word in that paragraph is “seem.” They seem to have it all together. One of the deadliest traps in life is to compare ourselves with someone else. There are few pursuits more fruitless and even destructive.

Focus is a good thing. Here’s how I understand focus: Pouring energy into our central passion. My friend Kristine Oller has helped me understand that we can, in fact, successfully have lots of fascinations. We just have to learn how to organize them around our central passion in life. Drop those that don’t move us forward. Concentrate on those that do.

May all the facets of your life reflect your God-given passion.

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From Radio to Voiceover, a correspondence

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

The other day as I was looking through my server logs and noticed I was getting some traffic from a site I hadn’t seen before so I clicked over to check it out. The site was Clark W. Michael’s. So, I wrote him a quick note of thanks for the link, and to let him know I’d added him to my voiceover blogroll.
His response to that email prompted some correspondence I thought useful enough to share, so I asked Clark’s permission, which he has graciously granted, to post here.
He wrote…

Thanks for the link back. Appreciate it. I usually take a look at your blog about every morning and find it helpful and enjoy the friendly tone of your site.

Thank you. I’m delighted to know you’re enjoying the site. I’m happy to take a few minutes to try to answer your questions. You’ve made some important observations, to which I’ll respond in a moment; but first a couple of concrete suggestions:
1. Join the VO-BB.com. Lurk. Read the archives (I’ve read all of them, which took a long time, but was worth every hour it took.) Lurk some more. Post some questions when you feel like you’re ready. Post some answers when you have them. It’s a great on-line community and you’ll be glad you’re a part.
2. If you can possibly work out the schedule and finances, join us in Las Vegas at the end of March at the V.O.I.C.E. conference. It’s going to be an incredible time of learning, meeting loads of other people at all kinds of difference stages of their career, etc.
I’ve put the responses to your questions below, in among your questions. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll do my best to answer.

I’m a radio guy and just beginning the arduous process of seeking voice work. Not easy at all. I’ve got a lot to learn and have come to the conclusion that I need to get on the phone and solicit work if I’m going to find any.

Work rarely falls into our laps with gift-wrap and a bow. While I’ve had that happen a few times, it’s usually the result of relationship that have been built over a long period of time; and not just some random event. But, before you start making phone calls looking for work you need: 1.) training (as you note above, there’s a lot to learn); 2.) a great demo for each category of voiceover work you’re trying to find (imaging, promo, commercial, narration, etc.); 3. a plan for how your not only going to “put yourself out there” but how you’re going to keep track of what’s working and what’s not working in your marketing plan. (Without this plan, and the ability to track and compare, you’ll never know where to concentrate greater resources and what to leave behind.)

I have an account with Voices.com, but that has proved rather fruitless.

My experience with Voice123.com and Voices.com has gone like this: I get cast about 4 times as often through Voice123.com as I do through Voices.com and most of my work through Voices.com has come as a result of direct contacts while my work through Voice123.com has mostly come through auditioning. But, I have a good friend for whom almost the exact opposite is true. Most of his work has come through Voices.com and little through Voice123.com. There’s no magic formula. When you audition, you do the very best work you can, send it, and forget it. Maybe every 3 months, you do a little comparison to see what’s working and what’s not (see my note above about planning, tracking and comparing); but I look at my membership fees at these sites as exactly what they are: advertising dollars. I spend it for the the doors of opportunity it opens, not for guaranteed work.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that radio and voice over are almost two different worlds.

You’ve just said a mouthful!

One would not assume that until investigating what it is you guys do to make a living. Hard work. Lots of rejection. I would guess most of the time you never hear back from the people for which you audition. That’s certainly true for me.

Correct. I rarely hear back from auditions, unless I’m cast. Of course, that’s what you want to hear!

I admire your tenacity and am realizing that that seems to be the key character trait necessary to find steady work.

Without persistence, you’ll give up. No one ever won anything by giving up. No one ever succeeded at anything by giving up.

I image you’re quite busy doing what you do, but if you have time — I’d sure appreciate any hints you can offer to steer me in a productive voice over direction.

See points #1 and #2 above.

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An apt metaphor in an excellent blog post

General, People

My friend Peter O’Connell, better known in the voiceover business as audio’connell, (a really talented man as you can hear from his demos here); has been blogging about voiceover for a while. His post from yesterday is well worth a few minutes of your time. (Look for Saturday, January 13, 2007 if you’re reading this some time later. I can’t like directly to his post as Peter doesn’t have permalinks enabled on his blog.)
Here’s just one reason why, his very apt metaphor about voiceover and golf…

Often times people say to me “Why do you talk about other voice over talents?” or inquiry as to why I would reference them on my voice over site. The answer is simple and I suppose I should trademark it right here and now as I’ve used it for years: voice over talents are like golfers. Golfers aren’t truly competing against each other, they are really trying to beat the course.

