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Video, Part III

March 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

video-3The more I think about the possibilities surrounding video in  your VO marketing plan, the more inspired I get.

I promise, I’ll get off my soapbox after sharing this last little bit, which is actually a pairing of two favorites:  Video & LinkedIn.

If you’ve already read “Are You Ignoring the Value of Video?“, and “The Anti-Mantra Motivator“, then you’ve heard my case for the use of video in promoting your voice and your freelance business in general.

I’ve also never been bashful about saying I think an active LinkedIn profile is also a critical piece of your social media presence.  In January of this year, LinkedIn reported more than 200 million worldwide users.  That global component is big.  More serious-minded than it’s informal cousins — FaceBook and Twitter — LinkedIn has been sprucing up its image, and getting critical praise for the role it plays in enabling business relationships.

Putting a VO video on your LinkedIn profile is painlessly easy.

1)  Click on “Edit your profile”
2)  Scroll down to the “Backgrond” heading
3)  Click on the blue square with a “+” in it across from the word “Summary” (see screenshot below)
4)  Add your YouTube, Vimeo, or other video provider URL in the dialogue box
5)  Scroll up to the top of your profile, and click “done editing”

LI-vid

It’s even easier to place that same video link in Pinterest.

On your Pinterest home page, click on your profile drop-down menu in the top upper-right corner, and click “add pin”.  Paste your YouTube link in the dialogue box, and your done.

BTW, Pinterest just re-vamped their interface to display even larger pictures, now, so the stuff you post there potentially has even more impact.

CourVO

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Anti-Mantra Motivator

March 21, 2013 By 6 Comments

video-aResist this maxim:  “Do as I say…not as I do”.

In other words, your mantra should be:  “Do as I say, ’cause I’ve tried doing it, and it works!”

The three reasons I write this blog:
1) It serves as my own repository of information.
2) I love sharing good ideas.
3) I get a kick out of paying it forward.
4) I’ve tried most of this stuff and it works.

Most everything I write about here I’ve checked out. If I think the idea/product/service is lousy I’ll warn you…if I like it, I’ll endorse it….if I haven’t fully evaluated it, I’ll tell you.

The other day as I was writing ARE YOU IGNORING THE VALUE OF VIDEO?, I realized I was ignoring the value of video.  Not entirely.  I post videos every day in my “other” job, and in that sense there’s always an example of my on-camera work.  But that’s perhaps not the best use of video in my voice over business.

The point of  my Value-of-Video blog article was to tap into the potential of video as a marketing/promotional tool.  To that end, I humbly submit the following video as my first-gen attempt to get going in this area.  It’s simple…to-the-point, and even displays my voice.  I hope to splash this (or a version of it) all over my marketing materials.

Let me know what you think.  What are YOU doing in video?

Dave Courvoisier video from Dave Courvoisier on Vimeo.

CourVO

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SoundStreak Windows Preview Released

March 14, 2013 By 1 Comment

soundstreakThursday I got the email I’ve been waiting for. The SoundStreak Preview Release  for Windows is out.

I’ve blogged about SoundStreak several times in the last few months.  The definitive article, featuring an interview with CEO Dan Caligor is here: SoundStreak – From the Top.

Dan sent the email…and I was excited to hear about it (1) because I’m a diehard Windows user, and (2) I have a great deal of respect for the potential of this product.

Galigor and his developer — Matthew Hensrud — have been letting me in on the beta testing.  I’ve been doing some sessions with them over the past weeks, and I’d like to think some of those instances helped a little bit.

SoundStreak’s native development was for the Mac OS, but after reaching a Beta product in that realm, SoundStreak wasted no time working on a version compatible with Win7.  It should more than double their possible user base.

Read the official SoundStreak announcement.  You’ll find all the appropriate links there to get started.  The program installs quickly.

In addition, Dan Caligor offered me a few other tidbits of information in his email:

