A Walk on the Wild (Nature’s)Side

A little bit of Voiceover/Life Advice which turned up in my

email in-box the other day.

“Turn your dream into a vision, then into a goal, then into a plan and then into reality! After all, a goal is nothing more than a dream with a deadline!

 

Had a chance to take a little break recently in the form of a 6-mile walk along the South West Coastal Path, along the cliffs from a place in Devon called Budleigh-Salterton to Exmouth. I thought it might be too much, but it was great fun. Good exercise. Devon is a lovely area of England. What is it, I wonder, about open spaces that makes one burst into song while hiking? Rather than rabbit on further, I’ll just show you the piccies…

The Starting point

Stop and smell the flowers along the way!

 

 

Clowning around with hubby.

 

 

Looks like we’re in good company here!

 

 

Seagulls getting a free lunch by following the potato farmer

as he turns over the soil.

 

 

This made me feel like we were walking through

a secret fairy garden!

 

The end of the hike at Exmouth. Done! Where’s the pub?!

After our little sojourn, it was back to work. Finished off and uploaded an e-learning video last week focusing on improving listening comprehension skills for beginning/intermediate learners of English as a Second Language. (Please see “Voice Over Videos -3″ page.) Ready to roll now on the next voiceover project. Where are you? Bring it on!

Cheers…

Voiceover & Life Conversations

This Alison bush was covered with these beautiful yellow and black butterflies, but they move so fast! Managed to catch one in the piccie!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY for Voiceover and Life Success:

“All frustration is due to unfulfilled desires. If you dwell on obstacles, delays, and difficulties, your subconscious mind responds accordingly, and you are blocking your own good.”

Dr. Joseph Murphy
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
www.dr-joseph-murphy.com

I went to the Animation Convention with my friend the other week-end. It was brilliant. Hope to see myself there one year as a guest voiceover speaker. In the meantime, I enjoyed what was on tap on the day.

Technology is really surging ahead. There was a fantastic demonstration of a game that is controlled by the voice. Using the microphone, you must first gather up your breath (as we VO’s know only too well how to do) and then let out a long cry — this powers up the energy bar. Then you let out your voice in a series of short bursts which set off the weapons and send the cannon balls flying. (See the piccie below.) It was great fun. But maybe not the game to play before a heavy voiceover session!

Just compiled a list of video producers, so now it’s time to put the head down and get to work marketing. I’ve set myself some VO financial targets for the next month, so I’d best get cracking if I’m gonna make them. Sunday or not, sunny day or not…I’d best focus and get busy!

“Winners make big things happen, a little bit at a time!”

 (another quote that came across my desk this week!)

Cheers all…

VOX 2009 and all…

Bob Soeur, myself, Deidre Cooper, and Philip Banks

Attending VOX2009 was fantastic. It was so good to meet some voiceover peeps whom I’d only known through the VO-BB (see sidebar for a link to this forum) and to hook with some vo colleagues based here in London. Above are some of my mates from the VO-BB.

Trish Bertram and Anthony Richardson

London-based voiceovers – Trish and Anthony

David, and Mike Cooper

More London peeps — David (not sure of surname)
[just found out! David Vickery],

and Mike Cooper

Meeting the various producers was a wonderful opportunity to present my voiceover services to people whom I don’t ordinarily have a chance to interact. Speed networking is something else! 15 seconds for producers to tell about themselves,and then 1-minute for me to present myself, then the whistle blows and it’s move along swiftly to the next chair and producer. Wow! It was very exhilarating experience. But if you’re clear on your purpose, know your services and where you’re coming from, and listen carefully to the producer’s intro… it’s very do-able.

Now all the excitement is over and it’s back to gigging, marketing myself and everyday life. I’ve just received a script for a Dr. Who internet radio drama. My character wasn’t ravaged by the monsters…she’s back. Hooray! I love acting. I love voice acting.

I’ve also produced two real estate/travel oriented video tour narration demos. They’re in the videos section of this blog. Just did an audition for what looks like a fun project — so fingers crossed on that one!

Keep smiling, keep positive, keep voicing!

Cheers

Money is our Good Friend!

Hello Voiceover pals, colleagues and clients.

Received this beautiful piccie in my email this morning. This gorgeous lady is — I believe — the goddess of prosperity. I wish I knew her exact name. Does anybody know what it is?

Prosperity is Everywhere!

Wishing you all a shining day, and the best of opportunities & assistance  for permanent prosperity in all your endeavors. Be thankful daily for all of your blessings. You are lucky!

 

Cheers…

Voiceover News/Tips & the Glastonbury Moment

Chris, Panda&Dale (visiting from US)and Fiona

Met up recently with some voiceover chums from Pendant Audio Productions. Panda and Dale were visiting from America, via Ireland, so we all got a chance to hook up and talk shop. It was going great till the fire alarm went off and everyone in the pub was herded outside. Oh, well there you go! Time to break up and go home, the party’s over. The internet is really great, it’s a wonderful opportunity to connect with peeps of common interests, and collaborate on projects via long distance, and it’s even better when you finally can meet “offline”!

