2008 July | Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Raining Again

July 30, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

RainRecording just published my second authored article in a series of informational pieces for their website.

The articles are meant to be introductory, explanatory, and not terribly technical…as they are intended for an audience learning about the new changes in the voice acting industry. (I still think of factory smokestacks when I hear that word “industry”)

This second article is about the basics of setting-up a home (private) studio…something most voice actors aspire to these days.

You can see the article HERE.

CourVO

Filed Under: Op/Ed Tagged With: announcer, announcing, artist, audio, Audiobooks, audiotx, Demos, documentaries, ISDN, male voice, male voice artist, male voiceover, narrating, narrations, Podcasts, RainRecording.com, source connect, speaker, speaking, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice actors, voice over, voice overs, voice talent, voice work, voiceover, voices, voicing

Testing, Testing, 1…2…

July 30, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

This post is entirely composed, pic taken, and transmitted/published through my cell phone – a Sprint Mogul SmartPhone using MS Mobile 6.0, and TypePad software specifically made FOR this.
I tend to like using the Grafitti handwriting software on the phone. rather than the slide-out keyboard.
The pic is of the KLAS-TV newsroom where I work.
Sibilance…sibilance…
(test now over)

CourVO

Filed Under: Equipment

Multiple Coverage

July 30, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

A week from Thursday, the big doin’s begin. VOICE 2008 kicks off at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza with a big red carpet affair.

The event has at it’s core the triple goals of “Education, Technology, Community”. That pretty well sums up what most hope to get out of the conference, and going by last year’s inaugural affair, they should realize their expectations nicely.

I know this event has not been everyone’s cup of tea, and certainly with the economic situation right now, and budgets being tight, not everyone who wanted to go could go. But I’ll bet you teacups to toenails 99% of the people who go are going to be walking 2-feet off the ground when they leave Sunday or Monday.

Anyway, what I’m getting to is that if — for whatever reason — you can’t go…you can be a voyeur of the event through this blog. I plan to take frequent pics AND post to THIS very weblog frequently throughout the day from my SmartPhone. Yes I can do that.

Now, if you get tired of my perspective, I suggest you browse on over to John Florian’s VoiceOverExtra web-page, ’cause not only is he going to repurpose my stuff on his page, but he’s also going to be taking regular “feeds” from other well-known voice-actors and bloggers Kara Edwards, Bob Souer, and Bobbin Beam.

If you are going, please make sure to find me so we can get pics of everyone’s smiling face!

CourVO

(BTW, I totally made up the ‘teacups to toenails’ thing)

Filed Under: Social/Professional Networking Tagged With: announcer, announcing, artist, audio, Audiobooks, audiotx, Demos, documentaries, ISDN, male voice, male voice artist, male voiceover, narrating, narrations, Podcasts, source connect, speaker, speaking, voice, VOICE 2008, voice acting, voice actor, voice actors, voice over, voice overs, voice talent, voice work, voiceover, voices, voicing

Unjust Expectations

July 30, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

No names to protect the guilty…but I had a serious brush with a great job, only to lose it. A fine, established, and professional studio asked me to audition for a national spot.

Like most auditions…I gave the read my best, sent the file, and forgot it…well, almost. This one was special, and I knew it. I let myself hope that just maybe, I’d get the nod.

Then…this morning…the call I’d hoped for! ”…Uh, the client liked your read on the XXX character, we’d like to know of your availability later this week.” Me: ”Sure!, when is the session?” ”We’re looking at Thursday morning, noon EST…that’d be 9am your time.”

My heart sank. Thursday morning at 9am, I’ll be in a Disctrict Court Anteroom, waiting to see if I’ll be chosen as a jury-member for an upcoming trial.

I know we all have to do our civic duty, but the timing of this responsibility seemed particularly hurtful and unfair. I told the caller I couldn’t lie…I’d have jury duty. She sighed and said she appreciated it, but that it likely meant I’d be out of the running.

Canya believe it?

‘Nice to know anyway, I had made the cut.

CourVO

Filed Under: Op/Ed Tagged With: announcer, announcing, artist, audio, Audiobooks, audiotx, Demos, documentaries, ISDN, male voice, male voice artist, male voiceover, narrating, narrations, Podcasts, source connect, speaker, speaking, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice actors, voice over, voice overs, voice talent, voice work, voiceover, voices, voicing

Saulsberry!

July 29, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

He’s the best. Rodney Saulsberry is one of the most pre-eminent voice-actors in the biz today.

‘First met him at VOICE 2007 in Vegas. I was impressed with him as a sincere personality then, and everything I see him do and be involved in, only cements that notion.

