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“In a World” Flic Gets Distribution Deal

February 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

lakeIf you were a plumber, wouldn’t you be jazzed that a quality Hollywood movie about your profession is getting rave reviews?

Cops and doctors have been enjoying that film bounty for years (and Hobbits).

But how ’bout a movie dealing with the profession of voice-acting?

You’ve probably heard that Lake Bell’s movie “In A World” won raves at the Sundance Film Festival.  Everybody’s favorite Promo voice actor Joe Cipriano (who is in the movie) has been promoting the flic, and even attended a premiere in San Fran not too long ago.

Now the movie has been (as they say) “picked up” by Roadside Attractions for the distribution rights.  That’s no small feat, and means it’s coming soon to a small (probably independent) theatre near you soon…or maybe one of the big movie chains.  Who knows?

I just know I can’t wait to see it…’cause it’s supposed to be hilarious…and of course it’s gotta be full of inside jokes only WE will get, right?

More info on this development in links below, and watch for an interview I’m scheduled to do with Lake Bell for VoiceOverXtra soon!

 http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/world-where-lake-bell-directorial-debut-lands-distribution-231246299.html

http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/lake-bells-movie-trailer-voice-over-comedy-in-a-world-picked-up/

http://www.slashfilm.com/lake-bells-movie-trailer-voice-over-comedy-in-a-world-gets-distribution/

CourVO

Filed Under: Heads Up!, Links Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bits ‘n’ Pieces

February 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

bitspiecesWe operate in an amazing world of information and connectivity, and voice actors are perhaps more in tune with that than other professions, ’cause we make our living online.

The VO world seemed to be humming yesterday.  Many of you who frequent social media like I do, may have seen some of the same things I did, so in the bullet points below, just skim past that, and go to the stuff you haven’t yet seen.

ANOTHER ONE?  VoicesOnlineNow.com looks to me like another online casting site.  The staff is based in Salt Lake City (Brent Marshall, Laura Gabour, and Mackenzie De La Torre), and the website is well-designed, concise, and full of content.  They deal in audiobooks, production, foreign languages, commercial, technical and more.  They also have a link for accepting talent submissions (info@voicesonlinenow.com).  Might be worth a look-see?

PROMO VOICES   The Commercial Production/Promotions Mgr here at my TV station is a real veteran.  He’s deep into the business of promotions, listens to lost of voice talent, and recently sent me a link to a great article published online this week.  You’d do well to take the 5 mins it would require to read it:  http://promocoderichanded.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-better-way-to-direct-voice-talent.html?spref=fb

40 CITIES, 40 VOICEOVRS   An Aussie VO talent and blogger by the name of Dave Kirwan wrote me last night to pass along a challenge.  He writes:  “…I’m setting myself and any other voice artists who want to get involved to raise money for a charity, whilst also travelling the world and doing voice overs in as many cities as possible. (From a portable studio)  Sounds crazy? I’ve already done it in over 30 cities with so many amazing stories to share on my blog…”   I promised him I’d help spread the word here.  Go visit his site to read more:  http://davekirwan.com.au/voice-over-artist-blog/

AUDIE NOMINEES   AudioBook narrating may be one of the few niches in voice-acting that actually has an extremely well-organized awards program for it’s talent.  That’s largely due to the efforts of the APA,, the Audio Publisher’s Association.  At the annual APA Conference (APAC) in May, this year, most anyone involved in the business of audiobooks will gather for the one-day event, then stay an extra day for the Audies awards, and might even attend the concurrent BEA (Book Expo America).  Here is a list of this year’s nominees, broken down into categories:
Audies2013PR.

HONORABLE MENTION   Don’t ask me how or why.  I guess it’s harmless, but how the heck did I ever become the subject of a Czech video/media site?!  You think they might have asked my permission?  http://video-hned.com/Dave+Courvoisier/

Well, what did I miss?   Please add it below in comments.

CourVO

Filed Under: APAC, Conferences, Links Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

7 Best RSS

September 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I think RSS beats just about any other digital gateway for digesting daily content quickly.