Well said, Peter. And I couldn’t agree more. The voiceover business isn’t about competition, it’s about delivering the sound or style or pace or something for which the producer or writer or casting agent is searching.

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A fabulous 10 hour day

General, People

My morning began at 7:50 AM when I rolled out of my hotel room bed in Pittsburgh (where I’ve been for a couple of days on a business trip) and with a decided spring in my step. For weeks now, Dan Nachtrab and Ben Wilson and I had been planning to meet for lunch in Columbus, Ohio.
I’ve talked with both of these guys either on the phone or on the Internet for months. We’ve emailed thoughts and ideas about voiceover work. I’ve offered suggestions on their demos when they’ve asked for feedback. And now, I was going to get to meet both of them in person, share a meal together and hopefully enjoy some good conversation.
I knew it would take about 3 hours to drive from Pittsburgh to Columbus. And we had agreed that we would meet at Champps Americana restaurant
Restaurant where Dan, Ben and Bob met for lunch
in the Eaton Mall.
Strangely enough, I ended up being the first to arrive. This was mainly because my drive actually ended up taking only 2 hours and 55 minutes and I’d left about 5 minutes before I really needed to. A few minutes later, Ben walked through the door. I recognized him right away from both a photo I’d seen and from a television commercial for MAC tools that I’d seen him in on ESPN2. Just before Ben arrived, Dan had called to say he was running a bit late, so Ben and I got a table where we could see the door and sat down to talk and wait.
Ben Wilson
Just a few minutes later, in walks Dan. He has a couple of toys with him, including an incredible digital camera by Samsung and his new digital phone, which he’s holding here.
Dan Nachtrab and his phone
We had lunch together and all told talked basically non-stop for 4 solid hours, and could easily have kept going for several more I’m sure. But I had an appointment I had to get back to Pittsburgh for at 6:30 PM, so we all left the restaurant at 3:30.
Both Ben and Dan had insightful things to say. We talked about a wide range of subjects, not just voiceover work; but of course, we did discuss voiceover work quite a bit. I thought much about several things as I drove back across Eastern Ohio, the panhandle of West Virginia and on into Pittsburgh this afternoon.
This in particular. At one point late in our discussion, when I had talked about how uncomfortable I am with doing cold calls looking for new voiceover jobs, Dan leaned across the table toward me and said, “You’re very good. You know that, right?”
I nodded, not quite sure what to say.
“These people, when you call them. Do you understand, they want to talk to you? They want to talk to someone who is really, really good.”
Whew! Like I said, I had a lot to digest and not just the Reuben.
It was a very good day. Almost 6 hours of driving sandwiched around 4 fabulous hours of enriching, lively and intensely fun conversation and lunch. Thank you, Dan and Ben for an exceptional day.
I leave you with this final image, of Dan and Ben (Dan’s on the left) at our table.
Dan Nachtrab and Ben Wilson
PS: I arrived at my appointment back in Pittsburgh with 5 minutes to spare!

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Getting from here to there

Blogging, Career Advice, General, People

I’ve made a couple of changes and additions to my blogroll today. Changes that I’d like to call to your attention. First, I’ve changed the label for one section from Writing to Career. Dan O’Day, Dick Orkin, Roy H. Williams and Kristine Oller are all people to whom you should listen and from whom you would do well to learn.
But, I especially want to call your attention to the second Kristine Oller link, which is in the section titled Blogging Friends. First, Kristine is indeed a friend. And, she’s now blogging. But, it’s the specific focus of her blog to which I want to call your attention. It’s a blog intended to help you get from where you are now, (with a foot in two, three, maybe 12 baskets), to where you want to be, making your living doing what you love.
Here’s one of the key paragraphs from her first post…

As someone who used to act plus make copies, I know the frustration of having to squeeze your creative expression into the nooks and crannies of your weekly schedule and, on occasion, having to shove it to the side of your life altogether. I also know that this kind of daily grind, if it continues for too many years, can utterly deplete your creative spirit. And once your joy and passion start to fade, burnout (and its nasty cousin, bitterness) can invade.

And she closes with these stirring thoughts…

[T]oday, I am fortunate enough to wake up every morning able to make my living doing things that I love to do. I hope the same will soon be true for you as well.

I plan to make Kristine’s blog a regular stop. I hope you will, too.

