GKN Weekly Update 1/19/09

Hello my fellow freezing dudes & dudettes (except for you lucky GKN'ers out in LA!),

Well, my annual cold has arrived. I'm officially in "fishbowl head" mode and I had to bow out of an audition in NYC today. I hate when that happens! Allow me to hearken back to a time when I was filled with merriment, mirth, and no phlegm: last week!

I had a wonderful albeit challenging two-day recording session for Nestle Nespresso's European branch. I narrated about 125 pages of copy rolling out new packaging, sanitary guidelines, and models of espresso machines. The difficulty was slogging my way through a script that was translated into English by a non-native English speaker. That and the fact I had to pronounce German, French, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese terms as well as medical terms with no pronunciation guide. Yikes! Herbie and Tony at CKP Media in NYC were a pleasure to work with and I send my heartfelt thanks for recommending me for the project.

Fellow GKN member Angelo Panetta will soon release his latest sci-fi radio drama "Anne Manx and the Empress Blair Project". You can see the cover art on the Radio Repertory company of America website. I have about half a dozen small roles on this one. My favorite is the Amoeba Dome announcer commenting on a single-cell organism race! A big thanks to Angelo for letting me be a part of yet another wonderful project.

Speaking of radio dramas, Angelo found a great forum called Audio Drama Talk. If you're an aspiring VO talent looking to get some (non-paying) work and develop your portfolio, I strongly recommend you join up and say hi to the folks there.

TIP OF THE WEEK: Today we're gonna talk about Technique, one of the five areas of success in our industry. Good Technique is critical! It's the number one tool in your toolbox. I'm not just talking about your instrument. I'm also talking about understanding the industry, it's trends, important news, etc. Here's a list of websites you should check out on a regular basis:

www.aftra.org
www.backstage.com
www.hollywoodreporter.com
www.sag.org
www.variety.com
www.voiceoverpodcasts.com
www.voiceoverunlimited.com

These will help you develop your Technique:

I.D.E.A. http://web.ku.edu/idea
Speech Accent Archive http://accent.gmu.edu
VOA Pronunciation Guide http://names.voa.gov/index.cfm

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: You know, people always talk about rights in this country. I wish we had a bill of responsibilities. Dean Kamen, inventor

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: How do you develop your Technique every week? How much do you do research on your industry?

Have a great week!