From the "Shooting yourself in the Foot" files - FreePlay Music suing Voice Over Talent
I kind of wondered when someone would just start tossing lawsuits out there against voice talent who were less than careful in choosing their background FX (I usually see this habit with people who choose not to use an experienced demo producer... it's just another reason that you want to use a professional when creating a professional voice over demo).
Well, I had to say that I didn't expect FreePlay to be the first one to do it, but apparently they did. Thanks boys! If you wanted to convince voice over talent to not use or recommend your products, this was quite the way to do it. You know, because people really enjoy a heavy-handed and threatening notice that you think that they *might* be infringing upon their IP.
I remember the last time I heard these words from an organization it was with Penn State University. It didn't turn out that well for the company making the claim. And, IIRC, due to the heavy handed nature of how PSU and the RIAA treated the students and university employees, there were more than a few lawsuits coming out of that blunder.
THAT SAID, if you're using copyrighted music and not paying for it... guess what? You're stealing! Knock it the hell off, because we all know that you'd be the first person to holler if someone used your VO for a product without paying for it, right?
Voice Over Xtra has a nice article about this, including information on what to do if you get a nastygram from FreePlay. I think the best advice comes from the article's author Robert J. Sciglimpaglia Jr. when he states "all voice talent and those who display voice talent demos [...] ensure that no unauthorized music appears on the demos."
While I may not agree with FreePlay's tactics, I can understand their motivations. Best thing to do is follow Robert's advice. Decent music beds aren't that expensive, and there's an industry of people who create background music who need support just like VO talent does. Use a bit a common sense and you won't end up shooting yourself in the foot (much as FreePlay seems to be doing by being over-zealous in their desire to protect their IP).
First off, there aren't a lot of things out there which get my attention more than new technologies and microphones (there's a reason for the name of the blog... you'll find all three in the studio). So when I stumble across an article reviewing a few microphones, you have my attention. Ribbon mics? Oh hell yes!!!
So it was great aplomb that I stumbled across this article from Sonic Scoop. It's a bit of an engineer's guide to their favorite ribbon mics. It doesn't take the point of view from a VO side, but it doesn't take much to figure out how an enterprising voice talent can put one of these to use in their own work (the Coles has been a mainstay of British VO for decades).
Overall, it's about as good an into into modern ribbons that you'll find in about one page of text, but in reality it's rather limited (seriously, how much info can you relate about microphones in a single page?), and some of the choices aren't even produced any more (though the SF-1 is still readily available). Of course, no discussion of ribbon microphones would be complete without mentioning Wes Dooley and his work at AEA.
But if you've been thinking about using a ribbon mic, this article is a good place to start.
PS: IMO, any list fails without mention of this little beauty below (or the original microphone that it's based upon).
I don't know how many times I've heard the ole, "people say I have a really nice voice, maybe I should get into voice over..." I don't think that there's a single voice actor out there doesn't have a few stories to tell in this regard.
It's part of the game.
Frankly, I'm always more than happy to help most folks out as best I can. For the most part, I think most voice actors would say the same (and some... I'm looking at you, anime VAs, can be veritable saints at times). Sure, the VO community is very tight knit, but we're always willing to welcome folks into the fold. It's one of the many great things about this art, and one of the many reasons it's become such a large part of my life.
That said, I remember (and often echo) the words of one of my voice coaches. During our first session together she browbeat me with the words "it's not about the voice". I needed to hear that a LOT of times before I truly figured out what she meant. Once I did, it became part of my response used whenever anyone asked me about voiceover, or voice acting in general.
Turns out that I'm not quite alone in that regard. In a recent blog post I found on Blogging Innovation, Mike Brown talks of a similar approach where "it's not about the voiceover". In his situation, Brown talks about a Marketing Lead who directed that there would be no voice over in a particular piece. Members of his creative team pleaded that a voice over was essential to what they were doing (something I'm sure every voice actor loves to hear), but the Lead was adamant.
What they discovered was that they'd been relying on voice actors to fix their mistakes with the copy. What the Marketing Lead had done was to force a stronger, better performance out of the staff by not having them rely on someone else (i.e., someone outside of their general control) to fix their problems for them.
It's somewhat brilliant if you think about it.
Now for voice actors, we need to take a similar approach. All too often, we begin to rely on something external to help us elevate our work. In a lot of cases, we do the same thing that these marketing people were doing... we're counting on the "voice" to get us through the copy. Well, it's not about the voice. Never has been. Never should be. It's about our creativity, our ability to make a choice related to the copy ,our commitment to the choices we made, etc. In short, it's about all the creative aspects of what we do.
Too often, in my opinion, I hear people talk about "the voice". Brown's posting, and his example, should serve as a good reminder to all of us that it's not about the voice, but what we bring to it, what we bring to the copy, and how we do so, that makes a voiceover worth listening to.
