GKN Weekly Update 2/22/11

Happy President's Day! Wow, that's two weeks in a row I didn't have to make up a holiday...

Sorry I'm late. I was recording for the bulk of yesterday then I went monitor shopping. I got a set of Tascam VL-M3 monitors. I haven't hooked them up yet but I'll let you know how they sound.

So yesterday I recorded two short audio books: Eight Miles and Under the Moons of Venus. Eight Miles takes place in 1840's London and the protagonist tells the story in the first person. Other characters in the story have different accents, most notably Upper Class British and French. I asked the engineer if I should give the other characters their own accents, even though the same guy is telling the story. She said I should for two reasons:

1) To make it easier for the listener to know who is speaking
2) It's more esthetically pleasing

So I did and it was pretty hard! Changing accents from one sentence to the next was very challenging. I hope it came out alright...

TIP OF THE WEEK: When I took my lunch break from the session, I had a Snapple and the Snapple Fact under the cap said, "It takes an interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech." That sounds like a lot of work! It actually takes far more effort than that to produce EFFECTIVE human speech. I'm not just talking about an audio book where it takes preparation, technique, breath control, etc. I mean taking the time to craft real thoughts that inform, enlighten, entertain, soothe, and inspire.

I've noticed lately there are a lot of VO online forums, groups, clubs, etc. where almost everybody feels the need to chime in just to feel like they're part of something when they have no idea what they're talking about. They often embarrass themselves and hurt other people's feelings. The "flaming" that's been going on recently has been very damaging to the voice over community and it concerns me.

Here is some advice to everybody, not just VO folks, and this is coming from a guy who loves to babble all day: if you can't contribute positively to a conversation, whether it's at a cocktail party or on a forum, zip it. Just listen. Listen, listen, listen. Listening is everything. You'd be AMAZED at the stuff you can learn about yourself, others, and the world around you if you spend more time listening and less time preparing to blurt out your own opinion.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Every time you argue with your wet blanket, you lose. Sally Johnson

STUFF!: I saw "Taxi Driver" for the first time in about 15-20 years. What a freaky, disturbing, brilliant movie! If you want to watch a genius of an actor portraying a man slipping into insanity, this is the film to watch.

From Tom Dheere's apartment, this is Tom Dheere, GKN News...