If you haven’t bought a ticket yet then you probably wont be coming. Understandable. However, if you will be attending then you might as well make the most of it by coming to my tersely titled class, Simple Mistakes Talent Make Every Day: How Not to Make Agents and Casting Directors Nuts! This will be an early afternoon break-out session from 2:00-3:30. Geared towards all levels of talent, we are going to discuss about a million little things that I guaranfreakingtee you do all the time that are causing you to lose work and opportunities. Basically I’m going to yell at you for an hour and a half and tell you to quit it. I’m sure it will be quite cathartic for me and that you will cry and beg for forgiveness. We’ll see.
Either way there will be a slide show with tons of funny pictures and we plan to have a low key and enjoyable time where you can learn a thing or two, improve your chances of getting work and hopefully laugh and enjoy yourselves. Don’t let this blog fool you, I am quite the humorist. There may also be a few dirty words and some brief nudity depending on how many cocktails I had for lunch prior. Fortunately nothing else of note will be going on at the same time so you really don’t have an excuse to not be there.1
The Voice Talent Productions staff will also be at the Poolside Mixer on Saturday and will be accepting demo submissions at that time. The office is in dire need of coasters. Be sure to stop by and say hello. I’ll try to get LindZ in a bikini for you.
Thanks for the indulgence. I look forward to seeing you all there.
1. Alright, a few other things are going on at the same time but listen up: Cashman eats puppies. I swear to God I have seen him do it. He acted like it was no big deal. He just smashed its little head in and ate it raw. You don’t want to condone that type of behavior, do you?
Perhaps the word “popular” is a bit of a stretch but I am invoking my right to artistic license. What did we miss? Let us know in the comments and we’ll update this page for posterity. The internet loves lists so I’m sure this will wind up in some virtual time capsule as a the prime example of VO blogging from 2010. Thank you for your interest future alien overlords. Please enjoy.
A creepy two-fer from Vincent Price:
Seriously, I love Iron Maiden so much. I’m not proud, I’m just sayin’:
I always thought a fat guy could come up with a better stage name than Meatloaf:
Thanks to Greg Thomas for submitting this via Linked In. I think:
Kevin Delaney cruelly reminded me of Les Garland’s VO in this abomination from “Starship” on Facebook. Woodstock, this ain’t:
Lee Gordon sent this our way. I have no idea what is going on here. On a related note, Lee Gordon has problems:
This one barely fits the category but it unarguably includes VO and any tenuous excuse to include Burl Ives works for me:
Another two-fer, this time from the always batsh*t insane William Shatner:
I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit skeptical when they hired Sigourney Weaver to narrate the multi-zillion dollar nature series Planet Earth. Not because of the usual “They should hire real voice talent, not celebrities” reason that we all have whined about at some point or another, but because I thought she might be a bit distracting. A good nature documentary narrator has to kind of blend into the background and almost become a disembodied voice in your head. If they chew the scenery too much it detracts from the real star, the visuals. I was afraid I would keep thinking, “Hey, that’s that chick from Alien!” or at least “Man, Ghostbusters 2 really paled to the original in so many ways.”
I was dead wrong. As most anybody who has watched the series can attest to, she freaking rocked it. Hard. She put in the perfect amount of emotion without going over the top and gave an absolutely stellar performance which added a whole new level of awesome to the shows. I have had fairly unhealthy feelings about my HDTV (not to mention Ms. Weaver) ever since. It was just that beautiful. I’m seeking help.
When they announced the followup series “Life” I was psyched to hear her do her thing again. Then I saw the commercials telling us Oprah (praise be unto her) would be behind the mic for this one. I tried to suppress my outrage and remind myself how I had originally felt about their first casting choice and tried to look forward to it. Even after catching some of the extended preview commercials with O’s cringe worthy narration I still gave her the benefit of the doubt. And then I saw/heard it. Yikes. She stunk up the place something fierce.1
I don’t really want to talk about it.
So why was she cast in the first place? Because Discovery Communications is in bed with her and her new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). The full (exhaustive, but interesting) story can be read HERE.
Now Discovery’s TLC has inked a deal with she-beast Sarah Palin to host her own Alaska themed reality television show for the network. TLC went waaaay downhill a long time ago (anyone remember the last time you could actually learn something on The Learning Channel?) and now their shows feature almost exclusively boring but somewhat shorter people or boring people who breed like it’s going out of style with their boring litters of white kids. Word on the street is that gargoyle queen Palin herself will be offering commentary/narration throughout this new travesty. Why they think anyone would want to tune in and listen that harpy caterwaul about caribou2 is beyond me.
At least the History Channel still has some offerings worth tuning in to. For now. I say give em’ three years or so and they are going to pick up Tila Tequila to host their new WWII docs.
Hey guys, do us all a favor, poor Mike Rowe is overworked so stick with J.V. Martin and Robert Lee. I know where to find them. If you need me, I’ll be watching PBS.
1. My mother is never going to speak to me again for this.
2. Gotta love that alliteration. Truly the mark of a gifted scribe.
Obviously hundreds of you are going to VOICE 2010 because you heard that I will be presenting there. Completely understandable. However, after talking with our friends and VOICE head-honchos James Alburger and Penny Abshire (looking adorable in that picture over there)1, it turns out there are other things planned for the conference as well! Who knew?
Listen in as September and I grill them about the origins of VOICE, why you should go, why it’s worth the money and how much you will suck if you don’t go. It was really quite an illuminating chat. Actually, it’s mostly Penny and Ember saying intelligent things while James and I made fart noises with our armpits, but it’s still a must-listen for anyone attending or anyone still on the fence (hint: do it).
Clickety click on the player to the right to get the full scoop, check it out on our News page or download it to your portable computerized audio listening device through iTunes.2 Your choice, I cant keep making these decisions for you anymore.
