Just a quick little posting. I recorded a special Halloween tale of suspense and uncanny events for all of my podcast listeners and friends.
Here it is :
The Terror By Night
A Tale of the Curious and Unexplainable
And on iTunes here:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/stefsvoice4you-broadcast/id393291303
My colleague voiceover artist Tom Dheere recently posted some really helpful tips in his Good Karma Network newsletter about re-takes.
I had an email conversation with Tom and he graciously let me reprint those gold nuggets here. Tom was working on an audiobook when he wrote these tips…but, of course they can be applicable to most every voiceover scenario in one form or another.
Retakes usually are needed for a few reasons:
Technical Issues (feedback, low gain, static, etc.)
Background Sounds
Script Errors
Me Being a Doofus (I mispronounced a word, inadvertently changed a word, inserted a word, flubbed an accent, or stressed the wrong word)
These are all common errors, many of which you can minimize.
TIP OF THE WEEK: Here’s what you can do to minimize the amount of retakes needed:
Read the script. I know that sounds obvious, but I mean REALLY read the script. I try read it three times before I record. Once to enjoy it & understand the story, once to break down the characters, and once to review spelling and grammar.
Ask questions. If I’m not sure about something, I ask the publisher. If he’s not sure, he contacts the author and gets back to me. Once in a while you may get to talk to the author directly, but I’m not always sure that’s best. Writing something and reading it aloud are two different disciplines and it’s the publisher’s job to bridge them.
Take notes. I always build a pronunciation guide. Sci-fi stories tend to have a lot a big real words and even more fake words, some of which don’t feel organic. Get the correct pronunciations and practice them. Also, I like using accents so I track how each character speaks and make sure I get the subtleties right.
Have fun! If you do your homework and enjoy the session, your acting will shine through.
Thanks Tom!
Another exciting bit of news is that my podcasts have been approved and are now in the iTunes store to download and/or subscribe to!
The podcast names are: stefsvoice4u Broadcast
- audiobook narrations, travel, inspiration, travel and events; and
AudioMysteryTym
episodes of The Violet Strange Mysteries [searchable by AudioMysteryTym or stefanialintonbon].
Took some time, but we got there in the end!
I’m reprinting an article here that I received in an email this morning. It’s from The Entrepreneur’s Success Blog. The author gives us some brilliant tips on getting things back on the right track with customers when problems pop up! Enjoy and learn!…
Success Articles Turning Unhappy Clients into Raving Fans
It happens to the best of entrepreneurs…no matter how hard we try there are a few people who will be unhappy with your product or service.
If you are like me you care a lot about what people think and the experience they have of your company. When I get THAT email saying, “I’d like a refund” my stomach flops and I instantly feel bummed that somehow that person didn’t get what they wanted.
This is where you have the GREATEST opportunity. When someone says, “I’m unhappy” they are really making a request to make them happy.
What you do in this moment can result in a raving fan — by finding a win-win outcome.
Here are five steps for turning a bad situation with a client or prospect around:
Having a strong customer service policy is key to being able to respond quickly — and make good win-win decisions. If you don’t yet have your customer service policy mapped out, it’s time!
iPod App of the Week
Smart Maps – London
I just installed this app last night before heading to London for some meetings and pubbing. It’s brilliant. It covers a wide area of London and some of the outlying parts as well. You just type in or click on a street name and a map shows up with the street indicated.
You have the option to add “pins” to your own areas and destinations on the map as well — and save them to favourites so you can find them again. I’m still getting used to working with this tool. But it’s very worthwhile and only .59p. If you have an iPhone, it has a GPS feature as well that will work.
What have I been up to behind the mic?
Finished an mini audiobook on Stress Reduction; voiced a Power Point on library system utilisation; PSAs for a radio client; and beginning the next episode of my Violet Strange audiobook mystery series. How may I serve you?
Cheers!
2010 is off to a good start, as I hope it is for everyone else. Marketing plan is in place as well as listings in several new directories. I also plan to take advantage of new ideas garnered from one of the voiceover groups on LinkedIn, and as bit and pieces are picked up along the way in this new year.
