Oct 4
Well, here’s interesting news. The Prince of Wales will be narrating his first audio book, Harmony: A New Way of Looking at the World.
According to this article, Prince Charles recorded the book at his home and his Scottish residence. Hmm…hope that audio matches up! Knowing people’s first audio book efforts usually have room for improvement (especially mine), it’d be interesting to see his results. I couldn’t find a sample online, but if anyone has one let me know!
Sep 1
Recently I sat down to make a list of ways to market myself as a voice over. That’s the one thing about being self-employed…there’s always something more you can do, always more time you can spend on getting your name out there. My habit, unfortunately, is to get so involved with the actual projects I’m doing that when they end, I realize I haven’t marketed myself enough to get that next job.
The Freelancer’s Dilemma, as its often called (ok, I just made that up), affects a lot of people, including a lot of VO talent that I’ve talked to. I also call it the Lethargy of Liberty, because you have so much freedom to choose your path you end up choosing nothing at all, and getting stuck in the same career rut.
Most marketing for voice talent seems to fall into two general buckets: offline and online. Within each category, there are myriads of avenues:
Offline
- old-school traditional cold calling
- postcards
- in-person drop ins (creepy?)
Online
- email marketing
- PPC (pay per click with Google or others)
- pay to play sites
- your website
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and part of my reasons in listing these is to spur my brain to think of more.
The Goal: to devote 3 hours to marketing a week. Whether that’s cold-calling, gathering new companies/people to call, I think having a set goal will help spur me on. In the past I would go overboard on the marketing for a solid week, then do none for a month. Spreading it out like this should bring more consistent results!
Recently I had the chance at attend a master class on audio book technique with the renowned Barbara Rosenblat. The class was held at the excellent Acting Studio Chicago and moderated by Darren Stephens. The only downside to the whole affair was that it was only two hours long 
For those who are unaware, Barbara has been called “the Meryl Streep of the audio book world,” and this year alone is nominated for five Audies. She’s truly a master of the industry with more than 20 years under her audio book belt.
Barbara Rosenblat
She started off her introduction with a quote about actors in general: “you start off in the biz because you’re a show off…I’m still one.” Her class contained many good nuggets and quotes that I’ll try to pass along here in some vaguely organized fashion.
Barbara started by giving us a short history of her performing experience and what led her to (and keeps her in) audio books. As I’ve heard elsewhere and experienced myself, she reiterated the passion needed to pursue audio books – they’re simply too difficult and poorly paid otherwise. I’ve been told ever since I started acting: “if you CAN do absolutely anything else, do it, only pursue acting if you are driven, if you don’t have a choice.” The same can be said of the audio book niche in the voice over world: “Only pursue this niche if you HAVE to.”
Barbara’s first book was a Harlequin romance entitled Yet Will I Love Her, which, she claims, is “still bad.” If you’re terribly interested, you can still buy it on audio cassette on Amazon here.
Here are some points and quotes I pulled out of her section on technique:
(note, these are her opinion or her specific way of working)
Near the end of the session, Barbara closed with a wonderful quote from Ben Brantley’s review of Martin McDonagh’s new play on Broadway, A Behanding in Spokane. The quote describes Christopher Walken’s use of language, in a way Barbara thinks audio book narrators could be inspired by:
“Pauses pop up when you least expect them, entirely shifting the weight of the words around them. Inflections rise upward when normally they would curve down. A single clause can slalom from ennui to anger. These idiosyncrasies of delivery surprise you into close attention and, ultimately, into feeling you can trace the thoughts of the man speaking.”
Overall the experience with Barbara was wonderful, and I’m glad I got to meet her. As we were talking, she said to me: “our paths will cross again, you know,” so here’s hoping she’s right!
Feb 11
It’s not every day that I get to meet the author of one of the audio books I’ve narrated…okay, it’s never happened. Kevin DeYoung, author of Just Do Something, was speaking here in Chicago, so I got to meet him and say hi! I told him it was an honor to work on his book, and I hope he writes many more.
Kevin DeYoung
Jan 12
So recently I was interviewed for an article in Craine’s Chicago – a business publication online. I fear the article makes it sound as if I’m way more successful than I truly am – but I’m still thankful!
Dec 31
For
anyone who grew up watching this series, this is good news – whether you play video games online or not:
Leonard Nimoy Reprises Legendary Role of ‘Spock’ in Star Trek Online
Looks like the ‘ole Spock will be adding his voice to the new Massive Multiplayer Geekfest Online Role Playing Game (MMGORPG) based on the Star Trek universe. With the success of the recent “reboot” movie, this might actually have a chance!
This gets me thinking about what a great gig this would be for your average trench-digging voice over actor. Unlike a one-off video game, an online gaming world would require constant updates, right? If your character is part of the main storyline, they would be constantly releasing upgrades or “advancing the story,” all of which might require more voicing from the lucky VO. Sounds good to me! It’s kind of like getting a TV series instead of a one-off TV movie.
Now, if everyone could just agree on fair rates for video game VO, we’d be all set
Dec 12
Wow – the force of Welles’ personality always shines through on camera. Watch this fascinating interview with him. He makes a wonderful observation that in a great role, there is always a scene that even a great actor can’t do.
Orson Welles interview
Nov 25
As I do more and more audio books, I run across more and more pronunciation resources – or have them suggested to me.
Recently I completed a book of essays on the intersection of faith and science, and let me tell you, it was a challenge. Each author gave a short history of their particular field, and seemed to delight in using large, arcane words. From ancient Latin and Persian to modern scientific processes and techno-babble, this book had it all.
As it turns out…one of my best sources was of the flesh-and-blood type. My Italian friend Stefano helped with the Italian names, my French-speaking friend Abby helped in her area of expertise, and my big fat Greek Pastor Bill helped with the ancient and modern Greek (ok, he’s neither big, nor fat…but he is Greek, and a pastor). …and no, I won’t give out their phone numbers
In place of that, however, here’s a few more internet resources I’ve been availing myself of:
Tufts University Latin Site – for all your Latin needs
Japanese – for your next character from the land of the rising sun
Asian names – a general searchable database for Asian names
French Audio Dictionary – ’nuff said
Bible words – Methuse-wha?
Maybe I’m just not that familiar with the voice of Zach Braff, but this Slate.com article really rips him a new one:
Do you want this man selling you products?
The author references this Cottonelle commercial as the epitome of badness:
Sep 23
Don’t look at the code behind the curtain….
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