October 2nd, 2011
What is the path to voice over success?
Here is a simple and crude, yet very descriptive image of what the path to voice over success looks like:
Archive for the ‘Careers in voice over’ Category:
September 26th, 2011
This guy’s got game!
What do Yakko Warner (from the Animaniacs), Pinky (from Pinky and the Brain), Raphael and soon Donatello (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Hadji (from Jonny Quest), and about another billion animated characters have in common?
The answer: ONE incredibly talented voice actor!
His name is Rob Paulsen
No, I'm not talking about a quote from a popular 1999 movie. (Actually, the quote was "His name was Robert Paulsen" but without Googling it can you name the movie?)
I'm talking about one of the most gifted voice actors in the business: Rob Paulsen — a man who has a list of voice acting credits that make the phrase "a mile long" seem tiny. (You can check them out at Rob Paulsen on IMDb.)
A major influence
I grew up listening to the man perform in many cartoons. And yet from TV show to TV show I never suspected it was the same guy doing the voices. All I knew is that whichever character he happened to be performing, I gravitated toward it.
Some videos:
Here's just a tiny sampling of some of his work along with a 3-part series on voice acting!
September 19th, 2011
The new voice over job
After briefly mentioning the new voice over job that I got back in August I've received quite a few emails asking me to talk about some of the juicy details. Since I aim to please, this post will be all about what exactly the job is, how I landed the job, what the job entails, how much time I spend everyday on the job, and anything else that pops into my head as I write.
But before I begin to divulge, let me say up front that I am bound by a "somewhat relaxed" NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). Which means that there are specifics about the job that I'm not allowed to talk about, but I can talk about it in general terms.
So now, here are the most asked questions about the new job and their answers:
August 12th, 2011
Take your social media game to a new level
Are you ready to take your voice over social media game to a whole new level of awesomeness? Then let the voice over super socials show you how!
There's no other way to describe Terry Daniel, Trish Basanyi and Dave Courvoisier - the best known and most authoritative voice actors on social media today. And VoiceOverXtra is presenting them in three major live webinars beginning Aug. 17, revealing their time-saving methods for making money through social media.
To learn more about these fantastic webinars follow this link:
The Voice Over Social Media Success Webinars
August 10th, 2011
How an audiobook is made
During the month of June, audiobook narrator Scott Brick posted one tweet a day on how audiobooks are made. Accompanying each tweet is a link to a video.
If you'd like to see the whole tweeted conversation and the videos, then head on over to How an Audiobook is Made.
August 6th, 2011
Working for peanuts – not prime rib
This isn't a detailed scientific study. This isn't even a controlled experiment. It's just an observation of a single occurrence. And yet every voice actor in the industry has seen something similar. They know this is going on and they know it's causing the slow decline of the voice actor's salary and the cheapening of our image as highly-trained professionals.
It's called 'lowballing" — the practice of bidding extremely low on a project in the hopes of landing the gig — and it really does hurt!
Here's the latest occurrence I stumbled across...
On a voice over job website (which shall go unnamed) a client (who shall also go unnamed) posted a job for a 1-hour narration. The budget listed was between $350 and $500. About one week later that same client posted another 1-hour narration job. But this time: a budget of $50 to $100!
Think about it from the client's point of view...
If you (as a voice seeker) post a job with a budget of, let's say... $350, and then you get offers to do the job for as cheap as $50, wouldn't you then set the budget of your next job to only about $50? I don't know about you, but I certainly would!
If everyone is willing to work for peanuts,
then why would a voice seeker offer prime rib?
Everybody wants to get a great deal. And if there are talented voice actors out there willing to sell themselves short and bid ultra-low, then why wouldn't voice seekers take advantage of it? If voice actors are always quoting a low price, then why wouldn't voice seekers start stating that their budgets are smaller than they actually are?
Now YOU think about it...
For MANY projects, the voice over is just as important as any of the visual elements. And some projects don't even have the visual elements! Your voice will help companies sell thousands and sometimes millions of dollars worth of their product or service. And they'll be laughing all the way to the bank at the great deal they got from the voice actor.
Come on, people! Why would anyone take our profession seriously when we ourselves are willing to accept table scraps as payment for professional jobs?
August 4th, 2011
Recording on the road
I just got back from a much-needed vacation. While on vacation I enjoy doing as close to nothing work related as possible. It's not that I hate my job. In fact, I love this job! But to me, vacation is a time for family, friends, and fun... unless I'm invited to audition — and then it's time to do a little work!
Now, recording on the road is its own special beast: you don't have your normal studio, 
you most likely don't have your normal equipment (microphones, etc.), and you may not even have your usual computer and software.
This happened to me recently. I had to "commandeer" an old closet in my parents house, fill it full of clothes and blankets, and get everyone in the house to be quite for about 10 minutes while I recorded. (Click on the image above to see my make-shift solution.)
My set up
I normally record on my iMac desktop at home, but the laptop I carry with me when I travel is old, which means that I can't run my favorite Adobe Audition CS5.5 on it. Instead I use Twisted Wave (it's Mac only, sorry), which in many ways can do just as good a job as Audition at a fraction of the price. If you're a beginner (or even a veteran) to voice acting, then this little gem of software magic is an excellent choice.
Now, that little blue light you see in the photo is my AT2020 USB condenser mic
Wanna learn more?
As luck would have it, there just happens to be another webinar coming up by VoiceOverXtra. Recording expert Dan Lenard will talk all about the dos and don'ts of recording on the road. If you're interested, you can learn more here.
Working while on vacation?
Voice talent Paul Strikwerda wrote an excellent article (well, he always writes excellent articles) about should a voice actor work or not work during vacation. You can read it here.
July 29th, 2011
What are you worth?
Here's a great video by voice actor Jonathan Tilley about what are you worth as a voice actor. After the video, check out some of my additions to his list.
In addition to Jonathan's list of what clients say to justify paying a lower fee, here are a few more I've heard (with my comments in parentheses.)
"Any voice actor who knows his craft can get this done in no time."
(True, a trained voice actor can get a quality recording out faster because we have the training and experience. But should we accept a lower payment just because we are good at our craft? NO! That training and experience demand a higher fee, not lower.)
"We can only pay a small fee for this project, but we have more work that we can send your way in the future."
(Really? More work? Great! Before you get too excited, keep in mind that this is a COMMON ploy in many freelancing fields. I hear it quite a bit in the website design biz I dabble in. Remember to charge for ONE job at a time. "Future" work is just that, in the future. It should have no influence on the present.)
"It's only a few lines."
(Yes, it might only be a little ten-second blurb, but it takes a voice actor longer than 10 seconds to record it, clean up the audio, and correspond with the client. In addition, we get paid for having and maintaining a home studio, having professional equipment, and some ROI (return on investment) for the money we put into our training and education — just like any other profession.)
June 4th, 2011
How to become an audiobook narrator
June is audiobook month. And I can't think of a better way to celebrate it then by helping beginners become audiobook narrators themselves! Well, actually I'm not the one who's going to help you. A truly talented audiobook narrator named Barbara Rosenblat will.
Barbara has voiced more than 400 audiobooks! Her extraordinary range and abilities have earned her eight Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association — accumulating more Audies than any other single narrator. In the words of one critic, "Barbara is to audiobooks what Meryl Streep is to film." Now THAT is a compliment!
Recently Barbara held an amazing seminar called How To Become An Audiobook Narrator where she explains everything from how to do this special kind of voice acting work to breaking into the business. Voice artist Dan O'Day has gone ahead and made the audio of this seminar available on his website for instant download.
Click here to learn more:
How To Become An Audiobook Narrator