I check my RSS (really simple syndication) feeds everyday with my Google reader.  Over years, I’ve acquired a list of around 175 sites that round out the information I need to stay with for Social Media, Freelance Work, VoiceOvers, Business, Technology, Web Resources, and a few obtuse blogs.

Today, a list of the 7 best articles I came across last night…some of which just might help with your voice acting business:

TURN YOUR PODCASTS INTO A CUSTOMIZED RADIO STATION - Lifehacker

HOW TO TAKE YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH CONTENT - Hubspot

 HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY ON LINKEDIN - LinkedIn Blog

ORGANIZE AROUND EXECUTION, OR PERISH ON THE MODERN WEB – The Future Buzz

CREATE AND TRACK PINTEREST CAMPAIGNS – Social Times

ABOUT TIRE KICKERS AND OTHER BAD CLIENTS – Freelance Folder

HOW TO START THE FIRST AND LAST HOUR OF YOUR DAY - Spark Minute

Seen a good article lately?  Post the link on comments below.

CourVO

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are You Seeing All This Stuff?

July 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My mouse aggressively travels the WWW every day, and I have alerts, subscriptions, RSS feeds, and aggregate sites galore.  I’m always keeping an eye out for VO stuff, or helpful hints for voice acting freelance businesspeople.

Herewith a list of some of the jucier, newer, and more helpful things I’ve found in just the last day.

  • Free Online Accounting Software.  Full feature set including unlimited invoicing, unlimited expense tracking and much more.  WaveAccounting.
  • Voxy Ladies are hosting a  Back-to-School Mixer for any Voice Actor in the SoCal area who can make it August 19th at Griffith Park.  Details of the Voxy Ladies Mixer.
  • Save $40 on Harlan Hogan’s Porta-Booth Plus til July 29th.  If you do a lot of recording on the road. This is the ticket!  Click HERE.
  • 3 days left to save $50 on LinkedIn advertising.  Yeah.  LinkedIn.  FaceBook and Google Adwords move over.  Enter the following code: SfB1 sxqI KeSE eEGr bdpD V1Zb when you go to THIS site and complete the form.
  • “Update Once, Publish Everywhere”  That’s BandPage’s new slogan and new service.  Use BandPage to publish your sound files on FaceBook, and it updates to your website, your blog and more with BandPage Everywhere.
  • Give anything you can to help out a VO who lost everything in a robbery:  All donations thru this portal between July 23rd to August 3rd 2012 will be given to Jaye Delai, who lost all his possessions including his entire studio.

Hope you found something helpful there.

CourVO

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

My Five Fave Sites This Week

July 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(1)

Love love love LinkedIn for it’s powerful, deep, and broad search tools, but LI has just a fraction of the population of FaceBook.  What if you could do similar custom searches on FaceBook as you do on LinkedIn?  You can with the techniques explained in the Boolean Black Belt Sourcing/Recruiting Site, and it’s article from July 11th:  Searching FaceBook.  If you can’t find it with THIS tutorial…it’s probably not on FaceBook.

(2)

eRocket Fuel (Social Media Marketing) displays a dynamite infographic on the Importance of a Fan Base dated July 10…so it’s not too old yet.  Get some fans, dude!

(3)

Another reason to like Hootsuite (there are at least 23 to begin with).  The site now allows you to manage your Google+ page.  The Hootsuite interface already allows for you to manage multiple Twitter, FaceBook, and Linkedin, including a built-in URL shortener, scheduled tweets and much more.  Now this! See:  Manage Your Google+ Page with Hootsuite on Social Media Today.

(4)

At the risk of being over-exuberant about the value of Pinterest on this blog lately…I also offer this article from Social Media Examiner for those of you still scratching your head over what to do with this hot hot hot new Social Media site: :  6 Ways to Drive More Pinterest Engagement.

(5)

People forget that YouTube is Social Media.  Use it more effectively after reading:  5 ways to turn your YouTube views into sales and traffic on SocialMedia.biz.

