Be Picky!

I pay to play on Voice123. And as each month passes, I am more and more picky about the time I spend auditioning. And yet, I am still auditioning a bit more than all Voice123 Premium Subscribers that also speak English – North American.

I just counted up the auditions I’ve done in the past 6 months…63 auditions. I think I’ve had 2 bookings – could be more, I’d have to do a little database research. A lot of Finalist rankings, but the phone hasn’t rung yet with the gig – and maybe never will. Too soon to tell on some of them and relationships are bubbling I am sure.

Frankly I would be thrilled to have 10 auditions a month from my agents. I’m up to about 8 per month with one agent and the others? Not even close. Of course, I do get booked through agents without auditioning, which is […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 9th, 2011|Categories: Auditioning, Marketing, Musings, Negotiating|
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The VO-BB Takes on New York

Is it almost Wednesday? I’ve been back from New York and the 2011 New York Voiceover Mixer created by my friend Erik Sheppard – this year co-sponsored by my friend Marc Graue – for two days now, but I am still reveling in the sights, sounds and feelings of being in New York City with a wonderful group of people who mean quite a lot to me.

Professional voiceover folk. People who do what I do. Who understand what I do. From all around the world. From small towns to the Big Apple, they all understand what it means to get a an email with a script from a client who trusts you to “do your thing.”

But it is more than that. These are virtual friends who became real friends. Friends you can hug.

The road to the mixer started with an old message board called the Voiceover Cyberstation. The host at […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 6th, 2011|Categories: Musings|
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Content is a woman, distribution is a man.

While I am not directly involved in content creation as a producer anymore, or on the distribution side of things, this article caught my eye because of my interest in seeing good content.

I’m pretty sure I have posted links to this guy’s article before – Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is CEO of WatchMojo.com, a producer of premium video content.

These two articles talk about online content and exclusivity and include what seems to be an accurate picture of content being a “woman” and distribution, a “man.”

He postulates…

By and large, distribution companies

–        never make any promises,

–        have no-strings-attached offerings,

–        make no commitments,

–        rarely seek exclusivity, and

–        when they do, it’s usually too good to be true.

Content owners, meanwhile,

–        enter distribution deals with expectations,

–        believe the promises they hear,

–        expect a commitment, and

–        want a guarantee.

In his second article on the same subject, he adds a third and fourth element to this […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00November 28th, 2011|Categories: Business, Communication, Musings|Tags: , , , |
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The 1% (or whatever it is) in the VO Biz

With all the talk about the 1% vs the 99% these days with regards to Wall Street and Jobs and Taxes, something crossed my eyeballs this morning that shows that this spread exists in other areas as well.

Voiceover actors have been chatting about the jobs being lost to “celebrity” voices for years now…ever since the animated Alladin was released featuring Robin Williams as the Genie. There is no doubt that Robin Williams stole that movie, but it paved the way for more and more celebrity on-camera actors being cast in animated features and fewer and fewer opportunities for working class voice actors.

Written by SCOTT MESLOW – an Atlantic contributor and a film and television writer based in Washington, D.C., who has also written for Campus Progress andWealthBriefing – this article highlights how the “A-list” actors are nudging out the “ubiquitous but nearly anonymous, traditional voice actors.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/10/how-celebrities-took-over-cartoon-voice-acting/247481/

His main question is whether there […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00October 31st, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: , , , |
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In the Online World, Context is King…

It is hard to get any work done these days because you follow links which lead to more links and suddenly you have forgotten what you went online to do in the first place, but it is almost always an interesting distraction. Sometimes pure silliness, sometimes thought provoking, sometimes good for business. I’m always looking for interesting tidbits that will help the bottom line.

One of the mantras of video has been “Content is King.” With the emergence and tsunami of online video, it may be that the context will be driving the dollars.

