Change is Inevitable

The only constant is change. It used to be (for those of us who remember the days of black and white television) at a fairly slow pace. Adoption of new technologies was at a slower pace. You had time to adjust – albeit some were dragged along kicking and screaming about the old days.

But the speed of the changes started to pick up and today, you barely have time to buy a new technology before the newest and more advanced product is available. We face it daily, so why is it so hard to accept the inevitable.

I am still using Adobe Audition 1 on my editing computer. I like it. It still works – on my XP operating system. All my computers are XP. But, I know that will have to change the next time I have to upgrade the hardware. I will not like this change – at first. I’ll kick and scream and bitch and moan. But eventually, I’ll find the groove and ignore the steady stream of new changes until the inevitable happens again.

My Musicam Prima 120 ISDN codec is a dinosaur, but it still works. When that decides to die, I may not need to replace it, because the writing appears to be on the wall for the death of ISDN.

One major sports network that depends on ISDN for rock steady communication lines has been alerted by Verizon that they will be cutting off ISDN service in East Coast markets this coming May.

http://www.rwonline.com/article/alert-for-isdn-users/218605

This truly makes me sad. My best times, other than actually being in someone else’s studio face-to-face with a dedicated engineer and producer/director, is being in my booth using my ISDN lines with a dedicated engineer and producer/director.

It works. I’m happy. The producer is happy.

But, because of the early warning signs, I have already invested in Source-Connect and have used that effectively with a couple of regular clients. It isn’t quite the same. It is much more complicated to establish the connection. The connection isn’t as reliable. I have to do so much more “engineering.” All of these things detract (at least in my own mind) from my ability to just perform.

So, now, for the first time since the undercurrent of mutterings predicting the demise of ISDN began, it looks like it might actually be happening. It is ironic that my lines have been working more the past year or so. Some of those clients are on the East Coast, so perhaps the change will affect me sooner than later.

So, time to let my technology advancement radar system loose to be sure that I am ready for the inevitable.

Interrup…what the h#%@! was that? Distrac…oooh, look at that!

Today, I am not talking about being distracted by amusing kitty videos on Facebook, although I did see at least one funny video that distracted me so far today.

And I’m not talking about the constant flow of email that comes in that – of course – needs to be handled immediately (even if it DOESN’T).

Nor am I talking about being interrupted by the dog scratching at the door, or the cat sliding across some papers which are now all over the floor and need to be picked up before the dog actually gets in to trample them with dirty paws.

And I am not talking about the frequent helicopter flyovers – both routine (the gas’em up path is over my house) and not-so-routine (the circling helo’s looking for whatever mischief is being sparked by semi-high density housing and a bad economy).

No today it is interruptions of major proportions – but an interruption with a shining light at the end the alley.

Today, the back hoes and diggers are punching through the patched concrete in preparation for laying new concrete and getting the heck OUT of my alley where rotating crews of gas company and water department and contractors have been grinding and digging and filling and repeating for the past three (yes 3!) years.

I managed to sneak in a couple of auditions today while they were on break and will be able to finish a project a bit later on after they leave for the day.  Although my limited booth time was interrupted by two phone calls – one a robo-call. (And people wonder why I am not always my bubbly self when answering the phone…)

Some distractions we can stop. I don’t HAVE to have my Facebook page open all the time. Or my Skype account. I don’t HAVE to check email constantly. Or see what is happening with my peeps on the VO-BB (wait, I do have to do that).

Some interruptions can be reduced. I can turn the ringer off on my phone (a possible problem in that I would likely forget to turn it back up). I can keep the door closed to the cats and train the dog not to scratch.

There is plenty of paperwork to do during those time when I can’t actually record. In fact, I just went through my In Box sorting and filing and found a couple of little things that almost fell through the cracks. And, of course, there is a great big outdoors that would love to spend more time with me.

Interruptions and distractions are a fact of life. But it will be so nice when this work in the alley is finally completed.

A Dozen Years and Counting..(wait make that almost 3 dozen…)

I’ve been in the voiceover business for much more than 12 years, but I got an email the other day from an occasional client and noticed that the earliest email I have from him is dated 2000. And then after looking at my current client list, I see a couple of others on-going since then, some with monthly (even weekly) work. My records for much earlier than that have either been lost for good on some dead hard drive, or packed away in boxes.

