A Voice For Every Need: Voices for Documentaries

Did you ever need someone to translate the feeling behind something that is happening, or has happened in the past? If so, you need someone who has great voice talent, combined with a unique ability to be sensitive about the topic of your documentary, and transmit the 'grit' behind the topic!

Have you heard of that beautiful city, that great hero, the way they built that gigantic bridge, or how the space was conquered? If so, you may have noticed the common link in all of them... the documentary voice over, that voice that keeps people on their seats waiting for the commercials to be over and listen to more.

With close to 90,000 voice over talents registered to Voice123, you have thousands of specialized options to choose for your documentary.

Post a voice over project now! Listen to those that best suit your project in just a couple of hours, contact them right away, and get your project going!


Check out the documentary demos of our talents!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Photo by Me the wanderer

Community: Some Good News For a Monday!

Always fun to report Good News of Job Bookings! This week’s comes from someone you may know very well: Zurek!



The job posting...
http://voice123.com/lv/Standing_ovation__1.html

Why it was a good idea to audition for it...
Many who equate ‘dollar amount in budget’ with ‘value of job’ may want to think twice. The value in this job comes from its:

1. Professional script and description using industry lingo
2. The seeker has been on the site since January 2008 and posted before
3. In ALL the jobs posted on Voice123, the voice seeker listened to 100% of the auditions!

If you are one who ponders, ‘Why does no one listen to my audition?’, keep all this info in mind because it is displayed for all voice over talent on every project!

Thank you to Zurek for sharing this with us!

Quick news!
We hope to see you this Friday at The Voiceover Mixer being held in Times Square, or at this Voice123 Meetup in NYC on December 10th!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

New Term: Globally Accessible Voice Talent

Back in October, a blog was posted on Voice123 discussing the social implications of calling someone a ‘remote voice talent’.

We held a contest to replace the name, and after a month of receiving dozens of suggestions, we wish to present the winner today!

• GAVA - Globally Accessible Voiceover Artist

The initial survey to get suggestions yielded 30 responses! Voice talent voted last week for the contest to win a free 6-month subscription to Voice123!

Winning suggestion was proposed by Sam Glickman! (click chart)

Honorable Mention for coming in Last Place:

• Fat guy in his underwear voice talent

Oh well. I guess 'TMI' gets fewer votes. :)

Have a great Holiday, and thank you for being a part of Voice123!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Does Art Imitate Life Or Shape It?

Anyone who has to travel this week, watched an episode of Star Trek, knows about the usage of iris scanners replacing fingerprints in the NYPD, or simply dares to think differently, will appreciate this blog.

A creative talent or group of creatives, can be one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet, maybe just for having the ability to ‘plant a seed’ for a business to figure out later on.

Three things come to mind; the ideas were seeds planted by artists, and manifested into reality years later...for good and bad:


Airport Body Scanners - “Total Recall”



Cell Phones/BlueTooth - “Start Trek”
















Iris Scanners (replacing fingerprint records) - “Minority Report”



Given the recent advancements in the video game industry, I am poised to see if 'being inside the actual game' will in fact one day become a reality:



Sounds crazy? Well, so did the concept of voice over talent being able to work with you directly on voice over projects. Seven years later, Voice123 still runs very strong because of the creative, professional voice talent, and business clients who post amazing work, preferring to deal with no intermediaries. It gives light to the famous quote:

What is now proved was once only imagined.
- William Blake

Do you have any favorites of your own?

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

images: StarFleet.com

Community: Worldly Voice Coach Information

This week, Voice123 wants to mention voice coaches that we have been in contact with over the past week about joining our Coach Partner Program. If you have done voice coaching on how to use Voice123, and have success stories from you or your students, we would especially love to hear from you! Coaches this week!

Marc Graue out of Burbank, California!
If you love animation, there is an animation class coming up you should know about!

Mona Shetty out of India!
If you go to Facebook @Voice123, you will see the communication going back and forth. See more by clicking on the image.


