“There are legal obligations to assist the criminal, but who is there to help the families of the victims?”

When I was chosen as the narrator for the North Carolina Victim Assistance Network recent informational and fund-raising video production, that’s the line in the script that caught my attention.

Who DOES help the families of murder victims? Where IS the support for individuals and families whose lives have been ruined by violent crime?

In my new home state of North Carolina, the answer to those two questions is the North Carolina Victim Assistance Network (NC-VAN).

The well-produced video is an uncomfortable video to watch at first because none of us like to hear about or watch the suffering of others.

But without NC-VAN, many impacted North Carolina families would be completely adrift in some of the most awful ways one could imagine. NC-VAN gives violent crime victims and their family a kind of anchor, some direction and a bit of hope in an otherwise seemingly hopeless situation.

At the end of the video, it is the North Carolina Victim Assistance Network that asks for the help it so willingly offers others everyday. It is financial help they need. It is financial help they deserve.

If you can help them, I hope you will. Thank you.

Tags: narrations, video, video production, youtube 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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OK, so sometimes I forget to hit the edit switch when I come up with an idea that’s going to take a lot of time and effort to put together (effort I got, time not so much). Such was the case when Amy Snively of voice over fame and Faffcon lead sled dog said she needed help and ideas to promote Faffcon.

Well though it took longer than it should have the promo video for the event is done and it is great fun as well as informative only because of the following very talented reasons:

Philip Banks
Mandy Nelson
Todd Ellis
Bruce Miles
Pam Tierney
Dave Courvoisier
Roger Tremaine
Bob Souer

They are my peers and my friends and this video (and this conference) would be a whole lot of nothing with out them.

I am grateful for each of you.

Tags: peter o'connell, video production, 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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The above picture shows…

A) Part of the United States’ new surface to air defense system

B) The spawn of the robot in the 1986 movie “Short Circuit”

C) Pamela Anderson’s home movie camera

Please no looking at others student’s answers.

Begin.

Tags: commentary, silliness, tv, video production by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

Male Voice Talent Michael Minetree

Look, to go through the headache of creating a really nice, well thought-out on-line voice over web directory seems overzealous, generous and a bit crazy to me. Pictures, demos, links – too much work for a lazy guy like me.

But not Michael Minetree.

It seems in addition to his MineWurx Studio, Michael likes to create projects for himself. He created a very enjoyable to watch (maybe less enjoyable to build) video chronicle of the construction of his new voice over booth (a link to one of the many videos created on that project can be found here).

Then he decided to create this voice over directory (I’m in there somewhere under the category of short, fat voice talent – sadly, it’s not an exclusively listing ;).

Now he’s also created a “Voices with ISDN” web directory, listing all voice talents who have ISDN numbers.

And there is more to come.

While maybe not wholly altruistic (we are all business people here) these are all extremely generous efforts by Michael to help promote an industry that is fortunate to have him as a practitioner.

Tags: commentary, video production, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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After the worldwide success of my YouTube debut a few months ago, while I had some time this week during a commercial session, I thought you would enjoy watching how I performed my parts for a radio spot I was cast in.

This again was a remote recording session but I think its great fun and at the end you hear the finished part – chosen not by me but by the producer of the spot. I hope you enjoy it.

And if you are not yet a subscriber to my YouTube channel, I hope you will be, it’s free.

Tags: commentary, commercials, social media, video, video production, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
5 Comments »