Voices.com presents the State of the Voice over Industry paper

David Ciccarelli of Voices.com alerted me this morning of the availability of his newest version of his annual State of the Industry paper. It’s a good overview, with some interesting highlights. While it makes some sweeping predictions about several different industries without much supporting evidence, I think the paper is pretty accurate and I commend David for writing this up in a way that isn’t just a marketing device for Voices.com.

Insights into Audiobook recording

My favorite audiobook narrator, Scott Brick has posted a doozy of a tome on his blog about the challenges of recording audiobooks with regard to different accents the author drums up. He’s certainly not complaining, because as he says “he has the collest job on the world.” I have to agree.

Read the whole thing here.

My blog featured as one of the “100 Industry Resources for Voice Over Talent”

Just got a note from Stephanie Ciccarelli at Voices.com that my blog has been featured as one of the 100+ Industry Resources for Voice Over Talent. Thanks for the honor, Stephanie. I guess I should write more often now!

 I’m among such other VO friends as Bob Souer, Caryn Clark, Dave Courvoisier, Kara Edwards, Bryan Cox, Liz De Nesnera, Lou Zucaro, Peter O’Connell, Bobbin Beam, Tom Dheere and Mary McKittrick. As well, there are a ton of other resources every VO should know about.

Voicey Awards Finalist!

A big thanks to everyone who nominated me, I made it as a finalist in the 2008 Voicey Awards in the Best New Voice category! I’m really excited about being nominated and am in stellar company with all the other finalists. A big shout out to my friend and fellow Best new Voice nominee David Houston. While I have no illusions of actually winning in the end, I’m proud to be in such fine company as Dave and the other nominees.

As well, other people I know who were nominated:

Best Male Voice:
Bob Souer

Best Teen Voice:
Jesse Springer

Best Female Voice:
Moe Egan

Best Team Voice:
Adam Fox and Kara Edwards

Best Personal branding:
Kara Edwards

Best Foreign Voice:
Liz de Nesnera

Lifetime Achievement:
Pat Fraley
Bryan Cox

The complete list of finalists can be found here:

Golden Knight Media has joined the blogosphere

Fellow VO-BBer and voice talent Isaiah of Golden Knight Media has joined the blogosphere. Welcome! I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Voicey Awards Nominations close Sunday

Just a heads-up to remind any of you that the nominations for the Voices.com Voicey Awards are closing on Sunday February 4th. Don’t forget to get your nominations in! And if you think I’m deserving, I’d love to have your vote for Best New Voice. If you decide to give me a nomination, my voices.com url is jkafer.voices.com.

Anway, I can’t wait to see who the nominees are! Even if I’m not one of them, I’m bound to know at least one of them.

My shortest VO gig ever – Podcast Camp 2008 Promo

My friend Peter O’Connell put the call out for people to do voices for his Podcast Camp 2008 Promo. So I sent mine in. The end result was a hodge podge of various Voice over folks cut and pasted and I think I got a single word in there, “Twitter”, making this my smallest VO role to date.

Other talented folks in the spot include Elaine Singer, Chris Rice, Mary McKitrick, Kara Edwards, Liz de Nesnera, Dave Courvoisier and Jim Sutton

Change can be good

My friend, Dave Courvoisier (Did I spell that right?) is a news anchor in Las Vegas. He’s also an accomplished Voice-over artist who isn’t quite ready to quit his day job. or in his case, Night job. His station is almost sold which made him take another look at where he is in both of his careers.  I appreciate Dave being candid and honest about where he wants to go with his voice career, because I feel the same way. He puts it quite eloquently when he says:

I’ve danced to the whims of someone else all my professional work life.  Can I pull the strings for a while?  I’d like to eventually try. 

I know exactly how you feel, my friend. Power to you.

Voicey awards update

As you might have seen below, David of Voices.com left a comment regarding my comment about the Voicey Awards. Following along so far?

OK, so it turns out that Stephanie changed the rules to allow older folks who are still new to be nominated for Best New Talent. Thanks for doing this Stephanie!

So without further ado, I would appreciate anyone who thinks I’m worthy to nominate me for Best New Talent. You’ll need my voices.om url which is jkafer.voices.com

My humble thanks to anyone who thinks I’m worthy.

Voicey’s are here and I’m disappointed

The Voicey’s are an annual award “show” put on by the good people at Voices.com to honor the best (or most popular) people on their roster. Unfortunately, I’m a rather disappointed in the way they are handling them this year:

1. The best new voice talent award has an age limit. You may not be older than 30 years. What the heck? I’m new to the biz and 35, so I’m not considered a new voice? The logic behind this one is completely baffling.
2. The best male/female talent requires you to be pro for 3+ years. Couple that with the above requirement and you’ve just shut out any voice talent over the age of 35 who have been pro for less than 3 years from winning ANY award!
3. As Caryn Clark pointed out, the best “teen” voice also has an age limit. Only teens can be nominated. But I’d put her teen voice (and Kara Edward’s) up against almost anyone’s. As well, I can do a convincing teen guy voice and would like to be nominated in this category as well. I can kind of understand where they’re coming from on this one, because I think they want to honor teen performers, not teen voices. The category is poorly named if that’s the case.

I would emplore Voices.com to reconsider their age restrictions, especially on point number 1 above. While I had no illusions that I’d win, at this point, I’m completely shut out of even trying for one.