It’s all his fault.

He put me up to it.

The Nashville-area voice talent and prolific VO blogger approached me a couple of weeks ago with the idea of doing a Q & A about social networking.  He with the "Q".  Me with the "A".

Well it took me long enough, but I finally finished.  Good questions…wordy answers.

We agreed to sort of share the wealth…so if you want to get the full impact of my pithy musings about social networking, and its value to voice actors, you’ll have to visit BOTH sites. 

I recommend you start with Stu’s blog: The Creative Mouthpiece.  Click HERE.

Then see the link underneath my name, below, to read more.

Thanks, Stu, for coaxing me to really think about the value of social networking to my business.  I hope by sharing what little I know, someone may gain some momentum.

CourVO

Their “about” page describes it as: “…the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.  It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. The Open Directory was founded in the spirit of the Open Source movement, and is the only major directory that is 100% free.  There is not, nor will there ever be, a cost to submit a site to the directory, and/or to use the directory’s data.  The Open Directory data is made available for free to anyone wo agrees to comply with our free use license.

Kinda sounds like Wikipedia, but remember, it’s a directory, not an encyclopedia.  (I just haven’t figured out where the acronym DMOZ comes from in their URL.)

With such an ambitious mission statement, you’d have to expect there might be mention of a good many resources for Voice Actors, and you’d be right.  Not only that, but apparently, I’m VERY late to the party.  TONS of links, references, resources, names, agents, coaches, production houses, talent…you name it.

On the site, you’re encouraged to submit your own website for approval, but they’re also big on you volunteering to help edit submissions.

Click HERE for the page that reveals results of a search for “Voiceover” resources.

….and….volunteer!

CourVO

 Deb Munro writes with the latest updates and offers if you want to have great cruise AND learn a bunch about voiceovers from real pros.  VoiceLympics.

See her e-mail to me below…an amazing line-up, and some incredible offers!

CourVO

Last chance to save BIG on the VoiceLympics Workshop Cruise
If you haven’t heard already, this is an opportunity to work with 5 top coaches (Deb Munro, Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes, Joyce Castellanos, Julie Williams) for 5 days and 4 nights on board the beautiful Norwegian Pearl.   Set to sail Sept 21 -26, 2009 from the most BEAUTIFUL CITY ON EARTH (Deb says it’s really true), Vancouver, B.C., Canada – Astoria, OR. – San Francisco, CA.  – Los Angeles, CA.

There are some amazing surprises planned:
-Bob Bergen’s one man show, “So, Heres the deal” will be a part of the Ships entertainment and all participants will receive complimentary tickets
-Deb Munro’s 40th Birthday celebration
-Work with Elaine Clark at Voice One in San Francisco (Studio tour and optional workshop)

LA is full of surprises so book an extra night on Sept 26th so you can take part

–    Marc Graue Studio tour for each participant and guest's)
–    4 mini workshops with 4 LA Coaches (optional)
-    VoiceLympics Wrap Party hosted at Marc Graue Studios.  This will include a free BBQ and evening affair.

More surprises to be announced but you only have a few more days to SAVE

-Save $100.00 off your workshop fee until the end of this weekend  (discount will apply when you book)
-Cabin prices are INCREDIBLY low but only until June 1st.  Our group booking will be released to the public so cabin bookings will be on a first come first serve option (open to the entire public) so we cannot guarantee prices or availability after June 1st.

For more info  go to
www.VoiceLympics.com
Contact our travel agent to answer any questions or to make your reservations

Schedules and Travel information will be sent out to all participants very soon

Also don’t miss your chance to work with Deb Munro in LA June 6/7th with her special guests, Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes and George Whittam.  Two days, Two Studios, two workshops  one incredible price $345.00 till June 1st ($395 regular)

Workshops:  Selecting Styles – Choosing the right delivery  &  Talking Audio – Long format voice projects….a lucrative industry

This is a great opportunity to see for yourself what Deb Munro and her guests can offer you.  Training is key and if you haven’t had the chance to work with these amazing professionals, you don’t know what you’re career is missing!  These coaches truly care about your results and want to see you succeed.  After all that is how they measure their success, but the success of their students.  