2009 ended with a commission to do the voiceover for a corporate type audiobook to accompany a client’s website. We went away for a few days and as you can see from the piccie above, it was Netbook and voiceover-to-go.
This being my first major audiobook project, I’m learning a lot of things as I go along. The first being, like my colleague, Julie Williams, wrote about in her The VoiceOver Insider Magazine – I underestimated both the time it takes and the proper bidding amount. Never mind, the client gave me an extension.
In the meantime, Lesson 1, I’m using the handy “Jobs” app on my IpodTouch to record all the time spent on the project at a proper rate, to be ready to bid more accurately the next time round. Still, I’m happy for the project… Thanks to all my mates at the vo-bb who shared their experience and knowledge with me. My colleague Jeffrey Kafer also advised to farm out the job of editing the recording, for accuracy and time-saving. Brilliant advice, it takes forever!
A few more tips I’ve come up with to share:
Continue drinking water throughout the project, brush teeth before every new session to limit mouth noise. Using Burt’s Bees – beeswax lip balm (or something similar) is a good idea as well. [Thanks to my colleague Bobbin Beam - see Bobbin's blog link under my Voiceover list - for that tip. I read about it a while ago in one of her blogs, and finally found a source for the product over here in England.]
Enunciate and make the recording as clean as poss – it really saves time in the editing process. If you get tired, don’t press on. Stop. I came across one chapter where there was a lot of editing to be done, and I think it was maybe because I was tired and started slurring my words.
Slow down on difficult phrases for clarity of diction & to prevent stumbling over the words, resulting in re-takes. You can always edit out (or have whoever’s doing the editing) the air between words later.
A couple of my vo-bb buds also advised me to record a chapter, then edit it before starting the next one. This gives our vocal chords and minds a rest by switching between tasks. Unfortunately – knowing I was going away from the studio – I did the entire recording first so as to be free to edit on the road. In future though, I’ll definitely alternate the two tasks.
Practicing with a bit of cork in my mouth as part of my warm up is helpful too for diction, and loosening up the mouth muscles. I also found some great exercises, a while ago on a speech therapy website, that I use for loosening up before recording. I feel like there’s a definite difference between when I do the warm ups first, and when I think I’m too busy – and just jump into the project with only a minor warmup.
Keeping the mouth and throat soothed while recording, with something like Entertainer’s Secret is also a handy idea. If you live in London, there’s a sweet shop in Barnet called Hopscotch Essential Treats.
They have a wonderful product called Voice Tablets. They are so soothing. The shopkeeper said a lot of peeps who worked with their voice used them. I sucked on them frequently between recordings. (They also sell really tasty chocolate covered raisins – but that has absolutely nothing to do with voiceover! Ha, ha!)
All for now….
Cheers
Wishing everyone the most blessed, happy, prosperous Christmas and Holiday period ever!
Christmas tree chez Lintonbon!
Illuminata – Tokyo
Illuminata – Tokyo
AbanoTerme, Italy
AbanoTerme, Italy
Here’s my little Crimbo pressie for all my cyber friends!
Voiceover as Linus – a Christmas message to you from me!<
Ok, back to work for me. Have finished recording voiceover for a 200+ page e-learning audiobook. Editing still to be done! Mulled wine tea to be drunk. Lots to do!
Safe happy hols all!
Cheers…
Stefania
Cappucino in Padova, Italy!
I put on my thinking cap recently, wondering what is my personal A-Z guideline to life as a professional Voice Artist.
One idea led to another, till I found I’d run the gamut from A-Z, or as they sometimes say in the States…from Soup to Nuts (appetiser to dessert!). Here’s my list! These were originally done as Tweets, hence their brevity.
A
Attitude is positive. Can’t win all auditions, but can get the ones that are mine & right for me!
B
Budget–a top priority– a meeting of what client can pay/what we require!
C
Counsel! Help is only an internet contact away. Develop a group of friends and help each other out!
D
Diligence. Do my best, every gig!
E
Expenses – Keep an eye on what “pay to play”/mktg efforts are worth paying for & when to give it a miss
F
Friends – Get to know many peeps in many different fields of life. Develop contacts.