I mentioned in my last posting that VOICE was coming up, in addition to a few other events this summer (I've no clue as to all of them, but Bettye Zoller has some upcoming stuff, Pat Fraley usually has a few workshops in the summer, the NATF has their yearly event, I'm also aware of a few events with the National Association of Broadcasters, probably BangZoom!, SIGGRAPH always seems to attract VO talent, etc.).
Well those are all fine and dandy. But what is the working voice actor going to do if they're trying to audition, meet project deadlines, and the like while they're on the road? Being from Philadelphia, I can tell you that I put more miles on the road for VO than I care to admit (despite being the fifth largest media market, it's simply natural that I've got to put time in other places in order to train, audition, book work, etc.).
Some days, I feel like I'm a Philadelphia-based voice actor who is based anywhere but in Philadelphia, lol.
Well, there's an article put out last year by George Whittam of ElDorado Recording Services that is definitely worth your while, titled The Traveling Voice-Over. In it, George gives a brief, but detailed description and explanation of some of the more common issues which voice actors are going to face on the road, and some of the tools out there which can make your time on the road a bit more productive.
The article is definitely worth the time to read, if for no other reasons than the fact that it gives you new ideas on how to set up your own "VO2Go" kit. I'll admit that there are some items in the article which I disagree with, but that's mainly because I know what my own needs are when I'm on the road (for example, George's recommendation of netbooks is probably good for most folks, but I've yet to use one that I didn't overtax in a few minutes of normal usage... I'm pretty hard on the CPU with some of the stuff I do). That said, it's pretty apparent that this article is designed more as a means of providing options to the traveling voice actor than anything else.
In that regard, the article delivers in spades.
If you didn't catch the link to the article above, a direct link can be found here.
It's a great read, and Dale Balestrero has some great insights and explanations relating to why actors need voiceover training (I'm somewhat curious as to why he doesn't make more of a point to mention that voice actors are actors... hence the title; it's a nitpick, but one that I think needs to be made more often). In short, Balestrero points out that one's acting skills are very important to voice over, however, the medium is not the same as more traditional forms of acting. Therefore, it does the actor well to know more about voiceover prior to attempting to make a career out of it.
On that same front, one of the biggest problems I see with new voiceover talent is that they train for voiceover, but not for anything else. Just as I stated earlier, voice actors are actors. It's as plain and simple as that. Regardless of where your specialty lies, if you want to be successful in acting, or in any field for that matter, then you need to know a wide range of skills (which may or may not be directly related to your chosen field) so that you can be a more versatile practitioner.
It is this versatility which allows most people to find new ways to succeed, even if they've already found a thousand ways to previously fail, and for this reason it should be the lifeblood of every actor, regardless of their chosen medium.
I recently stumbled upon an interview at Computer and Videogames, with Mark Hamill on his role in Arkham Asylum, and his myriad of voice over roles in animation and video games.
If you're a fan of Hamill's work, or just interested to get a bit more insight into one of the industry's most versatile and successful talents, it's worth the read.
For those who frequent the usual VO boards, you've probably seen Scott's postings, comments, and musings. He brought that same wit and wisdom to a small class at Indiana University (which is the basis for the article).
As the descendant of a loyal Boilermaker, that's about as much praise as you'll get out of IU from me =-P
You can find out a bit more about Scott at his website, here.
Voice Over Xtra currently has part one of what I think will be a nice compendium of articles regarding home studio acoustics by William Williams.
From my own experience, I can tell you that soundproofing a pre-existing residential structure is problematic and expensive at best, downright impossible given most circumstances. You can do a lot to absorb and diffuse the sound, but true soundproofing requires DCID or ANSI style requirements to the room, and frankly there comes a time when even yours truly has to question the cost-benefit ratio (or in my case, the "would they lock me up for doing this..." ratio).
William takes a smarter approach IMO by assuming that the voice talent already has a setup and begins by addressing those items which can be removed from your recording chain that might be causing you to have a lower quality output than you should be, given the quality of equipment you're using (aka. "noise").
From an audio forensic perspective, I'm a huge fan of eliminating as much unnecessary interference from the chain as possible. This article looks like the first step in addressing such issues.
For those who are interested, the full article can be found here.
Since the question of "which microphone should I choose?" is one of the most common questions voice actors ask each other, it's definitely worth reading if you don't already know the answer to the question.
On the side, I think I have an unattributed quote in the article.
“I recommend seatbelts in your armchairs as the creator and cast of “Family Guy” assemble on our stage for a hilarious, irreverent look at themselves, each other, their characters and their spectacularly successful show. This is, quite simply, unlike any Inside the Actors Studio you’ve ever seen.”
