Announcing the first ever Voice Coaches Blog/Podcast crossover!
You might be asking yourself, “Why is there a Gatorade commercial posted above with absolutely no voice overs in it when this is a blog about voice overs?” I can’t tell you yet, but if you tune in tomorrow to our Voice Coaches Radio podcast page and listen to Voice Coaches Radio #48, this will all make a lot more sense. Now, you don’t need to watch the video above to understand tomorrow’s podcast, but it does tie in nicely.
The podcasts usually go live right around noon Eastern Standard Time, so check back and have a listen. And then let us know what you think!
This is officially my last blog post of 2009. The next time you read words that I’ve written, it will be 2010. I thought this seemed like the perfect time to look back at 2009 and also look forward into 2010.
There were a lot of newsworthy events in the VO field in 2009, so I thought we’d take a look back at five of the most notable and important news stories of the past year.
5.) CNN Brings Voice Over Acting to the forefront. Back in May, CNN ran a news story called “10 Jobs Cooler Than You.” On the list? Voice Actor! To quote the article (you can read it by clicking here), “Everyone knew Don LaFontaine, the infamous voice behind thousands of movie trailers, TV advertisements and network promotions. Voice actors also loan their chops to movies and cartoons. Wouldn’t it be neat to have your voice be familiar to the whole world?” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
4.) The 2009 Audie Awards. Normally, an awards show isn’t that big of a deal. Even when they relate to voice overs, such as the American Publishing Association’s Audie Awards (honoring achievements in audiobook recordings), they still aren’t necessarily considered news. But this year’s awards, the 14th Annual, were the biggest yet, drawing a record 1,000 entries from audio publishers, which just goes to show how successful and diverse the audiobook field currently is. There are 31 categories in the awards, and almost every one of them reflects an achievement in voice acting. You can read the entire list of nominees and winners by clicking here. These are the only awards in the country solely devoted to spoken-word entertainment, and the fact that they’re growing year after year is great news for voice actors.
3.) The Rise of Motion Comics. It’s been a little while since there’s really been a new medium to take advantage of voice overs like Motion Comics. Internet animation saw a huge rise in the early 2000s, but in the past few years, one of the most exciting new venues for VO work has been Motion Comics. Due to increasingly popular comic book-based movies such as The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, Watchmen, etc., the major comic book publishers (and many independent ones) have begun creating motion comics. These are semi-animated versions of existing comic books that add animated special effects, sound effects, and voice actors performing the dialogue of all of the characters. These are incredibly well-produced videos, and they’ve become extremely popular online and especially on mobile devices, such as the iPhone. Check out scenes from the popular Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic below.
2.) Fond farewells. In 2009, it we lost a lot of talented actors and creators, especially ones with careers or an impact in voice acting. Brittany Murphy, Roy Disney, Connie Zimet, Soupy Sales, Fred Travalena, Wayne Allwine, Patrick Swayze, Bea Arthur, Billy Mays, Danny Gans, Ed McMahon, Dom Deluise, Ted Kennedy, Harve Presnell, Karl Malden, Ricardo Montalban, Ron Silver, and Walter Cronkite all had varying degrees of experience or impact in the voice over world, and all of their voices will be missed.
1.) The Internet. It seems like the internet is reinventing the world every couple of months as it is, but 2009 was the year that I really saw the voice over field explode online. From social media sites like Twitter and Facebook (which are filled with voice over actors, producers, and studios) to personal websites and blogs to the proliferation of voice over-related videos on sites such as YouTube, the internet has truly become an amazing marketing tool for today’s working voice actor. The internet’s been around for years, but 2009 is the year that voice actors started to really put its full potential into overdrive. And without it, how would we discover great videos like this one giving us a terrific behind-the-scenes-look at the creation of the voice overs for a hit video game?
Looking forward, as I mentioned in the latest episode of Voice Coaches Radio, I’m not really big on New Year’s resolutions, but I thought maybe I’d throw a few out there for fellow voice actors who might be looking for a little motivation heading into 2010. So, in no particular order, here are some New Year’s resolutions for voice actors:
1. I will spend at least 15 minutes a week marketing myself.
2. I will remember that every “no” is one step closer to a “yes.”
3. I will tell everyone I know that I am a professional voice actor; you never know where a potential job might come from.
