For voiceover aficionados, there are a ton sites offering information about voice over (I’ll address that informational abundance in a future post).

But a newer service called Scoop.it basically allows people to pick a topic and then cull their favorite blog posts into a daily email that people sign up to receive. It’s kinda like RSS wrapped up in a prettier bow.

FM Voiceovers & Dave Courvoisier put together one on voiceover that features posts from a variety of sources (today all three stories in their daily email were from this very blog which is a synonym for “slow news day”) and it’s a great read.

There’s probably a billion pages on VO out there within Scoop.it but the ones I quickly found were:

George Washington III has a collection of his voice over posts here.

David Houston has corralled his posts on this page .

Sirenetta Leoni has a nice selection of blog posts here.

You should check them all out and sign up for the ones you like.

Tags: community, social media, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Sometimes I forget that people actually read this blog.

Saturday night, my agent Erik Sheppard from Voice Talent Productions called me (I was hoping it was for a gig but was pleased to hear from him none the less) about Mary McKitrick’s EMMY-less EMMY win. He read my blog post and it really bugged Erik (as a voice talent and as Mary’s agent too) that she got stiffed on receiving the award with the “Wild View” Regional EMMY win for best audio. Mary, as you’ll recall, was the narrator on that series (a pretty major part of the audio team in my opinion and evidently Erik’s too).

And Dave Courvoisier’s opinion too because Sunday Courvo called me with all sorts of ideas about getting Mary her award and would I help etc. Meanwhile, poor Mary is fairly unaware that all this is brewing save for the supportive calls she’s been getting from her fellow talents and representatives on her win sans award.

So in a democratic society, we did what all people do when they feel wronged – Erik, Dave and I (mostly Dave cause he knows how to push the social media buttons best) started a Facebook page. The purpose of the “Statue for Mary” page is to centrally organize enough on-line support to gain the attention of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences to change the structure of their awards program to include voice actors as awards recipients in some manner…and get Mary her EMMY.

The Facebook page is here. Please “LIKE”, share and comment on it if you are supportive of its objectives which are stated on the Facebook page as follows:

Mary McKitrick, an experienced and talented voice over artist, was recently engaged to serve as narrator in the beautifully produced wild life series “Wild View” (www.wildviewseries.org).

With Mary as one part of a truly talented team of media pros on this series, “Wild View” has received many deserving honors, including the regional Emmy Award for “Best Audio”.

Unfortunately, the Emmy Awards do not recognize the narrator (in this case, Mary) as part of the audio team in spite of a narrator’s significant contribution to project’s like “Wild View” and many series and documentary programs like it.

So the attention getting goals of this page, completely created without Mary McKitrick’s participation, is twofold:

1. Secure for Mary McKitrick her well-deserved EMMY Award as narrator on the “Wild View” EMMY Award winning audio production team

2. Encourage the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences to review and update its award criteria to include either categories for or the inclusion of narrators as EMMY Award recipients in its regional and national awards

Actors get EMMY’s. Voice Actors (narrators) evidently get bupkis. That just seems wrong.

If you agree that these two goals are worth supporting

1. Please add your “LIKE” to this page

2. Please share this information with others who you think would support this page’s goals and ask them to come “LIKE” it too

3. Please also write about this page, it’s goals and your supportive thoughts about this project on your blog, twitter page or any other social media channel you feel worthwhile (links are a good thing)

Tags: commentary, community, facebook, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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One of FaffCon’s missions is to leave a positive footprint in each of its host cities by making a donation to a local communication-related non-profit. FaffCon 2’s charity partner is Everybody Wins Atlanta. Their mission is to reach young students, stimulate a love of reading, and help them develop the reading skills they need to succeed in school and in life.

You can read the whole story here.

You can register for Faffcon2 here.

Tags: community, faffcon, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Do I know how to write a headline or what?!

No I’m not pimping out Joe, Paul, George or any of the former Beatles (ba-dum-bump) but each of these three amazing voice talents ARE donating three unique voice over experiences for you to bid on during the The Screen Actors Guild Awards Auctions which benefit the SAG Foundation.

According to my friend Michael Woodley, the auction began on December 10th and runs through December 17, 2010. The SAG Awards Auctions benefit the SAG Foundation to help make possible the Foundation’s public children’s literacy programs: BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) and Storyline Online. The auction also supports Foundation programs providing emergency relief to SAG members in economic distress, video and audio preservation of the creative legacy of SAG members, scholarships for performers and their children, emergency funds for members with catastrophic illnesses and The Actor’s Center.

For the voice over talent in your life, these would be three pretty cool gifts to receive from three very generous guys. Grab your check book or credit card and visit the auction web site to place your bid today.

Tags: commentary, community, voice actors, voice casting, voice over training, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Truth is this was a simple idea that I should have caught on to long ago but last week is when inspiration hit. My hope now is to give you an idea that you can customize to hopefully benefit your business.

I graduated from the University of Dayton in 1986 which didn’t seem like a long time ago at the time.

Looking at LinkedIn recently I was checking on UD groups and such and saw some called “Business Connects”; these were city specific networking groups made up of UD Alumni in that city.

Ooof! Simple. On-line. Free. Double ooof!

Now I had tried creating an in-person UD alumni group in Buffalo and long story short, it no longer exists but not for lack of alumni interest.

So I created University of Dayton Business Connect Western New York. This group would include any UD alumni who have or currently do live anywhere roughly between Buffalo, New York and Rochester, New York. But those are the only requirements (so if you don’t meet the requirements, don’t ask to join cause I’ll say no – but I’ll say it politely and with a smile).

I gotta think that if you graduated from a College or High School, something like this exists BUT if it doesn’t, I can tell you it is not that tough to slap one of these groups together. If you are willing to spend a couple of hours prospecting, ‘er, researching your school name and your city name on LinkedIn, I bet you can find folks who you can invite to join.

Over about 2-3 days, there are 11 members in our group. A ton? No, but a start. I’m not sure if I can give you a better example of social media at work.

To be fair, I have no idea how successful this could be but I have nothing to risk and individually and as a group we have everything to gain.

Do you think this would be worth doing in your area for your school?

Tags: commentary, community, linkedin, networking, social media, social networking, university of dayton by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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September is National Voice Over Month

Unfortunately for my pal Dave Courvoisier, he answered the phone last week.

I happened to be on the other end because I had an idea which involved his baby – National Voiceover Month. It struck me that with all the things that went on in the voice over world in September, maybe a video should be created to at least attempt to capture the sense of the month.

That was the entire sum of the idea and Dave was all for it. He helped me gather the pictures and I slapped this puppy together.

My thanks to everyone who provided pictures and my apologies if we somehow omitted your event. No slight was intended.

Voice Over Talents who shared their skills in the videos opening montage include Doug Turkel, Peter K. O’Connell, Mike Coon, Bobbin Beam, Dave Courvoisier, Diane Maggipinto, Stefania Lintonbon, Cira Larkin, Scott Nilsen, Liz de Nesnera and Adam Behr.

Some of the activities included “That’s Voiceover!” in New York City; Faffcon – The Voiceover Unconference held in Portland, OR; Voices of Vision in Toronto, Ontario Canada; Bob Bergen’s Voiceover Workshop held in Chicago, IL; the Marice Tobias Voiceover Workshop held in Las Vegas, NV; Bettye Zoller’s Voiceover Workshop held in Dallas, TX; and the Western New York Voice Over Meet-up held in Buffalo, NY.

Tags: commentary, community, faffcon, peter o'connell, video, video production, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voices of vision by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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