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Actor’s Tool-Kit #1

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

Recently I subscribed to an excellent service from Bob Fraser called Show Biz How-To. Bob’s information is focused toward on-camera actors for television and film; but there’s a bunch of valuable information that applies to those of us who act entirely or mostly with our voices. I’ve asked his permission to reprint the series of Actor’s Tool-Kits that he sends to his subscribers, and he has given me permission. What follows is the first installment. I’ll post more of these in the coming weeks. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
——————————————-
ACTOR’S TOOL KIT #1
ACTING FOR MONEY
by Bob Fraser
One of my hobbies, during my active career, was watching the results of other show biz folks. I kept journals for about 5 years, then I noticed that I didn’t need to keep a journal because it was becoming redundant. The fact is, that all the successful people I met over 40 years, (and when I say ALL I mean 100%) were capitalists.
I don’t mean that in a political way – I’m talking about store-keeper capitalism. All the successful people I’ve known in the show business are successful because they are good business people. Good store-keepers.
The other side of the coin is the unsuccessful actor, writer, director, producer, etc. Believe me, most of them are not untalented, or unlucky, or unconnected. Generally, their real problem is that they are just lackadaisical business people.
The biggest mistake I see is the total time and energy the unsuccessful actor puts into the business. This amount of time can be described as: not enough.
IMPROVE YOUR PRODUCT
If we are not working at our business to keep things running smoothly on a daily basis, if we ever sit back and wait for things to happen, stop marketing and promoting, or quit trying new ideas to get people into our store (to buy our product) well, every business around us will say a big thank you – and grab our customers.
If we don’t devote enough time to our business, if we don’t plan what we’re doing, if we don’t put in a lot of thought and energy, if we don’t have vision, if we’re not excited by it all, then, then the sad truth is that we’re just not going to get very far. we’re going to be crawling along, while all around us, sincere, hard working capitalists will be charging past.
What can you do to become a better capitalist? A good start is to understand the difference between actually being in business and just having the store open.
The number one way to improve your business is to improve your product. The best product is not always what the customer buys – but it’s always the product the customer wants. Your odds improve as your product gets better.
Be sure to advertise. If one kind of advertising isn’t working – try something else. (Get new headshots until you get one that works.)
It doesn’t hurt to keep the store open 12 hours a day.
Don’t worry about hiring a salesman (An Agent) until you’ve done a lot of market testing and selling, yourself.
You want a smart salesman and a smart salesman knows better than to try to sell an untested and unproven product. An agent cannot afford to sell one of his customers (studios and producers) a sub-par product. Keep in mind that your salesman will probably represent a lot of different “lines” and he will give more attention to the better ones.
Always present your product (you) in the best possible way.
The key to good business is to accentuate the benefits of the product and work hard to eliminate any reasons for the customer not to buy. This requires a lot of thought.
After all, your product is a human being and we all have flaws – which sometimes (after some thought) – turn out to be benefits.
WORKING HARD AND SMART
That’s what capitalism is: Taking your product out into the marketplace, defining your customer base, doing good product testing and research, hiring good salespeople, advertising well, and keeping the store open late.
Watch the capitalists around you. You know, the folks who run their own dry cleaning store, sandwich shop, or quick print center. If they are successful, study them carefully and find out how they run their businesses. You will discover that most of them work very hard.
Is it worth working very hard?
Well, their dream is probably just security. Our dream, on the other hand, is fame, fortune, respect and a bit of immortality.
And security.
Don’t kid yourself, it’s a capitalist’s dream … with a twist and a cherry on top.
The question is – how hard are you willing to work to achieve your dream?
Keep in mind that the number one benefit of capitalism is the money – and money equals freedom.
I think that’s a dream we can all get behind.
NEXT INSTALLMENT: ACTING LIKE YOU’RE A BUSINESS
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Get your own free subscription by going to: showbizhowto.com
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The case for audio on your website

General, People

Yes, we are indeed well into the 21st Century now; yet by and large the Internet (with the exception of YouTube.com and a few other places) remains a mostly text-based experience.
My friend and mentor, Philip Banks, makes a powerful case for why audio and video should be part of your website, in this post on his blog. Here is, in my view, the key paragraph…

It is often claimed that people don’t like audio and video on websites but the fact is that the claim is an incomplete sentence that should read “people don’t like pointless audio and video on websites”. If you honestly believe people would rather wade through 9 pages of text rather than watch and listen to something that communicates effectively test your claim by making a telephone call between 7.30pm and 8.30pm on any weekday evening and ask the people you call if you disturbed them reading something or watching television. These people are content hungry but content is not 50 pages of text unless what you are selling is text.

But, read the whole thing.

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Shut up and talk

Career Advice, General, People

My friend Mary C. McKitrick manages to pull voiceover, karate and classical orchestral music into one cogent and thought-provoking whole is this wonderful post on her blog.
And while you’re there at Mary’s blog, be sure to check out this post as well, which gives you a chance to hear a wonderfully done flash animation for which Mary provided the voice.

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The Tooth Fairy cometh

General, People

Not long after I moved from the farm country of Minnesota to begin my freshman year of college in Chicago in 1971, one of my happiest discoveries on the radio was a series of short radio comedy bits called “The Secret Adventures of The Tooth Fairy.” It was the product of the same brilliant mind responsible for “Chickenman,” Dick Orkin.
I know the fans of Chickenman are legion, but I’ve always been partial to The Tooth Fairy myself. So, it is with great delight that I alert you to the release of the complete Tooth Fairy collection through Dan O’Day’s web site. I can hardly wait to get my own copy.

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