Many other opportunities available no matter where you live.  Www.Micnme.com

I'm back now…mostly 'cause I was buoyed by faithful readers of my blog…many who reminded me they find my missives through RSS feed.  DUH! 'Forgot about that.  I'm sure there's a way to track that too, but I haven't figured it out yet. (anybody?)

Not only am I back, but I've set in motion some actions that will soon result in a vastly better blog in appearance, design, visual appeal, arrangement, and logistics.

Sorry.  Same crappy content.   ;-}

That's all I'm gonna say for now.  One of these days, you'll visit to find something at this address so engaging and compelling, you'll even tell your garbageman to check it out.

In the meantime.  The next few posts will seem uniquely un-VO-like.  I'm off to Champaign, IL for the marriage of my sister's oldest daughter (yes, I know….it's my niece).  It's alternately a family reunion as well.  I'll try to stay sober enough to deliver compelling pics on my iPhone and some pithy lines of narrative here 'n' there.

So, thanks to all those who commented and supported my efforts here.  Y'all are fantas-tick!

CourVO

But….just one more…really!

As a voice actor, you will LOVE this one.  It blows me away, actually.

Poddio is a voice recorder, yes, but it's also an audio editor…'very powerful one at that.

What really got me…was the quality of the sound.

Listen to this soundfile:

That file was recorded on my IPhone, transferred via the Poddio Software to my laptop by way of my home Wi-Fi as a .wav file. I opened it with AA 3.0 to listen to it. I added absolutely NOTHING. I applied NO effects, volume, amplitude, normalizing, compressing, or equalizing. Heck, I didn't even edit out the breath sounds (although Poddio has the editor to do that). I then saved it as an .mp3 and uploaded it to TypePad.  That's what you're hearing.

I don't know whether to be impressed with Poddio, or the IPhone microphone…but I think that sounds pretty darn good!

Poddio comes as a free version, or pay $10 for all the bells and whistles.  My opinion:  $10 buys a lot here.  Visit the Poddio website to see their full schpiel.  They  had musicians and podcasters in mind when they designed this software, but it can do most things your Audacity editor could do.

Possible use for voice-actors?

1) 'Client calls while you're indisposed away from your studio and wants a quick read to see if you've got the chops for the spot.  You read his e-mail on your IPhone, scribble out a few lines, go to a closet, and deliver your audition into your IPhone…then e-mail it back to him in a flash.  Quality is better than Skype, I think.

2) Quick on-the-run interviews for a podcast.  Take 10 minutes to edit out the guest's curse words, and some fluff while you were interrupted on the convention floor, and you've got a passable podcast.

3) Collect real-life sound-effects for use later in a demo.

4) Record answer-phone messages for friends, and send them by e-mail.

5) A regular client wants to change a tag for a low-budget spot, but you're in Dyersburg, TN getting gas on your way to Stubenville, OH to see a date you found on FaceBook.  He's not particular about quality, but when he gets your Poddio file, he says, "Hey, I thought you said you didn't have your equipment with you?"

OK…last one may be a little far-fetched…but you get the drift.

CourVO

NEVERBLUE is all about affiliate marketing. 

Don't ask what that is.  I haven't quite figured it out yet. But I know some people swear by it. (someting about getting rich repping other people's products on your site…kinda like franchising online)

Here's their pitch: "Neverblue is a premier global lead generation network that delivers
millions of profitable customers to clients from all over the world.
Experience better affiliate marketing."

OK, that clears it up.

But Neverblue has apparently figured out that voice actors actually have value, and in THIS blog, they lay out several scenarios in which a smart person would want to hire a voice actor for professional product.

They make pretty good sense.  'Might even be worth a cold-call?

CourVO

Then…R U a member of Stephanie Ciccaarelli's VOICE ACTING HUB on FaceBook?

If not, you should be.  Stephanie's great, and always posts quality material.

Click HERE to go….there….and if that link doesn't work, just go to "Join Groups" and search for Voice Acting Hub.

