voiceover artist

Top 10 Voiceover Blogs to Follow – Kim Handysides

Blogs can be some of the best sources of free information in the Googlesphere. But there are a lot of them out there. In fact, Google says 600 million blogs now out of 1.7 billion active sites. That’s a lot of info. But within that astonishing figure, voice over blogs are a sliver-sized narrow niche. For voice over seekers some blog posts answer questions about our industry. For voice artists, blogs are an opportune way to learn about the craft, business, marketing and tech aspects of our industry. Blogs rich in content can save you time and money.

I’ve recently posted my Top 10 list of the best voiceover blogs that I follow. I’m picky. I’ve been in the voiceover industry for a long time. I already know a heck of a lot. But, I regularly browse the content of some of my industry colleagues. To find out what’s new. What’s hot. To join in on great conversations. Voiceover veterans, understand the importance of staying current in the industry and taking part in discussions about issues of import. My top 10 list includes J. Michael Collins, Dave Courvoisier, Bill deWees, Anne Ganguzza, Debbie Grattan, Laura Schreiber, Marc Scott, Paul Strikwerda and David Tyler. Whether you’re deep in or on the fringes of the industry, treat yourself. Pick one or two, or all ten and dive into their back blogs. I am also going to put myself on this list of Top 10s. If you’re curious about my audacity, read on.

Voice Over Artist Kim Handysides

Why do I blog about voice over?

I blog because I’ve been writing “full time voice over artist” on my tax forms since 1991 and I’ve got stuff to say about our industry. And I want to be helpful to clients and the community. Also, I love writing. Not because I’ve been at it since writing the winning submission for the school Christmas play in grade 3, or because of a decade as a journalist writing for television, radio stations, mags and newspapers but because writing has always led a strong supporting role in my career as a professional storyteller. As I’ve learned more about it, I’ve incorporated SEO principles into my posts, but primarily, I write because the linear expression of cogent thought is one of my favorite communication forms.

Do I have a theme to your blogs or do I wait for inspiration to strike?

If I have a theme, I guess it’s become searching for honesty in my art form. Or at least that’s the goal I strive toward, whether the subject appeals more to voice actors or voice talent seekers, other small business owners in the arts. Occasionally, inspiration strikes from a recent project, conversation or situation, but more often I (attempt to) plan a few blogs at once and then work on them over time.

What are my favorite kinds of blogs to write about?

Performance oriented blogs are completely delicious. I’ve been coaching a lot lately and it’s helped me analyze why some things work and others don’t and suss out practical advice to help voice actors find truth in their performances. Marketing and managing your voiceover business are other key themes that I delight in sharing. Cool topics that have saved me time or money or have helped solidify relationships in an increasing physically-disconnected, electronically-hyperconnected world.

What kinds of blogs get the most attention or feedback?

My blogs with the highest interaction (comments) are one on rates in voiceover. I found there were already templates of what to charge out there in the web world, but not much had been written about why voice actors charge the rates they do or what accounts for the range in voiceover pricing from one vo actor to another. Performance tips and advice always do well, like my three-part blog series on how to direct voice actors (which ends in how to self-direct). One kind of complain-y blog got a lot of attention. Why profs narrating their own online courses is often a big mistake. There is an ocean of difference between being a subject matter expert and being able to engage listeners and transmit that info. Time to hire a great professional voiceover narrator.

What else would I like people to know about your blog in particular or my philosophy and approach to the industry?

Nothing make me happier than when someone reaches out and says, “hey, I really liked what you said about xyz,” or “I never thought about it in that way before. Thanks!” This past week I received an email from a college student thanking me for my well-researched post on the Timeline of Podcasting. They’d cited it in their term paper for a communication studies class. That was cool. Makes me want to do more of those.

Top Ten Voice Over Blogs to Follow – Laura Schreiber

blogs

Running your own business as a voice over artist means taking care of your craft, your equipment, your marketing, your finances and staying on top of industry trends. Learning from others who are doing well in the the voice arts is a great way to stay abreast of what works and what doesn’t. I regularly check out blogs of some of the cream of the crop in our industry. Now anyone can talk can blog, but not everyone creates insightful content worthy of my (or your) time. Earlier this year, I began my Top Ten Voiceover Blogs to Follow list and released interviews with people on the list.

Released in alphabetical order, we’ve so far heard from J Michael Collins, Dave Courvoisier, Bill DeWees, Anne Ganguzza, Debbie Grattan and Paul Strikwerda. Next on my list is the talented Laura Schreiber. Full disclosure, Laura happens to be one of my dearest friends, but she is also a wicked smart, with a generous heart and a delightful sense of humor. She and I often have long discussions about multiple business aspects of the voice over industry and the particular energy it takes to have a successful work-life balance when your sound studio and office are in your house.

