three biggest lies – voice over edition
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1. We loved your voice.
2. The check is in the mail.
3. This is a non paying gig but it may lead to one.
Did I forget any others?
1. We loved your voice.
2. The check is in the mail.
3. This is a non paying gig but it may lead to one.
Did I forget any others?
Sometimes the person offering the kick in the pants deserves a kick in the pants and I’d be a bit of a phony if I didn’t fess that I got kicked Sunday morning for good reason.
In my July 12th post, I was so excited about a wonderful comment I read about taking the risk of going too far in a voice over performance that I omitted a key thought in the post. While you can read the whole post here, the summary of it was supposed to be that reading blogs can offer some great insights into your voice over performance because sometimes time (as is my case) and money (as is the issue for others) prevent folks from getting professional training.
While I stand by my statements completely, it is what I failed to say that caused a dust-up and rightly so. What I neglected to say was that while blogs are valuable they cannot take the place of professional in-person or at least phone training. While I have made that clear on this blog in the past and certainly pointed it out in my free e-book The Voice Over Entrance Exam, I failed to make that point clear in my blog post.
That omission got noticed by of all people my voice teacher. And she was pissed! As she wrote on my facebook page:
Ouch Peter! In my 25 years as a voice actor, I have never taken a Voiceover Seminar with a reputable teacher that has not come back to me with manifold rewards (and monetary ones). Blogs are great for sharing opinions and occasional bragging rights, but to pack your parachute with skills in this competitive biz, it takes an investment in training that should never cease, no matter what the cost. I’ve sacrificed, paid the piper and reaped the rewards.
Oh dear. This was not good. I made a mistake, I left out an important part of the blog post and the woman who’s been teaching me voice acting the longest now rips me a new one on Facebook. Well my axiom has always been if you’re going to fail, fail big!
Actually that’s never been my axiom, I just made that up here.
My response, made on bended knee when typing on a i-phone (which is no easy task):
Toni,
Your point is well taken so let me clarify (and I think you know well my belief in this from my book): nothing replaces personal voice over training. The interaction is invaluable so that would always be my preference.
But there are times when life’s priorities get in the way…at least in my case. So reading is a supplement.
BTW one of the teachers who first taught me to go farther was YOU.
Thank you for that and your (as always) wise input.
Best always,
– Peter
It’s a lesson learned but likely a mistake I’ll make again anyway: re-read your blog posts 12-13 times before posting; find your mistakes then or else you’ll piss off your voice teacher. Sorry Toni.
If you’re like me (and God help you if you are) you work and then you’ve got kids. In between you grab a sandwich and you sleep a few hours.
So taking time let alone money out for voice over seminars is costly on both fronts. This is why I subscribe to many blogs. I will set aside time in my workday to read because that’s another way to improve – not only within voice over but also social media, marketing and overall business operations. And it’s free, except for the time.
A prime example for me recently was a great performance reminder from voice coach Marice Tobias (friends and fellow VO’s Bob Souer and Mary McKitrick are just two folks who go ga-ga for Marice’s teaching insights). My light bulb moment came courtesy of Tracy Pattin’s VoiceBank blog.
Among the many Tobias nuggets in the post taken from a recent AFTRA Mastery panel: “Go Too Far.”
If you’ve been at all trained as a voice talent, you may have been told that before. If not, then that phrase may seem odd. But for me it was a great kick in the pants.
Me of all people, sometimes the loudest person in the room if not the world when I carry on in a humorous way, needs to be reminded to make a performance bigger, more intense, more subtle, more brooding, more obnoxious (scary I know). But in taking my performance further, I can see how that sounds – see how it communicates and then, if need be, I can pull it back. But I need to dare myself to make it bigger, to take the risk, to get out of my comfort zone. I forget that performance imperative sometimes.
The nuggets are out there and today I found mine by reading Tracy’s blog post about Marice’s comment.
What performance or business nuggets have you found recently and where did you find them?
NOTE: this was supposed to publish two days ago and I thought it had. Obviously this is WordPress’ fault because I NEVER make mistakes! Stupid WordPress!
The nicest man (and one of the most talented) in voice over has updated his brand.
Bob Souer has unveiled his new web site and blog (likely the most widely read in the business) which now boldly proclaims him to be a “Professional Story Teller”. A more accurate description couldn’t have been created by Shakespeare himself.
Please stop by and have a look around. Now doubt he’ll be adding new pieces in the days and weeks to come but no one deserves the kudos more than Bob. Great job!
OK gang, fun idea time!
As this blog is about voice over (vox), marketing (market) and advertising (tising) I thought we should have some summer fun here and combine all three into a voice talent business card gallery.
Simply email me a decent quality jpeg picture of your business card (front and back if you print on both sides) and we’ll show them here. Email peter (insert the at sign) audio’connell dot com and I’ll post all entries. Maybe we’ll have a card beauty contest and pick a winner…we’ll see first what kinda legs this idea has.
By the way, I’m not a pro at sizing these cards and images to fit the blog so some cards will be bigger and some will be smaller but size does not equal talent…at least in this effort.
Here’s mine to kick things off:
Peter K. O’Connell – audio’connell voice over talent (Card front)
Peter K. O’Connell – audio’connell voice over talent (Card back)
Amy Snively – Female Voice Talent
DB Cooper – Female Voice Talent
Jeffrey Kafer – Male Voice Talent
Liz de Nesnera – Female Voice Talent
Dave Courvoisier – Male Voice Talent (Card Front)
Dave Courvoisier – Male Voice Talent (Card Back)
Karen Commins – A Voice Above The Crowd
Doug Turkel – unnouncer (Card Front)
Doug Turkel – unnouncer (Card Back)
Jodi Krangle – Piece of Cake Voiceovers
Michael J. Schoen Voiceover Services
Scott Pollak – Voice by Scott
Tony Craine – Voice Talent at Work (Card Front)
Tony Craine – Voice Talent at Work (Card Back)
Veronica March – Female Voice Talent
Dave DeAndrea – Male Voice Talent (Card Front)
Dave DeAndrea – Male Voice Talent (Card Back)
Don Goonan – Male Voice Talent
Kara Edwards – Female Voice Talent (Card Front)
Kara Edwards – Female Voice Talent (Card Back)
Sam Mowry – Male Voice Talent
Eddie Eagle – Male Voice Talent
Chuck Brown – Male Voice Talent
Bobbin Beam – Female Voice Talent
Bobbi Owens – Female Voice Talent
Chadd Pierce – Pierce Voice
Mandy Nelson – Dandy Sound
Derek Chappell – Male Voice Talent (Card Front)
Derek Chappell – Male Voice Talent (Card Back)
Rhonda Phillips – Female Voice Talent
James Clamp – Male Voice Talent
George McNerlin – Male Voice Talent
Tricia Basanyi – Female Voice Talent
Barb Miller – Female Voice Talent (Card Front)
Barb Miller – Female Voice Talent (Card Back)
Roger Price – Male Voice Talent
Philip Banks – Male Voice Talent
Louisa Gummer – Female Voice Talent (Card Front)
Louisa Gummer – Female Voice Talent (Card Back)
Dan Harder – Male Voice Talent
Terry Daniels – Male Voice Talent
Yes, I know. There are clients who want service and prospects who want to place orders and one must keep their business humming lest someone else steal our clients.
Stop. Listen (or – read).
I am the biggest culprit of diving for the phone but a phone call I had today just reminded me that I need to improve on this.
Don’t answer the phone if:
Shame on me for needing a slogan to remember anyway.