This list could’ve been 10 or 15 items long.  There are SO MANY great social media marketing blogs and info-sites now that are offering really quality resources.  I’ll be glad to share my Feedreader RSS links in this area if you email me at courvo@courvo.com.

Have a great weekend!

CourVO

Filed Under: Links, Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Big Files & a Chrome Tip

January 19, 2012 By 2 Comments

They keep getting bigger, those files.  Docs.  .Wav files…even a bunch of mp3′s can take up space.

I’ve blogged about this before…in fact my “22+ Ways to Send Large Files” is one of my all-time most popular articles.

But…you know…things change and new stuff comes up…so let me tell you about a new one I found, and in the process, I want to underscore something about your Chrome browser you may not have paid attention to.

In your Chrome browser, hit Ctrl+T to open a new tab.  Unless you’ve been adding stuff to the blank page that  results, you’ll see space…space to add apps.  Yup.  Google Chrome is getting into apps big-time.  This is the Browser-based version of apps for  Chrome-book, which is an all-network based “laptop” device with no hard drive or storage…just a screen, keyboard, and network connection device.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

You can add TONS of apps to this blank tab, and every time you call up a  new tab, the apps pop up there.  There should be an icon to click for adding Google Chrome apps, but if not, just go to the Google Chrome Webstore.  From there, you can browse the available apps by category, or search them by topic or name.  They get quickly and brainlessly installed on your “new tab” page, and are quick to call up when you need.   Thousands of apps.  Free.

Searching around the Google WebStore, I found LARGE DOCUMENT.  You can install the app, but it’s also a stand-alone website…that is a dirt-simple way to send….well, large docs and other files.

While you’re in the Google Webstore, also look up GE.TT.  I’ve mentioned this one before, but it bears repeating.  Next to DropBox, GE.TT has got to be one of the most simple ways to quickly and efficiently send a big file I’ve ever seen.

Happy browsing!

CourVO

Filed Under: Apps, Links, Software, Web Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Google Groove

October 23, 2011 By 2 Comments

Google’s star is reaching solar flare status.

Among the handful of true corporate dynasties that sprang from the last twenty years of internet/dot-com/computer/social media ascendance, Google continues break ground faster and farther than most of the others (possible exception:  Apple — and even that’s up for debate).

On today’s Voice-Acting in Vegas blog: a few Google-related developments that you might find useful for your voice over business.

First:  Are you on Google+?  You should be.  Since July, Google+ has grown to about 50-million subscribers.  That’s faster growth than FaceBook, Twitter, My Space or any other social media platform can boast.  On Google+, you can creat your own “circles” of friends.  I have circles for “Vegas”, “Journalism” and others…among them:  Voice Over.  In my voice over circle are some 350 voice over talent.  I’m sure that’s not all the voice talent on Google+, but it’s a start, and now when I want to get a sense of what’s going on in the VO world…or when I need to ask a question or get a word out…that’s a great place to go.  If you need an invite to get on, just email me at CourVO@CourVO.com, and I’ll send you an invitation.

Second: How to keep up with all that Google does?  Simple:  go to the official Google Blog.  It’s updated frequently…several times a day even, and always features the latest moves by this company.  (BTW, Google should NOT be referred to as “…that search engine company…”  It is SO much more, now!)

Third:  Don’t take my word for all this…see this latest article entitled: 5 GREAT HIDDEN GOOGLE SEARCH TIPS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT…including “Search for People’s Profiles”, and “Read Articles Without Paying”.

Fourth:  Last week, I launched the “CourVO” app for the iPhone and iPad.  Although it was an inexpensive process, there were plenty of hoops to jump through.  By comparison, creating the CourVO ANDROID app was brainless.  That’s right…the new CourVO Android App is now available. (BTW, both the iPhone and the Android app are free, and reflect the daily changes in the content on this blog…on your smartphone!).

