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.
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).
Seems appropriate given the events of the past two years... some things I can speak of, others are best left unsaid for now. The point though is this - I'm not dead yet...
Next up, I headed off to Liz de Nesnera ‘s presentation on “Talking Telephony”. I don’t get many jobs for that type of voice over, but I know that telephony-based voiceovers are some of most ubiquitous out there, and for people like Liz, it’s a way of life.
This was a sleeper of a panel for me. Before the hate mail starts rolling in, I mean a sleeper, not a snoozer. I wasn’t expecting to get a lot out of this panel, but I was still drawn to learn more about it. I have often said that I’ve learned the most when I didn’t think there was much to learn… this held true for Liz’s panel. Yeah, the technical stuff was pretty easy for me, and not too much was new there (although I can see some great uses for Word2Wav, especially with some of the industrials I have to do). However, the actual voice acting, general schema, etc. related to things such as IVR, voice prompts, and the like were completely new to me and a total 180 from what I expected. Add to that the approach that Liz defined, the marketing techniques she identified, and the simple (yet effective) methods of finding clients (either via direct contact, or by finding production houses which specialize in telephony VO) made this panel a very educational and entertaining one for me.
After the 11AM panel, I headed down to the exhibit hall and toured through the place to see what was being offered. Popped by the Voice Over Extra booth, and greeted John Florian. One of the big things that hit me during VOICE so far was the number of great people whom I met and converse with on a regular basis, but rarely get to see in person. If there’s one thing I do like about VOICE, it’s the ability to meet and catch up with so many people in the industry that I wouldn’t normally get to see otherwise. Unfortunatley, I’m digressing though…
John was nice enough to let me use some space at his booth to set up some gear and get a few roving interviews to share with others. First off was John himself, who was gracious enough to take some time away from what he was doing to give me a few minutes of his time to test out the recording chain. Unfortunately, I only had time for one more interview before the next panel, and I was lucky enough to get Pete Rofe’ to agree to join me for what turned into a monster interview (but a really good one, as Peter’s insights into voice over and acting in general are spot on). Once I get a chance to upload the clips, I’ll share them via the blog (and John was very kind to host the clips as well). I can’t promise the best quality due to the environment, but for those who wanted to attend, but couldn’t or weren’t sure that VOICE was for them, I think these clips will be a great way to see just what you’re missing.
After snagging those two interviews, I was able to bounce between George Whittam's panel on the Technology of Voiceover and Erik Sheppard's panel on Simple Mistakes that Talent Make. Now for those who don't know George Whittam, he's the guy behind Eldorado Recording Services. Prior to VOICE 2010, I heard one talent who was critiquing the Guests of Honor ask the question "who is George Whittam... I've never heard of him." Well, this is George Whittam, and any guy who can build a studio for the likes of the late Don LaFontaine, Joe Cipriano, and a veritable "who's who" within the voice acting community (not to mention the Don LaFontaine Voiceover Lab) is A-ok in my book. George's panel is always a good one, especially for new talent or those who don't have some kind of recording background. Even gearheads like me can pick up a few things with some of the newer technologies out there which we may have otherwise ignored. For example, I would never have bothered to utilize something like a CEntrance MicPort Pro for my "VO 2 Go" kit if I hadn't read George's reviews of the device.
(Besides, George originally hails from my hometown, West Chester PA. You've got to support the locals :)
Erik Sheppard's panel was also very good, and highlighted mistakes that pretty much any voice actor has made over the course of their career (most of which he probably enocuntered first hand in his position with Voice Talent Productions). I heard more than a few groans and such from folks who'd committed the very same faux pas that Erick discussed. It was a great panel which discussed ways in which voice over talent manage to work themselves out of a job via oversights, snafus, and by not following directions.
That last one is in bold for a reason, because while some items can be overlooked (one of my better clients was landed by a fauz pas on my part which might have seemed fatal at the time, but was turned into a positive experience for the client by the way in which I handled it), an unwillingness to follow client/agent/casting director/director directions is a very quick way to make certain that your demo gets tossed into the "ignore" pile.
