Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Archive for the ‘Challenge’ Category

In the never-ending juggernaut that is the Chinese economy we began to see imports first in our apparel and other low-budget items, then hard goods, Lenovo bought IBM laptops, a Chinese car company bought Hummer.  You get the drift.

Now voice-overs.

See below the exact verbatim I found in my e-mail box today:

————————————————————-
您好：

Hi There,

我们是博凯佳音配音工作室，我们可以提供优质的中英文配音服务，

This is BoKai Voice Over Studio, we can provide good quality chinese and foreign laguage voice products for you!

详情可以登录网站www.peiyin666.cn

Please check our website www.peiyin666.cn/english.

欢迎致电：+86 28 66686660 +86 13880740931

you can call us at  +86 28 66686660 +86 13880740931

顺祝商祺

Best Regards

中启文化 博凯佳音

Bokai Voice Over

————————————————————-

Bokai Voice Over!

Should we fear this new import?

At this point… probably not.  I tried checking out the website: www.peiyin666.cn/english and immediately got a virus warning from my AVG internet security software.

I do know that there’s practically nothing clever Chinese entrepreneurs can’t copy in mass quantity.

This is the vanguard…it won’t likely go away.

CourVO

  Insecurities are not one of my strong points…

…and by that I mean I’ve worked hard, found a certain measure of success in my family life and my professional career.  I have lots of friends, and food in the fridge.  At 56, I find self-assurance comes easily, ‘cause I feel I’ve earned it.

So when I wrote the blog about Synthetic Voices recently,I really wasn’t trying to sound the death knell of Voice Acting…nor was I terribly troubled by its implications.

JUST OVER THE NEXT HILL…

But that, along with other things happening in the world right now could almost begin to convince me that there may be cause for concern – long term – for opportunities in voiceover.

Here’s why:  yesterday, 4 more good people lost their jobs in our newsroom.  TV news, and TV stations in general are REALLY hurting.  Our General Manager likes to quote how many millions of advertising dollars are just “gone from the market”…and the number is in the tens of millions.  Car dealers (the core of TV advertising support) are folding.  Revenues at TV stations everywhere are down anywhere from 20% to 60% (conservative).

Have you listened to radio lately?  Formulaic.  Impersonal.  Repetitive.  Shrill.  They’re hurting too…but they’ve had years to adjust to life-after-TV.

TV is just getting accustomed to the juggernaut incursion of the internet. (more like whacked in the head!)

So…have you listened to radio lately?  I haven’t.  Millions of commuters are listening to their iPods or talking on their iPhones instead of the drivel that passes for entertainment on (most) Radio stations.

CAN’T IGNORE “THE CRUX” OF THE MATTER

So, my point is:  Radio and TV.  Hurting.  Ad dollars going away….and just where do you think the lion’s share of a voice-actor’s best jobs are?  Yep.  Radio and TV. 

At least that’s the paradigm to which we still pay homage. 

Folks…that paradigm is changing.

“Not to worry”, you say, “my bread ‘n’ butter VO niche is in medical narrations, audiobooks, and websites.”

God bless ya…I’m not talking to you.

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

I’m talking to the entire COMPLEX of agents, unions, casting directors, advertising & PR firms, buyers, media-as-we-know it.  It’s all changing right under our noses!  Sure…slowly…. no doubt about it, and in fits and starts, but if you’re into the world of social media at all, you clearly see the pell-mell change of stream-of-conscious thinking, sharing, and marketing that is New Media.

“Wait a minute, Dave,” you say…”This recession thing will be over soon enough, and we’ll all be back to profitability.” 

AAaaaactually, no.  It’ll never be the same again (my humble opinoin)

 Because of the immediacy, the interaction, the I-want-what-I-want-when-I-want-it nature of  social media and the internet, TV viewers are switching allegiances.  Heck, the internet is where I’m getting MY news these days.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

Here’s the silver lining, and then I’ll shuddup.

Good content, quality writing, excellence of endeavour, and solid presentation will never go out of style…no matter the medium. 

Your golden tones are still needed…but…well….you may just…maybe wanna start not depending on the promise of Radio and TV as much.  Again, I could be totally wrong, but I don’t think so.

CourVO

…to find that freedom, there are are few realities you must accept.

THIS article does an amazing job of pointing out the sobering financial caveats you need to hear before being “on your own”.