CourVO

I ran across this unique community for Sci-Fi enthusiasts.  SPACE AGE MAGAZINE…a Social Network for Sci-Fi writers and artists.  Hmmm…  close to MY heart.  Really.

Anyway, click HERE to see an offering there that is an amazingly succinct primer in how to record a fairly decent sound-file for podcasting and other purposes.

Apparently, they don't need us.

CourVO

Below, see the offer he's making to budding voice actors seeking work in Audibooks.  I've studied with Pat, and I have this set he's marketing.  It's the real deal.  Lots of really good tips.

'nuff said

CourVO

FOR A LIMITED TIME!

THE BILLION $ READ How To Make Money Reading And Performing Audiobooks by Patrick Fraley

"Simply put, Pat Fraley is the David Lean of Audiobook Producers.  They don't get any better."   -Craig Black CEO, Blackstone Audio Ashland, OR   "Pat Fraley is The Man. You won't find a better teacher.   -Scott Brick Audiobook Narrator Producer, Publisher Los Angeles, CA     PATRICK FRALEY   Director, Producer, Teacher, Performer of Audiobooks   Patrick Fraley is one of the most successful voice-over actors in Hollywood and producer/performer of Audiobooks.  Multiple Audie Award (The Oscar of Audiobooks) nominee and winner, Patrick has been producing and performing audiobooks for over 20 years. His production and performance of Huck Finn is heralded as "the best of this evergreen ever," by People Magazine. This year, Pat's students are up for 6 Audies! When the Audio Publishers finish up their national conferences at the end of the month, they'll be looking for readings for hundreds of audiobook projects. Be prepared! HIGHLIGHTS Learn What's Needed For Reading Audiobooks - Preparation, Research, Rehearsal, Direction, Performance and Recording. Gain Performance Skills - Reading Aloud for Audience Effect, Tempo and Volume, Energy and Storytelling, Diction, Expressiveness and Character Voice Separation. How To Prepare Your Audiobook Demo – The Way Audiobook Publishers Want Them for Under $200 and a  Step-By-Step Guide to Making Submissions. Listen To Rare And Exclusive Interviews With Frank Muller – "The Valentino of Audiobook Readers." Get Priceless Insider Marketing Tips On The Business Of Audiobooks – Researching The Audiobook Publishers and Networking. Master Money Matters And Bidding - Finished Hour Cost and Bidding a Book To Read. BUY BILLION $ READ NOW! And receive your free personal evaluation.*   $79.95 2 CD's/50-Page Workbook Set      *Here's how the Personal Evaluation works: Send a one-minute recording (mp3) attached to an e-mail (patfraleyteaches@aol.com), and Pat will personally get back to you with notes how to improve your efforts.

Yeah, it's a hackneyed phrase, but I hadn't used it in a while, and actually I don't compare to John Florian's great mind anyway.

Yesterday, John and I both published content-laden articles composed by JS Gilbert.  John on his wonderful site: VoiceOverXtra, and me on this blog. Neither of us knew what the other was up to, even though we often collaborate and share content.

We had both sought-out JS's considerable expertise.  In this case, everyone's a winner, including you, JS, and our respective VO sites.  I encourage you to visit VoiceOverXtra today to see even more of JS Gilbert's wisdom on the business of voicing for video games.

As promised, though, I'm also going to publish the second half of my exhaustive Q & A with Gilbert.  Please see the very end of today's blog for a quick BIO on JS…he's an accomplished guy whom I applaud for selflessly sharing his depth of experience with us.

Thanks again, JS!

CourVO

E:  DAVE: Should
a voice-actor have a website designed specifically for wooing video-game
clients?  In other words, would a generic
voiceover website be a disadvantage, as long as it features a video-game demo
among other demos?

