Entries Tagged as 'animation'

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.

bob bergen in nyc december 5 & 6, 2009

<em>Voice Actor & Teacher Bob Bergen</em>

Voice Actor & Teacher Bob Bergen

I believe it was my friend and voiceover compatriot Liz de Nesnera who posted a notice in social media circles about an upcoming Bob Bergen Voice Over Workshop that will teach you how to buy foreclosed homes for pennies on the dollar and become rich, rich, rich!

Um wait, that might be wrong.

Actually, Bob’s hosting a “2-Day ADVANCED Animation Voice-over Workshop” December 5-6, 2009 in New York City, (“Advanced” meaning you must have previous animation voice-over technique training or experience).

Eschewing the hype found in many one-sheets for workshops (har-har), this workshop’s flyer promises the following:

This work shop takes you through the entire process of what it’s like to audition and record a cartoon! Each student will have the opportunity to “audition” for up to 15 characters . Based on their” auditions” Bob will then cast and record an episode of the cartoon.! Each student will receive an audio copy of the finished product! This is a great opportunity to know what it’s like to actually work as a voice-over artist in an animated film.

I have not trained with Bob but that only means he’s selective about who he teaches and he has good taste – I’m kidding! All the people I know who have trained with Bob speak very, very well of the experience and if they didn’t you wouldn’t be reading about this workshop here. If you’d like more information, you can find it here.

tooned in is traveling

<em>Emmy Award Winning Female Voice Actor Stevie Vallance</em>

Emmy Award Winning Female Voice Actor Stevie Vallance

I trained with Stevie Vallance at her “Tooned In” Workshop about two years ago in Toronto and it was a good experience. As you might guess by the name, Stevie’s focus is on animation voice over, a field where she has been an Emmy Award winning performer and producer for many years.

This week, unbeknownst to me, the Ottawa International Animation Festival is taking place and I’ll let you guess the city. Stevie has advised:

I will be in Ottawa teaching a workshop at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. On Wednesday, October 14th, I’ll be turning the hosts into ‘Toons’, on the A Channel’s Morning Show (aprox 7:30 am).

Sign up for my 2-hour Animation Voice-over Acting ‘Drill’, at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, on Thursday October 15th, at 7:00 pm, in the Arts Court Theatre, 2 Daly Ave, Ottawa. There is a $15 dollar walk-up entry fee, based on availability.

On Sunday, October 18th, I am teaching the ‘original’ Tooned In! Animation Acting Workshop, from 10am to 6pm. This event will take place in a state of the art recording studio, in Ottawa. ‘Animation acting’ experience is not required. Class capacity is limited for quality control and to ensure ample mic time for all participants. This workshop is 8 hours of intensive voice workout and participants will leave with a rough demo.

She noted she also has upcoming workshops in Owen Sound (Nov 1), New York (Nov 8), Toronto (Nov 29) and Vancouver (Dec 13)

For details or to register visit http://toonedin.ca

new tool, cool explaination

google_wave_logo

I have a really odd habit of skimming over some big new product or service announcement and ignoring it until someone gives me a really understandable explanation of how the product or service really works. Rather than an “early adopter”, I’m more of an “adopt it when I get around to it” type guy.

Case in point, Google Wave is “an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”

Maybe you can easily wrap your skull around that, but I can’t.

Now if I wanted to throw away an hour of my time I could watch this video but I don’t. I can’t be bothered because I’m a skimmer or I’m impatient…it all depends on what I’ve had for breakfast but that’s not my point.

My point is that this video here is awesome tool for learning about Google wave and likely anything else this company wants to teach me.

I don’t know who epipheo studios are but if they make stuff like this you should hire them.

futurama has a future

futurama_copyright_all_rights_reserved

As noted here on July 21st, the voice actors from the Fox TV show Futurama were in a bit of a battle with the studio about their contracts. So much so that 20th Century Fox TV put out an open casting call through voice over agents and voicebank to recast the roles in a ploy to reign in the actors.

Over two weeks past since the initial audition requests so I don’t think it made an impact in negotiations (especially after Futurama fans got wind of it and fans of animation hold dear their voice actors).

It was announced that as of July 31, 2009 (yesterday), all the Futurama voice actors re-signed (not resigned – that would be bad). Terms were not disclosed.

I can’t help but imagine that first day back will be a bit tense even though I have no way of knowing. Professionalism will prevail, I’m sure.

I would like to commend my fellow voice over professionals who like me ignored the audition requests from the studio. It’s nice to see voice actors will not stomp on the backs of those actors not really un-hired to advance their own careers, seeing instead how they themselves would want to be treated if they were the ones in negotiations with a studio.

Further, I would like to commend those voice agents who did NOT further the 20th Century Fox TV cause by issuing the studio’s call for auditions to their rosters. One of my agents did forward the Fox audition to his roster only to pull it back with apologies after learning the story behind the auditions. Hey, if you realize you’ve made a mistake, fix it and apologize, as this agent did, I’ll respect you even more….so will the industry.

For what its worth, thanks!

“cleveland show” voice star mike henry promo

cleveland_show

I think The Cleveland Show is the first official spin-off from Emmy nominated Family Guy. As part of their promotion for the new show, they produced a quick vid on some of the show’s recording sessions with star Mike Henry.