With thanks to David Houston’s blog for the head-ups, major kudos to male voice talent Joe Rodriguez for a terrific audio book debut in the book Ten Mile River. The link features and audio cut of Joe’s work which I thought was really terrific…great character voices! Please take a listen.

I remember Joe writing about this session, his first audio book, on his blog a while back and recall that he was a bit nervous.

No nerves in the performance I heard. All I heard was a great story from a guy who’s developing into a great storyteller.

And should you need a great male Spanish Voice Talent, well there’s a guy name Joe on the International Voice Talent’s page that I could direct you to…

Tags: audio books, blogs, character voices, commentary, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

My business resolution in 2009 was/is actually only one word: execute.

Too often in a business day, I’ll get started in six different directions and lucky if I find the finish line on two of those starts. Same thing the next day to the point where (if you follow the math) lots of stuff didn’t get done.

Well on day to day business, that’s going to happen sometimes but this year (he said with vigor and emphasis!) not on projects or important tasks – not related to clients (their stuff always gets done…money first!)

But like every business person, I’m always studying my business’ trends, activity in the industry etc.

While doing that, a thought occurred to me…should I keep my listings on the pay to play (P2P) voice over web sites?

I do not have a paid listing on the pay to play web sites like Voice 123 because I think these sites qualitatively, quantitatively and financially devalue the voiceover profession. I could rant forever on that but will spare you unless you ask in the comments.

I did keep a free page for SEO/SEM considerations. But the thought had occurred to me on more than one occasion: am I hurting my brand through even a free association with such sites?

Further, by being listed even in a free listing, am I offering an implied endorsement of these types of sites?

Today I got my answer.

On the VO-BB, there was yet another debate about the P2P sites. In the thread I brought up my conundrum. A voice talent friend of mine offered this observation:

“The way I see it, if people in the biz that I look up to are on them (and there are a few folks that are… and do gigs from them) then it’s good enough for me.”

I highly doubt that this person was referring to me in the quote but after reading it I did not doubt that one could see my participation on a P2P site as an endorsement. It was time to execute (I love when the signs are crystal clear).

Voice 123 was very helpful in their (possibly third-world based) on-line chat room with the deletion of my account. In fact, in my history of dealings with the company, this may have been their most impressive display of customer service. For that only, I thank them.

Tags: announcers, branding, commentary, marketing, peter o'connell, search engine marketing, voice 123, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

With my sincere thanks to the 80 participants in this faux-dition and the gracious judges (all of whom admitted to some tough decisions) there are now terrific 10 nominees for you to vote on.

First, a little housekeeping (PLEASE READ)

THE RULES FOR VOTING ON NOMINEES

1. The decision of audio’connell voice over talent is final

2. Nobody has a chance to get the real announcer job at Late Night With Jimmy Fallon because of this unofficial and very silly contest…plus the job has already been filled

3. Please choose your top three choices, numbering them 1, 2, 3 with your first choice (1) being your favorite (three different announcers, not three votes for one person, etc.)

4. Type your vote in the comment section of this blog post below

5. You may only vote once and you are on the honor system

6. Voting will end when I say it does, probably a couple of weeks I’m guessing

OK, the floor is yours. Have fun! Click HERE to listen to the nominees then please come back to vote below in the comment box.
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As always, thanks for visiting the voxmarketising blog. If you haven’t already, we (well me really) hope you’ll subscribe using the orange RSS button on the top right column of this page. It’s free and every time someone subscribes to this blog, an angel gets its wings (hey, worth a shot ;).

Tags: announcers, commentary, fauxdition, NBC Television Network, silliness, tv, unofficial audition, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
82 Comments »

1/9/09 UPDATE: The faux-ditions are now CLOSED!

All credit to Jim Feldman who coined the phrase “faux-dition”.

The unofficial Late Night With Jimmy Fallon announcer auditions will remain open for submissions until Friday, January 9, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. eastern U.S. time.

The judges will then hunker down in an undisclosed safe room (or cell) somewhere on Earth.

There, they will secretly agree who are the top 10 nominees either by consensus or best 3 out of 5 falls.

Their ballots will be burned to preserve the judges’ picks. When white smoke appears, the votes are unanimous and we’ll have our ten nominees.

