Echo Night

ECHO NIGHT: 

Sept 22nd: Fred Greenhalgh, Elie Hirschman, and Nikkita Bradette

LISTEN AND ENJOY:

http://www.echofiction.com/titles/echonight/e001.php

:-)

Bloodmoon Premiere

Darker Projects presents:
B L O O D M O O N
written by Robert W. Tinsley

http://www.darkerprojects.com/bloodmoon.html

Meet Sam Packer. As a Police Officer in Colorado, he has seen it all. He has been in drug busts and car chases, he has chased criminals down the darkest alleyways in the darkest part of town. But he has no idea what is going to happen to him, nor how it will completely turn his world upside down. On a forced vacation to Canadian woods with his wife, his destiny is decided following a brutal attack by a mysterious wolf-like creature. After he returns to Colorado, he finds himself stronger, quicker, and very different. Meet Sam Packer, werewolf.

Episode 1: Moonstruck

(20:28, 18.7 MB MP3, 2008.09.21)

Sam and Monica Parker seem to have found the perfect spot for a romantic getaway: remote, secluded... quiet. But strange noises at night - added to vague warnings from the old caretaker - threaten to spoil the mood. What is a "loup garou", anyway?

This episode featured the voice talents of

Mark Kilfoil as Sam Packer and Louis Levesque
M. Sieiro Garcia as Monica Parker
Bruce Busby as the Old Man
Byron Lee as RCMP Constable and the Loup Garou

Produced by Waldo Ovase
Directed by Elie Hirschman
Sound Design by Byron Lee
Original Music by Kevin MacLeod and James Taye, additional music used under license

How do I get started in Voiceovers?

OK, I got asked the inevitable question:

How do I get started in voiceovers?

This was my answer back:

Read up first: http://blogs.voices.com/ might have some good stuff.
http://www.voiceovers.com/yourvocareer.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/Voice-Over
http://davidhoustonvoice.com/blog1/2006/08/getting_started_my_take.html

and maybe a book:
http://www.amazon.com/Theres-Money-Where-Your-Mouth/dp/0823077020

Next, get yourself some recording equipment - best move is to get a USB microphone for your PC. But you can also use an answering machine or voicemail for this.
Record something - anything - and listen back to it, with headphones. Turn it up a bit and pay attention to every detail. Listen to your voice, notice any sounds that don't belong, background noise, pops or clicks coming from your mouth. Notice if you breathe too hard on P's and B's, if you mispronounce any letters or words. Do you have a noticeable accent? Consider if you want to try and hide it by talking a little "flatter."
Basically, you want to teach yourself to be totally in tune with your own voice and be able to be hyper-conscious of all these things when you are recording. Obsess.

If you want to make it into a business, you'll need all the things a good business needs: a website, a phone line, business cards, marketing supplies (postcards, stationery, Keychains with your name on it or somesuch) and you'll need to find people to contact and send this stuff to. You should also market your vo biz online.
Most importantly, like any business, you need a product. The product is your voice, but you need a way to present that in a tidy package people can check out at their leisure. This would be your demo. Read up on that, see what people have to say about VO demos.
I would say ideally, you should get VO training too. That can get expensive, but sometimes you can make a deal on these things.
Good luck! Any further questions, ask away!
-ESH

RIP Don La Fontaine

The Voicover King is dead... Long Live the Voiceover King!

From Entertainment Tonight:

Voiceover Master Don LaFontaine has died. He was 68.
LaFontaine, known as the "King of Voiceovers," died Monday afternoon [1
Sep] at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. LaFontaine's agent,
Vanessa Gilbert, tells ET that he passed away following complications
from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity,
the result of a collapsed lung. The official cause of death has not yet
been released.

Over the past 25 years,

LaFontaine cemented his position as the "King
of Voiceovers." Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie
trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight
and The Insider, as well as for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition
to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. By conservative estimates, he
voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including
commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke,
and many other corporate sponsors.

He recently parodied himself on a series of national television
commercials for

Geico. At last count, he has worked on nearly 5000
films, including appearances as the in-show announcer for the Screen
Actors Guild and Academy Awards. Based on contracts signed, he has the
distinction of being perhaps the single busiest actor in the history of
SAG. Don is survived by his wife -- singer/actress Nita Whitaker, and
three children: Christine, Skye and Elyse.
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