But back then it wasn’t cool to speak anything else but English.  The elegant French pronunciation of my last name — Americanized — was:  Kor-vuh-seer’.  My father almost NEVER spoke French around the house.  He wanted to be an “American”…and that meant speaking English.

That sentiment is apparently gone, now.

Having said that…and getting back to reality…there seems to be no turning back. And besides, the arrogant attitude in America of the 60′s. 70′s and 80′s where the education system only gave lip service to learning foreign languages has hurt us all on the world stage.

So now, it seems cool to be able to hang out your voice-over shingle with the words: “BILINGUAL” or “Spanish AND English VO”.  I’d be jealous, but I’m having enough trouble enough accomplishing English.  So is it likely in my late-50′s that I’d be able to master a 2nd or 3rd language?  I’ve always been great with pronunciations (you might be surprised how many broadcasters are NOT), but believably delivering copy in two languages seems daunting.  There are so many Spanish dialects…French lilts…British acccents…American twangs.  Where would I start?

IF you’re a bi-lingual voice actor, I’m interested to know how you market yourself…whether it doubles your exposure, your opportunity, your income.  Is it twice the headache?  Do you have two rate-cards?

Please participate in my brief survey posted in the Voice-Over Friends FaceBook Group.

Or…feel free to react to THIS blog article in the comment section below.  I’d like to know your thoughts.

CourVO

I prefer to say I’m a student.  I’m certainly a student of life and people and  relationships.  I have been for 59 years now.

But when people call me a Social Media “expert” or “guru”… I just cringe.  There are thousands of people whose knowledge of Social Networks FAR surpasses my meager skills, and I’m not even sure THEY’RE comfortable being called experts.  People like Brian Solis and Robert Scoble and Chris Brogan.

I don’t think my experience with New Media makes me even uniquely positioned to coach voice actors on FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so forth.  The things you do to get clients as a freelance photographer, writer, plumber, or car salesman on social networks will work for you as a voice-actor too.

That is the lousiest build-up to a promotional announcement for an upcoming webinar I’ve ever seen.  But at least you can say I’m honest.

Here’s what I will tell you if you sign-up for my Edge Studio Social Media Webinar this Saturday:

• The over-arching mind-set you must have to create relationships, trust, and clients on Social Media.
• What and how and when to Tweet.
• Understanding FaceBook’s ever-changing interface.
• Using LinkedIn’s powerful search functions.
• Why you need to join groups on social media platforms.
• Video. Video. Video.
• Google Plus, and why you should care.
• What is Pinterest?
• Blogging successfully.

Just because I’m not an expert doesn’t mean I won’t talk A LOT about what I DO know.  The above list of topics are but a framework for working through the broad, deep, and tall topic of Social Media.  I’ll fill in lots of blanks, and work from a PowerPoint presentation that will outline all my thoughts.

We’ll leave plenty of time for questions and (hopefully) answers at the end.  The whole thing is scheduled for Saturday, 5-19-12 9am PST / 10am Mountain / 11am Central / Noon Eastern.  Again, you can see all the details and sign-up here:  http://www.edgestudio.com/social-media-marketing-for-voice-over.

C Ya There!

CourVO

I was lucky enough to be 3rd on their list of guests, and recorded with them the other day.

We talked a lot about World-Voices.org and the many issues surrounding it — namely the need for, and the help we’re getting in spades to establish a true VO Guild of voice actors and the standards we hope to be able to develop in technical criteria and codes of best practice for the voiceover community.

Here’s the link to our podcasat:  http://epodcastnetwork.com/voice-over-cafe-episode-3/

Trish and Terry are both my partners in a presentation on the topic of Social Media at VOICE2012 at Disneyland next month.  We’ll be covering an all-encompassing view of the top social networking platforms; what it takes to get noticed, and get jobs IN those networks.

Additionally, I’m hosting my own webinar on the topic of Social Media, Saturday 5/19/12 Noon PST for Edge Studio.  Here’s the link to sign-up: http://www.edgestudio.com/social-media-marketing-for-voice-over.

CourVO

The comment deserves some context, for sure, and Wolfson’s remarks are designed for the female voice actors having an issue with relaxing the voice…letting go of the tension, and luxuriating into the emotive words present in the copy.  Remember last week, we addressed the same issue with the guys in HOW TO SOUND REAL AND NAIL THE SALE.

