Blog – Page 13 – Connie Terwilliger

Down Time: Duties or Dilly Dallying?

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 […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:16+00:00May 19th, 2012|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: Business, experience, life changes, voiceover|

Are You Hopping Mad about Auto Hop?

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 […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:16+00:00May 17th, 2012|Categories: Business, Musings, Technology|Tags: announcing, Auto Hop, commercials, Dish Network, Recording, TiVo, voiceover|

Forum Decorum

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 […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:16+00:00May 13th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Business, Communication, Marketing, Musings|Tags: LinkedIn groups, professionalism, social media, voiceover work|

Another of my favorite MediaPost Pubs: Out to Launch

Want to see some of the most interesting, clever, stylish or funny of the new ads (mostly video, but some print too) being produced around the world? They are even including a random iPhone app of the week (what about my droid app of the week?).

This week they are showcasing spots for Orbitz which are pretty funny, Tetley Tea from an Australian firm, and Jagermeister’s first ad in the US. Just wish my internet connection was faster! Takes a while to download and play them.

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:16+00:00May 10th, 2012|Categories: Communication, Musings|Tags: commercials, MediaPost, Out to Launch, voiceover work|

Spread the word! Think about usage!

One of my favorite enewsletters comes from the plethora of enewsletters published each day by MediaPost. If I subscribed to them all, I would probably go mad.

This one is called Online Video Daily and today the top story was a VidBlog by Daisy Whitney titled:

Managing Online Video and TV Campaigns: Tips from Production to Talent Rights

The part of that headline that caught my eye and prompted me to click through was the “…to Talent Rights” part.

As we struggle each day to keep rates to a level where we can continue to make a living in this business, it is refreshing to see people advocating for payment for additional usage. Of course, the resource for the article is Extreme Reach, a group that specializes in all things related to delivering and managing video advertising and is used to using Union […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00May 7th, 2012|Categories: Business, Marketing, Negotiating|

Too Busy to Blog?

OK, so my last post was about how busy people can usually find time to do something else. But at some point, things have to take a back seat. And the past few weeks, the blog took the hit.

And not because I was so busy I couldn’t actually find the time to sit here and bash out a couple hundred words. No, it all comes down to balance.

At what point in our lives do we realize that it is not all about work? Some people learn this fairly early in life. In my case, I am starting to feel like I missed so many opportunities. My life has been consumed with keeping busy doing things that in some way improved my career.

Personal relationships suffered from neglect. My plants certainly suffered. The house was alternately clean – or not – depending on if there was extra in the budget to bring in […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00May 4th, 2012|Categories: Marketing|

Ask a Busy Person – They Tend to Say Yes

No matter how busy I am, I seem to find time to say yes to people. Actually, as I get older and time starts looking shorter, I’ve actually begun to learn how to say no, and I do use the word – mostly on the business side of things – when I can see that the ROI isn’t really going to pay off.

But when it comes to the stuff that isn’t work related, I do say yes a lot – maybe even if I don’t REALLY have the time. STOP THAT! I have the time. I don’t have kids or grand kids. I have cats. My niece is an adult. Some stuff simply won’t get done – like defrosting the ice maker. And cleaning up the mess behind the garage. But, in the grand plan – for things that really matter – I have the time!

So a few weeks ago, […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 10th, 2012|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: Financial Literacy Month, Junior Achievement BizTown, Personal Finance, San Diego, voice talent, voiceover talent, volunteering|

FaffCon 4 is History, but the Memories Linger On

It has been two weeks now since FaffCon 4 in Ventura. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t have some sort of memory pop into my head. Starting with Thursday night helping Pam and Lauren write questions on blow up soccer balls. We got so good at the task that we actually did more than we needed to. We laughed a lot in the process – which is something that a lot of us did a lot during the weekend.

One of the most amusing memories was the debate over what color walkie-talkies went to whom. The sunglasses decided it.

Later in the evening, I met up with a few of the early arrivals in the hotel bar – hugs all […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 9th, 2012|Categories: Musings|Tags: FaffCon, unconference, Ventura Beach, voiceover talent|

Matching Your Delivery

The other day I had three sessions in a row with repeat clients for whom my delivery is just slightly different. Pacing, placement, energy, warmth, etc. just a bit different for each project.

One client found me 3 or 4 years ago because they had lost track of the voice they had been using and wanted a voice match. Actually, they THOUGHT I was the same person and after I told them that I wasn’t, they asked me if I could match a sample they provided. I did and we have been doing updates every 5 months or so. This voice is in a slightly different place in my head than my usual signature sound.

Another project was 3 word changes and a new paragraph for a project originally completed about a year and a half ago. The read on this was soft and comforting.

And the third project that day was the […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 7th, 2012|Categories: Musings, Techniques|Tags: customer service, matching delivery, voiceover|

Check the Mute Buttons!

So, I had a phone patch session recently with a new client. It was a no audition job through one of my agents. Love those. But instead of ISDN, it was a phone patch project using my Gentner.

The client called into my system and he could hear me fine, but to me he sounded like he was calling me from Mars – a tinny little voice way in the background.

My eyes crossed as I tried to figure out what the problem might be. I checked the sketch the engineer left me the last time he was here. But with the client on the line, my stress level was such that I was not going to figure it out. We agreed on a short break to see if I could reach him my engineer. If I couldn’t figure it out, we would use a work around, which is not my preferred way […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 6th, 2012|Categories: Recording|Tags: Cats in the studio, ISDN, phone patch, recording technology, VO-BB|

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