Voice Over Artist Laura Schrieber

Laura, why do you blog about voice over?

First, I genuinely want folks to get to know me. Whether they be current clients, potential clients, or industry friends, I wear my heart on my sleeve and want them to know how I tick. Next, I think it is a great way to be part of the dialogue in an industry I am very passionate about. Lastly, sometimes a gal just needs to vent! I have actually never journaled, but I now find my weekly blogs quite cathartic.

Do you have a theme to your blogs or do you wait for inspiration to strike?

Every week is different. Sometimes I am inspired by something that happened on a booking or with a client that week. Sometimes I find inspiration in something that I read in the paper or saw on the news. I, love so many voiceover actors, am in a lot of online Facebook groups. Often something comes up in a chat that will get me thinking as well.

What are your favorite kinds of blogs to write about?

My favorite blogs are the most personal ones which sometimes have little to do with my actual craft, but have a lot to do with why I am the way I am or why I do what I do or about something moving that has happened.

What kinds of blogs have you noticed get the most attention or feedback?

The blogs that get the most feedback are either the ones that stir the pot or the ones that represent something of value to the industry as a whole. My most read and shared blog ever was my “Top Reasons to Avoid Cheap VoiceOver” post. I wrote a blog about business cards called “Voiceover Actors Ideal Business Cards” which I spent so much time fixating on and this blog meant so much to me and it got very little attention.

Do you have anything else you’d like us to know about your blog in particular?

Well, I never thought that I would blog and I have to say that I am really into it now. I particularly love finding images and creating videos for the blog. I was the co-Editor-in-Chief of my high school year book and my weekly search for images gives me the same sense of satisfaction that the yearbook work did with a lot less aggravation! (Sorry Jordy!)

3 Ways Storytelling is King in Voiceover for Ads and Business

Voiceover Business

So…what’s your story? Or rather what is your relationship with story? Chances are it’s tight. We humans love story. We swim in it, soak in it, eat it up daily. Hourly, even. But have you stopped to consider your relationship with story as a voiceover artist?

actor LeVar Burton speaks Kim Handysides Voice over — Source:Craig Barritt/Getty Images for AOL Inc.)

Levar Burton, (Reading Rainbow guy, Geordie from Star Trek:Next Generation, Kunta Kinte in Roots) as the key note speaker at DevLearn 2017, stated that story telling is our super power as human beings. Intrinsic to that power is the ability to project ourselves in a moment outside this one. Speaking to a few thousand eLearning developers and creators, he recommended habituating the gateway to story, using the ubiquitous chestnut “What if” to better engage their users and learners.

How voiceover artists use “What if”?

By bringing it to everything you read. If you’re trained in acting, you recognize this as incorporating Meisner technique or Practical Aesthetics. If your background is broadcasting, think of it as finding that personal angle to hook the 6 o’clock supper hour news story on. But make it personal to you. The copy is a retail radio spot for a weekly special about cheap chicken and toilet paper? Use “what if” to imagine those prices really making a difference in your life. Maybe you’re a millennial who’s just left home, you’ve got a new family and all your money is going toward diapers, or you’re on a fixed pension. If the copy doesn’t provide it, build your backstory to better present it. Your “what if” world-building will help your message connect on an emotional level.

Emotion Amps Up VoiceOver Storytelling

brightly lit scan of brain & head — Source: Fine Art America

Settled around the crackling fireplace, the smells of Sunday pot roast lingering in the air and your grandfather tap, tap, tapping the tobacco in his pipe as he launches into a story about his youth. How did you feel? Lit up like a Christmas tree? Our brains are actually wired to process info best through storytelling. We have an eons old history of passing everything on aurally. Whether legend, cautionary tale or recipe on how to live life, we figured out over millennia the kids would get it faster, deeper, better if sewn together in story. In fact, three times more areas of our brains light up when we bake info in a story cake than if we just slice it up into naked factoids.

Persuasive Voiceover and Influencing Action

Your story (i.e. commercial ad, corporate narration, explainer video, etc.) if told well (i.e. with emotion, with enough world building and an appropriate “what if”) will prompt your listener to action (which is what your client wants) and fill out their time cards appropriately or sign up for the corporate baseball team or go and put that brand of frozen pizza in their shopping cart next time they need groceries. What we do is powerful stuff (when done well). Our clients entrust us to tell their stories to their clients. It’s a big responsibility. We are the Hermes of humanity. The messengers. To ply our trade well, we need to understand both the needs of the message maker and message receiver.

