These are quickies:

* My Tierney, Nachtrab and Lachey post marked my 500th post. I can’t get those hours back and neither can you 🙂 . Thanks for reading.

* The VO-BB is a must read for voice over talent information and most importantly for me…wonderful friendships. It’s celebrating (as of November 10th) its 5th Anniversary! There is NO other resource as respected like it on the web. DB Cooper founded it, runs it and deserves all the kudos in the world for it (are you listening VOICE 2010 awards committee, I am speaking to YOU!!!)

* I’ve said before that Dave Courvoisier is the best looking man in voice over (and he sounds great as well) but as usual he’s also ahead of the curve by sharing his significant and impressive on-camera techniques with those of us using web cams (or who soon will be, anyway). CourVO’s suggestion to me on improving my on-air look was two paper bags (the second was in case the first one ripped).

* From the man who is powering Voice Talent Productions towards a force to be reckoned with on the agency stage, Erik Sheppard is organizing his 2nd Annual Voice Over Mixer on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. at White Rabbit, 145 E. Houston St., in New York City. It’s free to get in but you need to send an email to lindz@voicetalentproductions.com to save your space. If’n your wantin’ to see the guest list and raffle prizes updated, pop over here. Yes, I am going to try and make it.

* Thank you God somebody in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences got it right by including legendary NBC-TV announcer Don Pardo into their next Hall of Fame on January 20, 2010.

* While in Des Moines, IA, I got the chance to meet Jay Weiss of the Radio Garage and he couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. There was an ISDN project that popped up then fizzled out until next week and I stopped by Jay’s studio to see if he could help out. At the time, I thought the project was going to take place ASAP; Murphy’s Voice Over Law states that as soon as you have ISDN backup on the road, the job won’t immediately happen. Jay was a total class act and a fine voice talent in his own right; thanks Jay, I hope we get to work together soon.

* John Florian’s Voice Over Xtra is promoting a “Business of Voice Over” Webinar on November 19th.

Thanks again.

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Tags: commentary, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I was able to visit the Voice Actor Workshop where my friend, teacher and agent Toni Silveri was up to her wonderful tricks again. As happens on occasion at the end of class sometimes, Toni, myself and another student, Kevin Iuzzini, just started talking and it ended up being 11:00 p.m.

By the way, Kevin is a helluva good voice talent, er, voice actor (as well as a great conversationalist) who you should absolutely check out.

But that above nomenclature was my mind as we all talked about voice training and methods and styles. Toni and Kevin are much more studied in the way of stage acting training and I just tried to shut and listen as I was waaay out of my league. Strassburg, Method Acting and Stanislavsky…plulease. I am a lazy voice over fella who just wants to know what time it is, I don’t need to know how the watch is made.

Their insights did cause me to think about the idea of actors training and whether, at its very root, stage actor training is that much different than voice actor training (stage direction and the much greater focus on physicality and movement for stage acting aside). My decision was it really isn’t and that’s probably is a good thing.

Then my next thought veered towards the name, the descriptions if you will: voice actor vs. voice talent. Why is one performer called a voice actor and another called a voice talent? Certainly both titles are part of the industry’s vernacular with those performers who do character voice work most often called voice actors. I refer to myself as a voice talent but I do lots of character work. Should I be calling myself a voice actor?

Does a voice actor get paid more than a voice talent? I don’t think so. Is there greater prestige having “actor” in the title? Nah, I don’t think so, or is there?

So my question is: which are you and why?

Tags: voice actors, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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In doing a little Google Analytics review (which I haven’t done in a while) I noticed that my frequently asked questions page is one of the more popular pages on my web site. Who knew?! (Google analytics, evidently).

This could be for a couple of reasons:

A. Clients are learning about how I can help them and what my business terms are (which is why I have the page)

Or

B. Other voice talents are reading the page trying to learn about how to present themselves to their clients on their web sites

For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll hope for the former and ignore the latter.

So here’s what I would like from you: please look at my FAQ page and give me YOUR ideas for what OTHER questions I could answer for clients about my business that they might find helpful. You can also advise if you think some questions/answers should be changed or omitted.

Any insight you have would be greatly appreciated because as I get older, I know just how much I don’t know.

Thanks!

Tags: commentary, internet, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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My friend John Florian runs Voice Over Xtra which is one of the top (if not the top) news sources for all things voice over. He is also a proud member of MCA-I which, as a international board member and chair of the membership committee, makes me doubly happy.

I mention John because he sent me an email advising that he will be hosting a seminar on November 7, 2009 in New York City entitled Mastering Audiobook Narration. This workshop will be led by master narrator Alan Sklar (also an MCA-I member, by the way).

John says Alan is the industry’s “go-to” narrator for dramatic fiction and clear, informative business, medical and educational books. All this time I thought I was that guy! Crap! 😉

Anyway, Voice Over Xtra is presenting Alan’s workshop which will take place at Shetler Studios, Studio 1 244 West 54th Street, 12th floor from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 7th. There are some spots available so if you’d like more details you can call 203-459-8834 or just sign up here.

