Train No. 2013 has left the station!

It’s a bit over a week into the new year and the clean up, clear up, move up campaign continues.

You might have noticed the absence of the fluffy pink borders on this blog page. The colours matched my old website, but that one has been replaced for some time. So it’s time for the energy here to be freshened up, updated and brought into line with my current VoiceOver website. Next in line were the Testimonials and About Me pages. I hadn’t looked at them in some time. Next, it was a visit to my LinkedIn page for some tweaking. Maybe I’ve been a bit too much nose to the grindstone lately. When we make progress in our lives and careers we should mark and celebrate it!

Have you checked out your blogs, websites, and social media pages to make sure that the message that you’re sending out reflects you and your product as you are today?

What kind of tweaking and revamping have you been doing or plan to do?

Another top thing on my list is more VoiceOver training. One can never be too good, and have learned everything there is to know about the field. Things change everyday. Even watching the telly or listening to the radio is often study time for me. I’ve been watching lots of animations and narrative-type documentaries lately. And, in addition to in-person work, there’s distance learning, and there’s the Weekend Workout programme as well. I’ve fallen off the wagon on that one a bit. Time to get back on the horse!

I’m finding James Alburger’s book, The Art of Voice Acting – 4th edition, The Art of Voice Acting: The Craft and Business of Performing Voiceover to be quite an interesting piece of work. It makes a good refresher study, and I’m picking up some new ideas as well. The CD that comes with the book is handy to, because I can hear examples of what the book is covering and I’ve put a few bits on my iPod as well.

There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is by Elaine Clark, There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Insider’s Guide to a Career in Voice-overs is a valuable resource as well.

That’s it for today. May you be blessed, prosperous, happy and busy in this new year. Go out and let it happen! Cheers!

Please visit us Facebook for crafts,culture and arts news!

My podcast of storytelling and positive-inspirational messages.

Positive Affirmations and Audio Stories.

VoiceOver Tip from a Colleague – Cutting down re-takes of your recordings

This time round in my blog, I’m quoting a post which was written a while ago by my colleague Tom Dheere. At the time that I read Tom’s post, I thought that his advice could save a lot of us voiceover peeps a great deal of time, and our clients would benefit as well. So, with Tom’s permission, I’m spreading the word and reprinting his blog. Enjoy!

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!

Cheers!

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The Winning Team

Attention VoiceOver pals, non voicies…

Who’s on the winning team?

I am!

YOU are!

Here’s a fantastic video that was passed on to me by one of my podcast and twitter colleagues, @mikeleighcooper.  Enjoy!

It’s so wonderful when you meet a voice over pal that you’ve only known via the internet. My friend from the vo-bb Chuck Davies was recently visiting here in London. Chuck, his wife Kate, and I met up at a pub in Covent Garden and spent some pleasant time getting to know each other.

Fabbo!

When I’m not voicing, I’m here:

BeadedDelightsByStef

It’s my Facebook page for cool arts, culture and crafts news! Please pop by for a visit and a “like”. >^..^<

Voiceover Tip – Motivational CD by actress Wendy Braun

I’m a big fan of actress Wendy Braun’s Actor’s Inspiration website. There are so many helpful tips and motivational affirmations there. “Empowering actors to believe, achieve and enjoy the journey” is Wendy’s motto.

She’s come out with a CD of affirmations tailoured for actors. And, there’s a sample affirmation that you can download to see if it resonates for you. I was all set to order one of these CDs for myself, but the high postage cost to England put me off. Hopefully one day it’ll be offered as a download, which would make a better investment costwise. I purchased Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt’s “The Voiceover Warm up” in this fashion and it worked a treat.

Anyway, if you’re Stateside, this CD by Wendy could be a valuable tool in your voiceover arsenal. You can order it via the “store”section of Wendy’s website. I’m not getting any kickback on this, I just found the sample affirmation to be brilliant and want to spread the word!

I’ve also now discovered Wendy’s Twitter page and she’s always tweeting some lovely affirmations there as well.

That’s today’s voiceover tip…bye for now!

