Entries Tagged as ''

open and say ahhhh…

James Alburger was speaking with me recently about the VOICE 2010 conference and he said “we have a new Premiere Sponsor for VOICE 2010.”

I was thinking maybe it was going to be a microphone company or audio software group. He said it was the Osborne Head & Neck Institute Voice & Speech Division.

Long pause. Then it clicked!

What a fantastic market for these Doctors to be fishing in and how fortunate are the voice talent who are attending that the Doctors will be “in”.

So many of us in voice over take the care of our throat and vocal chords for granted….or worse, we ignore it.

On paper, this sponsorship is a win-win. The Doctors are introduced to new patients and the voice talents have an important opportunity to learn more about one of their most important body parts.

This could be very cool.

school is in session

A couple of pings to my email box to pass along if you are so inclined:

Marice Tobias has announced her spring sessions for her “The Shift” voiceover training for commercials and narrations.

– St. Louis, MO – the weekend of May 15th

– Washington, D.C. – the weekend of May 22nd

– New York, NY – private sessions from May 24th – June 1st.

For information on Marice’s events, contact Stacey Stahl at 503-246-2239.

Pat Fraley is presenting “Making the “A” List: An Acting for Voice Over Event” featuring Pat, Ed Asner and Scott Brick on Saturday, May 22nd at World Famous Buzzy’s Recording in LA. To secure your spot call 818-400-3733.

I have been taught by both these individuals and while both have issued restraining orders against me because of my lack of performance skills (the way the both individually screamed “don’t ever back here” was kind eerie) , I’m sure you’ll fair much better. They are great teachers.

voice talents do get invited to the white house correspondents dinner

Well, you do if you’re a voice talent and your name is Morgan Freeman, anyway.

Except possibly for bragging rights, I am not sure why CBS News announced the guests it was hosting at Saturday’s annual White House Correspondents Dinner. But their special guest list includes:

– Morgan Freeman
– Julianna Margulies
– Betty White (one week before her SNL hosting gig)
– Chelsea Handler
– Ayla Brown, daughter of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)
– Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
– Attorney General Eric Holder
– HHS Secy. Kathleen Sebelius
– Energy Secy. Steven Chu
– Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
– D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty
– Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

The White House seems to have played its hand as to its preferred network news organization.

Not to point out the obvious, but if they’re inviting announcers for CBS News programs, I think CBS News forgot somebody.

requiescat in pace allen swift

Voice Actor Allen Swift, photo copyright Neal Boenzi, The New York Times

Shame on me for missing the Cartoon Brew post last week and only now catching the New York Times obit on voice actor Allen Swift.

What’s sad for me in these situations is I learn of a performer’s work after their passing. Shame on me again.

new announcer for the cbs early show

With the switch to HD, networks and local stations are not only sprucing up their sets (and their talents – make up doesn’t work the way it used to), they are also updating their graphics package.

So Monday, CBS’ Early Show did just that…complete, I’m advised, with a new announcer.

I am open to correction but it sure sounds to me like the lovely and talented Mr. Beau Weaver scored himself another network gig. Sounds great to me.

great direction

Andre, Greg and John at Babble On Recording Studio in Minneapolis have published a fairly unique blog post that I think is worthy reading for producers, clients, engineers and voice talents.

I don’t know these fellas, I just subscribe to their blog – I’m also pretty sure they don’t know of me.

As engineers in a recording studio, and no doubt as producers themselves, they participate in a great many voice over sessions with clients or 3rd party producers. Some of these sessions don’t go well because the communication between the producers and voice talent doesn’t seem to click. If you’ve been in the VO business any length of time, you’ve likely been directly involved in one of “these” sessions – as the talent, it can resonate in your head for days.

What Babble On presents in this post are ideas on how to better communicate with voice talent based on ideas and insights from voice talents…what type of direction gives them the ability to offer a better performance.

I thought it was a really great read and terribly insightful. I hope you do too.

Thanks gentlemen.