When you watch these videos, it’s so easy as the observer to think:  “I totally get what she’s saying…I could do that…lemmee up there!”  –or–  “Why can’t Xxxxx get that?…it’s so easy!”

Just remember, the subjects in these videos are ON THE STAGE with the awesome Nancy Wolfson, and standing in front of a roomful of peers all ostensibly better than you.  Most voice-actors would HATE that setting.  In this case, the subject is VO Talent Mo Holland, and she totally nails the copy in the final take.  Just watch:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can also watch this video from the site: http://www.braintracksaudio.com/soundreal/10.html

OK, now back to the context from whence the Wolfson remark came:  “let your words glide”.  I’m no Vince Lombardi of voice coaches like Wolfson, but I AM a graduate of her World-Cup Series Olympic-Scale VO Obstacle Course, and I’m sure she’d say the answer to your questions about delivering ANY copy come from the words themselves.

TV or Radio copy?  That’s the first consideration.  Then:  are the words evocative?…telling?…descriptive?  In this case yes YES YES.  So use them to your advantage. (Holland made it happen in the final).

We’re in the last few weeks of this 13-part series, but the fun doesn’t have to end.  Wolfson is making available the entire 127-tip motherlode video for a price that is far below its worth in my estimation.  Check out the site:  HOW TO SOUND REAL AND NAIL THE SALE  for the details.

Next week: Support the End of Your Sentence.

CourVO

Chances are you yourself have created the wall, so it’s insidiously well-designed to foil any attempts to find a weakness.  You know yourself to well.

It’s the agent (or agents) who won’t return a call.  It’s the E-Learning project director you can NEVER seem to get a hold of. It’s the nagging crackle in your audio chain that intermittently screws up your recording. It’s the newsletter that WON’T get written.  It’s the cold call you JUST. CAN’T. MAKE.  It’s the demo that never sounds right.  It’s the branding slogan you can’t nail down….and on and on and on.

“The Wall” takes one of two or three forms:
1) A mental roadblock you’ve nurtured into a full-fledged fortress.
2) A procrastination that seems larger-than-life after weeks ‘n’ weeks.
3) A circumstance that befuddles you or is beyond your skill set.

Tell me if I’ve forgotten something.  Either way, the result is the same:  arrested development, zero progress, stagnant growth.

It’s time to punt.  Everything you’ve tried (or haven’t tried) isn’t working.  Be honest enough with yourself to admit it and take action (finally) to break the logjam.

Here are 5 suggested formulas to conquering your “wall”.

1)  Talk to a friend or even better…a mentor (or two).  Talking through the issue helps.  The conversation opens up ideas, offers encouragement, gets the juices flowing.  It could be your friend or mentor has been there, and has a possible solution, or knows someone who does.  You’d be surprised — if nothing else — how talking about it takes the power out of the quandary.

2) Break it down to smaller steps.  Try for a couple of smaller “wins” first, then build on it.  Make your list of the most elementary incremental advances, then revel in crossing each one off with a big thick felt-tip marker.

3)  Turn the issue upside down or work backwards.  Imagine what you’re doing or able to do now that your roadblock is GONE.  See all the potentials and developments that came from it.  Or what is the very last step you would take BEFORE climbing the wall..then what’s the step before THAT…and so forth, until you arrive at the place where you are today.  Now…do you see the way?

4)  Go out and play.  See a hilarious movie.  Take an old friend out, and crack open some old stories.  Read a short book.  Break the cycle.  Hit the period on your keyboard.  Strike out in a new direction entirely for a day.  Take a drive.  Divert your thoughts from the issue for an hour, a day, a week…refuse to think about it.  Then come back around and try again.

5) Service.  Nothing breaks your pity-pot more than doing something for someone else.  No other action resets your gauges better than offering a humble, free, pro-bono service to somebody, anybody who can use a hand or a boost.  When you take your mind off your own troubles, and focus on helping someone else, it’s cathartic.

Honorable mention:  Walls are bridges.  As trite as it sounds, conquering the wall puts another feather in your cap, adds another tool to your toolkit, and makes you a stronger person.  When you “cross over” that wall, it becomes the path to a new you, and a better you for having seen it through.  Bravo!

