Keeping it Interesting

Work is fun. Work is work. Work pays the bills! Really, I enjoy all the voice over work that I'm privileged to do everyday. Along with just being grateful for jobs coming my way, the joy of voice over work often comes from the variety of projects that come my way. It is fun and interesting, and I usually learn something from each and every project. Although I have always done all kinds of voice over work, sometimes, the jobs that come in are heavy in one genre, such as e-learning......for awhile, and then things switch and it maybe something else: corporate narrations, IVR or phone messaging, commercials, promo, imaging, etc.

The past month or so has been especially interesting and varied with all kinds of new and unexpected projects. I recorded a large batch of medical center commercials both for television and radio which were recorded in another studio here in Houston - Audio Bob. This used to be how all my jobs were recorded - driving into town, working in a studio, with an engineer and a producer/director in attendance. It was really fun to work with "real people" again like I used to! The fact that it was such a nice large project was gravy.....

Work that has come directly to me often finds me via my web site. I just never know who will be calling or emailing me with what kind of project. In addition to a slew of large e-learning, commercial, and IVR projects here in my studio, I've had several wonderful and new narration opportunities. I narrated a very well done documentary style production for the American Museum of Natural History in NY, a moving airplane accident case study for AOPA, and several different voices of the women's suffrage movement for a PBS special all via phone patch.

Political commercials are definitely on the upswing, too, as you may have noticed, and I've voiced several in the past week - usually at the last minute - via ISDN. In fact, I missed one, just because I was invited out to lunch!! Note to self, don’t leave the studio during an election year. J

Throw in a variety of smaller market commercials for all kinds of clients, a few radio imaging projects, some regular repeat work for IVR and phone messaging clients and the interest level grows. The variety of clients, producers, and projects open to voice over talent now that we can work from our own studios via the internet is amazing compared to how we used to work... Of course, it all requires more background/non voice over work from us as well. Marketing, bookkeeping, producing, editing, and just generally keeping track of a business all take a lot of time and attention. But that can all be interesting, too. Marketing, alone, is a topic worthy of a great deal of time and attention, and something to be talked about in more detail in another article.

Until we meet again, “Be well and prosper!”