 

James Alburger & Penny Abshire have gifted us with a fantastic Resource on Delivering Your Files. It’s an invaluable tutorial on the various methods that we can use to get files from us to the client. Thank you James and Penny!

If you’re tired of all of the gloom and doom in the media. Here’s a little something to counterbalance that point of view. It’s a new blog, that I visited the other day, entitled, Good News Blog. Happy Reading!

 

When we were in Glastonbury a few weeks ago, I found a little card with a prayer that’s been circulating around the town. You can find this card in many of the shops as well. I think it’s a wonderful example of the power of collective consciousness used to create your own reality, taking charge versus just absorbing like a sponge. These merchants and residents are creating their own belief of prosperity, despite what goes on around them. Maybe some of this is applicable to anybody, anywhere. Here’s the prayer:

The Glastonbury Moment

Spirit of All Life, Mother and Father of us all, look with loving kindness on this community of Glastonbury and Avalon.

Bless all beings here with love, compassion and growing consciousness.

Help us to be good neighbours as we build a safe, creative and prosperous town in which all children are cared for and all people supported in their growth and fulfillment.

Inspire us to care for our sacred landscape so as to benefit the natural world and our children’s children for generations to come.

Help us to be mindful and caring towards our many visitors and pilgrims, honouring their diverse paths and faiths, as we honour and celebrate the diversity of belief among ourselves.

We pray for peace and justice at home and all across the world.

Blessed be. Amen. Om.

Cheers!

Keep the Faith!

Niagara Falls – Canada side

I’ve been having a little bit of a busy time lately. I’m working on editing and cleaning up the VO for an audiobook project. It’s great fun finding bits of sound effects to be judiciously added to the action. Not too many, but enough to give an idea of the energy of the chapter. Next will be a mystery audiobook project.

There are also plans for three YouTube voiceover videos in the works. Add to that the usual round of auditions (fingers perpetually crossed!), and marketing. Looking forward immensely to VOX 2009 next month. It’ll be my first time to attend, so I’ll tell all in a future blog.

Found this beautiful inspirational poem in an email the other day.

CHEERFUL THOUGHTS
LIGHTEN DARKEST FEARS

Cheerful thoughts like sunbeams Lighten up the “darkest fears,” For when the heart is happy, There’s just no time for tears. And when the face is smiling, It’s impossible to frown, And when you are “high-spirited,” You cannot feel “low-down.” For the nature of our attitude Toward circumstantial things, Determines our acceptance Of the problems that life brings. And since fear and dread and worry Cannot help in any way, It’s much healthier and happier To be cheerful every day. And if you’ll only try it You will find, without a doubt, A cheerful attitude’s something No one should be without. For when the heart is cheerful, It cannot be filled with fear, And without fear, the way ahead, Seems more distinct and clear. Helen Steiner Rice (1900-1981) www.HelenSteinerRice.com

 

I really sincerely hope this brighens your day as much as it did mine. Keep the faith, it’ll all be right in the end! Don’t let any gloomy media stories bring you down! We are all winners!

 

Cheers… Stefania

FULL SPEED AHEAD!

Hi all – clients, prospective clients and VO pals!

 

 I’m working on editing an audiobook, and then looking forward to starting on the next audio project. Starting artwork for a new animation production soon to go on my YouTube channel. And, busy with increased marketing activity as well, whilst waiting for a few “projects in discussion” to materalise. So, today’s blog is a quickie!

 

News of two valuable VO resources from Edge Studios arrived in this morning’s email.

 

3,500 Free Practice Scripts

 

http://www.edgestudio.com/scripts.htm

 

Free Industry (VO) Guidebook

 

http://www.edgestudio.com/guidebook.htm

 

 

That’s all for today…see – told you this was going to be a really quick chat!

 

 

Cheers…

 

Stefania

Ego and Voiceover

Mountain temple in Japan

The other day I was working on a project. A colleague offered to help.

My first thought was ‘that’s ok’ I can handle this. Then — perhaps as a result of all the positive reading that I’ve done and podcasts that I’ve listened to — another thought came to mind, and the actual words that came out of my mouth were in the vein of…’this is what I’ve done — what do you think? How can I improve it?’.

In another instance a respected colleague said to me, ‘move this to the beginning of your demo, and dump this other demo, it doesn’t work for me’.

I thought about it and said, ok…I respect this person’s opinion & experience…I’m going to follow his advice.

I’ve spent much time in the past ‘protecting myself’ and forging ahead. I’ve discovered it’s liberating to work as part of a team and ask for help and feedback.

The voiceover world is no place for those of a delicate disposition of one kind or another. In the studio, it’s good and necessary, to be open to client feedback and different interpretations. We might think we did a stellar read — but if the client wants it done a totally different way — open up to being “schooled” and do the revised version with enthusiasm and love for the craft. You wanna get asked back, don’t you? Humility is a good thing sometimes. There’s strength in letting go and flowing.

