Entries Tagged as ''

5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent – Lee Gordon

Male Voice Talent Lee Gordon

Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Lee Gordon, a professional voice over talent based in Connecticut.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

When I was a kid, way back in the 50s, I would hear voices like the great Don Pardo or Johnny Olson on TV. I may not have known I wanted to do that for a living, but I knew it was cool. In high school, perhaps inspired by the popularity of Vaughn Meader’s JFK impersonations, I used to try to amuse my friends by doing impressions of my own. That, and being a fan of my local radio DJs, lead me to college radio, and from there to commercial radio starting in 1969. Eventually, I transitioned from DJ to Production Director and began doing some VO on the side. By the 90s I knew that radio station consolidation would ultimately lead to a contraction of radio jobs, probably including my own, so I prepared to try VO as a full time career, which happened in 1997, when my radio position was finally eliminated.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

I kind of knew, but the point has now been driven home, that this is really two jobs. The easier one is doing voiceovers; the real work is drumming up the business. I sometimes tell people that I audition for a living.

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

Frankly, my biggest obstacle is me. For years I put in 50-60 hours a week at my radio job plus a few more doing the VO on the side. Once I was on my own I reacted to that by deciding not to work that hard for my new boss (me).

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

One trait that has paid off for me has been curiosity. Throughout my life I have found a wide variety of subjects interesting and so I have retained a little bit of knowledge about a lot of things. As a result, I have been able to record narrations and e-learning projects, even fairly technical ones, and sound like I know what I’m talking about. Being a good observer has also allowed me to incorporate a pretty decent range of styles into my repertoire.

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

I’ve been doing this for so long, it’s hard to pin down just one individual or one bit of advice. Way back in college I learned a lot from working side by side with some very talented guys. Two in particular were Bruce Nadeau and Al Bartenhagen. As my radio career evolved I worked with a production and copywriting genius named Lance Drake. And in recent years I’ve picked up some incredibly useful information from colleagues such as Bob Souer and Doug Turkel, who have so generously shared their insights.

modernizing an american icon

It has been a while since I’ve seen a new logo or revised logo worth talking about on these pages. I know many readers are voiceover-centric and not quote the logo addict I seem to have become. As addictions go, it’s not a bad one.

As many of you also know I have a soft spot in my heart for the American Red Cross and the work they do. So when I saw recently on Brand New the updated logo for the American Red Cross, I thought I’d take a second to chat it up with you.

Of course for many of a certain age, if they think about it, this is the only American Red Cross logo they’ve known and by and large, it has been pretty consistent. So a change on this puppy is noteworthy.

What I noted right off the bat were three things: the cross surrounded by the modern, shadowed button icon made popular by icons designed for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al; the change of the color or the word mark from black to gray and the darkened red of the Red Cross.

The button reminded me, as I said, of social media logos but also I recall (I think) seeing pins like that on people’s jackets or sweaters at the Red Cross, so I was cool with it.

The graying of the word mark seems intent on making it modern, and I get it. I think the black made it stand out more and it’s a name I don’t think should be put in the background. I believe they changed their font to this current font on their last logo change and I think they were smart not to change that in this iteration.

What I am really undecided about is the darker red. The red in the Red Cross is the ball game. I get that there needed to be shading on the red to help with the button design but it just strikes me as too dark. The vibrancy of the red is the key to the whole icon.

Overall, a nice change. But that’s my opinion…what’s yours?

5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent – Jodi Krangle

audioconnell jodi krangle voiceover

Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Jodi Krangle, a professional voice over talent based just north of Toronto, Canada.

1.The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent;how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

I’ve been a singer all my life so using my voice was never anything I was unaccustomed to or embarrassed about. I also remember calling in to local radio shows to talk with the DJs about whatever issue they seemed to want to talk about in those days – and that was happening when I was around eleven. I remember sneaking to the phone to dial up CKEY in Toronto (which is now long defunct) when I was supposed to be sleeping. I don’t know if my parents knew about it and just let it happen, or if they genuinely had no idea. I have a feeling it was the former.