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Growing A Biz

Bit by bit, inch by inch (and sometimes with great leaps) we CAN make our entrepreneurial dreams come true. We ARE making those dreams come true.

Give the best service we can. Just keep working at it, trying different methods to create awareness and bring in the clients.

Here’s a quote from business blogger Seth Godin that came in my email today. He was talking about the usefulness, or not, of slogans.

“Not everything you do actually gets a response. In fact, most of it doesn’t. But each effort is a tiny brick in the wall of perception, even when it appears to be dumb and even senseless.”

All for now…Happy Sunday!

September is National Voiceover Month

Several of my colleagues in the States have started a movement to name September as National Voiceover Month. It’s good to have something to mark the contributions that voiceover people worldwide have made to society and the economy, I guess.

I did a podcast recently as my contribution.

You can listen to it here:

stefsvoice4u Broadcast – September is National Voice Over Month

My colleague, Stephanie Ciccarelli of voices.com [www.voices.com] – explains the occasion in her recent blog:

“A voice over is a spoken word performance given by an actor who is heard but not seen. Voice overs are produced most often to educate, inform or entertain and can be heard via many different mediums such as broadcast, video games, film, telephony, audiobooks and more.

If you’ve ever heard a voice over and were the better for it, now is the time to celebrate!

Voices.com is pleased to help spread the word about what’s going on…
What’s a Voice Over?

What is a voice over and why might you appreciate voice overs?
A voice over (also referred to as “VO”) is a recorded vocal performance that can be heard in advertisements on radio, television and on the Internet. Voice overs are also consumed via educational materials, public service announcements, narration, talking toys, character voices in cartoons and more.

The human voice is not only part of who we are but plays an important role in how we communicate and express ourselves. Voice over narration tells a story, and when most effective, reaches not only our ears but our hearts.

Because of the nature of voice over, it is sometimes easy to forget that there are people behind the voices. That being said, National Voice Over Appreciation Month is also a time to recognize professional voice over talent and their work.

How We’re Celebrating
At Voices.com, we’re celebrating Voice Over Appreciation Month in a number of ways, including an Open House at the Voices.com Offices, hosting a gathering of voice over professionals and producers and through our sponsorship of the US-based voice over unconference FaffCon. We are also pleased to sponsor and be present at Voices of Vision, a Canadian voice over training and networking event to be held in Toronto on September 23-25, 2010.”

Cheers…

Stefania

Follow Your Dream — today!

Everybody knows that we must do the proper actions to support our dreams…we can’t just sit around and visualise…then expect the reality of the dream to be there when we open our eyes.

In light of that knowledge, I’ve been quite busy lately on the voiceover front working to carry my VO dream to the next level. Auditions, gigs, podcasting twice a week, and keeping in contact with my most-treasured VO buddies… it’s all part of the mix.

I came across this poem in the Inspiration Line newsletter – www.InspirationLine.com  – I get each week, and wanted to share it with you here!

If you have a dream …

Don’t wait for some distant day to come, it may be too late before you’ve even begun.

 

Not everyone will agree with all you decide …

Sometimes “the majority” only means that all the fools are on the same side.

 

Be true to yourself first and foremost …

The only important thing in life is what you do with the time you spend here on earth.

 Don’t be afraid to follow your desires …

They are neither silly nor selfish; take the time and do what makes you feel alive.

 

Leave your fears and regrets in the past …

Our eyes are placed in front because it’s more important to look ahead than to look back.

 

 If you look back, your journey is ended …

 
You have only today to begin anew and follow your dreams, for in the end, all we have are our memories.

Do not quiet your dreams …

 
When the twilight comes to us, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets!

~ Author Unknown ~

Cheers gang!

Get FaffCon Flair!

No Limitations – Know Your Limits

Today’s blog is a rather seat of the pants affair. I’m just going to sit here and write! 

What a paradoxical topic I’ve picked. As a firm believer in positive thinking, I think we should set no limits on what we can achieve, how high we can go in our lives and careers. There are plenty of other peeps who’ll take on that job for you.  With training and ongoing self-improvement we can raise the bar for ourselves.

