About Connie Terwilliger

Full-time voice talent working out of professional studio for clients around the world providing high quality VO for narration, eLearning, commercials, animation, telephony and more.
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What’s in your wheelhouse?

I’ve had a couple of auditions recently for realistic young adult voices and have been feeling very much not in that vein. Character reads – cartoonish sound – yes – but a “real” high school senior – early college co-ed – eh, not really. The producer/director in me has not been comfortable with the recordings.

As much as the challenge to create a believeable young character is hard to pass up, the real challenge can be turning down the opportunity to make a fool of one’s self. Just another example of the need for critical self-evaluation skills.

I may spend some time really listening to young women and see if I can get into that groove, but there are so many other auditions and projects coming in that are just right for me that adding this particular sound to my quiver is probably not necessary.

 

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00November 1st, 2009|Categories: Musings|Tags: , , |
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What’s Your Business Barometer Doing These Days?

My weather metophors are pretty lame, but after some later summer doldrums, there seems to be some sort of shift in the business climate. New contacts, regular contacts, old contacts – all are surfacing with interesting work.

And on the P2P site that gives you a inkling of if your audition has actually been listened to and if they liked what they heard (presuming the client submits that information), my Considerings and Likelys are outnumbering my Not Likelys. Of course the majority of the auditions don’t have any ranking, but in the grand scheme of things, it appears to be moving from cloudy to partly sunny.

But as regular work increases, it is hard to carve out the time to jump on the auditions before they are either closed (Voice123) or a 100 or so people have already auditioned (Voices.com).

Some of my producer friends/contacts have also been doing the “happy dance” – which is great […]

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00October 27th, 2009|Categories: Business|Tags: , |
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Casting Reality in the 00’s

P2P is here to stay. Well, it’s here now and is such a “new” reality that no one really knows where it will evolve. But as with anything new, there are lots of growing pains – for everyone involved.

I’ve linked to the Double Dutch Blog before (Paul Strikwerda) because he pretty much always has something interesting to say and the past few days he has been blogging about P2P sites – low balling rates, etc.

http://nethervoice.com/nethervoice/

One question that he has been asked prompts me to respond here. Here is the question – “How about the unions? Isn’t it their job to deal with remuneration? If you’re so unhappy with the current rates or the lowballing bidders, why not join AFTRA?”

Simple answer? Yes, the unions have established scale rates if you are so lucky as to get a job under a union contract. However, AFTRA has never been able to get you work. That […]

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00October 15th, 2009|Categories: Auditioning, Business, Musings, Unions|Tags: , , , , , , |
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Know Thyself and Focus!

I am where I am today (making a living as a voiceover talent) by having a wide variety of sounds and doing a wide variety of projects. But I am not where I want to be – which is spending far less time working, marketing, bookkeeping, etc. What will get to me to where I want to be (making a much BETTER living as a voiceover talent so that I have more time) is focusing on the “real” me.

Kevin Delaney – Voiceover Ninja – writes about this often and has created a new blog called The Wealthy Bohemian that is even more focused on the topic of wealth building by using all the tools of today (the Internet, Social Networking, email).

And then, the other day my friend Bob Souer discussed this same general concept on his blog with lots of great […]

2018-02-06T06:48:55+00:00October 3rd, 2009|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: , , , |
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Evolve or Die…

Yes – it’s true – we must evolve or we will go out of business. I’ve used that phrase before (Evolve or Die) when discussing the changes that the performer’s unions need to make in order to survive, but it is also the premise of today’s Voice Over Today electronic newsletter published by Edge Studio. 

TO SUBSCRIBE: send a blank email to:  VoiceOverToday-on@edgestudio.com

They highlighted four areas that will cause you to lose clients. This is a message every voice talent (beginner or pro) should think about. Most of the folks I know do think about these Four Points, but it never hurts to have a reminder. So see below for the article – written by Edge Studio. 

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**Vocal Delivery: ARE YOU NO LONGER TRAINING?

Story: A while ago, one of our clients hired a student we had just trained to narrate a large series of videos.  They loved his voice. Recently we hired him back to […]

2018-02-06T06:48:55+00:00September 30th, 2009|Categories: Business, Marketing, Teaching, Technology|Tags: , , , , , |
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Amateurs vs Professionals

The Internet voiceover community is ablaze with controversy these days. Perhaps it is the business climate fanning the flames, but there has been a lot of talk about professionals versus amateurs. Who should be allowed to play in the sand box? Should there be separate sand boxes?

Check out Paul Strikwerda’s Double Dutch blog this week. He reposted it on LinkedIn as well, so be sure to follow the threads in both places. Very interesting. I love the way Paul writes in general, but this post included references to classical symphonies -a subject near to my heart because my brother is a world-class Horn Player with (according to Paul’s sources) the world’s 6th best orchestra.

http://nethervoice.com/nethervoice/2009/09/23/should-amateurs-be-ousted-from-voice-over-sites/

http://www.linkedin.com/newsArticle?viewDiscussion=&articleID=71289844&gid=137057

2018-02-06T06:48:55+00:00September 25th, 2009|Categories: Business|Tags: , , , |
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What!? Friday!? Again!? Already!?

OK, so it was a short week, but it came in with a bang and kept on going.

Some nice gigs with regular clients – even a couple through my local agent. Lots of auditions – through Voice123 (quite a flurry there), and various agents and other places I’m listed across the country. A direct contact through Voice123. An ISDN session scheduled for Monday with no audition – sweet!

And there was the fleeting potential of a gig with a new client who found me on the net. He was looking for a backstage live announcer for a large corporate meeting coming up in January of 2010. Love those jobs. Nothing like live to keep your brain active and your energy up. Three days – in town. Cool.

But, wait – the end of January? Hmm, I have been booked the past three years at the end of January on ANOTHER backstage live announce job. Was […]

2018-02-06T06:48:55+00:00September 11th, 2009|Categories: Auditioning, Business|Tags: , , , , , |
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An actual holiday!

No voiceover work this weekend! I have projects I can do – but no looming deadlines, so I was able to actually not record this weekend. No juicy auditions on any of the P2P sites, so seriously, I didn’t have to chill down the studio at all for 3 whole days.

Did I use the time wisely? Well, I guess that depends on your point of view. I took down the screens from the front windows. Hosed them down. Vacuumed and then scrubbed the window sills. Went to the gym a couple of times. Longs brisk walks. Laundry. And a daily trip over to a friend’s house to feed and play with her cat.

Picked about 50 pounds of figs and prepared them a couple of ways for a pool party. First I sliced the nice ripe ones in about 1/4 inch slices and drizzled them with Balsamic. Ah, yummy. Then I […]

2018-02-06T06:48:55+00:00September 7th, 2009|Categories: Business|Tags: , , , |
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To Do More Coaching?

As many of you know, in addition to being a full-time voiceover talent, I teach a Voice Acting Class at San Diego City College – one class in the Fall and one in the Spring – usually in the day from 9:30 to noon. Given my regular voice work, it has been getting harder and harder to carve out the time to actually get to the class.

This semester the class is in the evening and I am noticing a couple of things.

  • The students seem more attentive
  • Homework is complete and has been turned in on time
  • And I am able to make it to class without flying out the door at the last second (OK, I did that once this week.)

It is still early, but I am looking forward to the rest of the semester – and then seriously comparing it to the Spring class which will be in the daytime again.

But the […]

2009-09-04T17:07:14+00:00September 4th, 2009|Categories: Teaching|Tags: , , , , , |
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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: , , , |
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