“This preview is fully functional and largely feature-complete, and is fully interoperable with the Mac version (i.e., you can assume either the Production or Talent role on either platform and mix-and-match within sessions).  
All sessions on SoundStreak — as well as the software and account — will remain free of charge while we continue to finalize all the elements of our system. This preview is the tip of the wedge for a number of exciting changes we will be making over the next eight weeks or so.  These include new features and capabilities, a new and highly scalable back-end, multi-user and eterprise-grade account capabilities, and user and account admin portals.”
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Just briefly, for those unfamiliar:  SoundStreak maximizes an internet connection between talent and producer to provide a real-time link for studio quality remote recording.  Like ISDN, the session is usually initiated from the producer end, and both parties need to have the SoundStreak software up and running.  The producer feeds the script and even lo-res video (if needed) which appears on the talent’s screen.  Talent delivers as many takes as the producer wants…the producer listens…chooses the one he/she likes, and the “good” take is immediately downloaded in a hi-res version to the producer’s side of the equation.  All recordings also remain on the talent side of the recording.
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That’s a quick paraphrase, and there are many other handy and feature-rich nuances to the process, but the system is robust and intuitive.
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Hensrud told me that by the end of business Thursday, the new Windows Preview Release had gotten a couple of hundred hits.  ‘Not bad for the first day on the market!
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Below is a quick screen capture I did of my test session yesterday to show you the screen interface.  My promo read is horrid,  but you can see the sequencing of the countdown into the delivery of the video.  In my headphones, I was hearing all the background crowd noise of the video, plus Traci Ulman’s soundtrack, as well as the beep-beep-beep of the 3-second countdown.
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Great going SoundStreak!
CourVO

Filed Under: New Paradigms, Technology, Web Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are You Ignoring the Value of Video?

March 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

camera.jpgVoice. Voice. Voice.  OVER.

Guess what?…what you’re voicing OVER is almost always video…some sort of visual presentation.  Of course, you make it complete with your voice (wink, wink), but since we humans are mega-optically gifted and sensitized… the message you bring is the window dressing to what people are SEEING (hate to break it to ya, but your voice is NOT the big draw…not usually).

OK, so then here’s the thing:  If video is SO big (YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world), then why aren’t you utilizing it in your marketing?

I admit it — I’m not maximizing that factor either…and I’m on TV!

I know, I know…you claim you have a face for radio (old joke).  Are you kidding me?  Have you seen some of the jerks producing viral videos lately?  99% of the people I meet at FaffCon could do a better on-camera job than that.

Not sure where to start?  Check out a site I tailor-made just for you:  OnCamTips.

But let’s assume that you REALLY don’t want to put your mug in front of a camera.  OK, then create a video montage of some of the videos you’ve voiced…it could almost be a voice demo for you.

Take some video of your studio, and narrate underneath it how much time, effort, and money you’ve dedicated to your art.  Slap it on your website.

Finally, if you haven’t taken a look at all the bells and whistles YouTube has added lately, you really should make a quick visit.  While you’re at it, create your own channel, and gussy-it-up with the new “One Channel” features.  It’s free, and offers you wide latitude in showcasing your videos in the configuration, and with the colors and customization you like.  YouTube One Channel Start Page.

I wrote this blog for myself as a kick in the pants to do this.  You too!

CourVO

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Like Lightning!

March 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

iQ5_Black_slant-displayBarely had the digital ink dried on my blog from Monday’s unveiling of the RØDE iXY before my good friend Tim Keenan (owner of Creative Media Recording) chimed in with some welcome news.

Most portable mics designed to work with iPhones, iPads, iPods, etc. come with the 19-pin connector common on the iPhone 3 and 4, and early models of the iPad and iPod.  But as I mentioned in the iXY blog, Apple is fond of designing away from 3rd-party vendors, just to keep ‘em hopping, I think.

But look at what our friends over at Zoom Electronics did!  They’ve already come up with a pretty snazzy mic

Zoom H4n

Zoom H4n

that fits Apple’s new Lightning Connector now installed on the iOS 6.0 or later (iPhone 5, iPod touch [5th generation], iPad mini, etc.).  Bingo!

As you know, Zoom is the innovator behind a number of pro-quality hand-held audio recorders…chief among them, the Zoom H4n…and now the new H2n as well.

zoomThe new unit is called the iQ5.  It has a unique ball-type design that they call “stereo mid-size microphone” that has both horizontal and vertical positioning.

From the SamsonTech website:  “…the iQ5 features a 3-position Mid-Side stereo field switch (90°, 120°, RAW) for selecting the width of your stereo field and creating incredible flexibility over your recordings. The iQ5’s 3-position gain control switch (Auto, Limit, Off) lets you quickly choose your volume settings, while its analog mic gain wheel allows you to fine tune your levels while recording.”

I don’t see a price anywhere for this unit.  It’s not even listed on the offiicial Zoom site.

The site I’m linking to here claims the Zoom iQ5 is available at Guitar Center, but Guitar Center’s online site doesn’t return any results on a site search.

Again, this disclaimer — so well elucidated by tech officianado and LA voice talent Bo Weaver:  “No mobile mic-with-tablet-and-app configuration will match the fidelity of your home studio.”  (paraphrased)

Innovation marches on!

CourVO

 

 

 

Filed Under: Hardware, iPad, iPhone, New Paradigms, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

DirectVoices

February 26, 2013 By 3 Comments

directvoicesYou wanna talk the global nature of the voice over business?