But I would put my first paid voiceover work doing some TV Staff Announcing in 1975, when I was working part-time at WTIU-TV during graduate school at Indiana University. Prior to that in 1972, I wrote, voiced and produced public service announcements on KCOE-FM while at Coe College in Cedar Rapids Iowa. So if I do the math, the number of years doing something related to voiceovers is far more than my brain even allows me to count.

After landing in San Diego in the early summer of 1977, I was immediately hired at KFMB-TV, Channel 8 as a Relief Director/Floor Director. I quickly discovered that this was not what I wanted to do and by early 1978, I moved into a 2 day a week live TV staff announcing job at Channel 8.

Because I didn’t sound like your typical announcer, the radio and TV station’s production departments kept me busy doing commercials. I got my first agent that year – Nanci Washburn at Artist Management in San Diego/Orange County. She is still my agent here in southern California.

But voiceover work was not my passion. While I was getting quite well known in town as a top female voice talent, I still wanted to write and produce, so I spent the other 3 days a week free lancing as a producer/writer/on and off-camera spokesperson. I still did a lot of voiceover work and did weekend DJ work at KJQY, KYXY and Sunny 103.7.

I kept this up through some very hard times – with some solid lessons learned – until 1986 when I was hired full-time at the Hidden Film Factory in the basement of the now bulldozed Bldg 4 at General Dynamics in San Diego. It was a shock to me to see how quickly my voiceover work fell off when I wasn’t able to market myself. Travel prevented me from keeping the weekend radio shift. And while I really wasn’t aware of it at first, technology was changing the face of the voiceover business.

For nearly 9 years I had probably the best job ever – it was at the peak of GD’s business with business units across the country making everything from tanks to jets to submarines to missiles. We made videos and shot film for all of the divisions and products. And I had a chance to work with everything and everyone – people on the factory floor to engineers to Managers to the President of the company. It was a job that prepared me well for where I am today – making my living doing voiceover work.

But while the job was great, I missed free lancing. Not everyone adapts to a life style of not knowing when your next paycheck will show up, but for me I knew I wanted to go back to being my own boss.

So, when GD (I was actually wearing a Lockheed Martin badge by then) closed the doors in 1995, I was more than ready. And boy howdy had things changed. For a while, I kept up the producing and writing, but suddenly I had more passion for the performance side of things.

I will be ever grateful for the influences I had in my life back in the 90′s when it came to understanding the power of the Internet. I got some domains. Put up a couple of (hand coded) websites. Built a studio in my home. Got a great deal on an ISDN codec. All paving the way to where I am today.

So the work has been ongoing far far longer than a dozen years. And I don’t see it ending anytime soon.

Is there a lesson here? Lots of lessons. Keep your eyes open. Ask the right questions. Be honest with yourself and your abilities. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Use your critical thinking. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Know when to ask for help.

One lesson I probably still need to learn is when and how to say “no.” So, I guess that just means I’ll have to stick around this business for another dozen or so years!

 

Pro Bono or No Pro Bono or “Huh? What are you thinking?”

“Pro bono: done for free, done without compensation, for the public good”

I occasionally am asked by companies if I can provide voice tracks for little or no money. In most of these cases, the company is a not-for-profit and I can weigh the value of the public good against the value of my current bank account. OK, that’s a little flippant. At this point in my career I can afford to donate some of my time to a good cause. But even when I was just starting out, if the right cause came along, I would make the time for it.

However, it is important to remember that not-for-profit does not translate directly to not-for-money. Every group has a budget of some sort, or it will cease to be a group at some point.

I walk a tightrope on this issue, because in addition to my definitely for-profit voiceover business, I am the Executive Director of a not-for-profit 501c3 group that doesn’t have a lot of money. But, since this is a group of business people, they understand that asking people to do something for nothing only works if 1) the person is committed to the values and goals of the group, or 2) if the person is looking to showcase their abilities to the group in the hopes of more “paid” work down the line (and this works best if the person you are working for the final decision maker).

I willingly provide discounted or free services to a few select companies. In the case of for-profit companies asking me to provide services at a reduced rate, I have been known to accept some trade in addition to some dollars (if the product is something that I can use). I have even provided my voice free to regular clients when the mood strikes. Frankly, I do not get requests to provide my services for free all that often.

But asking me to provide my voice for free to an “unknown to me,” but established for-profit company for their marketing material in exchange for being considered for a future job (along with some number of other people)  is simply such an outrageous request that I am still shaking my head in wonderment.