Tags: audio books, commentary, narrations, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Over the past four days I have had the specific opportunity to meet a variety of new people who may or may not again come across my professional radar. That’s a really long sentence to describe networking but I could tell your brain needed the workout; no extra charge.

When I decide these folks I have met are database worthy (and if one is not database worthy, he or she is still likely an excellent person mind you), I do two things:

1. I enter them in my database (duh!)
2. I send them a handwritten note

I have thereby doubled my workload. Now I have to do twice as much as I would if I just entered them into my database. And let me tell you, creating hand written notes with my writing sometimes requires a retake or three. That’s a lot of extra time or about 90 minutes yesterday.

And it was the most worthwhile 90 minutes I could ever spend. Recognizing people, acknowledging success, thanking them is memorable. All the Facebooks and Twitters of the world can never have the same personal impact.

Personalization takes time, writing by hand takes even more time and a computer program works faster and more efficiently…but not as effectively.

Tags: branding, commentary, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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FRONT ROW: Jill Perry, Pam Tierney, Kara Edwards MIDDLE ROW: Peter K. O'Connell, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth BACK ROW: Bob Souer, Rowell Gorman, Alexander Vishniakoff, Debra Webb, Beth Whistler, Robert John Hughes CUT OFF ONLY DUE TO PHOTOGRAPHER ERROR: Mike Stoudt

So I packed a bag on Friday and flew down to Atlanta for the Marice Tobias workshop on Commercial and Narration voice over at the very nice Captive Sound Studios. My friend Bob Souer has been singing her praises for a long time; Kara Edwards and I were talking about maybe attending about 6 weeks ago and since I could see some family while I was there, I decided to pull the trigger.

Kara Edwards, Bob Souer and Melissa Exelberth

It was completely different than ANY other voice over workshop I have ever been to and I have been to many.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and learned much. And while I participated in the workshop, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to effectively summarize it because I think unless you’ve been through it, it’s very difficult to understand it. So my first piece of advice would be to take a workshop with Marice.

Rowell Gorman

A lot of internal performer analysis (as it relates to vocal performance) for each student went on during her seminar. I think we all came away with a specific understanding of how effective personal analysis greatly affects the performance a voice talent gives. That kind of analysis helps performers to get out of their own way. The performance improvement was immediately evident and we (each workshop participant) all witnessed it and experienced it time and time again.

Now, you’ve likely just read that and had no understanding of what it meant. Well, some things must be personally experienced, not just read about. I’m not being coy or mean but instead honest.

Kara Edwards, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth, Robert John Hughes

Each voice over talent (as does everyone) learns in different ways and her seminar needs to be personally experienced, not read about. I would recommend you look at Marice’s schedule and if it’s possible for you, take the seminar.

And if you are especially lucky, you’ll get into a class with as many incredibly talented voice over performers as I did. This might be a record because we had 6 of us – about ½ the class – who’ve been long time friends from the VO-BB. There was an immediate and invaluable comfort level learning, working and performing among friends.

Jill Perry and Pam Tierney

When I signed up for Marice’s workshop, I knew Bob was going and I knew there was a chance my friends Kara Edwards and Caryn Clark were coming (they did attend) but what I didn’t know for sure until I saw the list just before I came that the great character voice actor Rowell Gorman would be there, my pal Melissa Exelberth from New York would be there as well as the lovely and talent Pam Tierney from the toddlin’ town of Chicago. What a gift to have my friends there!

Mike Stoudt, Debra Webb and Beth Whistler

The voice talents whom I had never met previous to the workshop really capped off the experience for me and I am so grateful to have been included among them for a few days: Robert John Hughes, Alexander Vishniakoff, Beth Whistler (thank you for driving to the airport!), Debra Webb (who, I found out in setting up this link shares the same agent as me), Jill Perry and Mike Stoudt (who also shares mine and Debra’s agent).

Two VO folks who couldn’t make the seminar but who kindly came out to join our group at various times throughout the weekend were Smith Harrison and Craig Crumpton.

Not to put too strong a point on it, but there were certain voice over suspects who shall remain nameless (Karen Commins (complete with brand new web site), Lance Blair, September Day Leach) who call Atlanta home but had something (anything better) to do than visit with Team Tobias Atlanta after hours at our various pubs, taverns and dives (sometimes known as the mini-bar)! Hurmph! 😉

And finally, my most special thanks to my family in Atlanta who were so kind to let me stay with (or near) them. They had fresh hay in the stable for me to sleep on and let me borrow the mule’s blanket to avoid frostbite. 😉

I hope you get to enjoy a training experience at least once in your career a unique as the one I just enjoyed.

If you’ve trained with Marice, I would love to hear your general impression of the experience. And if you have already with any professional voice over teacher, tell us about it here.

PS. Here is a shot of the WHOLE group, (including and ESPECIALLY Mike Stoudt) courtesy of Bob Souer’s camera:

FRONT ROW: Jill Perry, Pam Tierney, Kara Edwards MIDDLE ROW: Peter K. O'Connell, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth BACK ROW: Mike Stoudt, Bob Souer, Rowell Gorman, Alexander Vishniakoff, Debra Webb, Beth Whistler, Robert John Hughes

Tags: announcers, audio production, audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, community, voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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