4. I will remember that voice acting is fun, and I will have fun doing it.
5. I will remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
6. I will continue to practice, practice, practice!
7. I will try something new.
8. I will continue to remain positive, motivated, and upbeat.
9. I will believe in my own potential for building success.
9 1/2. I will read the Voice Coaches Blog every week. (Okay, okay,… sorry. I couldn’t resist that one!)
9 3/4. I will listen to Voice Coaches Radio every week. (Okay, I’ll stop now. I promise!)
10. I will see every challenge as an opportunity.
So that wraps up my blogging efforts for 2009. I’ll be back next week to kick off a new year — and a new decade — of Voice Over fun, news, and information! Thanks for reading in 2009!
From all of us here at Voice Coaches, we wish you a happy, healthy, and successful New Year!
Before I get started, let me assure you that this blog is not an iPhone commercial. Nor is this entry solely about technology, so even if you’re not a big tech junkie please keep reading.
I own an iPhone. I think it’s a great device with an incredibly wide array of functions that I utilize to make my life easier. It dawned on me recently that many of the things my phone does, though, are either useful for voice actors or can present opportunities for voice actors. What do I mean? Well, continue on, fearless reader!
A little background first: I currently have 65 apps on my iPhone, and that doesn’t include the 15 or 20 that come standard with the phone. These are all ones I’ve downloaded through the App Store, either for free (most of them) or for a small fee. That might seem like a lot, but I know many people who have hundreds of apps on their phones. The ones on my phone range from games to social media apps to organization tools to internet accessories. But here’s where it gets interesting: of those 65 apps, an impressive 13 of them have some form of voice over in them.
That means that 20% of the apps on my phone have utilized at least one voice actor in them. Which begs the question: why aren’t you marketing yourself to companies developing iPhone apps? There are over 100,000 apps currently available, with dozens (if not hundreds) being added daily. Using some fuzzy math here, with over 100,000 apps in the App Store, if roughly 20% of them have voice overs in them, that equals 20,000 voice over jobs. Seems to me that THAT is an excellent market for voice actors. Why not research a few software development companies in your area and find out if they’re developing any apps for the iPhone or any other phone (such as the Droid or the Blackberry)? If they are, that seems like a pretty great place to pitch your services as a voice talent. Remember, it’s not just big companies that are developing apps anymore. Everyone from college kids in their dorms to the major TV networks are working on apps these days. Just recently, I received an e-mail from my bank (which is regionally limited to just 13 states) advertising their new iPhone/Blackberry app.
How about some apps that might come in handy for you as a voice actor? While there are none that I know of that will allow you to record professional voice overs from your phone, there are certainly some that make for great practice tools. There are several voice memo recorders out there. If you want to practice reading out loud (or perhaps you want to practice a particular accent or character voice) and you want to hear yourself back, instead of booting up your computer or a handheld tape recorder, simply press a button on your smart phone and you’re recording. Since you almost always have your phone with you, you can even practice on the fly; if you find yourself with some downtime, you can use the voice recorder to capture your reading practice for review later.
A podcast I listen to has developed a basic app that allows me to listen to the latest episodes (as well as archived ones) without even having to download them to iTunes. Do you host your own podcast? An app might be in your future. I even recently found an app that allows you to stream live video and sound directly to the internet from your phone. I haven’t quite figured out all the potential uses for that app, but I imagine it might be used in a potential home recording session or self-marketing event.
The ultimate point of all this isn’t even that you should utilize technology as a voice actor. It’s that creative opportunities and new ideas are presenting themselves to us all every day. Open your mind and brainstorm on what ideas lie out there that you haven’t even thought of yet. Find unique, exciting, innovative ways to develop your skill and market yourself, and the future is wide open to you. And if there’s one thing that having an iPhone in my pocket has taught me, it’s that the future is never very far away.
It’s a short week here at Voice Coaches due to the Thanksgiving holiday, however, I wanted to leave you with something to keep you warm over the weekend besides turkey and stuffing, so today I’m going to share a little Thanksgiving humor, some motivational thoughts, and a little bit of news as well.