Likely, someone will do the work for free for this company – and perhaps that someone will be afforded the opportunity to compete for the other project – and perhaps they will even get the project. Fine. If I gave away everything I recorded for the chance of money down the line, I would be in debt up to my eyeballs – and that isn’t any way to run a business.

To quote Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers…

“Wagstaff: Where were we? Oh yes. How much am I paying you fellows?

Professor Two: Five thousand a year. But we’ve never been paid.

Wagstaff: Well, in that case, I’ll raise you to eight thousand. And a bonus. Bring your dog around and I’ll give him a bonus too.”

 

Voice Actors – are we stepping out from the shadows?

A friend sent me a link to an article published by CNN.com about voice actors (mostly cartoon voice actors) getting more recognition now because of the Internet. The fan base is increasing. Which makes sense. These famous A-lister voiceover actors – were mostly unknown for the most part, until the Internet. We’re not talking about the movie stars who have transitioned to animation, but the voice actors who stay mostly behind the mic, not the lens. And if they do appear on-camera, it is usually a character role.

The article focused mostly on voices like Frank Welker, Seth McFarlane, and Peter Cullen. One quote caught my eye – from Frank Cullen…

“The respect level (for voice acting) is climbing and climbing faster than it ever did before in the last few years. The studios are recognizing they don’t have to hire a big name actor. People don’t know the difference in most cases. They’re finding they can take a chance with talent and accomplish the same thing.”

I would like to agree with this statement. But you have to understand that it is being said by one of those voice actors in the inner circle. One who breathes the rarefied air that comes with living in LA. (Perhaps that is exhaust fumes.) “Take a chance with talent” doesn’t mean the unknown voice actor from the hinterlands. It means, accomplished versatile voice actors with reputable agents who live in LA.

While I don’t live in LA and am not actively pursuing animation work, I do have experience doing character voices for animation. Lots of character voices – for animated cartoons such as The New Yorker, Dilbert and Cul de Sac. The economy stopped production on these strips, so my outlet for the kind of creative expression has been stifled for the time being.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to attend a table read of the Simpson’s (thank you Terry Greene, dialog editor/actor) up at Fox Studios in LA – and was able to see a few of these very talented, A-list voice actors at work. Three of the main cast (Julie Kavner, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer) were not physically in attendance – instead those familiar voices emerged from the teleconference system in the middle of the conference room table. But Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardly Smith, Tress MacNeille and Pamela Hayden were there in person.

It was a long table – with the actors around one half – and the writers (a lot of writers) around the other half. In the middle sat Matt Groening and the director of this episode.

The table filled the room – leaving just enough space for one row of chairs along three walls – the back wall had room for about 3 short rows of folding chairs. I wandered around until I found my seat – indicated by a copy of the script for the episode with a sticky with my name on the cover. There was coffee and fruit and donuts.

But I had just spent too many hours in the car to eat or drink anything. My stomach was churning after pounding the steering wheel as the traffic slowed to a crawl and I started to worry about being late. My infrequent trips to LA reinforce my decision not to move there – which will prevent me from being considered for most of the higher level animation work.

It was fun. Everyone read their parts with gusto. There was lots of laughter, which is partly why they invite an audience – the script has never been “read” before. Hearing Marge grunt through the speaker in response to one of Homer’s boneheaded moves, was almost worth the drive. Yeardly Smith is a master at lacing one word with deep sub-text. Nancy Cartwright moving from Bart to Nelson – who had a couple of fabulous straight lines this script – was such fun! And what can you say about seeing Dan Castellaneta in action. Tress MacNeille did nine (9) voices this episode – matching Hank Azaria.

These are the voice actors this article is referring to. Actors like Tress MacNeille and Pamela Hayden.  They really are A-list and deserve the recognition.

*************

PS – if some big time casting director is looking for someone to fill in a few voices for their next animated feature – here are a couple of samples! ;-)   Socialite Mother (New Yorker Cartoons), Miss Bliss (Cul de Sac) and Carol (Dilbert).

FaffCon 5 Followup: Fabulous

Why has it been hard for me to get to the blog to write about my FaffCon5 experience? It was fabulous. No doubt about that. And I was looking at it in a much different light than my previous 4 FaffCons because this time I wasn’t involved in the planning. This time, I just got to participate and truly spend quality time with people. Which was a good thing. Of course, being on the planning team is a good thing too! But I let that get in the way of my real participation in FaffCon. So, this time, I just showed up and tried not to jump in and organize. When I got to the hotel on Thursday evening, I noticed the FaffCon staff having their big dinner and I started to feel left out. Several other Faffers were at another table and quickly distracted me. I was however, allowed to organize everyone for the big group picture, so I did get a mini-organizer power surge. FaffCon 5 was a party that didn’t stop from the moment I landed in Charlotte – until I touched back down in San Diego.

