Archive for May, 2009
So I finally got around to Steven Lowell’s answer to my post Voice123 wants to turn my account inacctive
and loe and behold… I read this in his blog post answer (please keep in mind that he provided this answer to put my mind at ease)
” Now, I am sure that we all like to park ourselves on websites for good exposure, but the plain and simple truth is…You are either in this voice over business or you are not. It is not wise to throw your name on a website with the hopes they will find you, and then, not pay attention to it. You have to be there to answer when someone comes fishing around to offer work for you. In the eyes of those ‘looking for talent’, they have specifically stated they view this as false advertising. ”
First let me define the term Public Relations: Read More
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It seems that almost all voice talent that I have spoken to recently and who have dealt with the voice over casting site Voice 123 unanimously dislike their SmartCast System.
The site itself doesn’t seem to be that bad … well except for having horrible Public Relations and generally a very automated feel to everything. A feeling that is a little less felt in Voices.com. Bodalgo.com and VOplanet.com have a much smaller setup so you still feel like you’re dealing with human beings on the other end.
But recently while checking my Feedburner statistics (to know if you are enjoying my blog or if I’m doing something wrong) I noticed that someone else is using the term SmartCast…. not only that but they have it as a Trade Mark. Read More
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Morning Folks, Today’s post is kind of a followup on a previous post of mine called How To Learn Any Accent which itself was a build on another post of mine called Funtime: Accents of the World. In the Accents of the world post I featured a youtube video for Amy Walker called 21 Accents… I will repost it here:
as you can see Amy’s talent is quite remarkable… Amy’s short 2.5 video was posted in January of 2008 and within a few days went Viral… Viral Videos for those who are a little confused by the terms are basically videos that become so popular that the whole internet starts speaking about it… they are called Viral because they spread in popularity like a virus.
Amy’s 2.5 minute video was such a success that it got her an appearance on the Today Show. Here is an interview with Amy were she explains her background and the story behind her 21 accents video:
Amy was nice enough to take some time away from her hectic work schedule and answer a few questions for Taji’s Voice Emporium:
Mahmoud Taji
First I would like to thank you for giving me a bit of your time… I know these day’s things are quite hectic for you..so I’ll get right to the questions:
Your Youtube video post caused quite a sensation… 1.5 million views since Jan 2008…. how has it effected your career?
Amy Walker
It blew my mind. The fact that I can film a piece that I’m inspired to share, and immediately people whom I’ll never meet on the other side of the planet can be inspired by it… it’s incredible. It woke me up to the power of the internet as a community-builder. That, in turn, sparked the idea to fund our feature film Connected, by small donations from people around the world, to show what we can do when we unite for a common goal. I’ve chosen to be empowered by the internet to create the work I feel drawn to, instead of relying on an agent to convince other people that I’m what they’re looking for. You can feel powerless as an actor or filmmaker in the studio system. That’s changing now. Read More
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Hey Folks… if there’s anything that is clear by now about me … its the fact that I get myself into trouble… and it seems its usually with the ladies 
A few weeks back I wrote up a post called Casting Sites Roundup and in part of it I basically cut and pasted an email that was sent to me by Michelle Summers and the team at VOplanet.com …. part of the email was a testimonial by the Great Bettye Zollar that talks about one of her friend’s spending $5,500 per year on voice over casting, audition and promotional sites.
I … as a regular none award winning, run of the mill, none half a mill making human … aka joe in australian or guy in american, bloke in british (you get the picture) expressed my shock… in emoticon terms my face looked like this
:O
Yesterday she addressed my expressed shock at this amount and left a comment at my posting:
” In my workshops on this subject, The Voiceover Internet: The Audition Olympics, I provide worldwide online casting site information. Additionally, there are many sites with big money jobs, not the small money ones prevalent on the “great masses” sites. They have their place too. College kids and newbees can take the $100 and $150 jobs. But we pros who often have pro studios with ISDN and all the latest equipment, are set apart on certain sites who prevent those from joining who are not professionals with an ISDN studio. The overseas list is huge too. Not just Europe, but other countries including South America and Russia are looking for American English voices. China too. Those who think $5500 professional dues per year and even more money is too much obviously are not making much money. ” Read More
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Hmmm… as a followup to my Transformers post I decided to go see if any significant interviews were made with Peter Cullen in case there wasnt and I can go do one myself.
Alas there was one done by Whitney Matheson of Pop Candy (part of the USA Today conglomerate) and here it is:
A chat with … Peter Cullen, aka Optimus Prime
Oh, how I wish the younger version of me were here to read this interview …
Even if you don’t recognize Peter Cullen‘s name, you’ve probably heard him — the actor has voiced husky Transformers hero Optimus Prime for 20 years, and he appeared in nearly every popular cartoon during the ’80s: The Smurfs, Snorks, Gummi Bears, Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe, Voltron, the list goes on. In recent years, he has also voiced Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh cartoons.
Recently I chatted with Cullen about what it’s been like to play an Autobot for two decades, and what he thinks of the upcoming live-action Transformers movie, in which he’ll reprise the role. If you’d like to meet him in person, he’ll appear at this weekend’s BotCon in Lexington, Ky.
Me: I grew up hearing you in several cartoons — how did you get into voice work? Read More
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