I found the ultimate example (and it’s not Bodalgo).

Meet DirectVoices.com…a site that has yet to reach full functionality.

So, why would I say it’s a global site?  Because even in development, the team producing the site works from France, Ecduador, the Phillipines, and North America (maybe other countries).

What is DirectVoices?  A new way to connect voice talent to voice seekers, but its founder and visionary — Constantino de Miguel –  NOT on the P2P model, rather, voice talents will have DIRECT contact with voice seekers, that’s why the name DirectVoices.

To me, Constantino is a kindred spirit.  He is a tri-lingual news broadcaster operating out of Lyon, France, providing stories to Latin America, China, and the U.S.  He is a coach, and a producer, and of late has discovered the side-career of voice acting (sound familiar?), and in his peripatetic creativeness… launched into DirectVoices.com some months ago.  It’s an ambitious undertaking.

You can go to the site right now and sign-up for the eventual true launch.  There’s already quite a bit of good information on the site, and merely from a web-production standpoint, the DirectVoices seems quite professional.

I sat down for a one-on-one with Constan just the other day on Skype, and I must say his unassuming and confident style makes me even more of a believer in his vision.

I asked him a lot about DirectVoices, yes, but in this interview you will also find out much about the changing nature of the international VO market, and Constan also discusses the challenges of remote recording in European countries with a mobile set-up.  It’s really a very engaging interview.

Thanks, Constantino!

Here’s the interview:

DirectVoices from Dave Courvoisier on Vimeo.

CourVO

Filed Under: International, Subscription Services, Web/Tech Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Garret/Fraley Get Serious About Comedy in Vegas

February 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

fraleyHow many times have you heard that you won’t break through as a voice talent until you’ve taken some acting classes?

Have you ever taken a class from Pat Fraley?

No?

Make an appointment with yourself to do so.  (Here is a list of his upcoming workshops).

If you have trained with Pat, you know what I mean, right?

I mean, the guy has done it all (resource docs noted below), and he always makes his topics SO EASY to digest.

Next month, Pat will be holding some acting workshops in Las Vegas along with his pal, comedian Brad Garrett.  It’s all part of Brad Garrett’s Craft Acting Workshops during the last week of March, 2013.  Brad is gifted, hilarious, down-to-earth, and smart.  He headlines his own Comedy Club at the MGM Grand in Vegas, and has paired with Fraley before in coaching (VOICE 2010 in LA for one).

Here’s a recent posting about Garrett, his Comedy Club, and mention of the Acting studio.

Partners in the week-long Acting Studio are Adam Hill, Jeremy Guskin, and “guest performer” Dave Courvoisier.

Wait.  “Guest performer”?

Yeah, I’m stumped too, but Pat said I’d be perfect for what he has in mind.  I’m not sure what that is, I just know that “getting acting classes” was on my TO-DO list this year, and Pat handed it to me on a platter.

The specific announcement about Pat’s session in the Craft Acting Workshop (with nutty pic of Dave).

Need more? Below are the links to .pdf and .docx News Releases with more details.

CRAFT Press Release

CRAFTPoster

So, we’ve established that you need acting classes.  You KNOW you need to be in Vegas in March…AND you’d like to see CourVO make a fool of himself on stage, right?  So come on out!

CourVO

Filed Under: Acting, Coaching, Training/Education Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting Dialectic

February 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

accentsVery few of us can carry off an absolutely believable accent for some regionalism of our own language, much less that of another.   The key is:  could you fool a native of Mobile, Alabama with a Southern Accent, or would someone from Liverpool, buy your variation on the multi-faceted Queen’s English?  Is someone  from Brisbane going to believe your Aussie accent?

[I'll not tackle the topic of believable multi-lingualism in this blog article...only accents and dialects]

Best rule of thumb?   If you’re not trained, or you haven’t grown up around people speaking those dialects, then it’s probably not something that’s going to win you an audition.  Interestingly, you can probably better fake a foreign-language accent (not the language itself) IF your only audience is other English-speakers.

Yet dialect coaches and training modules proliferate.  These are nuances of spoken language that CAN be taught if you have that capacity, and you practice a lot.  Pat Fraley is a master at this stuff…train with him if you’re interested.

If you’re in the middle of an audiobook, though, and all the sudden are presented with the challenge of delivering a line or two for a character from Dusseldorf, you might get by with a couple of the following resources:

Paul Meier is a name you’ll run across if you do research in this area.  His website is: Paul Meier Dialect Services.  He’ll do Skype/Phone coaching,  and has this resource available:  Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen, $100, includes 12 CD’s (available at Harlan Hogan’s VoiceOver Essentials).  Paul also has a website called International Dialects of English Archive, which could be valuable for, say, a Scottish brogue now that Craig Ferguson is mostly Americanized.