I even used to occasionally attempt to tape record these calls with the radio station with a huge boom box I had saved up for. (Believe it or not, I was doing door to door sales of stationary and little knick knacks (anyone remember Regal Greetings and Gifts?) when I was eleven to about thirteen to make some extra money beyond my allowance). THERE’S something that would never happen today! But I digress.

Fast forward to about 1995 and I hear about a program going on for the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) where they’re reading books (or magazines) on to tape. Using reel to reels. This was before digital. I only did that until late in 1996 (their volunteer recording facility was really far away from me so the trip was kind of grueling) but the bug had bit.

For the next long while, I thought about it in the background … and I did some personal projects, reading stories I’d written myself on to tape, put to music by a friend of mine. But nothing really substantial or for pay until 2007 when I finally got so bored with the business of promoting websites (SEO and Internet Marketing) that I just HAD to find something else to do.

I was already self-employed at that time – and had been for several years – so the stretch of going out on my own wasn’t really all that big of a stretch. It was just a different direction to focus my efforts. I started looking online, since I’d been an early adopter (I created a popular songwriting resource called The Muse’s Muse in 1995 and that’s where I first started experimenting with promoting websites). The web was part of my everyday routine. So when I needed information, that’s the first place I looked.

Things got going pretty quickly from there.

2.What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

Actually, it’s something that I’ve heard over and over now that I’ve been involved in the voice over community for a while. And of course, hindsight is 20:20, right? But I wish I’d had someone tell me to take coaching before making my first – and second – demo. It was the total lambasting of my second demo, professionally produced, mind – but long before I was actually *ready* for it – that got me really learning the craft. Before that … I don’t know. I guess I thought I’d just learn it by doing. Not the greatest idea. 😉

If there’s one thing I would tell a person just getting into this, I would say – find yourself a mentor, take coaching, and only when that coach or mentor tells you you’re ready for a demo should you make that demo. You’ll save yourself a LOT of wasted time and money by being careful about that. And never EVER think that a day class is going to make you ready. Maybe for a really small percentage of people, that’ll work. I don’t know. But in general? It’s something that comes after a great deal of hard work.

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

Actually, in the past, it’s been my health. I’m generally decently healthy, but I’ve been noticing that I’ve been catching more and more colds lately … And as we all know, catching a cold can really ruin things when it comes to our voices. 🙁 To combat this – and just to feel better in general, I’ve become a vegetarian and I’ve started juicing to get more fruits and vegetables into my system. I grew up with parents who were vegetarians (though they do eat fish, eggs, milk and cheese – just no chicken, beef, pork, etc, so kind of “modified” vegetarians) so it wasn’t that big of a stretch for me. I’ve really started to feel a LOT better. If anyone’s interested in hearing more about this, I’m happy to talk about it, but I won’t take up too much time with it here. 🙂


4.What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

Tenacity. Wow – has that word really become a staple of my vocabulary. Sticking with it – or just plain STUBBORNNESS has been a trait of mine from a very young age. In this business you get a LOT of rejection. Tenacity – never giving up – is what will get you through it. If not this job, then another. If not this agent, then another. I challenge myself to keep on taking steps forward, no matter how small or how many obstacles are put in front of me. It’s worked really well for me so far. I have to say that while talent is great to have, tenacity may actually get you further!

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

When I first decided to get into voice overs, I went to the VO-BB and to Julie Williams’ voice-overs.com message board. I gleaned all I could from the fantastic people at both places. That second demo I posted for critique was posted on voice-overs.com – and Lee Kanne, a fantastic actor from the Chicago area, is the one who lambasted it – and then proceeded to work with me over the phone and through exchanged .mp3s until I learned that there was actually *acting* involved in this. 🙂 He helped me find my own voice, going way out of his way for nothing but profuse thank-you’s – and for that, I’ll be forever grateful.