First off, I want to tell you about a new blog feature that we’re going to be launching next week called “Voice Overs of the World.” In addition to my weekly doses of bloggery, inspiration and (I hope) humor, every week we’re going to be looking at a new voice over, whether it be from a commercial, a movie or TV show, a video on the internet, or what have you. These aren’t all going to be the “Best Of” voice overs, just different types of delivery and content that we think are interesting enough to draw your attention to. And don’t worry, we’ll have video clips right in each blog post so that you won’t have to go hunting all over the internet to track down the videos we’re talking about. It should be a cool and fun (and informative) new weekly feature, and I hope all you regular blog readers will get into the spirit of it and share your thoughts and comments on the clips each week!
I know it seems a little obvious, but since the theme of today’s post is Thanksgiving, I would feel remiss if I didn’t talk about a basic aspect of marketing yourself as a voice actor: thank you notes. It’s very important to remember what a huge impact a quick, personal thank you note can have when you’re marketing yourself. It can be an actual thank you card, a postcard, or even just a quick note or letter, but they’re a great way to make a positive impression on the people you’re marketing yourself to. And there are more opportunities to utilize thank you notes than just after you’ve completed a job (although, of course, you should absolutely send thank you notes to everyone you work with on a professional job.) You should also send a thank you note to follow up with someone who’s listened to your demo, or to anyone who’s referred a job or a potential lead to you. Let’s face it; everyone likes to get a nice, heartfelt thank you card in the mail, and it’s a really effective way to keep yourself in contact with a potential VO employer.
Finally, I’d like to leave you with two quotes that I think are appropriate for Thanksgiving and the spirit of positivity that is so uplifting at this time of year:
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
- John F. Kennedy
“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.”
- Irv Kupcinet
From everyone here at Voice Coaches, we hope you all have a wonderful, happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!
I’m fascinated by obscure bits of history. The Boston Molasses Disaster? I’m there. The fact that the first successful parachute jump in history happened on my birthday in 1919? Cool!
So I found the Great Blue Norther of 11/11/11 quite an interesting piece of forgotten history. It turns out that exactly 98 years ago today, a freak storm front moved across the midwestern part of the country that resulted in some of the most extreme weather changes in history. For example, Springfield, Missouri hit midday temperatures of 80 degrees, and finished the day with temperatures of 13 degrees. That’s a 67-degree drop in one day! It was the first time since records had been kept that the record high and record low were broken in the same day.
That kind of change reminds me of what it’s like to market yourself as a voice talent. In what seems like one day, you can go from a record high to a record low. In actuality, marketing yourself is a constant effort, and you never know when those efforts are going to pay off. In some cases, it can seem to come all at once. One of my co-workers is actually in the midst of being almost overwhelmed by the amount of voice over jobs he has on his plate right now. Up until a month ago, however, he hadn’t done a professional job in about two months. Record low, meet record high.
I know many, many working voice actors who go through similar “feast or famine” periods in their marketing efforts. Unfortunately, some of them get discouraged during the “record low” periods and forget that there can be a “record high” right around the corner. If weather can change by 67 degrees in a single day due to a freak storm, who’s to say the same thing can’t happen to you? You’d be surprised how common it is for voice over actors to go through long stretches where they can be either incredibly busy or where it seems like they’re sitting around twiddling their thumbs for days on end. The important thing to remember is to make the most of your time. If you’re in a cold snap, why not use that time to try some new marketing efforts and send out some more demos?
Instead of looking at a slow period as a reason to quit, try using it to get motivated and turn the downtime into a way to create future work for yourself. You never know when you might find yourself in the middle of an extreme temperature change and find the winds blowing in your direction.
Some of you may have already noticed this, but it’s football season.
Now, I happen to be a big football fan, but I also happen to be a big San Francisco 49ers fan. The problem with that is that I live smack dab in the middle of New York Giants territory. Yep, most of my friends, my co-workers, and even my wife are all Giants fans. The Niners are hoping to end a six year losing streak this season (and that’s a big “if”), but even through all of the pain and suffering of the past six seasons, I’ve remained a die-hard fan. Surrounded by Giants fans who are constantly telling me that I should switch teams or give up on the Niners or become a Giants fan, I hold fast and stand by the team I’ve supported for over two decades.
I know I’m not alone in that. A lot of people are like me in that regard, supporting teams that have been perennially awful. Heck, even the Detroit Lions still have fans. If a team gets out there and makes an effort, even if they lose people will still stick with them through thick and thin, no matter what their friends or family might say.