 JS Gilbert:  If a voice actor “gets it”; that is really does have some understanding
of gaming’s culture and what might make a good v.o. talent, then I would
suspect there could be a page or at least part of a page that could be designed
to appeal to gaming. Maybe you have a picture of you from some gaming
convention or show or simply playing a video game. It could have you giving
perspective on why you want to do voice for games. Anything that can open the
window a little bit into who you are and why you should be given a “shot”.   Of course, some people prefer to go to a
site that has multiple talent’s demos, like voicebank or an online community.
Others will appreciate a clean limited design that makes it easy to listen to
and download a talent’s demo(s).

It truly is impossible to say what will specifically float anyone’s boat.
The demo is most often there to get the talent an invitation to audition. The
audition in many ways is the real job.

DAVE: Best practices for approaching prospective
clients?  Cold-calling?  Agents? 
Hand-written letters?  A personal
visit?

 JS Gilbert: The direct approach doesn’t often seem to work very well.  Most castings for games are handled by agents
or audio production houses (which often go to agents or have large databases of
actors they work with directly).

 My advice would be to find an agent that has access to game scripts if
that’s the type of work you want to do. If your agent isn’t reading you for
games, then find out if it’s just that you’re not being included or if the
agent doesn’t get those types of opps. 
One thing I do to ingratiate myself to my agent is to pass opportunities
on to them.  I don’t believe it would be
an exaggeration to say I have helped 500 actors over the past 10 years gain
work in a video game. In most cases the actors don’t even know I had a hand,
but the agent does!  I don’t mind that
they get the credit, because it comes back to me in terms of a strong and
healthy relationship.

 Reading game magazines, visiting Gamasutra, getting a subscription to
Game Developer Magazine, using Google to search and research gaming companies
and projects and inviting individuals to be part of your various social
networks are all ways to learn more and identify potential clients. Understand
that some companies have numerous producers and may hare resources, other
companies have multiple producers that tend to keep their resources private,
some companies work on one project over an 18 month to 36 month development
cycle. There are serious games and casual games and educational games and games
designed for different demographics. There are established franchises and new
approaches, emerging companies and some who have been around since the
beginning of gaming.

In fact, there are many, many people who hire voice talent who simply
feel that if a talent can’t get representation via a talent agent they are not
worthy to hire under any circumstance. Due to technological advances, internet
casting and other factors, it would seem that many voice talent do not have
representation and often this is by choice. Attitudes generally adapt to the
prevalent thinking within the market. 
Just a few years ago, most voice actors would go to their agent’s office
to audition, now it is more commonplace of the actor to record an audition at
home at home and “phone” it in, and of course some game developers will cast
via the internet or through a direct relationship with a talent. However you
will still find that 95% of all casting for union games and perhaps 75% of
casting for non-union games is handled via talent agents.

DAVE: 
Are
video-gamers faithful in return-hiring talent who’ve served them well in the
past?

 JS Gilbert: Not necessarily. Some developers may work on dialog for a small portion
of a project and do sound design or music as well. Often dialog might only be
recorded once a year or 18 months for a project.  Despite my having performed voiceover for
games since the very beginning and for many respected titles, it’s surprising
how little my name is known. There tends to be a strong attitude among some of
the titles with big budgets that the games need to feature L.A. based talent
and while there are opps, there is also a “short list” of L.A. based voice talent,
who tend to be recognized. Apparently there is still a lot of luck involved.
Get on the right game with the right people and it can open the door to lots of
future work.

 For whatever it’s worth, I do have a small but somewhat loyal following
among a few audio producers and developers, but in other cases, in sequels and
franchises, they often simply will try to find someone who sounds like I did on
an earlier game. The audio producer may have no idea who I am or what I have
done, nor will they necessarily care.

 DAVE: 
If
non-union, are published or suggested rate-sheets available?

JS Gilbert: At this point, I have fairly established pricing guidelines, but with
regards to the non-union production being done, the pendulum swings widely.
This is one reason why talent have historically worked through talent agents.
It’s oft said in defense of lawyers, that the man who represents himself has a
fool for a client. I tend to agree with regards to talent agents as well. I
would suggest that a talent get representation and push to create a good
relationship with their agent.  It’s very
hard to represent yourself as the product and to negotiate the business end.
I’d rather just be the “talent”.