Jerry Blunt is another name that shows up in searches about dialect.  Here’s one of his resources:  Stage Dialects CD Set.

Here’s another helpful site:  The Dialect Resource: The Premiere Source for Accent and Dialect Training for Actors.

And finally, this site also might be useful to you: Dialect Accent Specialists, Inc., Dialect Coaching and Instructional Recordings.

Ciao!

CourVO

Filed Under: BiLingual, International, Techniques Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Delight/Dismay

February 8, 2013 By 1 Comment

critiqueThey say there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

After reading the latest edition of AudioFile Magazine, I’m not so sure.

AudioFile Magazine is all about Audiobooks.  The periodical is for those who listen, narrate, publish, produce or are otherwise involved in the business.  If you’re interested in narrating audiobooks, you need to get a subscription, and start paying attention to this resource.

The magazine has articles, reviews, ads, notices, and generally serves as a rallying point in the audiobook community.

To be reviewed as a narrator in AudioFile is somewhat of a sign that you’ve arrived.  Or if you’ve already arrived, that you’re relevant and working.

So imagine my delight to see one of my recent narrations being reviewed….only to immediately experience the dismay of a harsh critique…just hanging out there for the whole world to see.

Now… I’ve been in the public eye for 30+ years, and I’ve been skewered by critics before, so I’ve learned to grow a thick skin about this stuff.  But that’s news.  That’s TV.  This is ME.  At least that’s how it felt.  More personal.

Here’s the verbatim of the review:

HOW EXCELLENT COMPANIES AVOID DUMB THINGS :
Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers That Plague Even the Best Businesses
Neil Smith, Patricia O’Connell
Read by Dave Courvoisier

Change and innovation consultant Neil Smith presents eight barriers to change and twelve principles of transformation that can break down these barriers. Narrator Dave Courvoisier begins reading at a pace that is much too fast and comes across as stilted and awkward, though he does slow down as the book progresses. The stories, most from Smith’s own experiences, and the interspersed quotations from personality expert Dr. Richard Levak add color to Smith’s thesis but can be difficult to distinguish from the main text as Courvoisier does not always provide adequate pauses. Once Courvoisier finds a rhythm, however, his expressive voice is a good match for Smith’s direct and sometimes humorous style. E.N. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2012]

Ouch!  Live and learn.  Take your lumps and do better the next time.  I’ve never done more narrating of audiobooks in my life as I have in the last 4 months.  Publishers keep hiring me, and I know I’m gaining experience and improving.  Take the feedback, and get better, right?

In the end, anything else is just lost energy.

CourVO

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Ruminations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

G+ VoiceOvers

December 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

Since Google+ came along, there have been various predictions of its demise.

That hasn’t happened.

It’s not the runaway hit like MySpace or FaceBook was at one time, but the strength of Google itself makes this a social network no one should totally avoid.

Google Hangouts are becoming a huge challenge to Skype video conf calls, and with the integration of virtually every other Google tool you’ve come to love (Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Drive, etc), Google Plus continues to show value.

Now Google+ is adding ‘COMMUNITIES”.  Can anyone say Groups?

Although many will claim it’s a copycat feature, really this is a natural progression for G+, and a step above “circles”.  Now, anyone can start a public or private community to which they can invite anyone they like, and can launch into discussions, threads, and conversations.  You can initiate a hang-out from “communities”, and the admin can further customize the place to make it theirs.

Wanna join my “community”?

I’ve started a Google+ community called G+ VOICEOVERS.  It’s private, and just for voice actors. When you arrive at that URL, you can click a box that asks if you want to join.  I’ve been inviting people left and right, so you may have already rec’d your invite.

Why ANOTHER online group?  I know…I know…there’s plenty already…but there’s room…and there’s room for more.  Google offers some features  and functionality that FaceBook does not.

I’ve examined this issue in an article entitled:  Can VO Be Too Social?  The bottom line is that any culture reaches a maturation where these sorts of manifestations of community become inevitable.  You’re not expect to, nor COULD you join all of them.  Pick one.  Pick two, and get comfortable.

Some people prefer Google to Facebook. I’ve been spending more and more time on Google+, and am never disappointed.

If you feel more comfortable doing so, just send me an email, and tell me you’d like to join:  courvo@courvo.com.  Please be sure you already have a G+ account.  I can’t bring you in unless you do.

CourVO

P.S.  I”ve also created a G+ Community for audio book narrators called THE AUDIOBOOK NARRATORS CLUB.  ‘Love to see you there!

Filed Under: Social/Professional Networking, SociaMediaVO, VO Community Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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