The point was to have a vacation with just Mrs. audio’connell and me while baby audio’connell played with the grandparents (baby, btw, seems not even to have noticed the parents had gone missing because of all the fun provided from the grandparents). The destination was New York City, where the missus is originally from.

Early flight out Friday morning with an incredibly long line at security out of BNIA (made even more interesting by some young, strong dude who may have come straight from the bars to the airport and promptly fainted while in line causing a tremor (“thud”) when he hit the airport’s marble floor; “the bigger they are…”) then straight in to JFK, SOHO and the sister-in-law’s apartment.

It was decided naps were in order and it was from that nap that I was awakened by a call from one of my agent’s advising that Shell wanted to use me for a VO. Groggily I replied in the affirmative inquiring only how much and when (though I’m not sure in which order). Numbers came first and since they were in the “proper sequential order” ($), I went on to the “date” which was to be the following Monday. I would still be in NYC, would they do ISDN? Sure, where would I like to record from? Give me an hour, I said, and I’ll price out a couple of studios.

Like a fireman answering the bell I was fully awake now, knowing I had to work fast to find facilities, availabilities and rates. Remember, this is NYC, many studios are not as available as other studios in other cities on short notice. I had made one brief attempt pre-trip to ensure I had available VO facilities in the area, only to find my contact had moved to Australia…I decided that might not work for me.

The sister in law had a video production friend who had a lead on an ISDN studio and I had the internet. I gave the client’s agency three choices, they picked one and all was booked. This job would pay for the vacation!

Monday comes and I show up at the studio off 5th Avenue in mid-town early to review the script (ha!). There were voice actors (or more likely actors looking for voice work) auditioning for a group of spots; unfortunately they were union spots, so I didn’t get a shot at them. The studio was also having some technical problems with the client’s ISDN hookup so we got started about a ½ hour late. I walked in, was handed the script, set up in the booth (Neumann U87) did four takes of the main read, about nine takes of the tag and I was outta there in about 15 minutes. The clients were very happy and I made some nice new business contacts.

Post script: as the plane was landing, coming back home today, I got an email and a call from the client: they screwed up the script and need to me to record again. That means I get paid again!

I’ll post a few other New York notes a little later.

Tags: commentary, commercials, narrations, technology, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

As it’s kind of a quiet Saturday afternoon with folks sleeping or running errands from the house, I took the opportunity to visit Voice 123 and submit some auditions.  As I’ve mentioned before here, my bookings, auditions from agents and production schedule offer me less and less time to fiddle with the cattle call that Voice 123 has really become. But I still have months left on my paid subscription so I figured I better get to it. 

It has been awhile since I sent in some auditions.  I threw out the ones I didn’t think I’d be the right voice for and the ever present low ball audition (especially those folks requesting custom auditions for message on hold…who are they kidding?)  I was reading one audition that had a low price for the amount of work required and the usage of the voice and was about to delete it when I read down a little further and notice an addition to the usually inane Voice 123 disclaimer on price which read: 

“Voice123 Team Note: We recognize that this project may be below Voice123 pricing recommendations. We have become more flexible with budgets as it was brought to our attention that we could be violating United States federal anti-trust laws by limiting the participation of voice seekers in our marketplace when they don’t met our budget recommendations. It seems that, legally speaking, it is up to the providers (the talents and voice producers) and not the marketplace (Voice123) to determine to exclude the voice seekers they don’t want to work with.

Right after the release of the new Voice123, we will be working on several improvements that will help talents and voice producers filter the types of projects they want and better match projects with talent and voice producers depending on the budget and experience of the talent. On (sic) the meantime we are trying to be flexible to keep everybody happy.”

 “It seems that, legally speaking,…” Wow, what impressive attorney filed that hard hitting legal brief? 

As you might guess, I find this disclaimer highly suspect.  But I am also not an attorney. I am however a big David Letterman fan (not the stalking kind, I just like the show) and I thought of a Dave quote when he interviewed Bill O’Reilly from Fox News as I read the Voice 123 disclaimer. To paraphrase, it went along the lines of “I’m probably not as smart as you are but my gut tells me 60% of what comes out of your mouth is crap.” 

If Voice 123 is going to be “filtering” projects and pricing in their “next” version (which it seems they’ve been working on since 1950 and which might be ready by 2010) why can’t they filter now? Likely, they can.  In my opinion, the real answer is Voice 123 will take any voice job that comes through, slap it up on the board and let all the $50 announcers quote that price on a $2000 job just so Voice 123 can jack up the number of leads they provide VO subscribers and thereby justify the company’s existence.  

As always….I could be wrong.

Tags: advertising, character voices, commentary, commercials, internet, marketing, message on-hold, narrations, podcasting, radio, rants, technology, voice 123, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
6 Comments »

Doesn’t that title sound like a National Geographic Special or at least some TV show you’d see on PBS?

Well that’s apropos I suppose since many of the TV programs on cable channels like National Geographic, Discovery Channel and the like all feature off screen narrators; great voice talents like Will Lyman, Hal Douglas (who actually introduces Will Lyman’s demo) and Gene Galusha just to name a few of the more frequently heard, anonymous voice talkers.

