School’s Back in Session – Let the Learning Commence

I teach a voice acting class at San Diego City College – just the one class, but carving out the 5 hours per week to get there gets difficult at times – especially since it usually meets mid-morning to around noon. This semester though, for the first time, it is being offered in the evenings from 6PM to 8:30PM. This pleased my local agent who has had to work around my “teaching” time since 1999.

The first day of classes was last night and the first thing I noticed is that it is a heck of a lot easier to park! And it is another huge class – with the budget cuts reducing the total number of classes offered and more people wanting to take classes, most classes are full with wait lists. I think I managed to accomodate everyone, but will be crossing my fingers for some drops in the next […]

2009-08-25T09:16:24+00:00August 25th, 2009|Categories: Teaching|Tags: , , , |

When is it just plain irritating…

Something came up on a VO forum the other day and it has been on my mind ever since. With everyone trying to find something interesting to post on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, MySpace, their blogs – when does it cross over from pertinent, interesting, amusing to just blatant self-promotion? Actually, you find a lot of people hawking their wares who will never be interesting or amusing.

Think about your experiences in real-life face-to-face situations where you walk into a room and instantly move away from the really irritating person who you know is going to talk your ear off about themselves and how you should hire them for something. You don’t like it there, why should it be any different online.

I’m going to grab another cup of coffee – I need to put on my thinking cap before going online to update my status. Want to contribute something pertinent, valuable, […]

2018-02-06T06:48:56+00:00August 19th, 2009|Categories: Marketing|Tags: , , |

Phone Patch vs ISDN vs Self-Directed vs Outside Studio

Had two back to back phone patch sessions today that started me thinking again about the various methods of doing a session. Live in-person at an outside studio. ISDN. Phone Patch. Self-directed. There are pros and cons for each depending on various factors such as the type of script and how far away the outside studio is.

The first session today was with a studio that I have had to drive to in the past for sessions. It is up in Orange County. I’m practically in downtown San Diego. The last time I made the drive – about 1.5 to 2 hours or so depending on traffic – was the day Sarah Palin was announced as a Vice Presidential Candidate. The drive up and back that day was anything but boring.

But it does take a chunk of time out of your day – a minimum of about 4 to get there, do the session and […]

2018-02-06T06:48:56+00:00August 11th, 2009|Categories: Musings, Recording|Tags: , , , , |

Friday is trash day

Friday is REALLY noisy around here. And even noisier every other Friday when the Black “trash” AND the Blue “recycle” bins are picked up. Prior to the trash trucks grinding down the alley – are the alley elves who push their shopping carts along looking for bottles and cans to recycle.

Then there is the Volkswagon that comes home at noon everyday down the back alley and idles while the garage door goes up – then revs up and goes into the garage. Add that to the random and scheduled selection of police and news helicopters and my frustration level definitely goes up on Fridays.

But for some reason, during a session, things seem pretty quiet and when something does rumble past in the alley or overhead it is only the smallest of interuptions.

So why do these interuptions bother me so while I am trying to get auditions done on Friday!

2009-08-07T12:27:04+00:00August 7th, 2009|Categories: Recording|Tags: , |

Sometimes it’s good not to have real work to do

I didn’t have any paying gigs today. I did get a couple of bookings for next week. I deleted a bunch of auditions from Voice123 and Voices.com that just weren’t right for me. I spent some time at my mom’s trouble shooting an Internet purchase and doing some gardening. But that left lots of time for webinars!

The morning webinar was being put on by Peachtree – somewhat “selly,” but I think I got some inspiration and motivation for ways to maximize the effectiveness of social media/networking for professional associations. In this case MCA-I – Media Communications Association-International.

We have a LinkedIn page, several pages on Facebook (the international office and a couple of chapter pages), Plaxo, a Twitter account and we also had something on MediaPost, but that venue is […]

2018-02-06T06:48:56+00:00August 6th, 2009|Categories: Musings|

Getting the Right Results from a Voiceover Session

(Updated June 24, 2015)

Professional video and multimedia producers know there is a lot more involved in a successful voiceover than simply recording the voice and slapping it into a time line. You need to connect and communicate with the audience.

Picking the right “talent”
The process starts with the initial selection of the voice talent for a particular project.

Start early and try not to scrimp on the budget for the talent. You want a voice that will be able to get the “right” read in the shortest amount of time. If you have questions about what to budget for talent for a particular project, make a few phone calls (to another producer, to talent you respect or best yet, a talent agent) and see what the going rate should be. You can usually find someone to do the job for practically nothing, but very often what you end up paying in extra studio time to […]

voiceacting.com will be back up shortly

Jim and Penny just sent out a notice explaining that the VoiceActing.com is temporarily down because they’re moving to new servers. They should be back to normal by the end of this week. The move has affected their member area, their blog, and some links on various pages.

This has also affected the VOICE 2010 site.

2018-02-06T06:48:57+00:00August 4th, 2009|Categories: Announcements|Tags: , , |

Gah! August Already!?

Yikes! Where did the year go? Most of us are probably wondering the same thing as we move into back-to-school time.

And what did we accomplish so far in 2009 so far? Is everyone on track? Do we know what track we are on? Do we know which track we want to be/should be on?

I use Outlook and have set up Categories so that I can make notes in my Calendar about how I am spending my time. Recording is Green, Marketing is Gold, Training is Yellow, Business is Blue, Volunteer work is a lighter Green and Personal stuff is Orange…that sort of thing. The Orange is winning by leaps and bounds since April when my mom moved out here from New York State.

But it’s not all mom time. Some of it is morning coffee time with my friends. Some of it is exercise time. Some of it is theater time – and lately a […]

2018-02-06T06:48:57+00:00August 3rd, 2009|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: , , |
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