G
Give of yourself to others, give the client what they want.
H
Happy – think of happy VO victories when your feeling down, it’ll bring you more good things!
I
Imitate the different voices that we hear every day [not within their hearing tho]
J
Joy- put a lot of joy & energy into pursuing your VO career
K
Know the biz, listen to podcasts, study,read
L
Love the process – even when it’s frustrating
M
Money – let’s make lots of it!
N
Nuture yourself – cultivate some non-VO interests & friends, broaden yourself
O
Open myself to more prosperity by developing additional skills
P
Practice everyday reading something out loud, or recording, or auditioning
Q
Quality clients, – in a pinch go for quantity – just keep moving upwards
R
Rest – take time to chill and ‘smell the flowers’
S
Sympathy – have sympathy for that poor old client who really doesn’t know what he/she wants
T
Triumphant – you can do it!
U
Uggh! 
If the gig really isn’t you, don’t bother auditioning.
V
Vanity – A little is really good. Keeps you going , when the gigs are slow coming forth
W
Worthy – There are so many esteemed VO peeps who are willing to share with us- worth listening to & learning tips & shortcuts from them
X
X-files – maybe where all those pay to play auddies go where no one has been chosen after 4,5,6 months
Y
Year – Try to show a better result, somehow, at every year’s inventory
Z
Zip pah doo da! I know this makes no sense. But neither does VO sometimes. But it’s still fun!
That’s all for this post….
Cheers!
Bookmark this on Delicious
Decided that my voiceover booth (or as VO champ Rodney Saulsberry puts it — “The Money Box”) needed a little upgrading. I don’t know how I decided, the thought just came to me. My little miccie needed its very own home.
So, I ordered some accoustical foam from a brilliant vendor on ebay and set to work to make a Hogan-style Porta booth, but one that was bigger and sturdier since I’ll be working with it everyday.
I made it with a sturdy surround and covered the outside and floor with thick curtain-quality fabric; the inside is lined with the wonderful accoustical foam.
What a difference in the sound. It enhances the quality, and certainly “pumps up the volume” a few notches. I was so surprised and pleased!
view 2 doing the business with the pop shield:
view 3 miccie’s very own new wee huttie — side view
Met up with my new friend Mike Rhys – a British voiceover artist who lives in Japan, his brother, cute little daughter and his colleague Nicky Faint. Nicky’s a VO now based here in England, but she lived and worked in Japan for 5 years. It was brilliant! And so good to talk with them about their VO lives in Japan.
Will be producing and voicing a serialised version of a mystery audiobook soon. I’ll keep you posted on the progress. You might even want to have a listen…might even get hooked on the plot and come back for more, to see what happens in subsequent and future episodes! It’s going to be a long one. 
“Those who are fired with an enthusiastic idea and who allow it to take hold and dominate their thoughts find that new worlds open for them. As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities.”
Cheers all…
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
|
And when the face is smiling, For the nature of our attitude And since fear and dread and worry And if you’ll only try it For when the heart is cheerful,
|
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
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
Hi! I’m an American Voice Artist living in Britain & loving it. I voice mainly, Animation, Audiobooks, Computer Games, Corporate work (voice mail, website welcomes, podcast, e-learning…), Narration and Radio Drama and Talking toys. Haven’t done all of those yet, but they’re on my availability/goals/challenges lists!
I’m a great believer in positive thinking, networking, friends, love and hard work. As they say, luck is when preparation and opportunity meet!
Big fan of Rodney Saulsberry and Pat Fraley. Those guys are super. I’ve learned so much about the art of voiceover from them.
I love visiting my fave voiceover forums and interacting with my cybermates. You’re never alone when you’ve got a good back up ‘cyber crew!” I work in English and Japanese (intermediate-level) –mostly English, though the last gig that I did was a little Japanese-language Corporate one. Dialect study with British RP is great fun & proving to be useful as well.
Love travelling — so maybe this blog will revolve around voice over, travel, positive thinking tidbits and life!
VOICEOVER DEMOS
Please visit my Voiceover Demos page for sound bites!. I’m also a member of Linked In.
Cheers!