Since I'm currently bombarded with a GSSP certification, I was unable to see Monday's broadcast of the interview. However there's going to be re-broadcast on the 20th, which I definitely plan on watching.
That's the first item of interest for all things "Family Guy" related. The second is this... Karl Rove is making a cameo appearance on the show. Details are a bit scant at the present, but that's the thing which makes this show such a hit with the audience; not only does the show go out of its way to be equal opportunity offender of pretty much everyone at some point (much like "South Park"), but they actually get the very people they're lampooning to take part in the comedy.
I can only imagine what MacFarlane and the rest of the writing staff have up their sleeve for Rove, but I'm sure that it'll be completely irreverent and enjoyable.
If you've been paying attention to the news lately (and even if you haven't), then you know that the U.S. government want to get involved with health care. President Obama and his supporters want to reform health care as we know it in this country. In an address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama explained how health insurance reform will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance, coverage for those who don’t, and will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government.
From the perspective of a voice actor, this is a really great opportunity for those who have the time and resources to use their craft to better help those who want to understand what the health care bill actually is, but either can't or don't want to read through the entire bill in order to do so (and I can't say that I blame them). Within the voice over community, there have been loads of postings in the various VO boards, and I can't even get into my FaceBook account anymore without half a dozen invites from people who are either putting the bill into spoken word on their own, or are looking for people to help lend their talents and voices for an audio production regarding the health care bill. Regardless of your politics, this is a very cool event within the voice over community.
Best part, is that it's catching on. The Nashua Telegraph recently published an article regarding this movement within the voice over community, and Politico just put up their own article regarding this as well.
These articles, if nothing else, should serve as a reminder for the rest of us within the voice over community that what we do with our talents is much more than bringing words to life. The potential is there to really provide a conduit of information and education through the work we do, and when the opportunity comes our way, it's one which we ought to be very proud of.
I'm not going to get into the politics of this issue (frankly it's a loaded gun of discussion at the dinner table and has been added to the rather eclectic list of things my family doesn't discuss at the dinner table, including the Muppets, carnivals, horses, and John Tesh... you know, the really controversial stuff).
-G
Edit: and now a third article on the subject from the New York Times. A link to the article can be found here.
Backstage magazine has an interesting article concerning the current state of the economy.
Despite my overwhelming desire to be snarky due to the facts and research done on this article (for example, use of stats during what is normally the weakest time of the year for actors, use of statistics that do not match case examples, and the use of two very troubled industries to correlate the rest of the economic situation), I'm going to take a more positive approach.
I know, I know, the VO actor who is also an infosec professional is going to be jocund in his posting about the economy. Sorry to disappoint, but I am.
Here's the deal, you can be in business, ANY business, unless you recognize the fact that you're going to have lean years, as well as fat years. Barring major calamity, there's about a 15-20 year cycle between recessions. The current economic climate reminds me of the late eighties, which wasn't all that different from spots in the late 60s. My point is that you can't be surprised when these things happen... simply put, the sun can't stay shining forever.
As a voice actor, especially for those who are just starting in the field (and one thing the article and I both agree upon is that there are a LOT of new folks entering the field) you've got to recognize this fact. But above all things you have to remember this one little phrase...
A career, or any long-term endeavor is a marathon, not a sprint. The sooner one recognizes this, the better you can prepare for it. This is where (for the voice actor) diversification, long-term planning (financial and professional) comes into play. Sure, the commercial market for voice acting is many areas is a bit drier than normal, but several sources (and my own experience) state that companies are keeping things more "in-house", by increasing the number of industrial voice overs that are being produced (it seems as though you can't shake a stick without hitting someone who's looking for talent to provide a voice over for a corporate presentation ).
Like most things in life, perception is reality. But if this recession turns out to be anything like the last one, you'll be hearing the stories of people and companies who not only survived this economic downturn, but exceeded everyone's expectations (Google is a great example of one of these). What's going to separate those who succeed from those who don't survive...? Simple. Those who are still around after it's all said and done will be the ones who best utilized the resources available to them and paced themselves long past the point when things are expected to get better...
not much different from long-distance running if you ask me.
So what does Goldman-Sachs have in common with voice over? High fees for high stakes.
There's an article written by Megan McArdle that I recently read in the Atlantic, which likened investment bankers with wedding planners, funeral directors, and movie trailer voice over actors. Regardless of the current economic climate, that's an interesting comparison to make, but it's actually pretty accurate.
The big message that McArdle tries to get across is that if you buy cheap, you usually get cheap. While her message has to do with the finance industry, she is able to relate it to the career of Don LaFonatine, and how many people (who aren't in voice over) might be shocked to learn what he salary was during the peak of Don's career. This is true, as the man made the kind of money that most people can only dream of. However, when you've only got one shot to make the deal, the fees associated with that one shot were negligible with the potential return on investment a client might see.
