It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I’m quite active on Twitter and Facebook at the moment with different kinds of conversations on both, but it’s been a while between drinks here. In August I finally put into practice advice suggested by the amazing Kristine Oller some time back – spend two weeks every quarter focusing just on up-skilling. Close up shop and just focus on skills development and strategy for moving forward. I had some recording slip into those two weeks by necessity, but perfect is the enemy of good, so I’m still counting that as a win.
Tahira Now Released!
The fantastic Tahira is now available on Steam, amongst other platforms! You can hear me there having a blast voicing a number of villainous rogues, as a counterpoint to the amazing Gemma Laurelle’s work as Tahira herself. Here’s the launch trailer:
You can find out more at the official website!
Vale Karen Fainges
The shift into 2016 so far has been a pretty sobering string of great talents passing away. This Friday just passed, a memorial was held for Karen Fainges in her home town of Mt Isa, and while I couldn’t make it to the service, I wanted to take a moment to put down a few words to commemorate Karen’s life. In the spirit of the service itself, I’m going to keep away from maudlin sentiments, and instead celebrate a wonderful collaborator and long-time friend who’s been taken from us during that same gauntlet of time.
Becoming A Better Voice Actor #4: Learn to Freelance
Here were are in the last of four posts containing everything I can think to say about how to become a voice actor, right now. As always, take the advice here with a grain of salt, as this is only what works for me, and what I understand at this point in time. I may have an epiphany in the shower next Thursday and realise that only now do I really understand what’s going on. If that happens though, I promise to let you know.
In the final post, we’re going to talk about being a good freelancer. Because once you’ve built a process around your creative development, and you’re actively doing what you love, you’re going to get to a point where you need a solid approach for dealing with the people who want you to make great things for them.
It started fairly accidentally to begin with, but being a better freelancer is something that I’ve been working on for the last eight years. I’m sure it means very different things to very different people, but the core of it for me is a combination of attitude and building systems, the latter of which being where we started talking in the first post.
Becoming A Better Voice Actor #2: Understand The Creative Process
This is the second in a series of posts on what I can think of as the most useful information on becoming a voice actor/voice over artist/person who gets paid to talk into a microphone. This post focuses on understanding the creative process better, in order to build tools and avoid mental traps in a field that asks a lot of you creatively.
Now, these posts come with a huge caveat. They’re what’s worked for me, and that may not work for you. And it’s the best advice I have right now, so next Thursday I may have an epiphany that throws half of what I know out the window. But if I do have that epiphany, I promise to share it with you.
Becoming A Better Voice Actor #3: Be A Better Voice Actor
(cue Inception noise thanks to the circular title)
So, this is the third in a series of posts emptying the cup of everything I know about being a voice actor thus far. In this article I’m going to be talking about performing. As always, take the advice here with a grain of salt.
I only know what works for me, and if you ask me next month, I’ll tell you that this is the month I’ve finally built a robust set of tools around performance.
IT’S NOT ABOUT SILLY VOICES.
At least, not initially. And then it is.
Becoming A Better Voice Actor #1: Build Systems
This is the first in a short series of posts where I’m putting down what I would travel back through time to tell myself, in order to become a voice actor/voice over artist/person who talks in front of a microphone and gets paid for the privilege QUICKER.
Everything written here comes with a big caveat: it’s what worked for me, and it’s my answer so far. It may not work for you, and I may have an epiphany next Thursday that throws everything here out the window. If said epiphany comes, I promise to let you know.
This first post is about what I think is the first, most critical step to lay infrastructure down for moving forward as quickly as you can:
The Jenga of Managing Energy
Last week was AWESOME. It was an absolute prince of weeks where a number of great opportunities presented themselves unsolicited, I had some great training sessions with vocal coaches, took part in a week-long marathon of classes at the Actor’s Lab, and got to catch up with some of my favourite people. I’ve been steadily building my regular practice brick by brick, adding components as they’re suggested by mentors. I’d included (I thought) care and maintenance to make sure that I can keep the engine running, as well.
But on the Saturday at the end of that week, I got knocked down with food poisoning. It’s most likely a coincidence, as it’s difficult to give yourself food poisoning, but the timing bears thinking about. Many years ago, when I was a rather different person, I might have taken a few mental health days at the end of a stretch like that to hide away and recover; recharge the batteries. But that’s most definitely not the person I am now. Losing three days to feeling horrible and doing nothing sucked, to be frank, and I wanted– no, needed to spin back up all of the plates I had in motion and get into the thick of things.