Today, I was reading a post from MediaPost and it led me to an article called “Context is King: How Videos are Found and Consumed Online” packed with information from a November 2006 study by Bear Stearns Cable and Satellite analyst Spencer Wang called “Why Aggregation & Context and Not (Necessarily) Content are […]

2018-02-06T06:48:20+00:00October 24th, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: , , , , , |
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Faffterglow Three

Last weekend was another example of the power of Amy Snively’s (rhymes with lively) brainstorm. FaffCon 3 in Hershey PA (it was actually in Harrisburg, but the graphic possibilities were far better with Hershey) was a complete success.

One of the great things about FaffCon is that it is a gift that keeps on giving. It is coming up on a week now since FaffCon 3 and while I have been busy with “life,” my thoughts keep drifting to FaffCon and the information exchanged. I have been using little tidbits all week. And I haven’t even begun to go through my notes!

The welcoming dinner and FaffJam on Friday night was wonderful.  Voiceover folks are pretty darned talented in so many ways! And I have to say that the 14 oz. slab of prime rib was pretty terrific too. And after an afternoon of heavy rain, we were able to walk down and […]

2018-02-06T06:48:20+00:00October 2nd, 2011|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|Tags: , |
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The Opportunity Generator

I sure hope the gas line installation is going along on schedule and that the construction crews will be done soon (relative term). Right now the steady drone of a power generator is preventing any recording from taking place. I was able to sneak in a couple of auditions this morning. And one very short prompt for a regular customer who had forgotten to include it with his usual weekly order. My agent called with a re-work on a project from June that needs to be recorded tomorrow AM, so I am hoping to get a jump on it early and be finished before they even start work.

The good news is that  this “down” time is not really down time. Simply an opportunity to do some other things! I do have backup recording plan if I should actually need to record something at the same time the crew is working, […]

2018-02-06T06:48:20+00:00September 12th, 2011|Categories: Musings, Recording|
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Be Prepared for When The Power Goes Out

Yesterday around 3:30, I was finishing a file conversion on two stray files that a client had just sent for an immediate turn. In the middle of the conversion, everything stopped – in sort of a weird slow motion. The screen went dark, the AC wound down growling softly as the fan slowed to a stop. And suddenly everything was quiet. I grabbed the laptop and jumped in the car to the closest wi-fi hot spot to get this project delivered.

During the 3 block drive to the Kensington Cafe, I listened to the radio and heard caller after caller from all parts of the county calling in to say that their power was off too. The dark traffic lights at Adams and Marlborough made it clear that the power was off here too. So I headed back home and used my droid to let the client know that I was […]

2018-02-06T06:48:21+00:00September 9th, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|
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Talk about your work around!

Well, as I posted last week, stuff happens.

This week I started hearing a little BobCat driving up and down my alley. And when I poked my head out to see what was going on, I saw the tell-tale signs of upcoming concrete demolition. The road was covered with colorful spray painted arrows and initials detailing the underground path of gas pipes, water and sewer lines.

And a day later the truly irritating sound of a concrete cutter combined with a jack hammer – followed by large back hoes and dump trucks. Even when the concrete cutter wasn’t actually cutting, the generator truck was constantly running in the background.

I trudged down the alley yesterday to find the foreman to ask him what the “schedule” might be. Along the way, I navigated around and over large piles of dirt and was careful not to step in the new trough being gouged out along […]

2018-02-06T06:48:21+00:00August 31st, 2011|Categories: Musings, Recording, Technology|
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We Interrupt This Program…

Life happens. And our work may take a back seat to whatever situation is demanding our attention.

Right now, my voiceover friends on the East Coast are battening down the hatches, shutting off their studios and hunkering down waiting for hurricane Irene to do whatever it is she is going to do. In that arbitrary way nature has, she will surprise some with a tree limb through the front porch, or an inch or two of water in the basement, or pass over with nothing more than a few small branches in the street.

Thankfully the worst is probably over now – for Irene. But something else will come along and interrupt our regularly scheduled programming.

Actually, some of life’s curve balls can be predicted and planned for – sort of. The past couple of years I took on the added responsibility of taking care of my mother. Moved her out to San […]

2018-02-06T06:48:21+00:00August 28th, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|
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