In the author's own words, "a moment of reckoning will come when the deal either goes well, or does not; that moment is very hard to anticipate; and if things go wrong, they can be very hard to fix."
How often do we as voice artists have to deal with clients who simply do not want to pay our fees? I know that I've lost count, and I've lost more than a few bookings because I wasn't willing to sell my services as short as a client might want them (we've all got stories about the $1500 dollar project that the client was only willing to pay $100 for). That doesn't matter so much as the message that a professional talent must represent to their clientele and potential clients alike, and that message is that when one shot is all you get, one shot is all you (as a voice talent) need...
Put another way, when a client is concerned that they can't afford your services, your job is to remind them that they can't afford not to have your services.
PS: I got a chuckle out of the author's comment that "...no guy asks a date if she’d like to go see the new Don LaFontaine trailer."
I actually got my significant other to listen to countless movie trailers with me... before we were dating (so it's a valid pickup strategy in my opinion).
A brief description of the book nails many of the same comments found in most voice over writings, but depending on how they choose to do it and to whom Lowenthal and Platt choose to make their audience, they might have a new twist on some of the more traditional rote from other books on the subject. In one recent article, they made it very clear that the goal was to take the information that gets passed around at the usual voice actor panels (both Lowenthal and Platt run great panels, BTW), aggregate that information, and then take it to the next step. The following description seems to follow that line of thinking:
A PEEK INTO THE SECRET WORLD OF THE VOICE ACTOR for those curious, daring or obsessed enough to look....This book offers a comprehensive look at what it takes, what goes on, and what it's like behind the mic from two working pros. In this book, you will discover: * The ins and outs of auditioning * Vocal warm-ups and exercises * Tips for reading copy to maximum effect * Hints to help you stand out * Keys to marketing yourself: demo to agent to job * What to expect when you book the job! Filled with anecdotes from 20 VO professionals (actors, writers, casting, directors, engineers, agents) the book is a fun and comprehensive look inside voice-over.
The book doesn't come out until November 9th (at present... dates can be moved back or forth, depending on things), and I'm sure that it will do well. For a professional talent, it may or may not be a worthwhile read for $20, but for those in the industry who are of the otaku personality, I expect it to be a "must read".
What is SWTOR you ask? Well that part is simple, it's the new Lucas Arts MMORPG, StarWars: The Old Republic. But for all of the voice over folk out there, here's a little something which we don't often get, a blog post written by Shauna Perry. Shauna is the Director of Audio and Localization for SWTOR, and she goes into the process of voice acting from the writing to scripting to speaking.
I've got to say that what they're trying to do in SWTOR is nothing short of huge. The game is going to be fully voice acted which could mean a greater sense of involvement in what happens within the game. We're talking hundreds of voice actors being recorded in five major metro areas with enough copy to fill more than fourty novels. If that's not the definition of huge, then I don't know what is. The project is so big that they actually had to develop an audio pronunciation guide in order to deal with all the regionalisms and dialects that the talent brought to the project.
This is probably the largest commercially available voice over project ever produced, and you can read about it all right here.
This might be the one MMORPG that I actually find time out of my schedule to play, if for the voice over aspect alone...
Backstage has a really good, and timely article regarding what agents look for in voiceover talent.
With so many people attempting to learn more about the business, and with the economy in the shape that it's currently in, it's definitely good to know just what things you need to do to help yourself stand out of the crowd and get representation.
For the voiceover veterans among us, most of the article is a no-brainer but it's worth reading anyway, as a reminder.
The funny thing about the Internet is that some stuff seems to turn up no matter how old it is. Take for instance this article I wrote probably close to 4-5 years back. I never thought I'd find it while doing some SEO research for the site. Guess it just goes to show you that once it's on the net, there's no taking it back.
For some folks that's not a good thing, but in this instance I don't think I'll mind ;-)
FWIW: I'm still writing stuff occasionally (not just on this blog). That said, here's some more recent stuff that I did for Voice Over Extra. While I'm not Hemingway with a blog, at least some of my insights are useful to others. In the end, it's knowing that what you're doing can help others that makes all the effort worth while.
I am not a director, though I have played one on stage(and even received an award for it).
However, Vicki Amorose has recently written an article on Gamasutra that is specifically aimed at directors through the experiences and advice of voice actors such as JS Gilbert, Kevin Cooke, Diane Havens, and Bill Painter. This is a simple, but relatively straightforward approach for people to better understand what things your voice actor needs to know in order to give you the best performance. According the Vicki's article, it's broken down into three main point, with three subpoints each:
Questions which must be answered for the Voice Over
Types of Direction which the Voice Actor Hates
Types of Direction which the Voice Actor Loves
If you've got the time for a quick read, the article can be found here.
