Announcements – Page 3 – Connie Terwilliger

Careful What You Ask For

WoVo is an association of voiceover professionals (both union and non-union) seeking to inform and educate about best practices, standards for ethical conduct and professional expertise. It has an online casting engine that features ONLY vetted professional voices, unlike the company being discussed in this blog post.

Remember the commercial actors strike in 2000? Pay-per-Play was one of the big things the union was asking for. The business has never really been the same.

According to a white paper published by Villanova University the convergence of TV and the Internet was the “core” issue. The unions were aware of the technical tsunami approaching, that the distribution of the content was forever changing. Not the actual work, but the delivery of the product.

It is hard to predict the future, but being responsive to changes so that you don’t get so far […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00November 6th, 2015|Categories: Announcements, Auditioning, Business, Marketing, Technology|

With Trepidation I Present “In a World…”

Just what we need, more exposure for the voice over business! So, I am somewhat hesitant to bring this up, but since most of the people who will chance across this post will already be in the business, or already interested in the business, I suppose it won’t do any harm.

From watching the trailer, this looks like a delightfully funny little film about life in the rarefied air of the Los Angeles voiceover market where there is a chance of someone actually hiring you (man or woman, but mostly man) to do a movie trailer.

Lake Bell wrote, produces and stars in the film, with some other familiar real-life voiceover “stars” in the Los Angeles market including Joe Cipriano and Marc Graue. In fact, now that I think about it, this might make a good pilot for a sitcom that takes place in a renowned recording studio in someplace like – […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00June 12th, 2013|Categories: Announcements, Business, Musings|Tags: In a world, Lake Bell, movie trailer voices, voiceover, women 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|

Social Media Paranoia

Over the past few years, I have posted a few select projects to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as blogged or distributed Press Releases. Not everything we do is post-worthy, so I have tried to keep the posts to interesting subject matter, great scripts, super production values, that sort of thing.

The intent is to simply remain visible in this sea of data. Stay in someone’s mind in case a project comes up that might require my voice. Not really selling anything specific, just a little social networking.

Well, all that changed yesterday, when I got the email from ACX that my first audio book is ready for people to actually buy on audible.com. “Death of an Obnoxious Tourist” by Maria Hudgins. Now I need to promote it – and ask people to buy it and listen to it. And when they do, they […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00March 16th, 2012|Categories: Announcements|Tags: audible.com, audio book, Death of an Obnoxious Tourist, Dotsy Lamb, Maria Hudgins, narrator|

And Another Thing about FaffCon…

Full disclosure – I am not only a Founding Faffer and a Frequent Faffer, I am a Fanatic Faffer, so I have been part of the wonderful team helping Amy get things organized from soup to nuts.

Part of that team is all of the wonderful sponsors – without their support, FaffCon would simply be too expensive for most people.

Sure, educational conferences such as FaffCon are tax deductions, but you have to actually spend the money in order to get the deductions and there are limits to what pencils out.

So, many many many thanks to our incredible group of supporters. My friend Peter O’Connell (voice talent, bon vivant and also a Frequent Faffer) was part of the team making calls to potential sponsors as well as following up with the many sponsors who simply contacted us and said they wanted to support FaffCon. We […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00March 11th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Business, Marketing|Tags: FaffCon 4, Peter O'Connell|

FaffCon 4 is Fast Approaching!

I keep looking at the list of attendees for FaffCon 4 – Ventura Beach and literally clapping my hands in happiness! In less than 2 weeks, I will board the train from San Diego and head up to Ventura for another energizing weekend with some truly wonderful people.

Many of the people on the list are returning Faffers. More than half are face-to-face friends/acquaintances. Some I know virtually through social media and am looking forward to meeting them in person. Some names are completely new to me at this point in time. By the end of the weekend, they will not be strangers anymore.

http://faffcon.com/whos-coming/

I’m a Founding Faffer and have become more and more “involved” with the event since the first one in Portland. I can say without a doubt that each event has surpassed the previous in every way.

Portland was Perfect!

We were all feeling our way here – figuring out […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:18+00:00March 9th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Musings|Tags: FaffCon 4, voiceover education|

The Cost of Doing Business

They say you have to spend money to make money. I would agree with that. Unless you dig clay from the earth, use your hands to form a pot, grind rocks to make paint, gather wood to build the fire to bake the pot and then stand by the side of the road to sell the pot, you probably have to spend at least a little money to be in business.

I had a chance to meet Esteban Valdez at his family compound just outside San Miguel de Allende Mexico a few years ago. He does just that. At his age though, other people are helping him gather the materials, so he probably has to pay out a bit in payroll these days in order to make his pots.

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:18+00:00January 8th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Business|Tags: education, FaffCon, unconference, Ventura Beach CA, voiceover conference|

Get a Kick in the Pants! Get the New Edition of “There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is”

I just sort of fell into the voiceover business. I really didn’t have any training. No school of broadcasting. No acting classes (well, none since the 2nd grade). But I had done a bit of radio in college and that led to some staff announcing while I was in grad school. Grad school led to a job in a TV station, first as a director, then, after deciding that was something that I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life, as a staff announcer. A live staff announcer.

A live staff announcer who didn’t sound like a typical announcer – so the door to my little closet-sized booth would open on a regular basis with people handing me commercial copy. After a period of time, I decided that I might need to learn a bit more about this voiceover stuff – and bought my first book –

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 29th, 2011|Categories: Announcements, Auditioning, Business, Techniques|Tags: Elaine Clark, There's Money Where Your Mouth Is, voiceover book|

Put the pot on and bring it to a boil

Many voiceover people use various kinds of nasal rinses to keep their sinuses clean and clear. I use one of those plastic squeeze bottles. Others use a Neti Pot.

But a story in the news recently points out that this can be a dangerous habit unless you take some precautions to sterilize the water.

Two people were found dead in Louisiana after using unclean water in their Neti Pots.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/16/two-dead-in-louisiana-after-unclean-water-used-in-neti-pots/?hpt=hp_bn10

I had heard about these deadly amoebas when I took a canoe trip down the Colorado River from the Hoover Dam. All the way down to the water, they repeated the admonition not to dunk our heads under the water in the hot springs. They seemed pretty serious about it – and now I know why.

These amoebas can get into your brain and are 95% lethal.

So, even though it is probably a pretty low risk, I’ll be using distilled water or boiling it before rinsing […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 18th, 2011|Categories: Announcements|

Auditioning the “wrong” way

I followed a link from a voiceover talent (Lori Taylor) on one of the Facebook voiceover groups – there must be half a dozen – so how one keeps up with all that chatter is really beyond me – but this caught my eye.

This well-produced quirky web series is about what NOT to do in on-camera and in-person VO auditions and features two very talented actors who portray a couple of endearing, yet completely oblivious wannabe actors. The series follows their auditions as they show up for commercials and industrials and PSA’s. The scripts are brilliant. Here is the first episode.

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/AYLShnsC width=”550″ height=”339″]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:20+00:00October 23rd, 2011|Categories: Announcements, Auditioning, Business|