Archive for the ‘General’ Category
In Search of The Next Billy Mays
Tangentially related to voice over, the call has gone out to find a replacement for hyper-pitchman Billy Mays who unexpectedly passed away in 2009. The joke around our house was that when one of Mr. Mays’ TV spots came on, you could hit “mute” on the remote and still hear him.
Trade publication Advertising Age was [...]
January 25, 2010
Posted in: Advertising, Auditions, General 
No Comments
Faux Audition Finalists Fronted
Voice over actor and fun guy Peter O’Connell has announced the finalists for the “just for fun” auditions for the voice of the ABC Evening News with Dianne Sawyer. Visit Peter’s blog and vote for your favorite finalists.
Remember, it’s all just for grins and aside from a little notoriety and maybe some link love, both [...]
January 22, 2010
Posted in: Auditions, Awards, General One Comment
Goodbye Mr. “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!”
It was (is) a read stitched into the fabric of America’s culture by Jan C. Gabriel of Chicago. Few of us knew his name, but most of us know the sound, the quintessential hard sell, in this case for drag strip racing that happened when? On “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!”
You’ll find a video story of his [...]
January 14, 2010
Posted in: General, Marketing No Comments
Info Session for North Texas Actors
If you are an aspiring voice, stage or on-camera actor in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area there is an informational meeting coming up next Monday that you should consider taking. SAG’s Sheila Cooper emails with the details:
UNION PANEL ROUND Â TABLE
Have  you ever asked what is SAG, AEA, AFTRA or IATSE?  Have you ever thought what does [...]
January 12, 2010
Posted in: General, Training, Workshops No Comments
Que the Announcer
A point of direction we see a lot in the voice over audition process is “no announcer” or “stay away from announcer sound” or “need real, genuine, no announcer” and 67 variations thereof. Why?
My voice-over coach has a theory: The classic announcer sound from the 50’s-70’s is representative of the generation of admen who lied [...]
January 11, 2010
Posted in: Advertising, Coaching, General No Comments
JC Penney Doghouse Part Deux
JC Penney is a locally based company that at one time ran a first class production facility where I had the pleasure of voicing non-broadcast projects for them. In fact it was one training piece I worked on for them where I learned just how long I could read before my voice started giving out.
Anyway, [...]
November 25, 2009
Posted in: Advertising, Branding, General No Comments
A Lesson in Branding
When your brand as a voice actor is as secure as as his was, you can get away with wonderfully inventive demos like this. I don’t have enough fingers to count up the “rules” he broke with this one. But it didn’t matter.
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September 20, 2009
Tags: Branding, Lorenzo Music, voice actor Posted in: Branding, General, Marketing One Comment
Luck and The Voice Actor
I’m reading James A. Michener’s autobiography The World Is My Home. In it he offers tips to would be writers and speaks of how simple luck played a huge role in his success. Just change a few of the skills mentioned and you’ve got great advice for the voice over performer:
The only generalization I can [...]
September 16, 2009
Posted in: General, Getting Started, Training No Comments
What is the Context?
Been thinking about the word “context” this morning. It’s one of the lenses through which we should see the script as we prepare for the job or an audition. It helps us determine choices.
I think language scholar Oscar E. Nybakken has a very useful take on the word “context” for the voice actor:
Context not [...]
September 14, 2009
Posted in: Advertising, Auditions, General, Techniques No Comments
New Area of Work for the Voice Actor?
The merging and melding of media marches on. Now we have video embedded in print ads. What does this mean for the voice actor? It can’t be bad, methinks.
September 2, 2009
Posted in: Advertising, General, Video No Comments