All of this football rivalry got me thinking about people who are starting out in voice acting. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve watched give up on their marketing efforts–many times after just a few months–because their friends and family aren’t supportive, or because those same people tell them that they can’t be successful. What boggles my mind is how somebody can stick with a losing sports team for year after year after year, but as soon as they come up against some adversity in real life, they throw in the towel. How does that make sense?
So stick with your team; this time, the team is you. If there are people around you who are naysayers, just put them in the same category as the people who make fun of your favorite sports team. After all, it took the Boston Red Sox 86 years to win a World Series, and I don’t know of a single fan in Red Sox Nation who didn’t stick by them throughout it all.
If sports fans can stick by a losing team for eight decades, don’t you owe it to yourself to do the same?
I saw that on a T-shirt once. It made me laugh out loud. Having never been a fan of opera (sorry, opera lovers), I got quite a kick out of it, because the idea of sitting in a theater and watching large costumed people sing in a foreign language falsetto at the top of their lungs for four hours seems somewhat tantamount to torture to me.
Of course, at the time, I missed a couple of the deeper meanings of that shirt. Looking back on it today, I see a couple of distinct messages at work in that shirt’s slogan.
“Life is short,” the shirt said. Boy, isn’t that the truth? Every day, I look back at the day before it and wonder exactly where it went and how it got there so fast. I’m trying desperately to hold on to the hope that I won’t one day blink and wake up and find that another 20 years of my life have gone by, although I suspect that’s inevitable. So I try (and sometimes I succeed more than others) to really live life unafraid. It’s not that I’m going out skydiving or quitting my job to follow a music group around the country, but I really have spent the past several years of my life trying to open myself up to new things, whether it’s trying a new food or a new genre of music on my iPod, or adopting a new attitude or taking on a new challenge. It’s not always easy, but I can tell you one thing it has always been: rewarding.
And that leads me to the “Opera is long” portion of the shirt. In all honesty, I still have yet to sit through an opera. The difference is, now if the opportunity ever arises, I might just give it a shot. Do I think I’ll fall in love with it and suddenly become an opera aficionado? Probably not. But I’ll never know for sure unless I try it out. I mean, really, what’s the worst that can happen? I lose a few hours to a new and potentially interesting experience that didn’t turn out to be as enjoyable as I hoped. That’s not the end of the world as far as I see it. So don’t be surprised if one of these days you run into me in full tuxedo and white gloves at some big opera event; I might just have decided that the time had come to try something new.
And, hey, maybe after all this, the shirt was just meant to be funny, and I’m purely extrapolating deeper meanings here. But I’m choosing to look at it as a reminder that the world’s a big, exciting place and that life is too short not to at least try to experience as much of it as I can.
It’s not every day that the President of the United States decides to visit your town (unless you live in Washington, DC, of course.) But today, President Barack Obama came to the Capitol Region of New York (where Voice Coaches’ main offices are located) to deliver a speech about the economy. In the course of the speech, he made me feel inspired not only about our country, but also about what we do here at Voice Coaches.
Mr. Obama visited Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC), which is only about 20 minutes from where I sit writing this, and spoke to a group of students and local government and business leaders. In the opening minutes of his speech, Mr. Obama made a statement about the need for education; I think his words apply equally as well to the Voice Coaches organization as they do to the community colleges to which he was referring. He said:
“This is a place where anyone with the desire to take their career to a new level or start a new career altogether has the opportunity to pursue that dream. This is a place where people of all ages and backgrounds - even in the face of obstacles, even in the face of very difficult personal challenges - can take a chance on a brighter future for themselves and their families.”
Now, of course, I feel a sense of pride about what Voice Coaches does, but the statement that Mr. Obama made perfectly reflects how we feel about education here at Voice Coaches. Yes, voice overs can be a great way to generate additional income, but the field of voice acting is also a unique, fun, and exciting way to do so. For many people, getting into voice acting represents their decision to pursue a dream; not to just think about it and never get around to doing it, but to actually go out there and attain something they’ve wanted to do for a long time. President Obama clearly understands that people who go out and pursue their dreams are the ones with the best chances at controlling their own destinies and building a better and brighter future for themselves.