The final panel for the afternoon session I attended was Beverley Bremer's panel on "How to Weat 3 Hats". I viewed this as a panel which was really good for beginner and intermediate voice talent, as too often they focus on one aspect of the voice over process (usually the talent). While that's not a bad thing per se, it can quickly lead to a myopic view that causes the talent to lose out on various opportunities. Within the voice over world, the voice actor needs to put themselves in the position of talent, director, and engineer. The talent portion of the presentation is pretty self-explanatory, however the other two are often overlooked by voice talent that is less experienced. Interpretation of what the director wants, and the ability to self-direct are as important as the acting ability according to Bremers, and I wholeheartedly agree. There's an old VO adage which states that your first take needs to be what the specs ask for, but the second should be what you think they actually want. That's self-direction for VO in a nutshell... you need to be able to understand what the copy is really asking for and then to do it.
The final item, Engineering, is a bit of a no-brainer if you have a home studio, but you'd be amazed how often people forget to do a little audio engineering during their auditions. A poorly edited file is a quick way to work yourself out of a booking that would have otherwise been yours. Especially in today's VO market, it's become more and more of a critical skill to have, and one which cannot be ignored.
On that note, I'm going to try and get some rest before Day 2. There's nothing worse than trying to attend these panels when you're batteries need major recharging.
By the end of Beverly's panel, I was pretty well wiped out. That's the thing with VOICE. If you try to hit everything, you're going to be wiped out at the end of the day. It's not a bad thing, but you need to be judicious when it comes to what you choose to attend, because some panels are more intensive than others.
Managed to have a slightly saner wakeup call this morning (6:15AM), which was a most pleasant change from the day before. Got a quick breakfast, showered, shaved, and ready for the day’s activities. First off was the introductory speech by James and Penny, which was similar to what was at VOICE 2008, but thankfully the issues which kept the keynote speaker from appearing did not occur this time.
This year, the opening speaker for VOICE was none other than Pat Fraley. If you haven’t worked with, trained with, or seen a presentation from Pat, then you’re missing out. Without a doubt, Pat is one of the nicest guys in the business, and one most well respected (the man is a VO machine; just check out his imdb page... it's nothing short of astounding). For VOICE he didn’t disappoint, but then again he never does…
Pat opened the convention with the premise of voiceover comedy. As voice over folks, we often bring comedy into what we do, but how often do we actually think about the comedy within the copy? Not as often as you might think. To do this, Pat started to cast for a spot that he wanted to use to kick off the show. He asked for what was nothing less than an unusual character (gruff, Jewish, and 6’9”). If that sounds a bit off, you’re 100% right, but that’s because Pat was setting us all up for his co-host, who was none other than Brad Garrett… hey, I told you that Pat never disappoints.
What followed was one of the most riotous panels I’ve ever seen in my life.Pat and Brad riffed on pretty much everyone and everything, and frankly, this event was worth the cost of admission alone (for me at least).As Pat, Brad, and a host of volunteers demonstrated throughout the 90+ minute panel, there are a multitude of ways to raise the stakes of the copy to the point of hilarity, and still get the message across.All too often, I think these are things which get overlooked (or can be) in the morass of the process.It reminded me a LOT of improvisation, and the things I’d learned during my time training with the People’s Improv Theatre in NYC.
I'm trying my best not to give anyone eye strain from all the stuff that occurred at VOICE 2010, so I've been breaking these up as best possible. I'll have the second half of the the first day of VOICE 2010 up later tonight.
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...
Well, I was packed (more or less) and ready to head out to the airport for my flight to Los Angeles sometime around “dark 0-hundred”. Now I love to travel, but the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn to get on to a plane is not quite my idea of a good time. Love heading out to LA to network and learn with some of the best voice over people in the business, but don’t mess with my sleep…
Get to the airport, which was unusually busy at 5:40 AM on a Wednesday, bags checked, and got to play with the folks from TSA (who were surprisingly nonchalant about me waltzing through security with a DSLR kit in one bag and a bunch of recording gear in the other). Hop on the plane and get to enjoy Southwest’s hospitality for the next 7.5 hours.