Fifth:  Most everyone has at least a perfunctory Gmail account…it’s the portal to much of what you want to do on Google.  Watch for a big change to the way Google Mail looks very soon.  In the meantime, please consider trying either one of two add-ons to Gmail that will immediately double or triple the information you can glean about anyone who writes you an email.  both GIST and XOBNI offer integration to Gmail.  Both of these 3rd-party programs will analyze any email you receive for information about the sender.  LOTS of information about the sender…especially their presence on the other social media, along with contact information, frequency of posts, recent e-mails and even metrics about their presence on the web.  I find both these programs extremely helpful in managing connections…even the most typical time of day when events happen.

CourVO

TECHNOLOGY

5 Great Hidden Google Search Tips That You Should Know About

Filed Under: iPad, iPhone, Links, Social Media/Networking, Software, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Handling docs

April 22, 2011 By 4 Comments

Handling documents is part ‘n’ parcel of the voice over trade.

We get copy in all sorts of forms:  .doc / .docx / .pdf  / .txt / .rtf / .ppt / .png / .jpg / .xls / .rgi    (I made up that last one)

Not always, but sometimes, it’s just in the wrong format for being able to read it right, or do a word count, or to port it over to your iPhone/iPad or some other reader.  Or if you invoice according to a word count…you’ve gotta be able to…uh…count the words.

I blogged about this before.

Being able to do a simple word count using the Translator’s Abacus. (this blog has a great link to a pdf converter, too)

A free PDF reader that also does conversions…by Nuance.

And this blog with a rigamarole for doing a word count for Power Point notes

But in all the above articles, the conversion is usually from .pdf to .doc.  What if you want to do a .doc to .pdf conversion?

Found it!…web-based and free.  You upload the doc…initiate the conversion online…and it quickly sends you a .zip file of the .pdf by email.

CLICK—–>  PDF CONVERTER.

I’m also a big fan of SERIF software.  The PagePlus X5 program lets you import text in a .doc form, and then export to .pdf. (not free, but reasonable).

Hope you can convert this blog into something that really counts!

CourVO

 

 

 

Filed Under: Links, Software Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Link Digest

March 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Get in the right groove, and all your VO friends turn into vast repositories of great information.

Anyone who attended FaffCon could tell you that.

Lately, though a veritable treasure-trove of good stuff is coming down the pike….too much to blog individually about, so I hope you won’t mind my just listing them below:

Pronouncer Redux

To continue in the vein from yesterday’s blog about different pronunciation sites (‘love ‘em!), Kat Keesling adds Aschmann.net, a full-scale American Dialect map based on pronunciation patterns.  Fascinating!  If you love maps at all (‘love those too!) you will linger here quite a while.

Marketing  Resource

Dana Detrick-Clark posted a link to BootStrapping Blog: Ideas to Make Marketing a Small Business Easy.  Since successful VO’ing is about 80% marketing/promotions/client finding and 20% voicing, I ALWAYS pay attention to new marketing ideas.  This one has promise.  I added its RSS feed to my Google Reader.  I’ll even throw in my perennial favorite in this field:  Jon Jantsch’s DuctTapeMarketing blog.

Audio Body Shop

Wow!…talk about the perfect POWER match-up.  VO Friends Dan Lenard and George Whittam are joining forces in a new venture called East West Audio Body Shop.  They have a FaceBook page, and a LinkedIn page for more info.  Dan is the “Home Studio Master”, and George….well, George is a master of pretty much all things audio. Together, they plan a series of life video seminars  they call:  “…A new interactive, online talk show for voice actors with their own home voice over studios….” More on this in the days to come.

Persistence

My VO friend in Canada, Ralph Hass posted an excellent blog lately with references to his friend Lori Welbourne’s column on the Art of Happiness.  This is a quick guide to successful entrepreneurship.  Thanks Ralph!

CourVO

Filed Under: Links, Referrals Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cold and Brutal

March 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Being as I’m beset with a quite virulent strain of a rhinovirus right now, I pass along this link…generously posted by Erik Sheppard a couple of days ago.

Neti Pots are wonderful for helping the voice actor through the vagaries of performing with a cold, but perhaps these online coupons offering $5 off some WaterPik products appeal to you!

Thanks Erik!

CourVO

Filed Under: Jus' So You Know, Links, Referral Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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