But the reason I haven’t written is that I have been way busy! Busy doing some personal followups. Busy unraveling some misdirected charges to my credit card. Busy checking out the FaffCon pics on Facebook. Busy working. Seems like the moment I got back the inbox and phone exploded with projects and auditions. Busy with other life stuff. Time to bring my mom back from Mexico where she has been for the last few months living with relatives.

This is a good thing of course, but it does go directly back to something Amy brings up in the closing circle at FaffCon. Once we leave, no matter how wonderful our experiences seemed at the time – no matter how excited we are to jump in and accomplish all the little tasks we assigned ourselves during each session – no matter what – life will take over and at least some of our best intentions fall by the wayside. The buzz fades – but never really goes completely away.

I haven’t even had time to go through my notes yet! But my subconscious is still bubbling with golden nuggets. Much like our subconscious helps us find the right meaning in the words we read for our clients, mine is working in the background helping me in a myriad little ways – some of which I am aware of, but I’ll just bet groundwork is being laid which will show up when I least expect it.

The Post Cards to ourselves with the reminder notes is a wonderful idea for keeping us on track, but now with nearly a full year before we see them, we will be even more surprised when they arrive with their hastily scribbled To Do list. I am looking at my past cards right now…noticing that I still have a lot of work to do to check off all my goals. Most of the items on the lists are still relevant and would probably strengthen my business if/when they are completed, so they are prominently displayed.

But life takes priority – and today I will quickly finish up this little report and get some recording done that I was not able to finish during the week. After that, I’ll probably pull out my pirate wench outfit for a party – because life isn’t all about work.

When the post card does show up, I’ll stick it up with the others and let the FaffCon buzz do its magic.

 

We Want What We Cannot Have

Why is it that the faster technology advances the less it does what we want?

Oh, it does so much – and much much more – but the very fact that it does so much makes us want it to do more!

And some of stuff not doing what we want it to do is operator error. It does so much – how can anyone know the total scope of its capabilities…until you ask it to do something it simply can’t.

For example, my travel recording gear used to be a dbx mini-pre with my AKG 1000 mic and a Toshiba laptop. Worked great. Then I got a MicPortPro, which saved some weight and space.

But it didn’t work on my laptop, because I was using Adobe Audition 2 and it didn’t support USB mic connections. An upgrade to Audition 3 was needed to get the MicPortPro to work with the laptop. Fine, software upgrades are inevitable.

I got a little tablet recently, not really intending to use it to record, but it wouldn’t if I wanted to because it is a droid and the mini-USB port doesn’t work that way – yet.

And I saw this cute little mic that plugs into the headphone jack on a smart phone and records pretty decent sound (audition quality), but only if you have an iPhone can you do anything with it. Again, droid isn’t supporting that stuff – yet.

Despite these droid failings, I am not ready to get an i-Anything. If I need to record while traveling, I have a system that works well. Can’t pack it in my purse, but if I could, I’d be tempted to never stop working.

An extended vacation is something I would also like to have. Taking two weeks off (in a row) is the extent of my time away from my “job” since – well. I’ve never taken more than two weeks off – ever.

But, that is something I imagine I could have – if I really wanted – or needed it. (Don’t say it…)

Now, if I could hook up a mic to that little Xoom and pack it away in my purse – then I could take a long “vacation” and – oh , wait, then it wouldn’t be a vacation.

Well, I just need to wait a couple of months and the next generation of hardware, firmware and software will be waiting for me to upgrade and without a doubt, within two days, I will want it to do something that it just can’t do – yet.

It is Critical to use our Critical Thinking

One of the things I am grateful for is that my early education included some training in critical thinking. In not blindly accepting whatever you see, hear or read.

Well, seeing is believing they say and if something happens right in front of you – and you can feel the heat, the pain, the happiness, the relief – then you are probably pretty clear about the truth of the situation. Maybe.

But trust what you see on the Internet, or in a link you get in email? Trust what you read on shared posts on Facebook? Pretty much NEVER!

I enjoin everyone to stop and THINK! I’m not saying I have a perfect record in ferreting out falsehoods, but I grow more and more skeptical about the things that cross my eyes and ears.