 There are some published numbers out there, but I would suggest that
biding for game work can be tricky. Who is doing the editing? Will you be
directed via phone at an established time? Do you need to name each sentence as
a spate file?

 For example, an industry standard might place a particular job at $300
and take an experienced voice talent/ editor an hour to 90 minutes to do. This
same job might take someone less experienced 5 hours to do. I usually suggest
that talent create a business plan that will assist them in understanding how
much time they will be spending on their voiceover business, fixed and variable
costs involved and certain milestones they might set.

 DAVE: What
acting skills or disciplines serve you best in preparation for a successful
voiceover career in video-games?

JS Gilbert: Standard acting skills, and improvisational acting skills are together
the best training for voice over. Additionally one needs to really develop good
mic technique and understand how they relate to the microphone and how to “work
it”.  As many video games approach the
level of sophistication and in some cases even budget of a motion picture, we
see the skill sets for both becoming very similar. 

DAVE:  Final Words?

 JS Gilbert: Doing voiceover for video games can be lots of fun. I should point out
that very few people are capable of making a living doing this. Similar skills
are necessary to perform for animation and broadcast (cartoons), which pay
considerably more. Even union scale payments for video game work, which tend to
be quite generous aren’t sufficient to create a base salary platform.

 To put this into perspective, a non-union video game may pay $300 – $800
on average to an actor, while a union video game will pay around $700 – $2,000.
Very few people will work on more than 10 or 12 games per year, and usually far
less.  To put this into an even more
interesting perspective, I have been paid only slightly more money for doing
voiceover for 400 video games than I made for the top 5 grossing union
commercials I have voiced.

Depending upon someone’s talents, geographical location, connections and
so forth, performing voices for games may be an enjoyable part of what they do
as a voice actor.

There are many different things one can do as voice talents, including
voice mail, audio books and commercials or internet, corporate voiceover or
narration or broadcast narration , such as in tv station or radio announcer
work.

 Researching and understanding the various opportunities available and
then making good choices regarding developing your craft, marketing and
establishing relationships, along with developing a marketing plan and business
plan will help an actor in making the best decisions for their careers. Never
base your career or pricing on what someone else is doing. What makes sense for
them may not make sense for you. Instead use this information to develop a
personal program that makes sense for you and be wary of keeping the wolf at
bay.  Thousands and thousands of people
try to forge successful careers in voice over and relatively few are actually
able to come out on the plus side financially.

 With regards to both the craft of voiceover, production, directing and
many other creative matters, many people will not have the advantage that I had
of being able to work in professional environments with people who I was
capable of learning from. 

 As with many other wonderful crafts, voice acting was once something more
akin to an apprenticeship trade. We worked in professional studios; we
auditioned at ad agencies, clients and with casting directors. We got to see
our peers work and professionals direct. So much of what is done now is in
isolation, that it becomes imperative to find a few people you can really trust
and have them “hand the craft” down to you.

 And one of the most important things is to know when to make changes,
devote more or less time or otherwise ensure that your rent is being paid and
that you don’t paint yourself into a corner.

 Knowing when to cash in your chips is as important as anything else and
as I often say “The nicest thing about banging your head against the wall is
stopping.”

 Good Luck to you all.

J.S. Gilbert considers himself a very lucky man. He gets to play with
advertising and gaming professionals as a writer, copywriter, creative
director, audio producer, etc. 

 20 some odd years ago J.S. found himself forced to do a voiceover, which
has snowballed into him being one of the busiest voice talents on Northern
California. He has performed voiceover on over 400 video games and thousands of
radio and tv commercials, corporate videos, voicemail systems, internet sites,
audio books, talking dolls and talking greeting cards.

J.S. also does a considerable
amount of work filling in for stars on AD and dubbing projects by impersonating
them. He is currently the voice of Papa Smurf and the new official voice for
Rankin/ Bass’s loveable elf, Herme. (I want to be a dentist).

 J.S. is currently casting and directing for a well known game franchise,
directing 2 authors reading their audio books and keeping his commercial and
gaming v.o. clients happy.