Michelle Falzon out of Michigan
Her voice can be heard on many of the 'ShakeWeight for Women' infomercials. These videos have been viewed over 3 million times on youtube, and featured on talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Ellen. Michelle attended a ‘How To Use Voice123’ training back when she first started on the site. She does very well on Voice123 for both SmartCast and her repeat business from SmartCast auditions, as well as, working elsewhere. Her type of training involves, ‘How to Work Online’. There is also a Meetup in Sterling Heights, Michigan, which needs an organizer, and venue!

David Zema out of New York City
He contacted us for ideas on Voice123 Meetups! Voice123 organized a Meetup at his studio to discuss soundproofing and recording.

Please take a look!

It will be a pleasure to meetup and discuss voice overs face-to-face!

About Meetups...
Voice123 has attended Meetups for various industries, including voice overs. If you are not sure how to organize a Voice123 Meetup, or not sure what to do after you have decided to organize a Meetup, please take a look at this blog:

25 Best Practices from a Meetup Organizer


Quote of the Week:
"Playing the game is not about hoping the QB throws you the ball more. It is about making big plays each time the ball is thrown to you, you catch it, and you know what to do next".
- Lynn Swan, Pittsburgh Steelers.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Youtube ‘Like’ Contest Winner Announced!

Back on October 18th, 2010, Voice123 began a ‘Youtube Like’ contest looking for the video that would liked, viewed, and voted for via survey, in order to give two voice talent each, a 6-month subscription to Voice123! The votes were tallied and as of this morning, this is your winning video!

• Kellie Fitzgerald, winner of a free 6-month subscription, booked this job through Voice123. It originally air during an NBC event, “Stand Up to Cancer”, on September 10, 2010.
• Felecia Angelle was the winner of a 6-month subscription, drawn from those who had voted!

VO Props - Debbie Irwin (Viewed 2nd most!)



Ever curious who is watching?
Click on the demographic chart of age groups and percentage of views (taken from Youtube Insight) since opening the Voice123 Youtube page to display voice talent work in February 2010.

One more contest...ending shortly!

Thank you so much to all those who contributed!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

QA Talk: Boo? NO!...Hiss? Yes.

Voice123 screens auditions for audio quality to make sure that your audition get to the client sounding the way you expected!

This past week, we were looking for topics to discuss that were ‘real-time’ and could directly help anyone who experiences audio issues. A member from QA spoke up and mentioned, ‘Just this past week, we have noticed an increase in auditions with hissing noise’.

The Voice123 Community of talent is the most professional group of voice talent online, so this may not apply to everyone. If you have been experiencing audio issues lately, there are amazing forum posts from the voice community to help you!

David Swineheart offers advice regarding ambient noise!

JS Gilbert and a voice seeker chyme in to assist Kim Somers!

Here’s a discussion on Preamps, and what that can do for you!

Hey! Note from me!
I would like all in the Voice123 community to know that when we disapprove auditions like this one, it is nothing personal. As a voice talent who once used the site, I have learned that, beyond technology, if an extra set of “ears” is not looking out for the community (did that make sense?), more harm is done than good. There are very talented professionals who come on Voice123, but may not be used to home recording yet, and we want everyone to succeed. If something is disapproved, you will be emailed immediately, or within 15 minutes.

We look to build trust with the Voice123 Community, so you can have a job resource site you can believe in.

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Photo by Pablo Gregor

Seeking Voice Seekers to Guest-Blog!

Voice123 is a community made up of voice over talent, job posters aka. voice seekers, and the Voice123 company. The Voice123 website is made up of two interfaces; one for talent and the other for seekers.

Yet...

Many times both sides do not understand what the other person is seeing! Voice123 is doing some seeking now. We are ‘guest blogger seeking’ for voice seekers, who would like to write about their experiences using the website to find voice talent.

If you are interested, please let us know, or post your blog in this forum. We will add it to our blog for you and promote your business, which is great for your company's web exposure!