When I announce the 10 nominees, you can cast your vote at that time in that post.

One vote per person on the honor system. My decision, like always, will be final.

For any voice talents who do not submit by the deadline, you are free to publicly call them “scaredy cat” or “chicken” afterwords when you see them in public.

Tags: announcers, commentary, NBC Television Network, tv, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
7 Comments »

Whether this becomes an out and out holiday tradition here at audio’connell’s voxmarketising remains to be seen but suffice it to say I’m at it again.

Based on the enormously popular Unofficial Casting Call for the NBC Nightly News announcer, I am today kicking off the Unofficial Casting Call for the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon announcer job.

Some points of difference between the two casting calls:

1. The Nightly News audition was in response to what I (and many others) felt/feel was a poor performance by a certain actor (who otherwise is very talented). For the Fallon casting call, I have no knowledge of the new announcer’s (Steve Higgins) ability (which I’m sure is great) nor should this thingy we’re doing here be seen as an indictment of his talents…I wish him great success. This is just for fun and nobody here will be getting the Fallon show job.

2. NBC Nightly News had a well known theme. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has a house band, The Roots, but no theme song that I know of yet so I grabbed a Roots song (“Here I Come” all rights reserved etc.) and edited into a strictly demo theme sample. The music should open up some creative voice imaging opportunities for participants.

The directions to participate are simple and straight forward:

A. Download HERE the demo only theme song (complete with cheering audience to get you into the late night feel)

B. Here is a script (again demo only):

From NBC Studios in New York, It’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Tonight Amy Adams (slight pause) Eddie Izzard (slight pause) and musical guest John Legend

With The Roots

Now here’s your host: Jimmy Fallon!

C. Record your version mixed with the demo theme (note: you should have your audition finish at about :30 seconds into the theme as you’ll note I brought the audience cheering up. If you hit it right it will sound like he just walked out after you said his name. Also remember there would be graphics and likely some animation as part of the intro too.

D. Email it to peter at audio’connell dot com. MP3 file only. File name: YOURLASTNAME_Unofficial_Fallon_Audition

E. I’ll allow submissions until it becomes tedious or boring. Only one entry per voice talent, please.

>>> HERE is where you can LISTEN (but NO voting yet) to all the entrants <<<

Here’s my example to give you a general sense of timing but PLEASE do it with whatever pace and vocal performance style you’d like. Mine is just one way, not necessarily the perfect way.

DEMO EXAMPLE
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/Late_Night_Fallon/OConnell_Unofficial_Fallon_Audition.mp3]

How a winner will be chosen:

i. I’ll get between 3-5 people to serve as judges to pick the top 10 entries
ii. From there I will open up the voting. Don’t vote until I open the voting….I’ll delete any voting posts until I write the “voting is open” post
iii. As for prizes, I got bumpkus. Maybe we’ll get an angel gift giver or someone who wants to re-gift some holiday present, we’ll see.

Anyway, have fun and Merry Christmas. Let’s hear your best stuff!

If you just want to listen to the audition “bed” here it is:

Tags: announcers, commentary, fauxdition, NBC Television Network, peter o'connell, silliness, tv, unofficial audition, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
18 Comments »

Everyone has to do what they have to do to make a legal living.

Each person has to set a value on their professional worth and what their skill set is worth.

This I believe.

I just happen to also think that people willing to voice 20 statements for $60 or less (yes, that IS $3.00 a statement) might enjoy a better profit doing darn near any other job than voice over.

CLICK BELOW

(Yes, that job description does say “Please, only bid if you are a professional voice artist.” )

And they might save a bit of professional face (hide the blemish of the low-balling brand, if you will) by not posting their lowly value so publicly (with clickable profiles, even) on a totally open bidding site that anyone can find – without trying- via a Google alert.

CLICK BELOW

(Yes, that does say “Lenny is the name, and VoiceOver is my game!”)

No, everyone does not have to believe what I believe.

Clearly, there are many who don’t.

And the industry is poorer for it.

P.S. I signed up for a free account on this site about a month ago…don’t think I bid on anything; yes after tonight’s viewing that account will be closed up.

Tags: commentary, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
7 Comments »