Musings – Page 4 – Connie Terwilliger

Never Assume – and you know why…

I don’t know about you, but when I get busy, and I start to tackle a new project that – on the surface – resembles so many of my other projects, I tend to slip into auto-pilot mode. I just KNOW what the producer wants. Well, maybe. Maybe not. Remember that old adage – “never assume – because it makes an ass out of you and me?” Slipping into what has been called Stage Four Learning can sometimes mean getting a project off on the wrong foot. Sometimes it can mean losing a client.

Here is a quick refresher on the Four Stages of Learning…

Unconsciously incompetent

You don’t understand how to do something – and probably don’t even realize that you don’t know how to do it. Relating this to voiceover work – you have been told you should be doing voiceover work, but you don’t know anything about the business, or […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00December 8th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings|

I Have 3 Lawn Mowers and 5 Mics

Scattered in the storage area behind the garage are three (yes, I said 3) lawn mowers. Two gas mowers and an electric mower. None of them work. Well, one can be coaxed into mowing, if you know the secret sequence of events that involves lots of starter fluid sprayed in the spark plug socket and the carburetor in just the right order. Only one person knows how to do that.

I should probably get rid of all three of them and get one that works right the first time you yank on the starter.

I have two weed whackers. One is gas powered and I don’t think that one works. The battery operated whacker works, but not for very long on a charge. That one I got on Craig’s List.

I had a couple of loppers to cut the branches off the fig tree every year in August when the figs have turned […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00December 1st, 2013|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings, Negotiating, Recording, Technology|

Life. Time to Live It!

The past five years have been a challenge. I started to see my mom’s abilities start to dissolve and knew that I had to do something to make sure that she was safe. Being that she was 3000 miles away, I found that my abilities to solve her problems (mostly computer problems) were not able to keep up with the questions. When the questions became things like “how do I make the letters bigger?” I knew that something was happening that would make it difficult for her to live on her own.

A knee replacement surgery opened the doors for the joint bank account and the Power of Attorney. The support of her banker and her lawyer was helpful, as they were just grateful that someone was aware of what was happening. I can tell you though, the first time she got a bank statement with my name on the envelope, […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00November 9th, 2013|Categories: Musings|

A Crisis of Confidence and Tree Trimming

The past 6 months or so have been great on many fronts. Business and personal. I had a great summer. The weather was wonderful and I became an Artlab groupie. Never ending concerts and art shows. There were parties and events and bike rides and sunsets at the beach.

And business was booming. I switched my invoicing to Freshbooks in May and have been watching the columns grow steadily. Until this month.

It has been a fairly dismal month so far compared to the last 5 months. I have some projects yet to be billed, so they don’t show up on the columns yet, and by the end of the month, it will look better, but still, looking at it now makes me wonder what the heck I am doing.

I’ve been making my living doing only voiceover work for more than 10 years – after many years working as […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00October 21st, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: Artlab, Celia Siegel, FaffCon, female voice talent, ISDN voice talent, VO Peeps, voiceover work|

OMG – I Lost My Phone!

This is the first time I have every really LOST my cell phone. My lovely Samsung Galaxy SIII. With its cool new protective cover. Lost. Misplaced. Dare I suggest picked up with no intent of returning it to the carrier. The innocent Pollyanna in me simply cannot comprehend anyone actually finding a phone and not returning it. Someone purposely stealing the phone is easier for me to understand, but finding a phone and not turning it in…well, my brain doesn’t work that way.

I found my old Samsung – in a bag ready to be recycled – so I will charge that up until the replacement arrives – which should be tomorrow.

But the reality of not being connected hit hard.

Wait, did I say that I wasn’t connected? What am I talking about! OK, for the short term, until I get to the Verizon store and get the old phone turned on, […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00October 16th, 2013|Categories: Musings|Tags: lost phone|

East Coast – Left Coast – and Other Times Around the World

I live in California. Pacific Time Zone. 3 hours later than many of my agents and clients. 9 or so hours different from several other agents and clients scattered across Europe.

This means that my operating hours are not 9-5 Pacific time. They are 9 AM to 9 AM anytime. Over, the years, as more of my clients are in far flung parts of the globe, I find that I do a lot of work very early in the morning. I get up fairly early anyway, but more and more it seems as though I must be “in voice” for a 7 AM session.

Just part of the customer service.

It used to be – when I was working in the local studios, I could ask my agent to arrange for sessions between 10 and 2 so that I didn’t have to mess with the traffic. This usually worked. Not for any on-camera […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00September 28th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings|

I’ll Gladly Pay You Someday for a Voiceover Job Today

Why is it that creative businesses (mostly independent freelancers) find themselves on the short end of the stick when it comes to getting paid in a timely manner? My voiceover friend Paul Strikwerda discussed this phenomenon today in his Nethervoice blog – http://www.nethervoice.com/2013/09/18/when-a-client-owes-you/

Why is it that the sub-contractors have to wait for their money until the prime contractor gets paid. This is not the way it is supposed to work. Paul postulates as to why we find ourselves in this position of being the tail on the dog when it comes to getting paid.

When I was an active video producer, I mostly worked in-house or for a large production company and didn’t have problems with getting paid for what I did, or paying the people that worked for me. There was a much larger machine chugging along with enough accounts receivable to cover the costs of the jobs. I just […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:13+00:00September 19th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings, Negotiating|Tags: Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, payment for work, voiceover|

Improv and Successful Voiceover Work?

I have long been told (and even suggest it myself) that Improv is a great training ground for voiceover pros. Instinctively I think I knew this to be true. But I have never been able to really articulate exactly why. Edge Studio published an article by Vanessa Richardson that finally clarified it for me.

Spontaneity is the word I have been using when thinking and talking about what Improv training will do to help improve delivery of a script, but it goes deeper than just being spontaneous.

The dictionary defines Spontaneous as “1. coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned: a spontaneous burst of applause.” Or 2. (of a person) given to acting upon sudden impulses.”

This doesn’t really explain what is actually happening in Improv and how it might relate to reading a script.

It gets more confusing because the word improvise is defined as doing something without preparation. We all improvise. Every day, all day, we move through our […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:13+00:00September 9th, 2013|Categories: Musings, Techniques|Tags: Edge Studio, Improv, Vanessa Richardson, voice acting|

Do you know someone who you can recommend?

For some reason a lot of people ask me if I know people. Do I know someone who could produce this – crew that – voice this. The answer is usually yes, but referrals are a tricky thing. There is time involved. And reputations at stake. On both sides! Actually on all three sides. The Asker, me, and the person I refer. Referrals can be a wonderful thing, but you have to be careful.

When I was producing and writing corporate media full-time, I was often asked if I could recommend people to either write a project or produce something. If I wasn’t available to do the writing project myself, I had to spend quite a bit of time evaluating the person/company needing the script and then searching my memory and Rolodex for someone who I felt might be compatible. The last thing you would want is to […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00August 6th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: media production, producing, referrals, writing|

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|