In this Issue:
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| Industry News................Canada
first eh? |
| VO Marketing.............Is this a big
job? |
| Home Studio.........It really can be
simple. |
| Just Getting Started.........So you
want to be a Voice Artist? |
| VoiceOver Tips............one dirty little
4 letter word and one sneaky 5 letter one |
| Your input..........feel free to submit
questions and concerns |
| Why join CV?.........Do you have what
it takes? |
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Industry News
The buzz words here in Canada from the government are "common
look and feel". This phrase is used for government website developers
to design most pages to have many common characteristics and a common
flavour for them to be easily understood by a myriad of global visitors.
The Literacy situation is the main thrust for this movement along
with accessibility for hearing and vision impaired, dyslexia, new
immigrants and people with education shortfalls. It makes sense and
it's about time. Since bandwidth, among other evolving technologies
is no longer as much of a concern as it once was a short while back,
many departments are including audio in both of Canada's official
languages, to be available for the visitor. Next we will probably
see video as well as the demand for easy comprehensible access is
becoming more the norm rather than a feature only for the rich and
famous. We fully suspect that other countries will get on this bandwagon
soon. After all, it is about effective and efficient communication
to the masses. Did you know that information documents in general
should be written for Grade 6?
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VO Marketing
You bet your Sennheiser it is! Unlike mass marketing of your new neon
widget, VO people have to contact targeted clients who actually can
hire their talents. Not every business or project for that matter
requires a VO but the list is growing daily. To top that, ideally,
VO talents absolutely have to get heard by the Producer. This is no
easy task for a few reasons. Producers are inundated with VO CD's,
tapes, mp3s, telephone calls (naturally) and anything else that will
fit through a mail slot or an e-mail program. The Producer's job begins
as a nightmare and hopefully comes out as an Oscar winning production.
Two of our CV members have excellent books out on this topic and also
includes many other aspects of the VO industry as well. Look into
"VO Tales and Techniques
of a Voice-Over Actor" by Harlan Hogan and also "Is
There Money in your Mouth" by Mike Weiner. Both of these talents
have extensive industry experience and "have been there.....done
that". You can access Mike's book online if you want to get at
things right away. Look him up at VoiceLine.
You might also win a copy in our contest below.
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Home Studio
The majority of CV members either have their own home studio or have
immediate access to one. Investing in a Home Studio runs the gamut
from a few thousand dollars to multi-thousands. Basically you need
a powerful computer, a high quality sound card, a small mixer, an
editing program and a microphone. Take a look at the personal sites
of our CV members and click on their studio info if available. There
you will find the makes and models of all the above mentioned equipment
and much more. You will quickly see that some VO's invest heavily
in sound equipment and in addition, to ISDN equipment where their
studio can talk directly in real time with any other studio globally
and achieve pristine results. Technology is wonderful but it doesn't
come cheap. DSL, a high speed Internet connection is very inexpensive
and very useful but cannot compete with Producers who require a hands
on immediate approach. Click on our "Join" page http://commercialvoices.com/join.php
and click on "What is ISDN/DSL" for more information. Then
there is the concern of audio storage and delivery, this topic will
be covered when we address ISP hosts and bandwidth etc. in the next
issue of our CV Newsletter
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Just Getting Started
So somewhere someone said that you have a beautiful voice and you
should be doing commercials or narration for a full or part time living?
Hey, this is not news, many of us have heard the same thing. It is
one thing to have a good voice, it is entirely another matter to actually
sell it. Think of it this way, here I am with a beautiful fully equipped
kitchen, cupboards and freezers full of great food and all I have
to do is put together a first-class gourmet meal. Well now.....this
is not as easy as it looks, right? I'm sure you can figure things
out from there. VO people spend countless hours recording and practicing,
altering tone and inflection, volume and intensity to try and find
their "natural sound" and then hope that it is marketable.
Tiger Woods did not come by his talents naturally, he had to work
hard on it. Would you like 25 cents for every golf ball Tiger ever
drove or putted? As mentioned above under VO Marketing I recommend
that you pick up any of the numerous books on the subject by our CV
members or anyone else who is established in the industry for that
matter. This will save you much time, effort and expense if you invest
a few dollars now and get the low-down quickly.
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VoiceOver Tips
Tone and Tempo. Two of the most important and critical little challenges
you have to master to enjoy a successful career in the VO industry.
When a Producer is listening to auditions his very first concern is
usually tone, and he/she can pick it out in less than 20 seconds.
If the tone is not what he is looking for then good luck, maybe next
time. This is not something you can easily change, sure you can lower,
heighten, speed up, slow down, apply a variety of inflections and
nuances to your voice but a good Producer can say yes or no in a flash.
This is not necessarily bad news, he will probably remember your tone
and possibly consider you for his next project. Hey! At least you
have been heard and that is a considerable accomplishment. Getting
heard costs money no matter what approach you take to accomplish it.
Most CV talents exude tone and tempo, give them a listen.
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Your input
Your questions, concerns and comments are very important to us at
CV. Whether you are a client wishing you were a Producer or a Producer
looking for VO talent, contact us at your convenience and we will
point you in the right direction. Many of our VO talents wear Producer
hats, script writing hats and marketing hats, so questions in just
about any category are welcome. We will add a Q&A section as these
questions come along but at this point everything is wide open. Send
us an e-mail and watch for the reply in our next Newsletter. Your
query will be answered by one of our top VO talents. E-mail
us here.
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Why join CV?
The short answer is to get heard and get hits. There are hundreds
of "free" sites on the Internet where you can register your
e-mail address, your website URL, and some will even host your audio
samples. CV is not a free site. Clients and Producers know this, they
realize that our VO people are in this business for the long haul.
They know these people are full time professionals with a history
and a client list that in many cases, that will blow you away. They
also know that our members do not consider themselves to be the answer
to all of their VO projects. CV is a source of multitalented people
who have the ability to deliver world-class quality projects on time,
on budget and guaranteed. This is not to say that the "free"
sites are of no use. On the contrary, one thing that they do do is
get your name read and perhaps if enough clients or producers see
your name often enough they might be interested enough to visit your
website. But that's where the similarity ends. When a producer wants
to cut this dreaded "search for talent" chore down to minimum
time he clicks on our Producers+
feature. In a nutshell, we will deliver custom samples of the clients
script by interested Platinum members and he can choose the VO who
he knows will do the job.
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Contest
In our first issue we are pleased to offer 2 copies of Mike
Weiner's online book called "Is There Money in
Your Mouth". This hard driving, no nonsense valuable
literary production hits home with no fluff and is considered to
be a "must read" for new and experienced VO people alike.
To enter for this draw click here Both winner's names will
be published in our November NewsLetter
..........good luck!
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