Entries Tagged as 'voiceover meet-ups'

VoiceOver Bulletin Board Celebrates 19 Years of Education, Insight & Camaraderie

VO-BB Voiceover Bulletin Board

Voice Talents Peter K. O’Connell and Connie Terwilliger

On February 2, 2005 my voiceover career veered in an entirely new direction, solely by signing into a fairly new web community.

I made a professional, online connection with a fellow voice-talent named Connie Terwilliger on a short-lived, voiceover-centric website that was closing down.

Voice Talents Mary McKitrick, DB Cooper and Peter K. O’Connell

Connie (who is an amazing female voice as well as stage actress) clued me into something call the *Voiceover Bulletin Board*, or VO-BB.com , started by another great voice actress, D.B. Cooper.

Voice Talents Bruce Miles and Peter K. O'Connell

Voice Talents Bruce Miles and Peter K. O’Connell at FaffCon 8

Bruce Miles now manages the website daily.

Sidebar: I just realized that those three people – who are all part of my VO-BB experience, and now my voiceover life – are sincerely 3 of my most favorite voices in the industry

The ways the members of that community have helped my career and befriended me over 18 years cannot be counted. But I am grateful for all of it.

Should you not see a topic you have a question about, it’s easy to post a question. Members are there to help members…most all of whom are seasoned voiceover professionals.

As just one example, it was on and because of VO-BB that FaffCon – the Unconference – was conceived, born and flourished.

If you are in voiceover or if you think you might want to be in voiceover, join VO-BB.com….it’s FREE board and search any possible voiceover topic you have a question about (performance, business, technology….you’ll find many interesting discussions and helpful ideas.

Enjoy the ride.

VO-BB Virtual Voiceover Holiday Party

VO-BB Microphone Icon

Many years ago, one of the great female voice talents of our time, D.B. Cooper created the VO-BB.com , the Voiceover Bulletin Board.

Much knowledge has been shared, many friendships have endured and FaffCon was born via her creation.

One of the great male voiceover talents of our time, Bruce Miles, now helps out D.B. with the management of the board and he was kind enough to set up a voiceover holiday party on Zoom.

As with most Zoom parties, people come and go so here are two shots that feature most of the attendees. Thank you all and Merry Christmas.

VO-BB 2020 Holiday Party 3

L-R: BRUCE MILES, PETER K. O’CONNELL, SAM A. MOWRY, FRAN MCCLELLAN, LEE GORDON, LIZ DE NESNERA, MELISSA EXELBERTH, PHILIP BANKS and KARYN O’BRYANT

VO-BB 2020 Holiday Party 2

L-R: BRUCE MILES, PETER K. O’CONNELL, SAM A. MOWRY, FRAN MCCLELLAN, LEE GORDON, LIZ DE NESNERA, MELISSA EXELBERTH, PHILIP BANKS, KARL GILLETTE and JACK DANIEL.

V.O. North 2020 was Virtually Great

Peter K. O'Connell Voiceover V.O. North 2020This past weekend’s V.O. North was my first virtual voiceover conference. It worked out well.

Look, nothing will ever be as much fun an in-person conference. The interactions and the spontaneity of in-person events cannot be matched.

What would be worse, though, would be to not have ANY voiceover conferences at all and I believe that was Tanya Buchanan and Dervla Trainor’s thinking in going ahead with V.O. North 2020. They were the event producers.

Me and 250+ of my closest friends all agree theirs was the right decision.

From the execution of the web-based seminars (which was technically pretty much flawless) to the content and even the evening parties…we all had a great time.

Tanya invited me to moderate 4 seminars this weekend with a total 14 presenters and they were all so (individually and collectively) terrific! The content was practical and applicable, the information shared was thoughtful and insightful and the presenters very willing to share their knowledge. Of course all the attendees were extremely nice.

Special thanks to my panelists:

  • Tanya Buchanan from Ta-Da Voiceworks (full disclosure, my Toronto-based Canadian agent for at least 8 years and friend for longer)
  • Roger King from PN Agency
  • Carol Rathe who is now retired from Go Voices
  • Roberta Romano who is the director of the Voice Department at Fountainhead Talent
  • Erik Shappard from The Sheppard Agency (full disclosure, my agent for at least the past 12 years, maybe more and friend for longer)
  • Ralph Streich from Vancouver’s RED Talent Management
  • Long time friend and fellow voice talent Bev Standing who now heads up the Canadian division of Gravy for the Brain
  • Voice talent David Toback who also oversees GVAA
  • Vancouver-based voice actor Noel Johansen who runs On The Mic
  • British voiceover artist Rachael Naylor who owns The Voiceover Network
  • Los Angeles-based voice actress Rachel Wohl
  • Audio producer (and Calgary Flames hockey fan) Bruce Crews who work with On Air Studios in Calgary
    Long time friend and voiceover talent Liz de Nesnera
  • Los Angeles-based audio producer and sports ball fan Andrew Silagy, who is the terrific Talent and Production Manager for Snap Recordings

Y’all made my job very easy. Thanks!

v.o. north 2020 adds voice actor peter k. o’connell to the presenters’ roster


Peter K. O'Connell V.O. North 2020 Toronto Voiceover ConferenceWe’ve all had some weird things happen to us in 2020. Well the hits just keep on coming.

Four years ago, we packed up the O’Connell Conestoga Wagon and traveled from way up north in Buffalo, NY to the southern climes of Raleigh, NC.

Now, I’m moving back north….even MORE NORTH than Buffalo which is weird cause everyone used to tell me Buffalo was “the end of the line”. Bah!

This time I’m off to Toronto, Ontario, Canada…which is fine with me because my Grandmother was born there and we had a house in Fort Erie, Ontario for over 4 decades.

