I’ve been extremely busy lately, working on three large long-form narration projects. One is Project Management training for a large construction firm, another is materials to help prepare students for college and their post-graduation job search, and the newest project is narrating World Book Encyclopedia materials for web use. One of the cool things about doing narration projects like these is how much I learn about a huge variety of industries and occupations. I’ve learned a lot about ladder safety, accounting, how large contractors do business, even how to spot all types of insurance fraud. After doing this for 20...
My latest news is that I am currently in the midst of a fair amount of angst over the production of my newest voice-over demo, the first one I have hired an outside producer to engineer in over a decade. There is a great deal of controversy on my favorite voice-over forum, www.vo-bb.com, over how quickly the first draft of my new demo is edited. I have 14 clips in 60 seconds, which is a lot! Most contemporary demos have from 8-12 clips in that time frame. The central issue in the debate, as I see it, is “how will this demo be listened to?” My fellow voice actors feel the individual clips are far too short to get a...
I found this jaw-droppingly amazing digital art demo from Plenty ™ on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Check it out here and prepare to be amazed: http://vimeo.com/16228451 “This is a montage of Plenty’s works during 2010, plus some dear projects that Gula and Playful made in 2009. You will find works from: Fox International, MTV LatinAmerica, MTV International, VH1, NatGeo, AXN Japan, Schweppes Australia & Gancia One. Music: Empire of the sun (Standing on the Shore)...
One of the most enduringly useful tips I learned from my favorite voice-over coach, Ms Marice Tobias, was the idea that “whatever is true with me emotionally in the moment will come through in my performance.” I had an illustration of that concept not long ago that I want to share with you. A few days ago, I auditioned for a “Denis Leary” type of read for a food product. I recorded at home, felt pretty good about it, then MP3’d it to my agent. The this morning I got a message from my agent that the casting director had decided that she’d ONLY consider talent who could come in and read in-person this...
My goal is to post at least twice a week here, with material that will be on interest to freelance creatives in general, and people in the voice-over business in particular. I’ve been silent the past few weeks though, because I have been moving forward at high speed and haven’t quite caught up enough to blog! In the past few weeks I have assembled a brand-new PC to replace my old one which had a motherboard short, so now I have entered the world of Windows 7. Also, I found a great deal on my own personal “Holy Grail” mic, a Gefell M930 (it sounds much like a Neumann TLM-103, only better!). I am thrilled with how it sounds in my...
Every week, I plan on sharing my coolest media find of the week. This time, I’m sharing a very impressive example of stop-motion graffitti video, hooked up to a catchy rap tune (it’s from Israel, actually):...
I’ve had a personal website to promote my services as a voice-over talent since 2003. I’ve had the task “Update my website” on my “To-Do” list for, oh, about 3 years (can you relate?). I was stuck, big time. So, how did I get UN-stuck? Let me share with you the simple tip that has made a radical change in my productivity. In August 2010, I got an e-mail from an old acquaintance of mine who has a nice business as a terrific, life-changing career counselor. As a gift for filling out a survey, he forwarded an e-mail that sure sounded like some pie-in-the-sky notion – a “Five Minute Secret That Billionaires...