Today, in two of the usual places I check to catch up on what my friends and family are up to, I saw a post to an “audition” for the voice of Duke Nukem purported to be done by Morgan Freeman.

If just that alone wasn’t enough to raise a “huh” from you, then the inane banter that was supposed to be coming from Freeman as he “pretended” to not understand what was happening should have been the second clue. It boggles the mind to believe that Freeman would have done this in the first place – but beyond incredulous that he would have let it go on as long as it did.

And as the clip went on, the voice doing the very good imitation of Freeman slipped up and his Dutch accent came out.

While this example of people not using their critical thinking is harmless enough, it scares me that they will be not be using this apparently lost skill in this critical time as we decide who to elect this November – both in the Presidential race and in the various other races.

Stop, stop, stop blindly forwarding ridiculous stories that your common sense and critical thinking should have questioned.

I don’t care what side of the political spectrum you sit – personally, I am about as middle-of-the-road as you can get (one of them darn swing voters) – just try to apply some critical thinking to the things you decide to post, share or forward.

Back when my very liberal Aunt was alive, she would send me clippings from magazines about different political footballs – the ones that supported her side of the debate. I would volley with an article debunking this point of view from my rather more conservative slant. We would then have a phone call and discuss the merits of both sides of the issues.

What I am seeing these days is no civil discourse. Opposing points of view are treated with such vitriol and disdain that it becomes difficult to contribute anything to the discussion. There is really no discussion.

The issues are so massive, so complex, that there are no easy answers. It is hard to even formulate the right questions to ask. So the only way to figure things out is to engage in meaningful dialog.

So, when you do see something that just seems odd, outrageous, juvenile, or ridiculous – put your critical thinking cap on. I’ll try to do the same.

The Value of a Voiceover

Just what does it take to be successful as a voice talent in 2012? Treat it like a business. (This of course, assumes that you have some talent to start with.)

The Internet has changed what we do in many significant ways. It has 1) increased the number of people offering their services as voice talent (whether they should be or not), 2) cut out the middle man in casting (the people who know the value of voiceover), and because of a lack of truly understanding that this is a business like any other business it has 3) driven rates down down down.

Many people just getting started fail to see the big picture. Sure, the come on for so many of the endless voiceover classes screams “make $300 an hour,” but … can you live on one hour every few months?

One recent discussion centered on whether $25 per hour was a “good rate.”

Hey, if you are doing something 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year with a 2-week vacation and paid holidays, then $25 an hour will pay the mortgage and put food on the table – depending on where you live, it could buy you a bass boat too. But the reality of the voiceover business is that you will not be recording 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, etc., etc.

If you are a working voiceover professional, you are more likely actually voicing (and possibly editing) for an hour or two a day, but that $25 you will make for that hour must also cover the initial rate negotiation, the subsequent invoicing, the  maintenance of your equipment, that new software, the marketing plan and execution, etc., etc., etc. (There are a lot of etcetera’s in this business!)

There will be weeks where you will voice many more hours and simply not have time to do the bookkeeping and then there will be the weeks where you will not voice a single project and spend hours troubleshooting a corrupted driver issue, sorting through your email folders and catching up on marketing (or the laundry). This is not a job for people who must have a steady pay check. It is your own business.

And as it becomes easier and cheaper to acquire opportunities and tools, there is an ever increasing group of people who have simply skipped over the business part and fail to see that what they do actually has value.

No complaints…

I am not complaining.

Sure it’s hot. But we haven’ t had the heat that the rest of the country has had this summer. And sure it gets even hotter when I have to turn off the little AC in my studio to actually do some work.

Sure there has been a small plane buzzing over my general neighborhood for the past month or so that interferes with my recording when it is in the Western most part of its loop or grid (it varies from day to day). Since it is a “special” little plane, no one can tell me how long it will be doing whatever it is doing.

Sure my recording tower is acting wonky – and Audition and W2W refuse to work with the Gina card or the onboard sound card – but WILL work with my MicPortPro, so until I can find the right tech to troubleshoot, I am still able to record.

Sure ACT! doesn’t export data as expected and I’ll need to find another database program to keep track of the people who provide discounts to MCA-I members so that it can be easily shared with the Benefits Committee.

Sure we don’t currently HAVE a Benefits Committee, but one can hope!

Sure there is one long time client who is very late paying on his latest project, but I just deposited a big check from another long time client that pays the mortgage for the next couple of months.

Sure I am late for dinner because I am writing this blog. Oh, wait, I’m late for dinner at a friend’s place with a POOL!

See ya!