Here’s the thing…if you’re going to craft a new commercial voiceover demo, you should create a new commercial voiceover demo video to go with it.
It’s like salt and pepper.
Cake and ice cream
Coffee and donuts.
I’m not sure what my point was but I have the sudden urge to go to the kitchen. Bye!
I was supposed to be producing a video featuring my new commercial demo but while I was brainstorming this I came up with this video idea based on a design I created for my audio’connell Voice Over Talent business card.
So I made this video first. And no I have no earthly idea what to do with it except post it on YouTube. Maybe I can integrate it into a trade show display. Oh well, it’s not art but it’s harmless enough. Wonder if it’s too late to buy a spot in the Super Bowl?
There are two or three voiceover coaches who post so much on Facebook, Voiceover Universe and Twitter et al about their latest seminars in Tupelo, Mississippi or where ever that I’ve simply unfriended them. Social media for them is an endless informercial, I guess.
Oy.
Evidently so many voice talents have sooo much new business – based on all the Facebinkedinwitter posts I read from them – that there may be no voice over jobs left for me (or you for that matter) so we all should just quit. It’s like an accountant in April posting “I just completed another tax return!” Um, pal, that what you’re supposed to do.
The debate over the best microphone has become so intense that two voiceover talents will duel to the death tomorrow morning– their weapons of choice will be a Neumann TLM 103 and a Sennheiser 416. It begs the question if two voice over talents die in the forest, who will announce it?
And it will surprise you to learn that voxmarketising is NOT the only blog on the topic of voiceover – at last count there were 14 billion voice over blogs, all of them debating whether breaths should or should not be edited out of narrations.
Obviously I’m being silly but the truth is: in the voiceover business, we talk a lot.
When it’s not on mic, it’s on line.
The trouble is we’re ALL talking about the same things…over and over. And I think I’m getting burnt out.
That’s a bad thing because while I thought I was contributing to the conversation, I wondering now if I’ve simply been contributing to the noise.
Paul Strikwerda, my Double Dutch voiceover friend, recently wrote about this issue, which I have been bandying about in my head for a while. He’s felt tad bored by what he’s read.
My concern is not that I’m bored (I know how to fix that – change the channel, hit the off switch) but rather that I’m the one being boring. I’ve actually cut back a bit on my social media and blogging because I didn’t feel I had anything interesting to contribute. I’m not sure “my perspective” is always enough.
Thinking about it that way made me feel a little better because at least I was thinking before typing. I think when it comes to Social Media, that’s not done a lot (and it’s not an issue exclusive to voice over talents, believe me). I’ve also been guilty as charged so don’t think I’m casting aspersions (so please, no emails from aspersions looking for voice work).
It seems we’re now all (and that “all” was a lot smaller when I started in Social Media) talking about the same voice over topics and from where I sit (just one man’s opinion here) the individual perspectives don’t always seem unique enough or even thought-provoking…and again, myself included.
I know we all just want to be heard and we all enjoy freedom of expression and that’s great. I don’t want it stifled but shouldn’t we all consider a little self-editing? Just a little?
I don’t know about you but I do NOT want to be the “oh not THAT guy again” brand. The line between frequency and obnoxious gets thin fast in social media; brands are now suffering (and not reaping).
SEO and marketing opportunities available through Social Media are so enticing (based on cost) that I think we all forget sometimes that for Social Media to be effective, we have to be maybe less frequent but certainly more interesting. And that’s not always easy.
Nor should it be.
What do you think? Or are you even paying attention anymore? 🙂
My friend John Florian who runs the on-line voice over news center Voice-Over Xtra! sent an email to me (and probably 1,000 of my closest friends) asking for some insight in to our workload for political voiceover projects during the 2010 mid-term elections that just blew through the U.S. like a cyclone.
The purpose of the survey, which I took, is to gauge (among other things) what types of political advertisements most voice talents voiced this season. Positive or negative? Issue or attack ads? Funded by PAC’s or other groups etc.
Nobody is asked to share their personal political beliefs or anything like that.
The most interesting result I want to find out from this survey is whether voice talents on average will or will not voice spots for issues or politicians they do not believe in. Some people will say no and some will say…it’s just a job and as a voice actor, I need to act like I believe in this or that; it’s not an endorsement.
I know for me, I have only one issue that I look at with possible political spots and if the spot or the candidate runs contrary to that belief, then I decline the business. Others might see things differently so I look forward to the survey results.
So if you did a political spot this year, go take the survey here.
Usually changing planes at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is not terribly exciting. Sometimes it is terrible but again not terribly exciting.
Not so today.
I came across two unexpected marketing executions, one expected but not seen (maybe this is a world exclusive?) and the other unexpected and very impressive.
This is MY first look at an actual post merger United Continental Airplane design. I really didn’t think these were going to be ready so soon but what do I know! 🙂 I will say that as of this writing, the United web site still has their old branding sans Continental’s blue and gold.
This is an incredibly cool and BIG sale brochure 😉 for Courtyard Marriott highlighting their newly designed lobbies. That is a FULL video wall along the one side and what I believe is an interactive video screen on the side. Anybody cruising through gates B and EF will see this and it is an impressive sight.
See, traveling doesn’t HAVE to be tedious.
