Wow... what a night Wednesday night has been! I got to meet a lot of old friends I haven't been able to see in the past few months/years, and got to meet some new ones whom I only knew from our interactions online. Best of all, I got to meet a bunch of new people, whom I might not have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.
For those who weren't able to make it.... here are a few pictures of the Red Carpet event that I promised yesterday.
Here's the kickoff to the night's festivities (and to VOICE 2010) with Bobbin Beam and Dave Courvoisier.
Next up, we have James Alburger and Penny Abshire, the organizers for VOICE 2010.
Of course, John Florian from Voice Over Extra can be found with a camera (sorry John... couldn't resist).
The Red Carpet Reception is one of those events that's designed for voice actors to congregate and socialize. As you can see, we had a lot of that going on last night...
If you've never listened to, or watched Bill Moyers, you've missed out on some pretty interesting stuff from a host who has the rare talent to captivate his audience with just a few words. Moyers crossed nearly every medium available as an analyst, publisher, TV host, etc. It's hard to find someone in this day and age who represents the ideals of journalism as Bill does.
And after four decades in the news industry, he decided to retire. April 30th, 2010 marked the last night of the Bill Moyers Journal, because in his words, "there are some things left to do that the deadlines and demands of a weekly broadcast don't permit."
You have to admire the man's dedication.
Of all the accolades which Moyers has received, there was a blurb in an article I read on The Daily Beast that caught my attention. It was the correlation which Randy Bean made regarding the writing style Moyers imparted to those who worked with him. Moyers never wanted the writers to use a common style for the copy, but to always imagine the copy being read aloud when they wrote. In the article, she states:
"He taught all of us on his production staff how to write evocatively for the spoken word. Writing voiceover narration is very different from writing for print publication. The ear hears differently than the eye sees.
Plus there are pictures, always pictures, so you work hard to avoid the ever-present "see it, say it" trap. Moyers has impeccable standards when it comes to writing. Listen to one of his commentaries sometime, with your eyes closed. It's lyrical stuff-expressive, deeply felt, personal yet globally relevant, beautifully constructed".
While Moyers wasn't known so much for his voice over, he was known for his commentaries and for his ability to draw you into the story by his ability to use the copy to hit your emotions. The late, great Don LaFontaine simply put it by saying "love the words", and regardless of where you are in your voice over career, I can think of no better advice for those who wish to share the copy they're recording with others, and have it leave a meaningful impression.
While I'm not a huge fan of the show, I find events like this to often be more than entertaining. There's really no way to quite describe it when you get people who make a living bringing some of the craziest stuff to life and toss them on stage to perform. At worst it's very entertaining, at best it can be riotous.
For those who are interested, the official page for the tour can be found here.
The folks at Mania have a special treat for fans of "Green Lantern", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", or "Angel" in the form of an interview with Juliet Landau, who is plays the role of Labella in DC's next animated film, "Green Lantern: First Flight". The interview gets a little into the voice over work that Landau has done for the film (a quick check of credits shows that Juliet has more experience in front of the mic for animated features than one might expect).
A link to the interview can be found here. For those who work in voice over, it's her response to the first question in the interview really hits home, and should be taken to heart.
For those who hadn't heard, Wayne Allwine - the voice of Mickey Mouse passed away yesterday.
Wayne started doing the voice of Mickey back in 1977, taking over the role from Jimmy MacDonald, becoming the third person to supply the voice (after Walt Disney, and later MacDonald). As of 2009 Wayne had been the voice actor for the character longer than anyone else, and was officially inducted into the Disney Legends Program in 2008.
Thanks to the folks at Disney Blog for a very moving and informative tribute to Mr. Allwine.
Over on Seth Godin's blog, Seth writes a quick post regarding the concept of value. It's an interesting read, but more importantly goes to the idea of what we all strive for within the voice over business (or any business). That is, success.
You see, success is the addition of value to any given work effort or enterprise, and despite what a lot of people think, that does not necessitate being busy all of the time. If you want to be successful, you need to add value to whatever it is that you're doing, and Seth's post raises a very important point as to how you ought to be doing it in your voice over business.
Sorry, but I couldn't resist since it's up on the artist's website:
In case you're wondering whether this sign is in the studio... you betcha!
I wouldn't have had it custom made otherwise. Sometimes, you just have to let your branding win out when it comes to the decoration in your studio.
On the flip side... I've no doubt that now I'll be stuck with a minor shrine to the Philadelphia Phillies when the time comes (which won't be long now... looking at houses as we speak). While I have some voice over memorabilia from the Phils, she's the sports nut.
I'm just nuts... =-)
BTW: for those wondering who the artist is, the studio sign came from the mind and talent of a very groovy individual by the name of Steve Cambronne.
As I am sure many of you know, Harry Kalas passed away two weeks ago today. For those who aren't familiar with him, Harry was synonymous with Philadelphia baseball, serving as the announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies since 1971 and also as an announcer for NFL films since 1974.
What you may not know or have seen is the outpouring of sympathy and condolence which which family, friends, and fans from all over showed in the aftermath of his sudden passing. Unless you live in Philadelphia, it's difficult to describe, but Harry Kalas was considered by many to be the voice of this town. He was one of the city's biggest proponents, known for his love of baseball (there are few who denied him the fan-given title of of being the "Phils biggest fan"), and of the people who lived here. Over the past two weeks, news crews have been outside of Citizens Bank Park to interview fans about the games and their reaction to Harry's passing. It seems like everyone had a favorite "Harry Kalas moment" or a personal story from meeting the man which they could share. He was even known to be the wedding announcer for fans when asked; he was so loved by the people of the Philadelphia area that many considered him to be family, despite never having met him, and the reverse was true as Harry was known for mingling and spending as much time with Phillies fans as he possibly could.
In the days after his death, a memorial tribute was set up around the Mike Schmidt statue outside of the third base entrance to Citizens Bank Park. I'd like to share a few of those photos, because without seeing the outpouring of emotion for Harry, it's tough for people to understand how one person's voice can touch so many lives.
I don't think that anything can really compare to this kind of respect the man had earned. The past two years have seen a lot of great voiceover talent move beyond this mortal coil. Harry Kalas was one of the greats among them, and his passion, his humor, and his voice will be missed by those who had the opportunity and privilege to call him one of their own.
While I am from the Philadelphia area, I don't usually keep my interests focused on the acting environment within the city. This is for two reasons:
A lot of the stuff I do is all over the country. Nowadays, you've got to be accessible from clients all over if you want to compete in the VO market, and while I also do stage and film, let's face it... I'm way too much of a voiceover guy to deny being anything else.
Trying to work in the word "Philadelphia" for the blog simply wouldn't make any sense, and saying "A man, a cheese steak, and a whole lot of microphones" really doesn't have the same vibe to it, lol.
So no, I don't really keep my interests limited to Philadelphia. There's a lot going on, to be sure (we have one of the largest theatre districts in the country, and the oldest theatre in the country is located on Walnut St. at the aptly named Walnut St. Theatre). However, for those who read the blog and are from the area, Jennifer Williamson has put together one of the nicer blogs I've seen that deals with a lot of the things which an actor living in the Philadelphia region has to face.
The only downside is that it's not a blog that gets updated all that often. Regardless, it's worth taking a look if you want to get a quick overview of the Philly acting world.
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.