You never know. Your thoughts and opinions may go a long way towards promoting your business, and communicating to those who audition to help them...help you!

This offer is of course extended to voice talent who work as voice seekers, too. Help your community make for a better voice over industry!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Community: 'Tis The Season To Meetup

Typically, this time of year involves a change of pace. For some, the days are shorter. For many voice talent, the work slows down a bit because of the holiday season.

This need not be a wasted time of year! Through all innovations in technology, still nothing beats face to face encounters, and reassuring handshakes with good neighbors, bloggers, forum contributors, website developers, voice talent and voice coaches whom you read and write to all year!


Here are some great ideas!

The 2010 New York Voiceover Mixer!

• “The 3rd annual mixer will take place on December 4th, 2010 at Tonic Bar in Times Square. Past mixers have seen the attendance of approximately 300 guests including voiceover talent, coaches, talent agents and other industry professionals.”

Voice123 Meetups!

• Feel free to start your Voice123 Meetup, and strengthen the bonds of the voice over community, world-wide! Voice123 Meetups are free and organized by community members like you!

Your voice...Seeking guest bloggers or interviews!

• Have you ever wanted to contribute to this blog? If so, please check out this forum post.
• You can always reach out to me directly through help@voice123.com
  

Thank you!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Your Chance To Replace The Term 'Remote Voice Talent'!

Back on October 22, 2010, announced a contest:

“What Would You Call Yourself?”

We received 30 replies, and now it is time for you, the Voice123 Community, to vote for your favorite! You can do so on this survey below, or Voice123 Facebook, or Twitter! Leave your name and be entered into a drawing to win 6-months free on Voice123!

Click here to vote for your favorite below!

• InWeb Voice Talent
• WWW V/O Talent On Demand (Waiting World-Wide)
• "Voice Talent".
• on call talent
• Cybervoice
• freelance voice
• Domestic Voice Artist
• Independent Voice-Over Artist
• Independent Voice Over Specialist
• Home Voice Flair
• freelance voice actor
• echoes from everywhere
• "Global Village Talent"
• Distance Voicer Talent
• Globally Accesible Voice Artist "GAVA"
• Independent Voice Talent
• Voices from the Cloud
• Voice Solutions Specialist
• Voice Talent
• "stay-at-home" voice-over artist (you know, like "stay-at-home" mom - although we all do go out and work in the world, too, right?
• Home based voice talent
• iTalent
• Voice talent on air
• Independent Voice Artist
• inter-linked voice talent
• Domesticated Voice Talent or Voice Talent Solopreneur
• Global Voice Artist or Global Voice Talent
• Voice teleworker
• Fat guy in his underwear voice talent
• Independent Voice Actors

Don't Forget to Check Back!
The winners will be announced next week, along with the winner of the Voice123 Youtube Video ‘Show Some Like’ Contest, currently in action, and announced on the October 18th blog!

Thank you for being a part of the Voice123 Community!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Premium Subscriptions With Social Responsibility!

Voice123.com has teamed up with Rally Earth to make sure your purchase of a Voice123 Premium Subscription offers more than just voice over services. It now offers social responsibility!

Rally Earth is a refreshing new company that is working to help make a big difference in the world we live in. If you purchase a Voice123 Premium Subscription through the Voice123 Rally Earth sponsor page, you will be part of a whole new way of giving to needy causes, without ever paying an extra dime, and pursuing voice over work!

How? When you purchase a Voice123 subscription, or extend it through the sponsor page:

• Rally Earth donates the dollars you spend to important causes and charities.
• You can vote on the causes and charities that you want to help.
• The top 10 charities split the funds at the end of each quarter.
• You can even suggest a charity close to your heart, but not on the list.
• There's also a “Sponsor” section for business owners to receive special recognition and bonus services while supporting the Rally Earth Action (REACT) Fund.