This really is such a wonderful community – both online and in person. I’ve never met such a generous bunch of people and I certainly do all I can to pay it forward.

5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent – Jeffrey Kafer

Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Jeffrey Kafer, a professional voice over talent based in Seattle, WA.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

My story is fairly unique. I knew I wanted to be a voice over artist, especially an audiobook narrator for the past 7 years, beginning in 2005. Listening to the greats such as Scott Brick, Stefan Rudnicki, Grover Gardner and others, really whetted my appetite. But of course, the question is always: How and when do I take the plunge? And, Am I friggin’ nuts?

Well, getting laid off from the day-job at Microsoft after 10 years in 2009 kinda helps push that decision along. I had been doing VO on the side for a couple of years while at Microsoft, so I was lucky in that regard. I already had some clients, knew the basics of the business etc. As I began looking for work, it soon became apparent that I wasn’t going to just bounce back into the same industry I had left. Things had changed. So I was doing more and more VO work, all the while thinking my situation was temporary. Turned out, it wasn’t. 2 years after being laid off, I realized that my “side” job had become my full-time gig.

3 years later, I’ve not looked back.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

I’m going to amend the question a bit and say that the one thing that I *was* told, but didn’t truly grasp, was that this is a business. First and foremost. You can’t just get a mic and a computer and call yourself a business. You need marketing skills, business acumen, solid communication skills, and accounting. Oy vey, the accounting. Tax time can get really messy. Luckily I have a good accountant who takes care of most of it for me.

The hard part is figuring out the things you *don’t* know when it comes to business. Most of your time as a business owner will not be in your booth recording. It will be marketing, invoicing (hopefully), bookkeeping, more marketing, tech support and customer service.

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

Self-Confidence. I struggle with the same thing anyone in a creative role struggles with: Am I good enough? Well, clients keep coming back to me and new clients hire me and authors seem to love the work I do with their creations, so I guess I’m doing something right.

When you have a 9-5 job, you can go to your boss and say “How’m I doing? Anything I need to work on?”. And if your boss is good, then s/he will give you some constructive feedback. With my current job, I don’t get that. I get the occasional “you suck” review on Audible, but even the great narrators get that. The trick is to not just let it go and write it off, but to see if there’s any validity to the criticism. Any place to improve.

We all love the ego-boo of a good review. It tells us we’re doing something right. And it gives us validation that the choices we are making are good ones. But we don’t grow from them. We grow from the bad reviews that shed light on how we can do things better. How we can grow. The trick is to take those in stride, learn from them, but not let them crush you.

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

My drive to succeed and my support system. Look, nothing lights a fire under your ass to get in gear better than getting laid off when you have a family to feed. I was pretty sure I wanted to find a job like my old one, but damned if I didn’t have better luck following my passion for audiobooks. This is not meant to be a Yay Me speech. I got lucky as hell in some places and other times I made my own luck. But when you know you want something, you’ve got to keep going. This is not a “follow your dreams” speech. This is a “make smart choices and don’t be afraid to deviate if you want to succeed” speech. Doesn’t have the same roll-off-the-tongue feel, I know. But the point is, try new stuff, see what works. Keep following the drive, but don’t do so with blinders on. Know when something isn’t working and change directions. Understand that you have one goal, one place you want to end up. But there may be many roads to get there. And my road is not going to be the same as your road. You have to find it yourself.

But you can have all the drive in the world and it won’t mean jack if you don’t have a support system. My wife has been a huge asset to me. She has supported my efforts and not once did she say “Dude, just give it up and go get a job at Starbucks.” I wouldn’t go so far as to say she’s my professional tool, but she is my rock.

