…and you are a voice actor, I have a professional suggestion I would like to make: do D.B.
By that I mean do D.B. Cooper’s Exertion Sounds for Video Games and ADR Seminar from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 13th.
My friend D.B. is very good at everything she does and I know I would enjoy this class if I could get there.
So you go for me, OK?
A lunch time email from Faffy – actually a “frantic Faffy-gram” because evidently dolphins are not only smarter than we assume, they are also more high-strung – advises that only 8 (eight – the number less than nine but more than seven) spots remain for Faffcon – the Voiceover Unconference on September 23-25 in Hershey, PA.
This third iteration of the event has been selling faster than ever before – no video promotion necessary.
Faffy also advised: “Wanna go but need some dough? If you, or a deserving VO pro you know, would benefit from coming to FaffCon, but would need financial assistance to make that happen, please check out the FaffCon Peer-to-Peer Scholarship. It was generously funded by FaffCon 2 participants after the Atlanta event.”
Hope to see you there.
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? 🙂
This is a picture of my agent, Erik Shepard from Voice Talent Productions.
If he offers to give you dance lessons, you should politely decline and run like hell in the opposite direction for the obvious visual reason shown above. If his feet were shown in this picture, I think they would both be lefts.
However, he is one of the most engaged and attentive voice over agents I’ve ever met and I’m very glad to have him as a part of my voice over team.
Erik has also been, for many years, a voiceover teacher and trainer. His consultation services for voice talents has evolved into a unique part of Voice Talent Productions that I think you’ll want to check out.
Consider taking advantage of what he knows, who he knows and how all that can help your VO career.
One of the people I had never met before going to Faffcon 2 was Mercedes Rose.
Smart, personable and fun-nah, I enjoyed getting to know about her professional acting skills in front of the camera and behind the mic.
It was, mind you, during Oscar weekend that I met her – the Oscars being her High Holy Day of the entire year. Like Glee on speed is how I would describe Mercedes’ excitement level for that show and all it represents to her personally and most especially professionally.
So this whirling dervish of voiceover excitement is teaming with Marc Cashman to present a weekend voiceover seminar in Portland on August 6 & 7, 2011. For more details or to reserve your spot, call 661-222-9300.
