Novel Eye

Well, it's taken me years, but I finally did it. I finally made a voice-over demo! And like almost everything, it did not warrent the worry I put into it. I have been virtually promised work for a year by one production company if I only had a tape to show around. The work I've done already THIS YEAR for said company nearly paid for it. And yet, I hesitated because I wanted it to be "perfect," whatever that might mean. Perfect script which showed off every aspect of my voice, all kind of accents, etc. In the end, it is a straightforward commercial tape with a little narration and a single "character" voice. No accents, no cartoons. The only odd thing is the inclusion of a poem at the end because I have already been hired to read poems, so it seemed a strange necessity--a bit of originality and differentiation. Plus it's at the end, where most prospective employers won't even hear it. It will remain linked at the side. If/when I do a webpage--which se...

I thought of and then failed to post some thoughts on two lessons I recently had on Voice-Over. Having debated the merits of doing a Voice-Over demo for almost two years now, and having polled and gotten good advice from everyone I know in theater, I finally realized that unless I paid a stranger to help me, I was never going to pull together copy. So I grabbed a name from the various things that come into my mailbox, made a private apt., and went. First of all I was late due to traffic for my first apt., but she was very friendly in an earthy, crunchy sort of way, by which I mean that she probably says terribly cheery, upbeat things to everyone. She then had me read copy and praised me and then said, "Try to sing the copy--no tune, just whatever feels good. Then go right into the copy." This was very hard for me. I have a lot of hang-ups about singing, but because I'd been late we'd jumped right in so I had no time to dig in and try to get out of it. She was t...

Actually was very tricky and I did do it well. (This is hard for me to write but I'm working on it). The really great thing is that they said they were going to send me a disc later in the summer with some of my work on it (doing the same for everyone involved--personalized). Which can/will be added to a demo tape. So eventually I could have a link to it and you can judge for yourself. When I heard it was pick-ups I was worried because pick-ups mean doing lines you've already done because something went wrong. It could be you, or it could be technical. I, of course, worried that it was me. It wasn't. This project is a spoken disc to accompany a text book for high- schoolers . That's already been put together, apparently, with my original recordings. There is also an interactive software component and when they were doing that they decided that they needed more space between each line to break. Now, this is a poem. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Ang...

I had a voice over industrial job today--which was nice. It's the third I've done for this particular project and it's nice that I got it because (as repeatedly mentioned) I DON'T HAVE A DEMO TAPE. The owner of the recording studio said I should have one and that he could prob. get me work if I did it. Of course, he also makes them so... The project is reading a textbook for adult or young adult illiteracy . It has a very..., well, black slant. First time I read a part in Raisin in the Sun . Second time I read some poems, among them "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, " and the history of Hip Hop (condensed). I kept falling over the names. Back when Cogitate (the board) was still alive I thought about putting that one up and then it (the board) fizzled and I didn't bother. It's funny because Maya Angelou has become such a subject of parody (Family Guy had her hosting a cooking show--"Like the bread, I rise, I rise) that I had forgotten that it is a ...