1. Trivia fact, they killed a man in a botched robbery attempt hours after it was taken.
2. For those of you keeping score at home, I get extra points for all the links in this post.
Seriously, I tortured poor owner, demo producer and incredible voice talent Dave DeAndrea mercilessly until he got this the way I wanted it. Last I heard he was seen running and screaming through the woods shouting, “No Erik, not another revision!” Poor guy. It was worth stealing his sanity though, check out my new TV Narration demo:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Think you can do better? You may be able to, with Dave’s help. You know you need to update your sorry sounding demos anyway and his prices are unbeatable. I’ll even make it easy for you with a link —> Killer Voice Demos.com. Be sure to check out the other amazing samples of his work, the testimonials and his killer rates. The logo is pretty cool too. I had originally advised him to go with Batman fighting a shark with a lightsaber but he thought that was “silly”. Whatever, man.
After being in this business for a while we kind of get used to hearing our voices on radio and television and, perhaps sadly, the novelty tends to wear off. However, my friend and fellow telephony voiceover talent Julie Seitter got quite an interesting surprise the other day. Apparently a friend of hers was listening to music on Pandora when he stumbled upon a Jason Mraz track titled “If It Kills Me”.1 The song starts out with a recorded telephony message and her friend recognized it as Julie’s. Having absolutely no idea what he was talking about, she looked it up on YouTube. Check it out:
Wow. She had her son search Google about it and apparently Mraz was behind in payments for a surgery and found the robo-calls amusing, so he took it off his answering machine. He then called the hospital for permission to use on the song. Since the recording was done through an independent IVR company she was never notified. In case you are wondering, Julie doesn’t have dollar signs in her eyes, however she does hope she might get a signed copy of the CD as payment for her contribution. How cool is that?
I have no idea how the headshot vs. no headshot debate is still raging since I already told you guys that you should have them done. Honestly, I feel like you aren’t even listening to me sometimes.
Anyway, perhaps these stellar examples will help you see the light. They were done by our new buddy Rick from Rick Wenner Photography and I’m fairly sure you will agree that they are awesome. Check out Lindsay1:
Now before you say, “But Erik, Lindsay is gorgeous! Anyone could make her look good!” check out his shots of Michael Schoen:
Nice, right? If you happen to live in the New York area then look up Rick to book your session. If you live elsewhere then be sure to move here so that you have constant access to him. Be sure to check out his blog as well to see the latest examples of his work.
When I get new students in I always make it a point to get a full background on them and find out what made them want to get into the business in the first place. While I always want to say something like, “That’s great that your hairstyle hides your lobotomy scars so well” or “Did your Mom do a lot of partying when she was pregnant with you?”, I usually just ask, “So, what brings you to voiceover?”
Nearly 85 percent of the men I talk to usually say something along the lines of, “Everyone tells me I have a nice voice” while most of the women I talk to are just getting coaching as an excuse to meet me. Every once in a while I get a unique or interesting story. I had a student about 2 months ago tell me that he had been interested in voiceover ever since he was a kid and heard the announcements on the monorail at Walt Disney World. I had forgotten how enamored I had been with that voice as well as a lad and so we had some fun reminiscing and it was a pretty neat moment.1
Aaaanyway, this past weekend I am talking to another candidate eager to drink the Kool Aid and he gives me the exact same story, almost word for word. My jaw nearly dropped. It was like “Groundhog Day”, except funny. What an odd thing to get a kid interested in VO, no? And two of them in less than two months. Weird. I decided to look into it and find out who the dude is. From Wikipedia:
The monorail system uses a set of pre-recorded spiels to instruct and entertain passengers. Prior to departure when the pilot closes the doors, a spiel asks guests to “Please stand clear of the doors. Por favor manténganse alejado de las puertas.” One of the most known phrases within the resort, it was recorded by Jack Wagner, who was known as “the Voice of Disneyland.” During the system’s early years, the trains featured Wagner’s narration of the sights and scenery along the way, as well as information on special events, the resort, and the monorail system itself. [Other actors have since taken over but] today the “stand clear” spiel remains in Wagner’s voice. This is at least partially due to the fact that the audio for the doors is generated via a separate system than that for the rest of the narrations.
Here is a sample of the audio in question:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I’m not sure what kind of connection they are talking about, (ISDN in the 70s?) but check out the setup described on the official Jack Wagner tribute site:
Most of the recordings were made at his own house where he had a recording studio. It was put in by Disney in the 70’s and connected to a voiceover booth in his home to Studio D at Disneyland in Anaheim. At this time Jack’s home in Southern California was one of the first uses for a direct audio link from a remote recording studio. A big advantage for Disney – Whenever an urgent announcement was needed, a quick call was enough and Jack would already be sitting behind his microphone.
Cool.
Actually, I thought the whole story was pretty cool so I wanted to share it with you guys. Back when I had stars in my eyes it was the late, great Don LaFontaine who inspired me and I am thankful for even the relatively small amount of interaction we had before his unfortunate passing. In hopes of a discussion, and in the interest of SEO for this blog,2 I posit this: how did you get the bug? Please comment below.
1. You had to be there.
2. I always forget about SEO. Hey Google!: Tiger Woods, Free iPhone apps, Megan Fox topless, upskirt.
Happy Holidays to all of our wonderful talent around the world and to our clients who keep us busy. May the New Year be even more exciting and prosperous than the last for all of you!
That was awesome. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all who attended. I’m not even going to bother with a whole long post since a million other bloggers have already beat me to it.1
![[Bloglines]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[BlogMarks]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/blogmarks.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Fark]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/fark.png)
![[Furl]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/furl.png)
![[MySpace]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Reddit]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://voicetalentproductions.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Entries (RSS)