I don’t often post twice in a day, but my day was interrupted by Online Video Daily – one of the MediaPost enewsletters I get and after watching this video, I just had to pass it along.
What an charming, heart-warming little story this is – don’t be surprised if you find yourself a little choked up by the half-way mark as you start to see where it is going.
I have a love/hate relationship with my cats.
There are four of them. Not quite the crazy lady with all the cats, but please – someone stop me before I get to that point.
All different personalities…
Lista – the little girl. Skinny and skittish. But sit down and she is right there on your lap with her sharp sharp little claws kneading your tummy.
Louie – chubby tuxedo cat. OK, fat. And when he sits around the house, he sits AROUND the house. (rim shot)
Monroe – orange tabby – AKA Mean-roe – still dealing with his sexuality – finding love in all the wrong places – usually with a random article of clothing.
Ding Tut – the new boy – sort of the color of a Dreamsicle – a stocky, adorable, lover – a head butting, paws around your neck nuzzler.
However, leave them alone and destruction ensues. It always amazes me how they can […]
One of the things that separates a voiceover actor from a theater or film actor is memorization. In VO, we don’t have to memorize. While both are “acting,” the techniques are different. And one of the reasons why not all good stage or film actors can make the transition to VO. And vice versa.
I love the fact that I don’t have to memorize. It goes in my eyeballs, rolls around in my brain for a little while, out my mouth and then it is gone. Sometimes I can’t even tell you what I did yesterday!
When I was doing on-camera work as a spokesperson, I used teleprompter or ear-prompter, so I wasn’t memorizing either.
But a dozen or so years ago, I auditioned for a live “radio show” that was going to be done on stage. After the run, I had been bitten by the “acting” bug. It was wonderful to actually […]
Woke up this morning to my niece throwing a mini-tantrum after discovering that there was no water and she had intentionally put off washing her hair until the morning. That blew over when it became obvious there was nothing we could do about it, but it could be the rest of the day before we get water back. A main line broke right around the corner.
The city has been replacing all the water lines for months now and they have spent the last week on the big one just about a block away. Something didn’t get buttoned up right I guess when they covered up the hole last night.
But it isn’t wide-spread. If I need water, I can get it easily. And there are plenty of places close by I can go if I need to take a shower. And the weather is cool and overcast, so the garden will […]
So, I keep seeing this question pop up on various social networking groups…
“Are you on Twitter?”
Well, yes, I have a Twitter account. @ISDNVoiceover
And I have people who actively follow my tweets. Or have at least clicked on the link to Follow Me. And many of them will probably see this post when it gets fed to the various places it gets fed to when it is published.
But am I ON Twitter? Not very much.
I still don’t get it. Unless I am using it all wrong, it seems like a pull website. Where I have to go to it and pull the information. OK, Facebook is that way too, but for some reason I WANT to go to Facebook and check out what is happening. I just don’t find myself drawn to Twitter the same way.
Perhaps I just need someone to break it down for me. Talk to me like I’m […]
OK, so a few months before FaffCon 4 in Ventura, the post card I filled out in Hershey arrived in the post. It was a complete surprise and I was a bit anxious when I flipped it over. For there on the other side was the list of things I wanted to do – without fail! I’m pretty sure I blogged about this unexpected stress the last time the card came. Well, not really stress stress – hyperbole – sorry.
I’m still not up to a passing grade yet, if you simply are checking off the 5 items on the list. I’m not nearly as upset with myself that I haven’t finished the items from FaffCon 3 as I was over not finishing the list of items from FaffCon 2. If Ventura was your first venture into FaffCon, you will soon understand what I am talking about.
The items on the list […]
Today it is easier and easier to get feedback on what you are doing. Why don’t people listen? Or perhaps, why – when given good feedback – why don’t people take action to improve what they are doing? Do they simply not hear themselves?
So many people these days have been told by endless “voiceover” coaches that they can make it – all they need is determination – and their signature on the bottom of that check paying for more classes. They stop listening to themselves and never develop their self-evaluation skills.
Most of the forums for voiceover people include critique areas where people can post demos for comments. I’m referring to demos from newbies, not updated demos from people who are making actual money doing voiceovers. You can get honest, yet sometimes highly conflicting advice. And if you follow the subsequent comments to a thread, this advice is often rejected by […]
I don’t know about you, but I don’t spend hours and hours in my booth, unless I am recording an audio book. Most of the time I am NOT in my booth. When you do mostly spots or short corporate pieces or eLearning, your time in the booth is probably a lot less than the time you spend catching up on Facebook.
But what should we be doing with the time we are not recording? My thoughts on that have changed over the years. And god help the person who has to unravel the mess I am leaving behind because of this change in attitude.
I used to be a lot more organized than I am now. You would think that with advances in software to make our lives easier, that I would have things a lot more together than I do. I have Outlook and Act and Quicken Home and Business […]
So the latest invention in the quest by people to skip the very thing that keeps their TV programs on the air is an ad eraser embedded in new digital video recorders sold by Dish Network. Just turn on Auto Hop and ads automatically vanish. TiVo on steroids.
Here’s an article in the New York Times that goes into more detail.
So, how do I feel about that – as a voice talent whose income includes payment for doing announcing for TV Commercials? In some ways, a lot like the chief executive of CBS who wonders how he will produce shows like “CSI” without the support of the advertisers running the commercials. Or maybe a bit like News Corporation who has decided not to run Dish’s DVR ads.
Everyone in the chain is trying to figure out how to snag the eyeballs (and dollars) of the consumers. Consumers […]
I belong to a slew of groups on LinkedIn – including a large number of voiceover related groups. Why is it that there seems to be a plethora of unprofessional comments. Social media has been around for years now and it amazes me how people don’t seem to understand that what they post is there for the world to see (when a group is an open group).
I felt compelled to comment today on one of them after a couple of people actually started slamming a legitimate producer for not posting his undying thanks to the group. His post was 6 MONTHS ago and people are still posting comments with links to their demos. And now some are complaining that he hasn’t posted to say thank you!?
It is an International Group with members from all over the world, and perhaps members with little time on social media or little time in […]