Using Rally Earth makes it grow, which gives more to the causes that are important to you! Make it a habit to go to rallyearth.com every time you shop, or upgrade your Premium Subscription!

If you have any questions on the Rally Earth website itself, please use this link to find out more.

What do you think? Let us know!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

‘Faking It’ Just Isn’t ‘Making It’

In Voice123, we see a common issue with voice talent from the United States mistakenly selecting ‘British-English’ for a ‘native speaking language’, but they can only do a ‘British accent’. Feedback has even shown us that job posters may even feel insulted, if they need British native speakers, and they hear poor attempts at the accent.

Many assume, myself included, that British accents once were prevalent in the US, but we completely ‘evolved’ out of them. Not exactly! Look at this article: "Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?"

As a voice seeker posting a job, remember that details are key to the success of what you receive. Specifically choosing a native speaking language of a country will get you mostly what you want, but it helps to specify, 'Native speakers only' in the project description.

Please post a job today!

We have professional voice talent from around the world, and a system to help you find them!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Community News: Contest Winners, Phonecalls, Meetups!

Contest Winners!
If you have been reading up on Voice123’s blog and emails, you may have seen our contests from the past couple weeks. Voting was done via ranking system, email, Facebook, and Twitter. We give you today the contest winner of the ‘Voting is Spooky’ Contest!

• Congrats to Dawson McKay and Kyle McCarley!
• Each won a free 1-year subscription voucher to Voice123, redeemable anytime!
• You can hear all the submissions with this shared inbox!
• Be sure to read this blog for more Voice123 Community contests!
  

Talk With A Pro at Edge Studio
Tomorrow night, I will have the honor of doing a teleseminar with Edge Studio, the voice over industry center!

Please read more about it here!


Voice123 Meetup!
Bill Brewer is heading up another successful Voice123 Meetup this month!

Please read more here!

Thank you for making the Voice123 Community the largest group of professional voice over artists!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Doing It Yourself To Earn An Oscar!

After writing about a Voice123 job last week that almost went to the Oscars, I had the chance to follow up some more with the lead voice actor in Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer, Robbie Daymond. He agreed to share this information, and we hope you will get some amazing insight out of it!

I have come to learn with the many success stories voice talent write to me; they all display an amazing balance of flexibility, talent, and desire to create a work of art, that all voice talent ‘doing it for themselves’ should study:


Executive Name-Calling?
(I played two roles). Carl is the main sidekick in the film, and since Dolphin Films and Fox weren't sure about billing the two main characters as the same actor, they used my Christian name; not my stage name for that character. Random, but funny.


The long and short in 10 Steps!

1. The auditions were pretty standard. Just your regular Voice123 job posting; budget undefined, international animation, dubbing from Spanish to English, multi-character ADR project working remotely.
2. Open auditions, then direct contact with the producers for callbacks.
3. Conversation with director and Bada bing! Hired!
4. The original idea was for them to send all of the actors syncing material over the net.
5. Then we were to do our own ADR, and send it back for them to mix and match.
6. It kind of worked for the smaller parts, but we soon realized it wouldn't for all of the material needed for the main characters.
7. So, the director flew myself, and another cast member down to Peru!
8. We recorded for two weeks, got an awesome paid vacation and solid pay.
9. We thought it was over. No!
   
10. Four months later I got a call from the director, saying that the dude, originally cast as Daniel, needed to be replaced and we needed an English singer for the theme song.

Flexibility & Networking...

• I brought in my friend and old college roommate Steven Booth to redo one of the parts I had done that had a similar sound to Daniel.
• Then I agreed to re-voice the main character as well.
• We did a couple of tests with Fox to make sure they couldn't tell both Carl and Daniel were the same guy!
• A week later I'm back in Peru for 10 days! This time with Steve Booth and Debbie Repashy; an incredibly talented vo artist who did, multiple female voices as well.
• We banged it out, and got a rough mix done less than a week before the 20th Century Fox deadline. Made a lot of friends, did a lot of work.

