Finding My Voice

New business card

Justin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:31:48 +0000

Partly because it just needed to be done, and partly in preparation for the Voices.com mixer in Dallas tonight, I finally buckled down and designed my first set of business cards. Similar to the web site design, simple and clean was my goal, and I think it works well. Thanks to Avery’s clean-edge cards and printing template system, the whole process was a piece of cake.

New Agent

Justin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:41:38 +0000

I’m pleased to announce that I am now represented in the Dallas/Fort Worth area by Kim Dawson Agency, thanks to a referral from my friend Amber Cotton. I had a wonderful visit on Tuesday with my new agent, Julie Holman, who has posted my demo to the agency web site as well as Video Voicebank. I’m absolutely thrilled to take this step in my voiceover career, and hope that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with the agency and my new friends there.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

Justin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:09:58 +0000

Last year my friends on the VO-BB put together an audio rendition of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Unable to participate then, I was hoping to get in on the action if it was repeated this year, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a post from Jeffrey Kafer about his plan to create a video version! I nearly missed out on this one, too, but when the deadline was extended, I managed to squeeze into my “booth” to record it. (It was quite a squeeze, too. I should have captured a picture of the puzzle for posterity!)

Many thanks to Jeffrey for his hard work in assembling this wonderful compilation, and to my growing list of friends on the VO-BB for their friendship and continued support.

Brand Me Big

Justin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:42:00 +0000

A short while ago I was contacted about narrating a demo video for a new business called Brand Me Big. The site went live not long ago, and shortly thereafter the demo video was up and running. For those who may have trouble playing it from their site, here’s the video via YouTube.

Magma Madness

Justin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:01:08 +0000

Here’s the latest fun with my buddy, Pterry!

Getting Into Character

Justin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:27:36 +0000

What does it take to get into character before recording? Quite a bit if you use Scottish voiceover artist Charles Nove’s recent experience (which he shared on the VO-BB) as a guide.

He must have a lot of cats by now.

Snow? In August?

Justin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:22:20 +0000

There’s no snow in Texas, but there’s a new Webosaurs “Snowball Skirmish” video featuring my vocal alter-ego, Pterry the pterodactyl. Also check out Pterry in the “Dino Dig” promo, also released today.

Networking

Justin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:17:00 +0000

I love it when Bob Souer talks about his work. I learn something from his comments every single time, like in this post where he answers a question about networking and “getting out there”. Brilliant thoughts, Bob!

Are You Pumped?

Justin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:50:21 +0000

The other morning I got up early for a bike ride. I remember that the tires felt like they were low on air the last time I rode, so I pulled out the ol’ pump and connected it to the back tire. Sure enough, the pressure was way below the recommended level. A few quick pumps later and it was back to normal, and I moved on to the front tire, which was also low. Once that was at the proper pressure level, I put the pump away and took off on my ride.

One of the immediate differences I noticed is that it’s much easier to ride hands-free with the tires properly pumped. Not many days before, I’d tried to show my daughter about riding without holding onto the handlebars, but it didn’t work so well. The front tire wavered and swayed much more than normal, though at the time I didn’t know that it was due to low tire pressure. After pumping up the tires prior to my morning ride a few days later, though, I had no trouble balancing while riding hands-free.

When prepping for a voiceover session, there are lots of last-minute things you can do to make sure you’re “pumped” and ready:

make sure you have plenty of water
study the script to determine what style of read you should use, and to find the key points that will help you deliver the best performance
mark up the script so that you remember what you found
take time to practice reading the script out loud

These are just a few of the things that you could do to “pump up” for a session. You might have some personal preferences, things that are especially helpful for you to get in the right frame of mind. If you neglect some of these last minute things, you might not be fully prepared for the things you may be asked to do in the session. If you’re pumped, you’ll be ready for it.

Introducing Pterry

Justin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:26:36 +0000

Just got word that the next pair of Webosaurs vignettes have been released, and one of them (the first one you see below) features my vocal alter-ego, Pterry the pterodactyl. The other three lead characters — Horns, Rexxy, and Stretch — are voiced by the project’s art director, Justin Harder.

In related news, I’m nearly finished with my VO web site, and will have the “Turbo” video below available there as well once it’s ready.