Do Not Count Your Chickens…

OK, I auditioned for what could be a large national campaign and got past the first cut. Not sure what the next cut entails – further auditioning or just simply being passed by another set of ears, but I was quite stoked to know I didn’t suck. ;-) Actually, I initially felt really good about the audition, so getting this feedback helped reinforce my self-evaluation abilities.

How cool is that!

No matter what happens with this particular audition (Audition and forget. Audition and forget. Audition and forget), it reinforces why I am stepping up my marketing, working on new demos, remaking the website, getting some additional coaching and making the big push to land a top agent in a top market. It’s because when I do get a chance to audition with the cream of the crop, I compete.

I’ve had a chance recently to work with some established national talent, picked from the avalance of […]

2018-02-06T06:48:57+00:00July 24th, 2009|Categories: Auditioning|Tags: , , |
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Today’s Casting Reality – Speed and Quality

Stephanie at Voices.com is a prolific writer with many excellent Blogs and Podcasts and Articles on Vox Daily. Her thoughts today on the speed at which casting is done these days is a good one for any voice talent to take to heart. Add Nancy Wolfson’s (BrainTrax Audio)insight to the mix and you can see how you need to be ready (with speed and ability) to land the jobs.

2018-02-06T06:48:58+00:00July 21st, 2009|Categories: Auditioning|Tags: , , , , |
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Sight Readers Give Good Voice(overs)

Let’s get this out in the open. All good stage, film and TV actors do not make good voice talent – and vice versa. If you are used to having your script days ahead of time, with hours or even days of rehearsal with a director, you may not be able to get into the VO vibe.

Using a studio session as an example…let’s say a session is scheduled for 9 AM. You get to the studio at 8:55 (or earlier). Someone asks if you want coffee. You’re thinking “A script would be nice.” Someone hands you the copy around 9:15. (Traffic was bad?) If you are lucky, they may spend a minute filling you in on what they feel you should do with the copy before hustling you into the booth.

At 9:17 you enter your padded room, adjust your headsets. Look for a pencil with a sharp point (or pull […]

2018-02-06T06:48:58+00:00July 17th, 2009|Categories: Musings|Tags: , , , , |
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Made a new website this week

I had a long conversation with a career coach this week and was inspired to redo my website. My last site was pretty packed with information (much of it not really related to earning money) and in effect tried to do far too much.

The new site is cleaner and more focused on marketing me as a talent. As a talent working the higher paying jobs. At least I hope it is. It’s probably still got a few bugs to check, but I got on a roll and managed to design and create it in a relatively short period of time.

New website

 The basic design is from a background collection from Digital Juice. The inner pages were created using the colors and basic idea of the circles and lines. I wanted to keep a lot of text on the inner pages. There are some little issues and […]

2018-02-06T06:48:58+00:00July 16th, 2009|Categories: Marketing|Tags: , , , |
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Adding to the Land Fill

I just spent about an hour and a half going through about 50 pounds of paper scripts that have been piling up over the past couple of years. While I would probably read a lot of these scripts right off the screen, during the school semester I usually bring in scripts from sessions to show my students what a professional voice talent may see in the course of a week.

Scripts range from very “formal” radio and TV scripts (with logos and official titles to help the radio and TV stations figure out which spot to run when), to a hasty email with a single line.

Normally, if I am going to work in my ISDN studio, I need to print out the script, as there is no monitor tied to a computer. I may do that one day (add a monitor), but frankly I like to mark the script when I am […]

2018-02-06T06:48:58+00:00July 12th, 2009|Categories: Techniques|Tags: , , , , |
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A Day in the Life of a VO Talent

At coffee – the BlackBerry rings – it is an agent from the other side of the country. “Got a job for you today if you are available. Don’t know what the pay is or anything much about the job, but they have to have it on the net tomorrow.” I ask if it is ISDN (yes, it will be) and assure her that I can carve out some time today to do the session.

Walking back from coffee – the BlackBerry rings – it is the agent from the other side of the country. “OK, how’s 2pm? It is about a 10 minute corporate piece for a hospital. How’s $800?’ 2pm is fine and $800 is fine.

Back home and in the studio, I start working on my In Box – it needs attention – sorting email, following up on auditions, confirming upcoming work and reviewing the scripts. Some prep work […]

2018-02-06T06:48:58+00:00July 10th, 2009|Categories: Musings|Tags: , |
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Former Student Facing the “Union” Question

One of my former students stopped by today to record a couple of auditions. His setup was on the fritz, so I let him use my wireless laptop studio in my ISDN space. I couldn’t let him use my main studio because those darn roofers are still across the alley pounding away (yeah – they’ll be finished by noon – yesterday! Ha!).

Anyway, this kid is very talented and is the voice of a new video game that is using AFTRA talent and now he is a “must join” and has to fork over the $1,400 initiation fee. Because this is a video game, he is not being afforded the opportunity to pay in increments. I don’t have all the facts, but with unions losing ground day-by-day, you would THINK they would be open to this option.

Because he does on-camera, comedy, stage and voice work, and is planning to move to Los Angeles, […]

2009-06-26T18:05:44+00:00June 26th, 2009|Categories: Unions|Tags: , |
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