New blog address: http://www.JoeSzymanski.com
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Here’s the skinny on the move: Anthony Mendez told me about Posterous a few days ago and I’m loving it so far. In fact, I think it might be a social media game-changer. The best thing is being able to update via email from anywhere, anytime, without having to log in. If I need to post a YouTube link, I don’t have to wrap it in tags first. Photos will be a breeze.

So, there will likely be more blurbs than novels in the days ahead, but more of them. Since my initial goal was never to make a blog that dealt strictly with voiceover, but rather something where I can share my life both in and outside the VO booth, I think Posterous will make that a lot easier than WordPress did.

So come on over!

Thanks, Donna Reed, for leading me to this.

Donna Reed pointed me to this article today. (Hi Donna!) Ed Asner provided voice for the grumpy old man who’s name escapes me. Ed was “Lou Grant” on the Mary Tyler Moore Show many years back. I don’t know if he’s grumpy in real life, but he certainly is old. In fact, a few people were worried he wouldn’t make it through the grueling VO sessions for “Up”. Read on…

Kara Edwards wrote a brilliant piece today on this same topic and it’s her post that inspired this post.

Check it out.

http://karaedwardsvo.blogspot.com/2009/11/confession-and-thank-you.html

So if you don’t mind casting your vote for me, just click here and select “Joe Szymanski” from the dropdown.

Many thanks! The story follows:

If you’re like most, you continue to improve as time goes on. It’s kind of like watching a flower grow. Look often and you might not see differences from one day to the next. But come back a week or two later and things are in full bloom.

I recorded a long form narration job early last year for a client that was a pleasure to work with. Recently, they decided they wanted to update some copy to reflect improvements to the product. No big deal, ordinarily. But little did I know what we were both in for with this particular session.

Obviously, they wanted to maintain the same tone and vocal style as last time so the new VO would match nicely with the old stuff. As soon as the producer began playing some of it down the ISDN line as a refresher, I noticed right away that I was working at a higher level than when I recorded the work originally. This meant that in order to match the tone from last time, I’d have to bring myself back to the level of ability I possessed the prior year when it was recorded. I had to make my delivery purposely sound worse!

It was stiff, sing-songy and a bit pukey in places. And worse, it had to be recreated! What kind of hack did they hire last year anyway?

Forty minutes later, we finished up and I stepped out of the hot booth for a drink and a breath of air. Phone rings. “Uh, yeah Joe… Were you possibly using a different mic last time around?” Oops. I had forgotten to mention that I had switched not only my microphone, but my preamp as well since we had last worked together. (Note: I don’t recommend this to anyone if you have continuing jobs that require pickups from time to time.) Blindly figuring that the ISDN would have provided a clear signal for the engineer to ensure consistency, I hadn’t given it much thought or concern. Now, I was giving it a lot of both.

I scrambled to hook up my other mic and run it direct into the board. With the producer back on the line, we re-recorded the entire session. And yes, the second time was just as purposefully altered as the first, though mercifully it didn’t take quite as long.

You can see why this turned out to be one of the biggest and most unexpected challenges of my VO career. I never dreamed that improvement could come back and bite me like a dog gone rabid. Funny thing was, the producer liked my current read style a lot better, but for purposes of blending new with old, everybody’s hands were tied.

Measured growth in any creative venture is refreshing and rejuvenating. And looking back to who we were can be a good indicator where we’re going. There’s joy in that journey for sure. As long as you’re ok with off-roading once in awhile.

Steve Stone is a great guy and a really talented voice actor. Go check out Ryan’s interview with him here.

Go check out Dan’s conversation with Ann, here. It’s a long file but a great reminder for all of us that send and recieve tons of email each day. Especially as it relates to voiceover and auditioning.

There was a good side though. The annual Promax party hosted by my agency, Atlas Talent, is typically standing room only. This year, however, there was a little more breathing room inside the three-floor venue that hosted the event. It was great to finally put faces to producers and fellow voice actors that I knew only through email. That’s always a good thing when it happens.

After a couple of unseasonably cool days (perfect!) New York got pounded with rain on Thursday, canceling lots of flights and delaying mine by two hours. Once we got on the plane at JFK, we sat for another hour before finally getting off the ground. It was good to finally get home and a booking on Friday morning made it even better.

New York is such a unique and fun place to visit, When you work by yourself day in and day out in a much smaller city, it can really be a shock to the system during the first day or so. But as they say, it’s all good.

Yes, the cream always rises to the top, provided the cream doesn’t mind a lot of hard work to get there.

Thanks to Donna Reed and Bob Souer for the alert on this.