When I finally landed in LA, I was fortunate enough to arrive about 30 minutes or so early. Good stuff… lets me get more done before the festivities begin. Got to the hotel, checked in (ironically, I’m only about two doors down from the room I was in at VOICE 2008, which was one of the nicer hotel rooms I’d been in over the past two years). Another item of irony (and unexpected pleasure) was to spot the person who was checking into their room right before me. None other than D.B. Cooper, whom I haven’t seen in far too long for my tastes (not only a talented voice actress and Website designer, but D.B. runs one of the larger and more popular forums on the net). After spending some time chatting with D.B., I did something which I probably should have done earlier… eat (save for a bag of peanuts on the flight, and a 100 calorie pack of cheese-its, I’d not had much chance to grab some food). For those who’ve never been to the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza where VOICE is being held, I’ll say two things about it:
1. Very nice hotel that will cater to nearly any need you might have, with a restaurant that is staffed by one of the friendliest groups of people that I’ve met in my travels. 2. If they could figure out a way to charge you a fee for using the air, they probably would. If you can get past the second item, I highly recommend staying here whenever you’re in Los Angeles.
It seems that my penchant for running into people was in high gear today… as I’m heading out of the restaurant, I run into none other than Ron Levine, the venerable Santa Claus that everyone remembered from VOICE 2008. After helping Ron to settle in a bit, we headed over to the local mall to stretch our legs a bit after spending several hours on our respective flights, and to pick up some supplies to get us through the conference (as much as I do enjoy the hotel we’re at, I’m not crazy enough to pay some of the prices they’re asking for at times). Headed back to the hotel after grabbing some supplies and somehow managed to catch about 30 or so minutes of rest before getting changed and ready for the Red Carpet Reception which kicked off VOICE 2010.
So after getting a bit of rest and changing into something a bit more appropriate than jeans and a wrinkled shirt, I headed down to the Red Carpet Reception. What follows is the stuff that voice actor’s dreams are made of (at least I’d like to think so). Penny Abshire and James Alburger managed to put together an event which literally drew hundreds of voice talent from all over the world. While it was obvious that VOICE 2010 was going to be a smaller event than in years past, it was also apparent that it wouldn’t be for lack of effort. A large contingent from Europe and Japan, not to mention Canada, and at least one person from Turkey were in attendance. Regardless of what happens during the course of this conference, it’s obvious that VOICE has developed an international reach, which is nothing short of impressive in the years since the event first took place. Where else can you meet such amazing talent as Bob Bergen, Pat Fraley, Joe Cipriano, Beau Weaver, Stu Herrera, Bobbin Beam, Dave Courvoisier, and a host of others all under one roof at the same time?
Unfortunately, I did not have one of my better cameras with me last night, however, I did manage to take more than a few pictures of people while I was at the event, and I'll be putting up a few once I get a chance to upload them. They’re a little dark, but if you’re reading this I think it will give you a good understanding of just what the folks at VOICE have going on.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The interesting and exciting part for me is that the narration is considered to be the last professional recording of Welles, and literally sat on a shelf for over twenty-five years. Quite frankly, it was one of those little legends that turned out to be true.
On the other hand, the use of deceased celebrities in new media doesn't often end well. Just ask folks who thought it was a good idea to "resurrect" Orville Redenbacher and produce one of the creepiest commercials I've ever seen. From my own experience, the first national commercial I was ever in used this same technology to bring back Frank Sinatra from the grave for the NBA's "Live it Live" campaign back in 2002. I still shudder a bit whenever I see that one on YouTube. It was definitely a great PR campaign, but it was just a little too eerie for me.
I'm just thankful that Mr. Welles is merely providing a voiceover for the upcoming production.
One of the great things about voice over is the myriad array of characters and things a talented actor can play. Doesn't matter if it's a person (real or fictional), an animal, an inanimate object, or even an idea or feeling... if you have a talented voice actor in the studio, you'll get a story with pathos.
I can't speak for other voice actors, but for me, the opportunity, the challenge to stretch yourself into something you'd never have thought about before is simply exhilarating, exhausting, exasperating, entertaining, and yes, sometime a little scary. All wrapped up into this exuberant amalgamation, contained only by the copy in front of you.
Some people are lucky enough to dedicate their entire careers to the idea of bringing the unimaginable to life. For some actors, you only need one role. Herzog's portrayal of this character, this plastic bag, struggling with its own immortality against the nature of the world is both comical, and poignant as it endures on an epic journey in search of its lost Maker, wondering if there is any point to life without her.
You can find more information regarding the film here. And as you get wrapped into the story of Herzog's character, just remember this:
all the emotions you're feeling... are for a plastic bag.