A couple of caveats: There may not be an answer.  It may have nothing to do with you and what you did or didn’t do.  Sometimes you have to realize you’ve been banging your head against the wall for too long, and then you have to accept that your own stubbornness is getting in the way of your progress, not the wall.  The wall can be there to tell you you’ve reached a limit…and realizing your limits is not a bad thing…like pulling your head out of the sand.

What have I missed?  What’s worked for you?  Got a quick anecdote you can share?

CourVO

The following sites helped me focus on the solutions I’ve written above:

http://www.workshifting.com/2009/08/when-you-hit-the-wall.html
http://www.empowernetwork.com/osmanamg/blog/what-do-you-do-when-you-hit-the-wall/
http://blog.chron.com/careerrescue/2011/09/when-you-hit-the-wall-its-time-for-a-change/
http://joelrunyon.com/two3/what-to-do-when-you-hit-a-wall

These are things that I catch on my radar, ’cause they help me access the files, docs, pics, and demos I need from wherever I am, regardless the location of the computer where the native file resides.

You’re on the road visiting your wife’s Aunt Gladys for the weekend, and you get a request from a client to re-send that file you just finished before you hit the road.  With cloud file access, this is a cinch.

I’ve blogged about this several times.  Her’s one:  BE PART OF THE CLOUD CROWD.  This topic continues to generate interest from people who’ve found other useful solutions, too.

DropBox has got to be one of the most prolific players in this realm.  It’s brainless.  Easy to install and set-up, inexpensive, and seamless in sharing.

Now, though, Cubby arrives on the scene with a beta product much like DropBox but with one important distinction:  Like many other online cloud syncing services,  you still get the 5GB storage with the free account, but you can sync an unlimited amount of data between your computers.

Here’s a great article about Cubby’s functionality.  As you can see by the logo I’ve included, though, Cubby is in Beta, and you have to ask for an invite by providing your email address and then confirming when you get the notice.

Cubby is from the same developers who make the remote desktop service LogMeIn…also a great solution for not only accessing your remote files, but virtually manipulating your remote computer’s desktop.

Have you recently found another cloud-file-access or remote-control desktop solution?  Please add it in the comments below.

CourVO

There’s a ton of it out on the internet, and some of it is very good, stable, feature-rich, and virus-free (think Audacity).

But OhEmGeee there are SO many scams out there associated with software downloads.

Still, two top sites consistently shine in offering indexed, categorized, and updated software downloads guaranteed to be virus-free (well, as much as they CAN guarantee…I’d say 99%).

ZDNet and Cnet are the two.

OK, pipe down you IT pros!  Maybe you DO know everything there is to know about software downloads, but don’t spoil it for the rest of us.  You’ll have a chance to make your suggestions below in a second.

Here’s the link to the ZDNet download page:  http://downloads.zdnet.com/?tag=header;header-pri

And here’s the link to the CNet download page: http://download.cnet.com/windows/?tag=hdr;brandnav

Both offer “most popular”, “newest”, and “most downloaded” “Editor’s Choice”, etc. lists…plus their software vault is searchable by terms.  Seriously, these lists and software banks have some great stuff, and are worth a look for simple solutions to some of your voice-over tech issues.

Now, what’d I miss?  Do you have a favorite software download site that outshines or equals these two?

Please!  Let’s hear!  I look forward to your suggestions!

CourVO

Ever since the newly-formed World-Voices Organization proferred it’s suggested Rules for Best Practice for Voice-Actors, Coaches, and producers…the emails and phone calls have been pouring in.

The response has been 98% positive, constructive, and contributory.  Incisive, probing questions are being asked.  A healthy debate is ongoing.  Early documents are being re-written.  Fundamental philosophical tenets are being challenged and weighed.

WHITHER CERTIFICATION?

But wait a minute… isn’t it true that certification really only passes those who are good at mastering the certification test?  You get what you measure for.  The real issue of A subjective appraisal system is not system’s subjectivity but the lack of trust between talent and client.

