If you ask most actors, unless the part is really wonky, they are glad to accept the voiceover work they’re offered.

To be an actor, you’ve gotta be acting. We love the big parts (as they often bring bigger money and exposure) but the smaller part also pay the bills and can be a lot of fun to perform (and can get you noticed – you’d be surprised).

I bring this up because I get that “big part/small part) question asked a lot from my students at the VO Workshop. Ego rules some actors to the point where they may turn down work that they feel is beneath them (even in voiceover).

If there was a moral or ethical question within the project…that I understand and I’ve turned down a few jobs (most pro folks have) with those issues.

But small parts…especially character work…have been a nice portion of what I have voiced over the past four decades as a professional voice actor.

A recent case in point is a corporate voice project I was signed to do for Lowe’s Home Improvement stores. With over 2,100 store locations, countless divisions within the chain and over 300,000 employees, I’m sure educating them all is a huge task. Hence their on-going training activities including the project I worked on.

LISTEN TO PETER’S LOWE’S PROJECT….

2 lines.

In the Lowe’s project, I had a grand total of two lines…but they were comedic and payoff lines for the narrator so the producer needed someone who could pull that off convincingly, effectively and comedically for what he had in mind.

And who he had in mind was me. No auditions – ‘I want Peter’.

Remember when I said you’d be surprised how small (and big) parts can get you noticed?

These producers had worked with me before, knew my versatility and knew I could be trusted with getting the right character and versions for their script. If need be, I am very directable but this director let me go and I got him what he wanted.

Bang. Zoom. Done.

My point is, for voice actors, I’ll take jobs like this all day long and gladly cash the checks they bring because there are lots of small parts. Yes, I get lead spots too and I love ’em!

But be humble and professionally enough to graciously take all of it.

Be the person a producer can rely on to always get the job done for them…no matter the size of the role. Size is nice but quantity is great too. Aim for both in your voice acting career. Hope that helps.

Tags: commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice // Comments Off on a humble voiceover brag about voiceover humility

MOORESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA – August 15, 2023 – – One of the world’s largest home improvement retailers, Lowe’s, recently produced an in-house media project featuring the character voiceover work of male voice actor Peter K. O’Connell.

O’Connell voice was cast as a gruff contractor in the corporate video, whose day and mood improved with the help of the friendly associates at a Lowe’s store.

About Lowe’s

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE® 50 home improvement company serving approximately 17 million customer transactions a week in the U.S. With total fiscal year 2022 sales of over $97 billion, approximately $92 billion of sales were generated in the U.S., where Lowe’s operates over 1,700 home improvement stores and employs approximately 300,000 associates.

About Peter K. O’Connell

Voice actor Peter K. O’Connell has shared his voiceover and audio production skills with companies around the world. In addition to his latest character voice work for Lowe’s Home Improvement, Peter’s commercial and narration clients include brands like iHeart Media, Crest Toothpaste, IBM, Duracell Batteries and AWS (Amazon Web Services). O’Connell, who recently celebrated his 40th anniversary as a professional voice talent, owns audio’connell Voiceover Talent – a Source-Connect equipped voiceover studio – which is a division of O’Connell Communications, LLC. He can be reached via peterkoconnell.com.
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NOTES FOR EDITORS

CONTACT:

Peter K. O’Connell

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent

audio’connell Voiceover Talent

P.O. Box 5493 | Raleigh, NC 27512-5493

PH. +01 716-572-1800 & +01 919-283-1516

EM. peter@audioconnell.com

W. audioconnell.com

COMPANY MEDIA CENTER

http://www.audioconnell.com/media

PETER K. O’CONNELL VO CREDITS

VO Credits Link

COMPANY NAME SPELLING

Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voiceover Talent

COMPANY NAME PRONUNCIATIONau·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Tags: media releases // Comments Off on O’Connell Helps Improve Audio for Lowe’s Home Improvement

It’s not like the Buffalo Bills need my help in supporting football in Buffalo.

But they are my team…I have purchased more jerseys, hats, t-shirts and other stuff than is thoughtfully proper or fiscally responsible. I guarantee you, however, that my family pales in comparison to such purchases by many Bills Mafia members.

I had a fun idea though, which I think is both helpful, respectful of the rules while allowing me to show my support of my football team.

I created my first Buffalo Football Team schedule for the 2023 season. I’m being respectful not to use any trademarks to symbol marks of the team….just sharing out the Buffalo football team’s home and away schedule, times and broadcast outlets (all always subject to change).

It’s free and you can download it HERE.

The one date I did NOT include on the schedule was February 11, 2024….but I feel sure Buffalo will be on the field! #letsgobuffalo

Tags: blogs, buffalo, commentary // Comments Off on supporting football in Buffalo

The voiceover paparazzi have indeed found me again. 😉

Granted these V.O. paps are much smaller, less aggressive and so stealth as to be almost non-existent, but they exist.