Reflecting...

1. I think the best thing about this was that when we were hired, it was never specifically for the movie itself to be aired or sold. Our voices were being used as a selling tool for the USA and International market. There was no guarantee that it would be us in the final English version. But, we really put our hearts into this little Peruvian Indie film and Fox loved it, and here we are!
2. They're using our voices for the DVD. It is also getting a full, North American DVD release.
3. It was the #1 box-office film from Peru, all time.
4. It was one of the top 20 films being considered for an Oscar last year.
   
5. It all came from just your normal, maybe even "risky-no-budget-might-pass-it-up" type of project on Voice123. Gotta love it, and it goes to show, you never know what could come out of any audition, no matter how small it may look.

Speaking of animation! Webinar!
News came to us today that Voice123 coach Bettye Zoller is offering a webinar this Monday night on voice overs for video games and cartoons!

Click here for more info on how to register!

If you are a voice over coach, and wish to be part of our program, please let us know!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Busy Voice Over Bees And Voice123

For this blog, we wish to show you just how much activity takes place in Voice123 Customer Service! We think you will find the numbers amazing from last month!

If you are dealing with the front line of customer service you are either talking to Jack Svez, Charlie Peres, Leo Delope, Giselle Geney, and myself. As you will see from numbers below, the size of the team is not important. Caring for the voice over industry is what matters, and so is ‘Voice123 Community’.

Last month, Voice123’s community and our customer service accomplished the following:

(Say this in your best movie trailer voice):

• 5 staff
• 22,378 emails received!
• 576 Live Chats!
• 1737 hours of work combined!

Whether a voice over profile is registered for free or Premium, through good times and bad, we answer your emails! Contact us anytime! We also do not take commission, so after your $295 tax-deductible Premium subscription, what you earn is yours!




Brand of the day!
It is always great to hear from all of you! You, The Voice123 Community, is what makes this site so special! Sharing this brand from Sid Whatley!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Tips: Saving Some Dough, Make More Bread

Working at Voice123, our staff gets to see the way businesses hire voice talent, and how Voice123 talent are forever changing the ways they deliver work.

We have a new one today, and for those who think, ‘ISDN needs to be replaced’, it is already happening! Saving money on not using services like ISDN is better for your bottom line, and better for the voice talent you hire; less tech costs more payment for labor!

Here is what we are talking about!

• Take a look at this forum post started by Bernardo Ortiz of Voice123!
• Mark Fletcher also offers great information on the same subject!

Now, one can easily say, ‘You just wont get the same quality’, and to that we say:

• “Saying no to technology will set you back for when Skype or Google perfects it, and it is offered at no cost; then the expectation is that you must know how to use it.”

Skype also displays technical information (click that image above), which is helpful for recordings, even if simply using a phone patch. You can read more here.

Skype is also FREE.

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!

Community: Shake Off Halloween Hangover

Contests for you! Showing some love!
If you missed it, Voice123 has a few contests taking place!

Voting is Spooky and Youtube Contests

‘What would you call yourself?’ Contest

These are great opportunities for you to have some fun, while getting some extra time on the site! We encourage all voice over talent to take advantage! Results coming soon!

Voice123 Meetup News!
Bill Brewer recently held a Voice123 Meetup, and had this news to share!

• We had our second Oklahoma City Voice Over meetup group and voice 123 meetup group this evening. A great evening with some very talented members . I rated it 5 stars. We now have 29 members.

Organize your own and speak face-to-face with other voice talent!

• If you are a voice over coach, and would like to do a Meetup on a specific topic, such as, ‘Building a studio’, let us know! We would love to share and promote the Meetup with the community, and get you more attendees!

In case you missed it...
Voice123 held its monthly Voice123 Webinar on using Voice123 to book work.

Please take a look! (it starts at 1:30)

It may be longer than you expected, but it is a fair trade off for months of trial and error!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123
Voice123 Meetups!