Why, then, is the interest level in World-Voices.org so off-the-charts?  Could it be that voice actors are suffering an identify crisis, and still yearn for the legitimacy that comes with certified teachers, accountants, welders, nurses, social workers, and truck drivers?

An example:  I’ve always been painfully aware that any list of accredited professions does NOT include Journalism, and now those who call themselves professional journalists find themselves having to constantly defend, define, and deflect questions about their standards.  Are Bloggers journalists?  Is Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) a journalist?  Do I qualify for claiming the title journalist after 30 years in broadcast TV news?  I’ve never taken a journalism course in my life, and graduated with a degree in something totally different.  Yes, I think journalism could use Certificreditation.

Here’s a link to an organization offering to certify you in Social Media!  Who set THEM up as experts?

ADVANTAGES OF CERTIFICATION

I’ve found the following list useful.  I gleaned it from Credentialing Talk.

THE VALUE OF CERTIFICATION:

For the sponsoring organization:
Standardized practice and/or standards within an industry
Advances the specialty/field and increases cooperation between organizations in the same discipline
Provides means to establish and enforce an ethical code
Provides a means for an industry to self-regulate

For the certificants:
Recognition by a third party
Credibility
Enhances professional reputation
Personal accomplishment
Supports continued professional development
Demonstrates a high level of commitment to the field of practice
Demonstrates a certain level of knowledge and skill
Increases opportunities for career advancement and/or increased earnings
Increases and/or validates skills and knowledge
Meets employer or governmental requirements

For employers:
Improved customer satisfaction
Increased safety (in applicable industries)
Increased competence level of employees
Used in making employment decisions
Provides professional development opportunities for employees
Ongoing enhancement of knowledge and skills
Increased confidence in employees abilities
Demonstrates employers commitment to competence
Provides compliance with industry regulation or government requirements

For the public:
Helps in identifying qualified service providers
Increases confidence in service providers
Disciplinary process to follow in case of complaints
Makes you think, eh?

If nothing else, all this talk of certifying the voice-over industry indicates a certain sophistication and maturation of our business.  The talent unions (now just one union) failed to ever set much of a standard for voice actors, and yes, the marketplace certainly applies the rules of natural selection to those who enter, but can all this really be a bad thing?

CourVO

This is one of the longest of the 13 video tips in the series: HOW TO SOUND REAL AND NAIL THE SALE. What I like about this and all of the Wolfson mini-video lessons is her ability to improvise on-the-spot to get the read she wants out of the unsuspecting VO volunteer.

Watch her as she brings out the best read…even if it means getting “down” to basics.

Here’s the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Honestly, you may not even have the space in your whisper room to do as Wolfson suggests for your audition, but to find that voice you need, it could be a useful technique.  You’ve probably heard the phrase:  “…if you keep doing the same thing, and getting the same result…then try something different…”  Using that admonition within reason, you’ll find that Wolfson constantly challenges you to be smart in your approach to acting for advertising, but to also think outside the box when other techniques are not bringing desired results.

You could watch all 13 of these video vignettes and come out a much wiser voice-actor…or you could purchase the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle, and be the Flash Gordon of voice actors.  Your choice, but given the ridiculously inexpensive price-point for the 127 tips you get in Wolfson’s video, there are few things that meet the value you’re being offered here (well  maybe a giant box of Junior Mints…but that’s another blog).

Give a look at the site:  SOUND REAL AND NAIL THE SALE for the complete offer.

Next week with Wolfson: Women: How to Relax Your Voice for Auditions.

CourVO

Adobe recently adapted the software to OSX devices. Mac users tired of the over-kill of ProTools migrated to AA in number.

Despite a lingering perception on the part of some seasoned professionals that Adobe Audition is a clear tip-off that you’re an ex-radio jock…the Adobe DAW software has gained a significant niche in the marketplace, and user-groups (even FaceBook groups) and forums abound to help with tech support.

According to Adobe, “…Adobe® Audition® CS6 software offers high-performance, intuitive tools for audio editing, mixing, restoration, and effects. Powerful new features such as real-time clip stretching, automatic speech alignment, and control surface support help you deliver projects faster than ever…”

Adobe Auditon Cs6.0 is available for a free evaluation download.

Upgrade pricing from 3.0 on up is available.  See Adobe’s site for more specs, offers, and links.

CourVO