CourVO

Yay for Kat Keesling, Diane Havens and many of my other buds from VO Universe and the VO-BB who organized and contributed to the reading of the proposed health care reform bill.

See NY Times write-up HERE.

See VO-BB forum thread HERE.

Visit the official site HERE. (you can also volunteer to read)

One of the voice-talents, Chriss Mezzolesta gets interviewed on TV for the story HERE.

CourVO

Mental roadblocks are the enemy of  many a gifted and talented voice-actor.

The mental roadblocks (can be procrastination) we subconsciously and oftentimes innocently create can become true hindrances for freelance self-starters.  Sometimes it takes a friend or colleague to help you see through it, and once in a while, in a moment of brilliant clarity, you can see it yourself.

If not, you may benefit from a little formula I’ve devised.

Access + Process = Success

Let me break it down for you:

ACCESS:
The audio files we produce rely on a fairly complicated software/hardware interface associated with a deadline-oriented process.  If even the slightest glitch or hitch interferes with you walking into your studio, turning on your audio chain, and beginning the recording; you have slowed your ACCESS, and over time, the glitch grows into a ginormous mental block, preventing, instead of facilitating your next audition.

You need easy access to your VO tools.

Example:  My pre-amp came with no on/off switch.  I had to reach around behind my monitor, find the plug, feel for the receptacle, and insert the plug.  It was a hassle.  Over time, I began to resent that, then used it as an excuse to just NOT do what I really needed to do.  Once I realized that stupid little ritual was my major mental roadblock to conducting hassle-free auditions, I went to Home Depot, bought an in-line switch, and solved the problem.  Click/Click…on/off.  No hassle.

Maybe for you it’s something that interferes with quickly printing out scripts or an extra troublesome step or two that gets in the way of you launching your recording software. Eliminate the roadblock.  The devil’s in the details.

See an audition you need to get out?  Within one minute of your computer coming on, you should be able to start recording.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

It is.
(granted: you may not have the tube warm-up to optimize your pre-amp performance in that time -  see process below).

But ACCESS would be nothing without PROCESS.

PROCESS:

1.	a systematic series of actions directed to some end.

2.	a continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner:

Synonym: a procedure; to handle or manage

In other words, once the access is there, you have to have a PLAN to use it.

THIS is particularly tough for us right-brain, set-our-own-schedule, creative talent-types.  Sure you need to be an ACTOR to do your work, but the business side of your operation must be practical, and that means having a plan…a schedule…a calendar…a PROCESS.

I’m a night-owl.  When I get home after midnight, I like crawling into my comfortable studio and record away — especially on the more moribund E-learning and technical narration jobs.  That’s part of my process…my plan to tackle work.

But I’m finding a good many bursts of audition requests (from whatever source) tend to come during typical business hours.  Since I’m hindered by my TV job’s hours from just reacting as I want to those requests, I’ve put into my process, about two hours of every morning — when my voice is a little rested — to plow through auditions, especially those that require a bit more creativity and acting.

Here’s the thing about process —–> devise the plan, then stick to it like a postage stamp, cause this is something you can’t mail in!  That takes discipline and will power…not something I can explain, but something you have to find on your own.

More about removing mental roadblocks:

http://www.fluentself.com/blog/newsletter/dissolve-that-mental-roadblock/
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2006/11/29/now-or-never/
http://bit.ly/GTouT

‘Hope this helps in some small way!

CourVO

Voice actor/Voice coach Bettye Zoller raises an interesting issue in an online VO forum about how our auditions get used for other purposes than just job-seeking.

Read below to see her cautionary words on this topic.

CourVO

Read the rest of this entry »

Lately, I keep getting the question: “When do you sleep?”  The answer is: usually between 3am and 10am.  On the East Coast that would be from 6am to 1pm.

So the question really becomes an observation:  “Dave, you seem to be working at all hours.  You must not need much sleep.”

I guess I don’t.  I’ve always had a joy of life, and since VO is my passion, I find I never run out of energy for its demands.