If you're familiar with Kat Cressida, then you know that she is a very talented actress who has performed in a variety of voiceover and live-action roles (my personal favorite was her character in Babylon 5). This year she has the honor of taking on the announcing duties for the NFL Draft.
The Beverley Hills Courier has a pretty nice article about it here if you're interested in learning more.
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.
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.
I'm running around a lot as of late (more so than usual). Nearing the end stretch of another degree program, voice over work, house hunting, and all of the things in life which whittle away at your free time. Ironically, given all of the additional things, I'm getting unsolicited VO work through my website.
I have no complaints with that =-)
With the work that I've been landing there's been an interesting trend I've been noticing and I think it's worth mentioning since for some, it's been costing you bookings. I think that the best way is to describe a last-minute booking I got a few weeks back. It was Memorial Day, and I got a last minute booking from a new client who wanted me to do a voice over for a video game (my first actually, w00t!). I don't know the specifics or how many people were contacted before the client and the studio they were working with came up with my name. It doesn't matter, but I know that I wasn't the first person they'd tried to contact (the director knew me more from industrials and commercial voice over than from video games and character voice over).
So how did I end up with the booking? The answer is simple. The client needed a voice, they needed it quickly, and they wanted an actor who wasn't originally part of the project. These are all good things, but the problem was that when the client and the recording studio wanted a voice talent who had either ISDN or a phone patch (and also had FTP capabilities so they could get the finished product quickly). Basically, they realized that the odds of getting someone in the studio on a national holiday were slim to none, but they wanted to be able to direct the performance. Having an ISDN or phone patch allowed them to do this, and to also have playback capabilities (if necessary) . I don't know about anyone else, but these seem like reasonable things to ask for from your talent.
I don't want to get into a discussion over the loss of fidelity relating to the bit-rate of audio playback over an analog phone line with a digital hybrid phone patch... for the audiophiles amongst us, we can argue the merits of this at another time.
So down the list they go. Folks with the experience they're looking for, and have listed themselves as having ISDN or a phone patch... shouldn't be too hard, right? So how did they end up with me? The short answer from the engineer on the other end of the line was this: none of the talent they had listed with the pre-reqs the client needed actually had the capabilities they claimed to have. They overstated their capabilities. Eventually, the engineer realized that there was one person they knew who had the stuff needed to do the job. They'd done sessions with this person before, and knew they knew how to operate it (and more importantly, that they actually owned the gear). That person is me...
I now have a very happy client who is already talking about future work they want me to take on (feel free, it was a pleasure working with you =-)
I think that this happens a lot more with voice talent than people realize. What the folks who do this don't realize is that if you're found out, the client/studio who realizes it isn't just going to keep it to themselves. Voice over is one of the most competitive types of acting, but we're also very close-knit (and not surprisingly, the folks in the industry like to talk amongst themselves). I know that in my home market of Philadelphia, if you're found to be overstating your mic cabinet, or home studio capabilities, then you're not too long for this line of work. It's not much different than if you have a bad attitude in the studio... word gets around, and it travels quickly.
I know that we all want to get booked, and to do so regularly. However, there's a line that gets crossed when you start using misrepresentation to promote your business. In the world of security there's an axiom which sums it all up. "If you're deceptive about the little things, then how can I trust you with the important stuff? If I caught you lying about one thing, how many more lies do I have yet to discover?" Trust is given, but must be verified and earned. If you lose that, then you've lost everything. The point is this - if you misrepresent yourself and you get found out (which there's a good chance of happening), your clients and those who work with you are going to start asking themselves just what else you've been deceptive about. Nobody wants to be in that position.
Without turning this into an even longer discussion on morality, you need to maintain truth in your advertising. I've lost count of the U47-owning VO actors out there who thought nobody would notice that they've got a $100 preamp with a $70 mic. I'm not saying that you can't sound good with less expensive gear. You can, and there are more than a few folks in the industry who do (once again, it's not just about the gear). However, you can't be claiming to have one thing and in reality have something else...
At best, it's deceptive advertising of your services. Frankly though, it's downright fraud, and people in the industry are all too willing to let everyone know about it once someone gets caught.
Of all the dumb things one can do to harm their voice over careers, this is one of the top on my list. The worst part about it is that the person you've cheated most is yourself (if you're good enough to book, then the tools you used to get the booking didn't matter to the person who hired you).
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.
