It's a term I like to use every so often... especially when dealing with these:
Vicious critters... the cable snake
These days, these are the only snakes I've got in my house (if for no other reason than my fiancee would kill me, but not before leaving a hole in the front door that was approximately shaped like her as she fled for her life). I'm good with that, as there's enough going on right now that I'm more than busy with things. The snakes in the picture above
Back in the day I happened to work with a Herpetologist. Why would I do such a thing you ask? Simple... I was not the biggest fan of snakes. I wouldn't say abject terror at the sight of one, but if I could get out of the same room as one, I would do so, and do so quickly (much as I do when near a cast member from "Jersey Shore").
Now it may not make sense to you to directly confront something you dislike, or even fear, but the truth of the matter is this. What you do when faced with an unpleasant situation goes a large way towards defining the type of person you are, and the type of person you want to be. Too many of us never choose to face things, or to do what's hard (duh! That's because it's hard). When you take the time to think about it, it usually doesn't speak well to the type of people they are. Seriously, how many people do we as a society look to and associate with true greatness? Not many, right? When you take a look at nearly all of them, what made them a great person wasn't so much their success... but the obstacles they had to overcome in order to make that journey.
Here in Philadelphia, we've heard a lot of powerful voices. You've got the impassioned speeches of the American Revolution, some of the most famous theatres in the country (FYI: Philly has the oldest theatre in the country), and a remarkably rich history of music and broadcasting).
We're pretty aware of the power that one's voice can have.
As a voice actor, as any voice actor can tell you, the use of one's voice can bring a power to the words that often doesn't exist on paper, at least not on their own. Now I recently said that it's not just about the voice, and I stand behind that comment. Turns out that I was more right than I knew.
There's a report that just came out from the Proceedings of the Royal Society B stating something that I've been saying for a while. There is an inherent power with what we choose to do with our speech that can affect those around us. Most voice artists out there should know this by now, but if not, the study found that the affect of a mother's voice has the same chemical and emotional affect on a child as if they had made physical contact.
Think about that for a second. As far as the subjects in the study were concerned, merely hearing the voice of a concerned parent had the same affect on them as if they had been physically comforted.
That's pretty powerful stuff if you ask me. I've always used mental imagery to help determine my choices with copy. This included the usual who, what, where, when, why, etc. One of the most important for me has always been "to whom am I speaking", and I know from experience the affect it can have on my delivery. However, I never once thought that there was the potential to have so profound an affect as to actually alter one's biological chemistry with nothing more than the power of my speech.
A good synopsis of the study can be found here for those who are interested in learning a bit more.
It's one of those posts which you can't help but to chuckle at, groan, and take a little bit of wisdom from. If for no other reason, than the fact that anyone who has ever been on either side of the booth has witnessed at least a few of these telltale signs, this blog post is worth taking a read.
I only wish Paul had added a few comments about regionalisms being used in the wrong context or for the wrong audience (trust me, living in Philadelphia you see/hear less experienced talent do this all the time).
FWIW: Paul was half right about his comment regarding Neumann. They manufacturer a shotgun microphone (the KMR 81), but have never built a ribbon mic.
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.
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 love this question. Ironically, I get it a lot (apparently some think that I philosophize about things like this; they give me far too much credit). On blogs, it's our own way to justify why we have a blog. I'm no different than anyone else in that regard, but I like to think that being honest about it counts for something.
For those who are interesting in "why are we here?", George Carlin had an interesting response to this question during his "Jammin in New York" comedy special back in 1992. Regardless of your feelings toward the man, his philosophical insights are some of the most amusing you could ask for.
But I'm digressing...
Back in August of 2008, Bob Souer made the comment that I really ought to start up a blog based on my knowledge of voiceover recording. Let me be the first to say that while I have earned the reputation of taking the concept of voiceover from a home studio to the point of overkill at times, there are others who know just as much as I do, and probably more. More to the point, I am a relative unknown within the world of voiceover, and to a certain extent I prefer it. More importantly though, who really cares what my insights into things are anyway?
Later on in the day, I ran into Bob Bergen. Bob's a great guy, one of the most knowledgable and talented guys I've met in the world of voiceover (seriously, he's a walking encyclopedia). He's also quite the stalker, but only if you're Mel Blanc (and to learn more about that story you need to either attend one of his workshops, or his one-man show... both of which I highly recommend). Anyway, while we were sharing a little time to catch up on each other's lives he made the comment that I was very observant about things, and always bringing out the pros and cons of whatever issues I adressed in the various voiceover forums, regarless of whether the topic was popular or not. I had been weaning myself away from them since I saw a lot of negativity and was concerned that I'd become the same, but Bob's comment let me know that I was being anything but, and that my view on things outside of the studio were something that others really appreciated.
(on the side, I have real money for anyone who can tell me how he's 10 years older than I am and looks 15 years younger)
That evening, I shared some time with both Dave Courvoisier and later with Ron Levine, shooting the bull and exchanging some tales of adventure from our infamous pasts. Dave was serving as the M.C. for the VOICE conference and is just one heck of a talented and nice guy, and Ron... well Ron is Santa Claus, so how can you not love the guy? Then you get to hear his work and you're totally blown away.
Well, on both occasions they make comments about my experiences in life and how they've shaped me, and how much fun it would be to share those experiences with others since it's brought me into the world of voiceover from a different route than most others. I have my own biases towards my experiences in life, but I found it interesting how differently I came into the fold compared to most others.
That's it in a nutshell. My self-aggrandizing reasons for being here. While I'm doing this, I plan on blogging a bit about my experiences, tossing out assorted wisdoms regarding the art of mixology, a lot about voiceover and recording.