So the next time you need a little inspiration to get you going on starting a new project or pursuing a dream, just remember: it’s what the President of the United States recommends!
Patrick Swayze, the popular star of movie hits such as Ghost, Dirty Dancing, Point Break, Road House, Red Dawn, and The Outsiders, has passed away at age 57.
I don’t want to write a standard obituary here. There’s a wealth of information on him all over the Internet where you can read the details of his life, career, and death. And I’m not going to come on here and proclaim myself Swayze’s number one fan, although I was always very fond of him as an actor.
Instead, I do want to point out what kind of inspiration he turned out to be in his final years. Not only had he started to branch out into new areas of acting such as voice overs (he voiced a major role in Disney’s direct-to-video sequel hit, The Fox and the Hound 2), but he kept working all the way through his devastating battle with pancreatic cancer. For those of you who don’t know, pancreatic cancer is one of the most terminal forms of the disease, with a particularly high mortality rate. Despite announcing his illness in March of 2008, Swazye continued to act, starring in A&E’s hit cop drama The Beast. In fact, it’s reported that he refused to take painkillers while filming the 2009 series, unwilling to take the edge off of his performance.
I think it’s pretty impressive that a star of Swayze’s caliber, who could have easily spent his last few years just relaxing and enjoying life, instead chose to continue working in the art he’d been working in for decades. Critics were impressed by Swayze’s performance on The Beast, and audiences responded as well. This was a man driven to continue to perform to the best of his ability, despite the fact that he was battling a painful disease the entire time. It makes you realize how strong people can be when they put their mind to something.
Patrick Swayze was a talented actor, singer, and dancer and seemed like an all-around nice guy. His talent, drive, and determination will surely be missed by film fans around the world.
The British Invasion continues… some 40-plus years after it originally started.
Chances are pretty good that you’ve heard by now… The Beatles are back! Tomorrow, on 09/09/09, the world will be treated to two big, exciting new Beatles releases: The Beatles Remastered CD catalogue and The Beatles: Rock Band. For those of you who don’t know about these projects, let me fill you in a little.
The Beatles Remastered CD catalogue is exactly what it sounds like. Every original CD released by The Beatles has been remastered in stereo and is being released with arguably the best sound quality we’ve ever heard from the Fab Four’s original recordings. The Beatles: Rock Band is a new video game in the popular Rock Band series that allows players to play guitar, bass & drums, and sing along with The Beatles. Both of these releases have garnered a lot of media attention, and are expected to sell millions of dollars worth of units over the coming weeks and months.
Which got me thinking. If, let’s say, U2 were to put out an entirely remastered catalogue and a new video game, it would probably get a little attention from the press. They are, after all, currently one of the biggest rock bands in the world. But would a large number of radio stations across the country interrupt their normal programming for “U2 Days” like they’re doing for the Beatles? Doubtful. Would almost every major entertainment magazine feature them on their cover in the days and weeks leading up to the release? I don’t think so. Why? Because The Beatles were the biggest and most monumental music group in history, and I don’t think we’ll ever see another group come along that will come even close to achieving the kind of popularity, longevity, and cultural significance that they managed to.
So why bother, right? I mean, if you’re an up and coming rock band, and you know you’re likely never to be as big as The Beatles, why even try? What’s the point?
That’s an attitude that a lot more people adopt than you might think. A lot of people figure, “If I can’t reach the very top and be number one, then it’s just not worth even bothering.”
I don’t subscribe to that theory. Don’t get me wrong; I think you should strive to be the best that you can be, and of course you want to be as successful as possible. But I think it’s important to remember that there are varying levels of success. You need to decide what’s important to you. Is it important to you to be as successful as someone like, say, the late Don LaFontaine? If so, then that’s a terrific goal. But what if it’s more important to you to simply make a nice additional income from your voice over work? Or what if what’s most important to you is getting work providing voice overs for audiobooks, or museum tours, or awards shows?
Whatever it is, building success requires having a goal. That goal can be as big as they come, as small as you want it to be, or anywhere in between. But it’s up to you to decide what that goal is.
In fact, I think the Beatles said it best themselves in their song “Think For Yourself” on the Rubber Soul album:
The future still looks good,
And you’ve got time to rectify
All the things that you should.
Do what you want to do,
And go where you’re going to.