Often times people say to me “Why do you talk about other voice over talents?” or inquire as to why I would reference them on my voice over site. The answer is simple and I suppose I should trademark it right here and now as I’ve used it for years: voice over talents are like golfers. Golfers aren’t truly competing against each other, they are really trying to beat the course.

In the same way, voice over talents aren’t competing against each other, they are competing for the subjective ear of the producer hiring for the job. I’ve never met Will, Hal or Gene and I may have even come up for the same job as they have (you never really know half the time) but I can’t sound like them and they can’t sound like me and on any given day in any given studio it’s the producer’s ear that we all compete for/against not each other.

So my hats off to these great talents and other spectacular narrators often ignored by the media but never ignored by the ears of the audience.

Any favorite narrators you would like to include?

Tags: commentary, narrations, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on the narrator – america’s forgotten artist.

If only jobs were as easy or exciting as they initially sounded.

The idea of being a chocolate taster seems like a good idea but if you think about it, maybe not. After a while, you are likely going to be pretty sick of chocolate.

It’s kind of the same thing when casting a voice for a production. There are lots of talented men and women out there who serve as professional announcers or voice over talent and can easily a voiceover your commercial, imaging project, on-hold message or video narration.

And I mean lots.

That’s where the challenge comes in.

Describing the type of voiceover you want

As the potential voice over employer (client), having to describe a voice you want for your project for a production house or on-line audition service will almost require a PhD in similes. If it makes you feel any better, voice talents are just as bad as describing their sound for clients (the over used description “voice of God has always struck me as a rather unqualifiable reference that always makes me chuckle).

But these totally subjective descriptions from clients and voice over talents are a large part of what makes voice casting an incredibly inexact science that rarely proves accurate. It’s not because the employer or announcer wants to mislead, but more because the spectrum of sound quality is so skewed to each listener’s taste.

Sifting through voice over talent auditions

If one voice over talent audition is heard, a hundred are heard. Old voices, young voices, sleek, rough, country-bumpkin and city slicker. The even worse news is that on some auditions all the aforementioned voices may be on just one audition.

Set some uninterrupted time aside and plow through them… it’s going to take awhile.

The weird science of voice auditioning

From the office secretary of a small business to the Chief Creative Officer at a worldwide advertising agency (and that IS how broad the range is of people selecting a voice talent nowadays), what you think you want at the beginning of the process is rarely what you end up with at the end of the voice over auditioning process. Of course, there are exceptions but usually the process of voice talent auditioning creates some sort of epiphany for the client at some point in the production process.

Whether it’s the special sound of a female talent’s low vocal register or the dead-on impersonation offered a male talent, a voice talent can cement an ad campaign’s direction or so amazingly enhance a marketing concept that a new campaign idea is born. It happens all the time.

Ultimately, the best suggestion for a client is to keep an open mind, even when you “know what you want”.

Going through the process

Here are some simple tips to get you through the voice audition process:

• Decide whether you want to request general audition recordings (which mean listing to generic voiceover demos) or if you want the talents to record a customized demo for the audition. While customized auditions are usually free (especially for non-union voice over talent) voices usually want to know a budget range to see if the project is ultimately going to be worth their time to audition for so…

• Establish a reasonable budget for the voice talent’s services and let the talent know what the “range” of that budget is

• Be sure to indicate the type of production it’s going to be: commercial, video narration, voice imaging…and be as specific about details as possible. This will ensure the voice talent can send you the demo that most suits your needs

• Be sure to indicate what format you want the audition to arrive as: MP3, WAV file or mailed on a CD. Voice talents are usually glad to give prospective clients want you want in whatever format you want it

• If you’re going to initially ask for generic demos, make two piles, keepers and tossers:
– The keepers you may ask to audition again with a more specific piece of copy or you may want to interview them, your choice
– With the tossers, while it would be more professional if you created a generic but personally addressed letter politely saying “thanks but no thanks” most voice over talents subscribe to the notion that they didn’t get the job they just auditioned for; which make the “you got the job” call THAT much sweeter.

• If you want a custom audition, make sure you provide pronunciation keys in the script. A mispronunciation is upsetting for the talent and frustrating for the listener

• On customized demos, be ready to hear the same script over and over….focus on listening for script intrepretation, tone and inflection. Don’t focus on the words or you’ll zone out (see the earlier chocolate taster reference).

Tags: advertising, character voices, commentary, commercials, narrations, podcasting, radio, technology, tv, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

I get asked all the time about producing voice over demos. I certainly have produced more than my share and its a lot of work for one minute’s worth of voiceover, job-getting magic. But you’re impatient and you want the golden ticket NOW.

Well to answer all the voiceover newbies, here’s the magic answer:

You’ve got 20 seconds, if you’re lucky!
Now get in line, cross your fingers and say a prayer.

You’ve just sent in your voice over demo for a possible voiceover job….along with anywhere from 5 to 200 other voice over talents.