Here’s a tip from Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter” [see link on the side of this page].

“At the end of each day, congratulate yourself for accomplishing whatever you believed was your most successful event of the day, even if it is something as small as getting an email from someone. The key is to never allow your day end with a negative thought.”

Cheers…

ROCKIN’ the Mic!

 

Rocking the mic (I rock the mic) used to be the original name for the Voiceover Universe website. But they changed it. I can see why — Voiceover Universe sounds more representative of our group. As voiceover artists and stellar teachers worldwide gather there, it IS a virtual universe.

 

I’ve just fulfilled one of my goals. Hooray! I’ve been wanting to do a voiceover video version of a collection of positive thoughts & quotes for peeps to watch and listen to when they were in need of a boost. Finally I made it! It’s on the Voiceover Video 2 page if you’re curious and want a little peek.

I’m quite fond of my little Audio Technica USB mic. I got it when we were on holiday in New York — the sales advisor recommended it over the Snowball and Samson –and it has not let me down. Clients like the sound, and it handles well all the vocal changes that I have to go through when doing audio dramas from baby-voiced talking dustballs, to squeeky voiced robots, to well modulated receptionist and store clerks, to chesty vampire queens.

Several of my voiceover colleagues use their USBs, in addition to their collection of standard mics. Bill Campbell opines that the Samson CO3U sounds really good. 19MM capsule – fast transients. Supercardioid pattern – rejects unwanted room noise. Voice flattering frequency response. Additionally, Bill currently uses a Neumann TLM-193 and his Samson CO3.

Willie Edwards had an emergency come up, and turned to his MXL USB008 for recording. He said he “was tickled” with its performance.

Susan Berkley said, in Kim Snyder’s second Voices in Media podcast, that she uses the USB mic — Samson CO1U — for her auditions.

Another colleague told me “I have the Blue Snowball. It’s OK for auditions on the run, or podcasting. Quality isn’t hugely wonderful, and has a high frequency response with my voice.”

Finally, a poem taken from one of my favourite e-newsletters, Inspiration Line.

Start where you stand
(from Inspiration Line 12 Jan, 2009)

Start where you stand and never mind the past,
The past won’t help you in beginning new,
If you have left it all behind at last,
Why, that’s enough, you’re done with it, you’re through.
This is another chapter in the book,
This is another race that you have planned,
Don’t give the vanished days a backward look,
Start where you stand.
The world won’t care about your old defeats
If you can start anew and win success,
The future is your time, and time is fleet
And there is much of work and strain and stress.
Forget the buried woes and dead despairs,
Here is a brand new trial right at hand,
The future is for him who does and dares,
Start where you stand.
Old failures will not halt, old triumphs aid,
Today’s the thing, tomorrow soon will be;
Get in the fight and face it unafraid,
And leave the past to ancient history.
What has been, has been; yesterday is dead
And by it you are neither blessed nor banned,
Take courage, man, be brave and drive ahead,
Start where you stand.
~ By Berton Braley (1882-1966) www.BertonBraley.com

 

If  you’re a voice artist reading this and you’re getting lots of gigs…congratulations and keep up the good work. If you’re not working as much as you’d like to (and perhaps this goes for any field), get cracking. Get out there and market yourself. No matter what the economic climate, I believe there’s still a lot of work about. We just have to be like little terrier doggies and dig! The internet is our friend. You just have to keep your confidence, research, market, network and carry on. You CAN do it!

Cheers all…

MOVIN ON THE 2009 VOICE OVER TRAIL!

Buster Bumblebee

Been a busy bee lately. I’ve come across some brilliant voice over tips while reading mags, as well as on the internet, and thought I’d pass them on.

Lesley Garrett the famous opera singer is a copious water drinker. For every cup of coffee she has, she drinks several glasses of water. And, with all of her years of singing experience, Ms. Garrett still works out regularly with her vocal coach.

Training and striving for improvement is an ongoing activity for professional voices.

From Susan Berkley I learned these tips about how to improve delivery timing. Ms. Berkley recommends practicing with a stopwatch to improve our skills of reading exactly to time and shave or add seconds on command. We can tape commercials, time them, transcribe the copy and see if we can match the announcer’s timing. Susan says we can also visualise the space between the words getting increasingly smaller to encourage a faster read.

One really hot book for training and improving our voices is the classic — Voice and the Actor, by Cicely Berry. It’s full of information and exercises covering Vocal Development; Relaxation and Breathing; Muscularity and Word; the Whole Voice; Speaking Poetry; Listening and Using the Voice.

Rodney Saulsberry’s recently come out with a new vocal workout — tongue twister regime.

Here’s the URL for the new version, Part II:

Part II

And, in case you missed it, here’s the URL for the earlier, Part I:

Part I

Here’s a little marketing tip — lately lots of voice actors have been putting clips of their demos, their work — or themselves in the studio — on YouTube. It’s easy to do and works a treat! My advice to you? Get in there! Let’s use all practical and available channels to market ourself and our skills, to the end of being of service to more clients!

Cheers!