They write newspaper articles, blogs, vlogs, podcasts and more all about voiceover talents. Evidently, I was next up in the latest news cycle and I was glad to oblige.

My friend and fellow voice talent Christi Bowen kindly shared my name after she had been interviewed by a company called Canvas Rebel Magazine, a publication that writes articles and profiles on small business owners, artists and creatives in our communities who Canvas Rebel believes are brilliant and deserve more coverage, more platforms and more opportunities to share their stories and insights.

Working with their writing and production team, they created a very nice profile that helped give people a little more insight into my industry and my professional journey.

I hope you’ll take a moment to read the post and the many other posts from Canvas Rebel HERE.

Tags: commentary // Comments Off on the voiceover paparazzi has found me again!

The following story has a Buffalo, NY connection to someone I do not know – because that’s how social media works 🙂

In social media terms, the more “liked” your post or comment, the better it reflects on your posts, awareness and (I guess) status as a human being.

Well I am not sure about that last part but the rest of it summarizes an otherwise long, blow-hard explanation of what the audience’s interaction with your social media posts mean (be it blogs, vlogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), LinkedIn and on).

So here’s the deal…on my Instagram, I came across an artist – who I later found is from Buffalo (Western New York) – who paints tiny outdoor art that she color matches. The art amazing and wonderfully color matched and she’s very talented. Her name is Lisa Cornwell. She has over 109,000 followers and growing, I’m sure.

Well on a recent day, she was color matching a Ferris Wheel (that was not moving) and she was not sure the painting was coming together (but she WAS wearing her Buffalo Bills hat!). Well of course the tiny painting was terrific!

I think I was one of the first people to comment on it and I wanted to squelch her negative about her art (which is so great) so I said:

“Nice job. Don’t be so critical – it looks great as always.”

My message was for the Lisa (who I don’t know) but I forgot about her 109K followers like me. A lot of them agreed with me – as of this writing 1,349 people have liked my comment.

This doesn’t make me happy for me or for ego etc. This makes me happy because me and almost 1,400 of my closest internet friends want Lisa to know that the work she’s doing is great, it makes us happy to watch her and she should not be so hard on herself.

Also, it occurs to me that the internet and social media is NOT well know for POSITIVE comments – let’s all try and buck that trend. Join me in promoting the positive comments trend (which I too sometimes forget to do).

Tags: commentary, facebook, instagram, linkedin, social media, twitter, youtube // Comments Off on i have never been more “liked” – a heartwarming social media story

I’ve been asked by some friends outside the voiceover industry why I – a non-union voice actor – have posted a supportive message for those involved in the current SAG-AFTRA strike.

Kinda like – you’re not in the union, why do you care about this union strike?

Theirs was not a negative question…they were simply curious – and not really involved in the voiceover industry – so they see the two types of work groups (union/non-union) as sort of competing.

I’ve never viewed the two groups that way, but OK.

In life, I have found that when I get asked a question like this more than once (or three times), it usually means more people also have that question…so let’s address it.

My reasons as a non-union voice actor for supporting the SAG-AFTRA union performers who are on strike are both personal and professional.

First personal, which is very simple – some of the striking performers are my friends and many (whether I know them or not) have been voice and on-camera performers for many years.

These performers- working under the “TV/Theatrical Contracts” and many of whom you have likely NEVER heard of – have been underpaid (especially by streaming companies), are facing the prospect of even less work due to technology (more on that in a minute) and are currently getting NO pay and no work because they feel the need to force change through this work stoppage.

For their sacrifice….on their lives, their art, their families and their well-being…I’ll gladly contribute my non-union support to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

NB: A little good news in the midst of a difficult situation – it’s been posted that the current “TV/Theatrical Contracts” dispute does NOT include voiceover work like commercials and narrations. So SAG-AFTRA members can voice commercials and narrations during the strike.

Next, professional reasons. I’ll start (and end) with this: the outcome of the SAG-AFTRA strike WILL have repercussions on non-union voiceover work.

But? Huh? What?!

A few points to clarify the impact of a new SAG-AFTRA agreement on union and non-union performers (both on-camera and voiceover)

• The current strike specifically involves SAG-AFTRA’s “TV/Theatrical Contracts” with AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) — this contract primarily impacts starring, featured and background TV and movie performers; this contract’s impact on a majority of voiceover projects (and rates) is a fairly small part of this agreement, but not nothing either
• Non-union VO rates have used a variety of guides to determine our fees…one of those measurements has been the SAG-AFTRA VO rates – ANY change (big or small) in SAG-AFTRA VO rates impacts non-union rates to some level
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proving audio and visual technology that would allow producers replace actors with a person’s image, likeness and voice with something computer generated…costing the jobs of tens of thousands of on-camera and voice actors

There are many other important points of dispute of course, but the consequences of the decisions reached on the above items in any new SAG-AFTRA agreement will impact voice actors regardless of their union status.

Stay tuned.

Tags: commentary, voice talent, voiceover // 1 Comment »