Click below to see the content from his latest newsletter. And listen to his CD: “Step up to the Mic” sometime.

You won’t regret it.

CourVO

Podiobooks

July 29, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

VoiceOverUniverse has really captured the attention of voice-actors. ‘Can’t believe how fast it’s grown with enthusiasm (1136 members as of today). I salute Rick Party for the fine execution of a great idea.

I hadn’t heard of .ning before VoiceOverUniverse, but like the website says: “create your own social network for anything” is obviously an idea whose time has come.

To that end, voice-actors may want to visit PodioBooks.com Community a .ning social network site that claims to be “A place for all fans, authors and creators of Podiobooks.com.”

Podcasts are supposed to be the next best invention since twitter, digg, stumbleupon, google, peanut butter…and after all, podcasts ARE voice-recordings….which means to do it right, it takes voice-actors…right?

Voice-actors are even doing podcasts about voice-actors…see Terry Daniel and Trish Basanyi’s podcast site. You’ll learn plenty about the industry’s movers and shakers.

CourVO

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: announcer, announcing, artist, audio, Audiobooks, audiotx, Demos, documentaries, ISDN, male voice, male voice artist, male voiceover, narrating, narrations, Podcasts, podiobooks, source connect, speaker, speaking, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice actors, voice over, voice overs, voice talent, voice work, voiceover, voices, voicing

Adventures in Voice Acting

July 28, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

No, that’s not meant to be just an eye-catching headline. It’s actually a website.

And the picture you see depicts their main product as far as I can tell…an instructional DVD they want you to buy that will explain the ins and outs of the voice-acting business. One website testimonial states “it’s a must-see documentary for fans and aspiring voice actors alike”.

Digging deeper, you’ll quickly see this is a site for people who aspire to voice anime’ cartoons.

Dig even further, and you’ll find BangZoomEntertainment (worth a look just for the great cartoon animation).

BangZoom is a full-service audio post-production animation studio in SoCal that boasts clients like Atari, Cartoon Network, and MTV. Their website is an online example of what they can do.

I don’t know if buying the DVD is worth it, but if voicing animation, cartoons, or anime’ is your goal in life, it might be worth your while to spend a little time at these two sites. They could be looking for someone with just your voice.

CourVO

Filed Under: VO Jobs Tagged With: anime, announcer, announcing, artist, audio, Audiobooks, audiotx, Demos, documentaries, ISDN, male voice, male voice artist, male voiceover, narrating, narrations, Podcasts, source connect, speaker, speaking, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice actors, voice over, voice overs, voice talent, voice work, voiceover, voices, voicing

Very Cuil

July 28, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

Cuil-homepage
WebWare notes today that there’s a new challenger to the Google search engine.

It’s cuil. Like Google, cuil apparently is arising out of the brain trust at Stanford:

“Developed and run by the husband-and-wife team of Stanford professor Tom Costello and former Google search architect Anna Patterson, it’s pitched as bigger, faster, and better than Google’s flagship search engine in pretty much every way.”

WebWare goes on to say: ”The most important difference between Cuil and Google is its ranking system. Rather than assigning priority to pages based on inbound links as Google does (“Pagerank”), Cuil analyzes the content of Web pages to divine their relevance to a search query.”

Give it a try! It’s a different searching experience than Google…whether it’s better might be a stretch, a determination that should be made in time.

CourVO

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: announcer, announcing, artist, audio, Audiobooks, audiotx, cuil, Demos, documentaries, ISDN, male voice, male voice artist, male voiceover, narrating, narrations, Podcasts, source connect, speaker, speaking, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice actors, voice over, voice overs, voice talent, voice work, voiceover, voices, voicing

Totally!

July 27, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

Birth of a voice-actor: (found at THIS blog)

“I work at a radio station as a front desk receptionist and I love my
job. I was asked the other day by my boss if I would be interested in
doing a commercial for the station…such fun I can hardly stand it.“

Voice-over pro’s have been battling this kind of thing since Marconi. How can we argue against the boss cutting corners on the budget, recognizing a budding talent, or taking advantage of such enthusiasm?

Don’t Look Now….

July 26, 2008 By CourVO Leave a Comment

…but it’s late July (…and don’t ask me how this stuff happens…I’m still trying to figure out where 1992 went!).
That means the New Year’s resolutions of 7.5 months ago are long-forgotten. Or are they?
Regardless, this is a great time to re-assess your business year.

Let’s face it, next month Wal-Mart will start putting out its Christmas decorations, and before you know it, the Halloween candy will dominate at least one aisle at Walgreen’s. Once you hit August, it’s a slippery slope to the end of the year.

Join me in a quick late-mid-year voice-acting-business check-up won’t you? (click link below).