Rest Well, Jerry Houston
The Dallas area lost one of our great voice actors Saturday. Jerry Houston (Litteral) passed away. For me, Jerry was a teacher, mentor, gracious human being, a hoot to be around and a giant talent.
He achieved great success, voicing national spots for big time companies yet never stopped being a student of voice acting until health dictated otherwise. Jerry was encouraging and generous with advice, helping my career and many others.
Beau Weaver remembers Jerry at Radio Daily News.
And here is one of Jerry’s last demos.
Jerry Houston.mp3
Rest well, Uncle Jer, we’ll miss you
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.
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 offer is that in an irrational world if a prudent course has been followed, you make yourself eligible to capitalize on luck if it happens to strike. If you have not made yourself eligible, you may never be aware that luck is at hand. By this I mean: learn typing, master math, learn to draft a convincing letter, broaden the mind, and do not evade challenges. Making oneself eligible to seize the breaks if and when they come is the only sensible strategy I know. Be prepared to make full use of any stroke of luck, and even if it never comes, the preparation in itself will be a worthy effort.
The Marice Tobias Fall Workshop Schedule
Stacey Stahl emailed yesterday the dates and cities of the remaining Marice Tobias workshops for voice over pros this year. See them here.
Marice has a magical way of spotting things that are getting in the way of your most authentic performance as a voice actor. I highly recommend her workshops.
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 only casts a play of light and shadow on a word but frequently suggests its primary meaning.
Adding light and shadow to the read is a wonderful thing as long as it serves the story. There’s that “context” thing again.
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.
Great Weekend with the Voice Over Whisperer
The Marice Tobias commercial and narration workshop in Dallas wrapped up yesterday. What a wonderful seminar. I learned some great techniques for self direction which is so important these days in that we work so much from our own spaces. Had fun with fellow voice actors. And it’s always amazing to watch a director like Marice pull reads out of actors that they didn’t know they had.
Also, thanks to audio engineer J.D. of Janimation for letting us kids play in his room.
Can a Sennheiser MKH 416 Bring Down a Plane?
That’s what the TSA at the little airport in Roswell, New Mexico wanted to know. I guess it looked like a pipe bomb to them.
I was returning from few wonderful days in the nearby mountain village of Ruidoso, having met up with the wife’s family, and had brought along the traveling voice-over rig. The Sennheiser 416 was in the carry-on bag. It went through the X-ray machine and caused a bit of a stir. I was pulled aside and asked to explain. Fearing this might happen, I had it in the original case with the windscreen and paperwork which included a photo of it with cable attached.
“It’s a microphone,” I told Miss TSA lady. “See, there’s a picture of it.”
“Oh..it’s a microphone,” she shouted down the table to her fellow inspectors.
“Ahh, a microphone,” they grunted. “We didn’t know what it was…OK.”
Funny thing is when we flew out of DFW, the TSA didn’t bat an eye. Either they had seen shotgun mics before, or they didn’t care.
And yes, it’s THAT Roswell. Alien crash landing museums, Big Bob’s Flying Saucer Burgers and all that. Maybe I should paint the 416 green. Nah.
Creative Slating
My agents have a rule about slating which is short and sweet.
Name only. Not even the role. Put that in the file name.
The intent is to curb the behavior of some actors who think that rude noises, mini-biographies, or lame attempts at being funny during the slate will make them more memorable when in fact producers and casting people find them annoying and a time suck.
So what’s a voiceover performer to do? Especially with a name like mine. Two syllables.
Well, more than you might think. Pat Fraley has some notions on creative slating in his audio seminar “Quick and Slick Voiceover Tricks available on Dan O’Day’s website. You also get tips on how to add layers to your “triplets” or those three-in-a-row readings and a discussion on whether or not you should add processing or production values to auditions once in a while, assuming you are auditioning out of your home studio.
Pat has a very entertaining way of teaching and has some nuggets in there for you.
Disclosure: For plugging the audio seminar I receive bupkis. I just think it’s good.
Added to the Blogroll Today
My friend John McCalmont emailed with a link to his new blog on which he plans to give us behind the scenes updates while hosting “Sliced”, a new show for the History Channel. John also has a new baby girl in the house. John has been busy.
Voiceover News