So Toronto it is.

Only for a weekend, though.

Peter K. O'Connell V.O. North 2020 Voiceover ConferenceI’m not sure whether it was being housebound during COVID that impacted Tanya Buchanan’s thought process so much but she pinged me the other day and asked me to be a part V.O. North 2020, taking place October 16-18 in Toron….puter…screens. 😉

That’s a Canadian city you might not know about, Toronputerscreens….but that’s where you’ll find me for V.O. North 2020.

I will be a moderator for sessions where otherwise well meaning voiceover panelists, sharing their knowledge on a variety of topics, must endure me slinging questions at them on topics that may or may not have ANYTHING to do with voiceover. 😉 This is the kind of zaniness that takes place when you put me in charge.

I have not participated in V.O. North yet, so I am very excited to see how this will work.

Obviously, we would ALL prefer V.O. North take place in person in Toronto but something is better than nothing and V.O. North meeting promises to be something else…in a most wonderful way!

voiceover north 2020 toronto canada peter k. o'connellYou do NOT need to be Canadian or even know a Canadian to participate….so sign up! V.O. North 2020 has waaaay more impressive presenters than me. Check them out.

I look forward to seeing and speaking with you there.

 

 

another way voiceover has adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic

Ta-Da Voiceworks Toronto Voiceover Town HallEvery business, every industry and everyone of us has changed either a small or large part of our lives because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That includes voiceover.

When the pandemic first started, advertising trailed off for a while, brands and corporations shifted from a marketing attitude to a survival attitude. Consumers seemed more focused on toilet paper than a new car or going to the movies…which they couldn’t do cause anyway because all the movie theaters shut down.

We did get more telephony work (those of us that do that kind of voiceover work) for businesses that wanted to talk to consumers in their on-hold messaging about how their business WAS going to work with customers during the crisis – new protocols etc. Or for business that needed to shut down — their message on-hold addressed how to best communicate with now work-from-home employees.

Voice talents too changed the way they communicated with clients and prospects, I think. I know I found myself calling to check on the people more than checking on new business opportunities. Recording studios and ad agencies were among many industries who suffered a round-house economic punch from COVID-19 and I’ve worked with many of these folks for a long time.

It feels now like we are rebounding, day by day, little by little. How we move forward and what is ahead is not certain but as Churchill said “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” So we keep going, us people folk.

There ARE some positives for the voiceover business that have come from the pandemic. One of them is that we have been forced to be better communicators – in how we talk to our peers, our vendors and our customers.

One big way I saw this was with one of my voiceover agents, Tanya Buchanan of Ta-Da Voiceworks in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Voice Talent Peter K O'Connell Ta-Da Voiceworks 19Some weeks ago, she called a town hall of all her talent – the majority of which are Toronto-based or living in and around the GTA (Greater Toronto area). She does have some American talent on her roster as well and I am one.

This online meeting was more than just a Zoom voiceover meet-up.

The focus of that first meeting was to help many of the Toronto talent figure out how they were going to record either auditions or jobs during the pandemic. Toronto is a unique voiceover market in that many media producers there much preferred voice actors to record at local studios versus recording in home studios.

In the U.S. many voice actors record from their home studios regularly, but trust me, we LOVE going to outside studios to record. There, we just record the voice and don’t have to do any post-production….it’s heaven! Plus those recording studios have free snacks!!!!!!

With the pandemic, many of the voice actors in Canada’s largest media market immediately had to learn about building home studios, having Source-Connect, buying the best types of microphones etc. It was a lot for any group of people to learn and digest in short order.

Tanya wanted to help ease the stress for her talent, provide resources for them and ultimately serve as the calm voice of reason. She was.

In short, Tanya smartly managed her voice actors…who ARE her business. Questions were answered, apprehensions were calmed and some of the more experience VO’s on the call (who have home studios, etc.) could share their knowledge with their voiceover peers who were less experienced this particular area. She further built her team.

From that first COVID-19 town hall, Tanya has smartly grown these Zoom meetings into monthly, lunchtime Ta-Da Voiceworks talent meetings where trends are discussed, agency policies are updated, local knowledge is shared among talent all while Tanya further cements her credibility as a top Toronto agent who has her talent’s back.

Her communication is solid and her roster clearly appreciates it.

All that, created from the ashes of the pandemic, has bred a significant amount of loyalty from her talent. I can assure you, after almost 40 years as a professional voiceover talent, that kind of loyalty to an agent is not always a given.

audio’connell in portland, oregon (all the beautiful people)

Portland Oregon Voiceovers July 2019

Portland Voiceover Friends (around the U from left to right) Marc Rose, Bruce Miles, Emma Miles, Jen Gosnell, Peter K. O’Connell, Karyn O’Bryant, July 2019

If you’re going to travel from one ocean to the other, it’s sure is nice to have friends waiting for you on the other side.

So I did the Portland, OR trip this week…lovely weather too, so much nicer than the oppressive heat and humidity of Raleigh in the past few weeks.

I was very fortunate to have my friend Bruce Miles coordinate a lovely dinner with old and new voiceover friends….I’m told Portlandia is a foodies paradise and the two dinners we’ve had out there have been great.

So in addition to Bruce, his lovely and so fun wife Emma joined us – she’s not a voice talent, she’s better than that!

Jen Gosnell was there, taking a break from her family and voicework, great to see her. New Portlandian Karyn O’Bryant (who was on a VO-BB video chat earlier with Bruce and host of much more famous voices) came out to the party too. And I got to meet Marc Rose, a voice talent who runs Fuse Audio Design, where he also produces music and sound effects and teaches VO too.

There was an abundance of talking and noshing and just a great evening. I’m both pleased and honored that they would come out for some dinner.

Hope to see them again soon.