In 20 seconds (usually less) a producer is going to toss your demo into the :

• “Keep for review pile” (which will get whittled down again until the producer picks “the” voice talent) or
• “Throw in the garbage” file.

Anyone in voice-overs (even the so-called “big names”) know a voice over talent is going to get rejected more often than they get hired…the numbers are not in the talent’s favor no matter how talented.

Since most times the voice actor is not likely to be auditioning in person (especially outside the big 3 U.S. markets) you (the talent) have only one tool at your disposal to represent your enormous talent, range, creativity, charming personality, client-friendly demeanor, multi-faceted character repertoire and stunning good looks (in the eyes of the listener). That tool is your voiceover demo.

And now you’re only getting 10 seconds…this better be good.

A 10 second demo?

No, I was just kidding. The industry standard is one minute for the length of your voice over demo with segments of spots ranging anywhere from about 6 seconds to 12 seconds depending on the content. The point is that whatever the producer hears in the first 10-15 seconds will determine whether your voice has the exact (or very close to exact) quality the producer is looking for.

What is that quality? Only the producer knows (it’s very subjective) so all you should worry now only about showing your best work as professionally as possible.

Generic or customized?

Every voice artist should have at least one strong generic demo to be able to present to a prospective client (at the moment, the most favored demo format is an MP3 for e-mail and a CD for snail mail….and yes, the CD should have a professional look to it, not a Sharpie scrawl of your name across it).

Some folks create generic demos based on category…a generic commercial demo, a generic narration demo, a generic character voice demo and so on. Tailored demos simply mean the producer has a demo script he/she wants you to voice; if you are asked, do it.

How do I determine voice over demo content?

Assuming here we’re talking about creating a strong generic demo (not a category voice demo) the recommendations here are:

• The best or most widely heard of any spots or narrations you’ve been paid to create (this should include straight reads as well as character voices). Preferably you want the fully produced cuts on your demo, not the dry reads unless that’s how they were produced.
• Any tailored commercial, narration or voice imaging demos that you felt really presented your talents well.
• Determine your best work from all your categories (commercials, narrations, voice imaging, on-hold, audio books etc.). Then consider the type of work you’re most often hired or considered for and include best of all those segments mixed as you think works best.

When you’re done producing your voiceover demo….you’re not. Play it for other people in the business, get their opinions, and tell them to be cruel, put it up on some voice over bulletin boards that encourage member-to-member critiques. Take all the info to heart (but not personally, the critiques are about “the voice”, not you) and make the changes that you think make the most sense.

What’s in that first 10 seconds?

Your money voice. Every voice artists has one, some have a few. The money voice is either:

• That voice that seems to bring you the most work/that you’re most known for OR
• The voice that you can do well that seems to be in vogue among those who are hiring (at the moment, it’s the sort of conversational, everyman voice as opposed to the big-balls announcer voice).

Now the truth.

Voice demos are close to the apex of and imperfect science. It is an ever-evolving tool and one for which your lively hood depends…but no matter how good it is, your demo is useless if no one hears it. That requires marketing.

And that’s a subject for another day.

Hope this helps.

Tags: character voices, commentary, commercials, marketing, narrations, podcasting, radio, technology, tv, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
6 Comments »

As we saddle up for the fourth quarter of the year, a time when networks like MTV and Premiere Radio Networks start assembling their countdown shows, I thought it fitting that I would announce (with 60+ days still left in the year) the best performance by a voice over talent in 2006.

The rules of this award, created by me and owned by me state that I cannot give the award to myself (darn those rule makers!)

No, the 2006 award for best voiceover goes to a voice that’s known by many generations both from his (ok, first clue: it’s a guy) radio and television voice work (some of it on-camera). He is also one of the oldest (clue #2), living (clue #3) and occasionally working (clue #4) voices around. He also loves to sail (clue #5).

On September 5^th, like many Americans, I was watching the debut of the “new” CBS Evening News with Katie Couric opened the show with some headlines, read from her new multi-million dollar set inside her new multi-million dollar studio.

The new theme music was cued, the graphics came up and THAT voice intoned: “THIS is the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”

The voice wasn’t just perfect because of its own rich quality, nor was it simply the really well paced read.
With all that included, the reason THAT voice worked so well was because the CBS Evening News, a broadcast steep in journalistic history, reeling not so long ago from a costly news scandal and now introducing the first solo female news anchor (which shouldn’t have been such a big deal) needed to deftly combine all the news gathering technology and fanciful broadcast elements with its storied (and successful) journalistic past.

When Walter Conkrite, the broadcast’s most famous and beloved anchor, introduced this newest version of the CBS Evening News, he was also imparting his implied blessing on this new news show. Almost so far in the background as to be imperceptible (as many good voiceover talents are) but authoritative and certainly recognizable enough to impart a feeling of trust in the news show that was about to be unveiled.To Walter Cronkite, I bestow The Best Voiceover Performance of 2006 Award. And to the CBS staffer who came up with the idea to use Cronkite, like they say in the beer ads: Brilliant!

Tags: CBS News, commentary, narrations, tv, voice actors, voice casting by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
4 Comments »