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

There’s no on thing or one person. Your success/failure can’t be measured by one thing you did or failed to do. It’s the sum total of the experiences and people in your life that have helped you get where you want to be. From that perspective, the biggest thing that got me where I am is the support network of the VO-BB.com. For that, I give a shout-out to the owner, DB Cooper. But it’s not just her. It’s the other wonderful souls who are willing day and night to give honest feedback on a demo, prop you up when you’re down, give you kudos when you reach a milestone. And smack you down when you deserve it.

I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes from DB Cooper: “When one door closes, another opens. And if it doesn’t, reach around in the dark for your chainsaw and make a new door.” Love it.

5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent – a new blog series

I’ve had this idea for a blog series for a couple of months now but until today, I never did anything about it.

The concept is simple – if I ask a bunch of professional voice over talents the same 5 career and performance based questions, I believe I’ll get a bunch of unique and individual answers that others in our business will find interesting and informative.

So tonight, by invitation only (so don’t ask to be included – you probably will be down the road anyway) I’ve invited 25 voice talents, who I know but who do not necessarily know each other, to answer the same 5 questions.

If they participate, each one will get their own featured blog post offering their own unique perspective on their voice over journey.

There is no one perfect path, there is no easy route. But as readers, we may find nuggets of information in someone else’s story that provides an unforeseen epiphany that helps us go forward on our own journey.

Or the whole series may suck and we won’t learn a thing. Look, the goal here is more content for the blog and less work for me…are we clear? (j/k).

Anyway, I’ll post them as they come in and I hope you’ll comment on them with anything you thought was particularly helpful. Hey, if these folks are going to be kind enough to share their stories, we need to at least say thanks, right?

I hope it works our and I hope you enjoy the series – look for it in this space coming soon.

MEDIA RELEASE – U.S. Army Recruits O’Connell as the Voice for Fort Huachuca Documentary

audio'connell Media Release

FORT HUACHUCA, AZ, February 17, 2012 – – In 1877, when Colonel A. V. Kautz, Commander of the Department of Arizona, ordered Captain Samuel M. Whitside and two troops of the 6th Cavalry to travel to southeastern Arizona in order to select a site for a new outpost, the Colonel never could have imagined that he was laying the foundation for what is today one of America’s most critical installations within the Department of Defense — Fort Huachuca.

When the U.S. Army commissioned a documentary to share the amazing history of Fort Huachuca with military personnel and honored guests, it was agreed that veteran voice over talent Peter K. O’Connell would serve as the video’s narrator, telling one of the most interesting and significant stories in the history of the United States Army and Military Intelligence.

What began as Camp Huachuca, a central outpost during the Indian Wars of the late 19th Century, has today become one of the most critical installations in the Department of Defense. Fort Huachuca is the home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM)/9th Army Signal Command. Fort Huachuca is also the headquarters of Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS), the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) and the Electronic Proving Ground (EPG). Libby Army Airfield is also located on post.

The video was produced by Eagle Video Productions Inc., a nationally and internationally recognized full service video production company based in Raleigh, NC.

In addition this most recent documentary narration for the U.S. Army, Mr. O’Connell’s professional voiceover credits include national and regional voiceover productions for companies such as PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), Shell Oil, Starz Cable Channel, SunSetter Awnings, Time Warner Cable, New Jersey Tourism, J. Walter Thompson Advertising, Cleveland Browns, Harlequin Enterprises and Pathmark Supermarkets.

O’Connell’s voiceover talents have been heard around the world in retail commercials for radio and TV, medical narrations, infomercials, political commercial voiceovers, TV network promos, e-learning narration projects (computer-based training, internet-based training and web-based training), public service announcements, message on-hold as well as other video and media productions.
– 30 –

NOTES TO EDITORS

Company Media Releases ON LINE:
http://www.audioconnell.com/media

Company Name Pronunciation:
au·dio·o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Company Name Spelling:
Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voice-Over Talent

Company Web:
http://www.audioconnell.com

Company Blog:
http://www.voxmarketising.com

O’Connell Voice-Over Resume:
See resume here