Morphing a Memorable Message

Matthew McConaughey in Lincoln ad Kim Handysides Voiceover — Source: MLive.com

A story told well stays with you. Romeo and Juliet. A Christmas Carol. Harry Potter. Yes, these are all written stories which we’ve read at one time or another, but the same holds true for stories told in spoken word. Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Kate Winslet in Titanic. Great stories, but also, really great voiceover narrators. Those voices, telling those stories stick with you. Same with ads. The Alka Selzter man from the 70’s moaning “I can’t believe I ate the whoooole thing,” the tiny grandma from the 80’s shouting “Where’s the beef?” or more recently, Matthew McConaughey rubbing his fingers and musing, “That’s a big bull” in the Lincoln ads. Story makes the message stick.

Tell Your Voiceover Story

Back at the DevLearn conference, LeVar Burton wrapped up his speech on storytelling to the eLearning crowd by telling us what we imagine and what we create are inextricably linked. So true. Everything man has ever created existed first as an imagining, shared with another in, most probably, story. It begs the question, whether copywriter, voiceover artist, producer or “other” creative, what will your unique contribution be? What are your stories? And how will you tell them from your singular perspective?

Is the Seth Rogan Controversy Good or Bad for Voiceover Industry?

Voiceover Business

A reporter from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) called me yesterday to ask me (a female voice over artist) how I felt about Seth Rogan voicing prompts for the Vancouver Transit Authority. Matthew ____ (I don’t remember his last name) asked if I felt any animosity toward Seth for infringing on the territory of a regular voiceover artist. While I understand Matthew was doing his due diligence as a good reporter trying to dig up dirt on an otherwise fun fluff news piece, my reaction wasn’t what he was looking for.

Hollywood A-Listers in Voice Over

While it does get some of us up in arms when we see Matthew McConaughey hocking cars or the myriad of animation roles going more and more to A-list celebrities, and I understood his point about Seth. But apart from being all fan-girl about le M. Rogan, I think he’s doing us a service. Let me s’plain.

Seth Rogen beside subway car Kim Handysides Voiceover — Credit: Vancouver Courrier

Hearing Seth Rogan give you anecdotes and instructions over the transit PA system draws attention to our industry as a whole. It shines a spotlight on one aspect of the myriad places voiceover is used. AR, VR, all the R’s, I don’t need to spell them out. You know where our talents are used.

The cool thing about Seth’s work? He apparently didn’t take any money for this particular job. It was a volunteer voice gig. So he wasn’t replacing you or me. He was looking at it as doing a favor for the city he is proud to come from. I’m not from Vancouver and when the reporter found out I am located on the other side of the country, he asked me for other references of voiceover people in the city. (You’re welcome Alison Sellers 😉 )

Full disclosure, part of my generous reaction, may have been because I thought Seth’s voicework was limited to Vancouver, the city of his birth. Then I found out he also recorded voice prompts for the Toronto Transit authority…. Hmmm. Vancouver voice, Toronto voice…would he become the (my home town) Montreal voice, too? Further investigation? Canadian company TransLink hired Seth after allegations about Morgan Freeman’s off-set behavior. So this wasn’t a new thing….The transit authority was already hiring big names for its etiquette tips.

Voice Over Work is not a Pool, it’s an Ocean

So back to the issue….big Hollywood actors recording the stuff you and I live and breathe and pay our mortgages on. And are you and I afraid it will squeeze us out of the market?

Ya’Idonthinkso….50 years ago Mel Blanc and a handful of others did all the animation voices. At that point the occasional Hollywood A-lister would lend their voice to something for a charitable event. Yeah, advertisers, doc filmmakers and especially gaming companies are roping in the big guns to be better heard amidst the rising cacophony of content. But, unless the stars all start working for charity, the overwhelming majority of corporate clients, eLearning content creators, ad agencies, etc. will not produce budgets high enough to satisfy their rarified bank accounts. There will be enough work for “regular voice over artists” or as I like to call us, “career actors.”

Smiling Seth Rogen Kim Handysides Voiceover — Credit: CTV Vancouver

So, Rogen on, Toronto & Vancouver, I say. And let us bask in the awareness his dulcet tones and gregarious, down-to-earth personality bring to an otherwise ignored genre in the arena of voicework in which we all play.

What say you? Is it yes to the Seth? Or no with a boo, hiss? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

514-803-2296

kim@kimhandysidesvoiceover.com