Wish I had caught this yesterday: Don Pardo the legendary voice of Saturday Night Live, turned 93 yesterday. Mental_Floss has a great article with clips of Don Pardo moments, and some really interesting information. Mr. Pardo was the first person at NBC to announce the shooting of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Amazing stuff.
I am a loyal Sound Forge user, and as it is underrepresented in all the “tips and tricks” that are out there for DAWs and audio software, so I’m happy to find and pass along Sound Forge tips as they come along. Thanks to the Voice Over Coach!
As with any job that asks for a sample of your work before you get the gig, “no” is part of the process. Even more difficult int he voiceover industry, there usually isn’t an explicit “no,” just a gaping silence. You have to get used to it, and remember it’s not about YOU. Silvie Pamphile lays it out.
Andrea Romano has cast for every television show and direct-to-DVD movie in the DC Animated Universe collection, including Batman, Superman, Justice Leaggue and Justice League Unlimited. I love her work, and she has done a spectacular job of choosing the voices of so many iconic heroes.
IK Multimedia, maker of AmpliTube products for music processing, has produced a new interface that voice artists may want to look into for auditioning on the go. The iRig mic may not have the sensitivity that we are used to from our studio mics, but again, this isn’t made to compete with Sennheiser 416s or Neumann U87s out there. My experience with on-the-go audition software is that it is best used when you know your client and they really already have an idea what you sound like, since you do not want your first impression to be from this level of performance. That being said, there is a lot of potential for things like this, the Blue Mikey and Yeti, and products like Rehearsal, iAudtion, and Blue FiRe as slimmer portable platforms become more powerful (and multicore tablets are coming this year).
I think I will start compiling the “List of Eternal Voiceover Questions.” It will include:
The first two are entirely up to the end user: they clearly become near religious level arguments when left to the masses. The third also generates a lot of churn, and in the last week I have seen a few discussions about the merits of having an agent.
To each their own, is my opinion, but the fact is you should not shut out any path to work, including agents. I think Peter O’Connell said it best in response to a blog post we both commented on:
…this is still an industry where it is helpful to have a qualified agent out there on your side. Not only do they set up auditions and jobs, but if its the right agent, you’ll have a professional sounding board for issues that come up in your business.
To that end, I suggest you take a look at the annual “Voiceover Guide to Casting and Talent Agents” produced by Marc Graue Voiceover Recording Studio. This guide separates casting directors from agents across the United States and Canada. If you are looking for representation, this guide can be invaluable.
You can use it in a couple of ways, but if you have a scanner or multifunction printer/scanner/fax handy, I would look into one of any number of OCR (optical character recognition) packages that can help you scan the results into your computer and get it imported into your contact database. You may even have one that came with the device. This way you can track your contacts in a systematic way.
Remember, just getting the guide won’t automatically result in getting representation. And as it has been pointed out before, getting rejected by an agent isn’t the end of the world. But you have to start somewhere, and this is a good place to start.
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