Here are some of the highlights of my day, Thursday, August 6, 2009:

1) 8am –  CT scan, ‘cause recent kidneystones have my urologist doing follow-ups
2) 9:30am - an hour of checking e-mail, Twitter, and online forums
3)10:30 am – some important phone calls
4) 11am – back to bed for 1.5 hours
5) 12:30 – shower, shave, dress
6) 1pm – hour-long conference call with members of the SaVoa Advisory Board
7) 2:30 – arrive at TV station – begin YouTube update, write/proofread scripts, scan more
email, websites, Tweetdeck, and FaceBook, write e-mail, make phone calls
8] 4pm – begin anchoring 3 half-hour newscasts (4, 5, & 6) with half-hour breaks in-between)
9) 7pm – drive home for dinner with friends, cut and send two auditions
10) 9pm – drive back to TV station.  More editing, web-browsing, proofreading scripts, twittering
11) 11pm – anchor last half-hour newscast of the day
12) 12:30am (Fri) – arrive home to begin more VO work
13)  1am – spend an hour on Skype, recording and finishing segments for a new demo
14)  2am – new demo in hand, I package it with other demos, a bio pic, and some forms to
send to a new casting service I’m involved with.
15) 3am – sit down to write a fresh Blog!

What to write about?  In this case, a search of Google Alerts with the keyword “voiceover” leads me to a Bill Pryce Blog, which in turn refers me to a Dan O’Day.com site that further directs me to a Pat Fraley offer of:  a “Quick & Slick VoiceOver Tricks” download.

I’m familiar with this program of Fraley’s and highly recommend it…Pat’s the best!

This is where the bouncing ball comes in.  Normally, you’d just get the Pat Fraley referral, but because it’s 3:44am as I am as I’m writing this, and I’m a bit addle pated, you got the day-dissection along with it!

‘Goin’ to bed now…

CourVO

Visit VoiceOverXtra HERE and see what John Florian’s cooked-up:  a fun idea of posting a short narrative and maybe a pic of how, where, and when you had to cut some audio “on the road”.

Maybe it was on vacation, business, or other…we’ve all had to prepare for the possibility of a persistent and/or valued client that just can’t wait for an audio file till we get home.  It can be a very good thing, actually, but everyone’s got a different “hack” for achieving quality sound outside the comfortable confines of your private studio.

‘Can’t wait to see all the entries!

CourVO

A long conversation with Edge Studio's Owner & Director, David Goldberg, Thursday, filled my head with all sorts of creative what-ifs.

It lead to my posting a question on the VO-BB, which I'm going to re-purpose below…followed by the responses from two guys who've forgotten more about this business than I'll ever know: Frank Frederick and Philip Banks.  My thanks to them, and VO-BB Mistress DB Cooper for the freedom to use this material.

Maybe the back 'n' forth of the posed question 'n' answer will help you with a focus for your VO/VA business.

BTW, David Goldberg's Edge Studio is booming, expanding, and busy. Sure, David and his staff are doing a lot of the right things, and they're GOOD…but it's also some indication that there's plenty of VO work for the right people with the right demo, attitude, work ethic, and ability to deliver.

Read the rest of this entry »

Am I just nuts, or do you have this problem too?

You know — doing more, and seemingly achieving less?

Stephen R. Covey could come and sit on my shoulder and be my conscience, and I swear it wouldn't be any better.

.

.

I'm either:
a) Terrible at scheduling
b) Twittering too much
c)  Disenfranchised by the power of e-mail
d)  Unable to say "no"
e) Too giving/caring
f)  Focus-impaired
g)  Way too comfortable being busy

Honestly, I think that last one is it.  If I stop being busy…what would happen? 

What am I afraid of? 

See, if I'm busy, then I can't be committing the penultimate American sin: wasting time.  Even the APPEARANCE of being busy implies accomplishment and achievement.

Hermithood is starting to sound real good…or would I go stark-raving mad?  No, I think I might actually be able to see more clearly.

Here's the thing, too:  we're all a little scared that this is certainly NOT the time to slack-off.  I mean, we're in hot water here in the richest country in the world…better work even HARDER to make sure you don't go under.

What ARE we afraid of?

Ah…so that's it:  CHANGE…. yeah…change!

Well, nothing's gonna really change until dissatisfaction with status-quo overcomes the fear of change.

I'm off to my daughter's College Showcase Soccer tournament in Temecula, CA for the next 3 days.  I'll tote my laptop, and my portable recording set-up, and God-knows-what-else in the SUV.  I'll panic at the thought of only checking my e-mail maybe just twice/day during the that time.  (Horrors!) 

If I'm smart, I'll drop the crap behind long enough to see things a little more clearly, and if I'm lucky, maybe I'll get the chance to enjoy a fine cigar and good conversation with some of the other soccer dads.

Thanks in advance for listening to my rants and ruminations.

CourVO

(my 600th post)