However,  sometimes, maybe we bite off  more than we can chew. I was approached to do a spot of copywriting.  The pay wasn’t much, but I thought let’s give it a go…multiple streams of income and all… however as it turned out – though I got kudos for being a good writer -I didn’t quite have the technical expertise to handle that topic. Really, I shouldn’t have tried it in the first place. But, I was eager to give it a go.

So therein comes — know your limits. It’s ok to say ‘No’ that’s not for me. I’m very good at doing this with consideration to voice over gigs, now I must apply that in other areas of life. Of course I didn’t get paid. But it was still a good learning experience.  Learned fast. Today, was faced with a similar scenario — No, no, no — leave it for someone else for whom it would be a valuable experience.

There are so many things we can do in life…why bother with the other…the Universe will provide if we keep our eyes and hearts open.

I found out about a very interesting group called Meet up. I’d heard about it a while back, but had forgotten all about it. I learned via Facebook, that there’s going to be a meet up in London for Voices 123 peeps. So as I’m registered on the site, I figured this would be a great time to expand my voiceover London circle. They’re meeting at a pub in Soho, on Monday, 28 June at 6:30pm, if anyone’s interested in going. This meet-up was initiated by Gary Terzza. I look forward to meeting him and the others. Here’s a link to the Meet-up page: London Voices123 Meet-Up

Voiceover artist Bobbin Beam wrote a great blog recently on movement whilst doing voiceover recording. It was a very inspirational and useful piece. I’ve found myself, that it really helps to move around. Even sometimes, I just like to hold my hands up in the air to open my chest and feel a bit freerer. If you have a little trawl through YouTube and look at the videos of Robin Williams or some other actors doing animation voiceover, you’ll see they’re all over the place. Sometimes, doing a quiet moment in a session, I’ll find myself making little, tiny movements to almost bring myself and my energy field in closer. It all helps!

My little podcast stefsvoice4u Broadcast  is coming along. I’m up to number 6. You can even subscribe via iTunes now. So feel free to have a listen, and maybe even subscribe?!

Voiceover News

Voiced a couple of marketing messages recently and an environmentally-oriented piece. Then, …Auditions, auditions and more auditions!

Cheers all!

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My new Podcast

Well, I’ve joined the Podcasting brigade! I’m quite enjoying it…broadcasting news about voiceover, lifestyle, travel, audiobook narrations… I’ll be broadcasting twice a week.

I’ve done three so far, – they’re under review at iTunes, so it will soon be possible to subscribe to them via iTunes.

Here are the first three that I’ve done. I’ll be working on the 4th one this week.

1st Broadcast – Children’s fiction narration

stefsvoice4u Broadcast – Podcast #1

2nd Broadcast – Voiceover A-Z, Events in London, iPod App of the Week

stefsvoice4u Broadcast – Podcast #2

3rd Broadcast – St. Albans Market, events coming up, Children’s fiction narration, Pt. 2

stefsvoice4u Broadcast – Podcast #3

Cheers all!

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A Day at the Seaside

Stream of Consciousness Musings

A short train ride to the Devon seaside at Exmouth…
Brisk winds, cloudy skies, seashell filled sand adorned with big wads of seaweed which had been washed up on the shore…

The atmosphere was permeated with the smell of seaside air, mingled with the cooking smells of fish and chips.

Waves lapping up on the shore

(this might be one of those “you had to be there” snaps–haha!)

It is said that the air by the sea is filled with positive ions, good for cleansing mind, body and spirit.

So many lovely seashells (and mussel shells) everywhere

It was a good time. Enjoying the warmth and comfort of coffee and home made fruit cake in the Hall at the Sunday market, followed by a walk along the shore into the wind, a bit chilly…
but bracing and energising!

All good!

App of the Week

“5 Minute Yoga”

Really nice to loosen up with before a recording session, followed by Tongue Twisters and some lip trills, or something similar. It’s also good to do maybe at the start or end of a day.

VoiceOver News

Kept a little busy recording a Library Systems tutorial, and doing more announcements for the radio station. More goodies in the pipeline…looking forward to those promised projects coming to fruition. The sooner, the better!

Such is the voiceover life!

Cheers…

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