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Karen Commins

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Archives for 2006

You can trust your gut instinct

14 November 2006

Things happen for a reason. Every moment and decision has meaning — even if you don’t know it at the time.

As I sit in my beautiful soundproof recording studio with its Parisian decorating scheme, I still marvel at the newness of it. A little more than a year ago at this time, my house, my voice-over career and my life were severely disrupted because we were in the midst of building the addition on our house for the studio.

I didn’t even make the decision to build the studio until 6 January 2005. Prior to building the studio, I had been using an unventilated, small walk-in closet as my voice-over recording booth. While I could tolerate the many discomforts of the space, it was the surrounding noise that forced me to go to drastic lengths.

Even though we had decided to build a new soundproof room for my voice-over studio, I originally had no idea what the finished interior would look like. I should say I had no conscious idea, but I feel the whole project was guided by my intuition, and, perhaps, a higher power.

We had planned a trip to the Salzburg Festival in Austria in August, 2001 but canceled it when my dad was seriously ill at the end of July of that year. Sometime in 2004, we had decided we would vacation in Austria for my April, 2005 birthday.

In late 2004, I suddenly and without any reason decided that I would rather go to Paris.

In December, 2004, I bought tickets to see Barry Manilow for 5 concerts (!) in his new show in Las Vegas in mid-August, 2005. I was thrilled because I would have front-row and fourth-row seats.

February, 2005, found us replacing all of the original single-pane, double-hung windows on the house with fantastic triple-pane casement windows. In addition to their thickness, the new windows form an amazing seal to the house and really aid in soundproofing the house from the constant melee of exterior noise that confronts us everyday. I cherish peace and quiet even when I’m not recording. I saved a few of the smaller original windows, thinking I might use them somehow as future art projects. Drew thought they were just more things to take up space in the garage.

We had visited Paris for 5 hours in 2003 as part of a cruise stop, but last year, we were there for one glorious week. I loved everything about the city. On my birthday, we had the most incredible and memorable dinner of my life in the Eiffel Tower overlooking the Seine River at sunset. The Eiffel Tower is now my favorite thing in the world. 🙂 I loved to glimpse it as often as possible as we toured Paris, and I took every opportunity to watch it twinkle at night.

While we were in Paris, we bought 3 paintings. I had no idea where I would put them in my house since the walls are already covered in art. I also sketched a building on the artist plaza behind Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, never intending to do anything with it.

When we visited Versailles, we walked through the magnificent gardens, which are filled with ornate statues. It started to rain, so we decided to head back toward the Chateau. We passed a statue we had not seen on our entrance to the gardens, and I stopped in my tracks.

I told Drew that for some reason, I felt that statue was important, and I asked him to take a picture of it.

After we returned from our vacation, we selected the contractor for the studio construction. Work began in late May and dragged on until October. The details about the construction project are another story for another time! However, if you want to learn from my experience, you can download my free PDF Karen’s Crash Course in Avoiding Ca$h-Poor Contractors.

I was aware of making only minimal interior decorating decisions at the outset of the project. I chose the color of the walls and carpet. I also said I wanted track lighting because I knew that I would hang some sort of artwork in the studio, given that we have art through the rest of the house.

During the construction, I first decided I could hang the 3 new paintings from Paris in the studio since a new room meant 4 new bare walls. Since we built the studio without windows to improve the soundproofing of the room, I began to wonder how a faux window would look on the wall. After all, I had saved real windows from the house. I asked Drew whether my favorite picture from Paris could be enlarged to the size of the window and if it somehow could be lit from behind so that it would look realistic. Drew immediately saw the possibility of this idea and began working the implementation.

Drew worked with a local Alphagraphics to enlarge the picture and mount it on Plexiglas. Drew and his dad built a box to house the lights, and Drew painted it to match the walls.

Now, my studio has a window that doesn’t let in sound!

When I look out my window, my enchanting view is that of a brightly-lit tour boat motoring down the Seine at 9:10pm in front of the Museum D’Orsay, with the dazzling light show of the Eiffel Tower in progress off to the right.

In June, I was given a book which showed all of the artwork of my favorite artist, Fanch Ledan. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw a print that featured the same building that I had sketched! I started to acquire several of his older, uncommon prints featuring the Eiffel Tower, and I asked a dealer to search for that one long-out-of-print piece of art. The Parisian decorating theme by this time was swirling in my brain.

By August, I was so distraught over the cost, problems and delays with the studio construction that I almost cancelled my long-awaited trip to see Barry Manilow. Drew told me to go, relax and have fun; he would stay and deal with the contractor. A friend told me that I should definitely go on the trip, saying that maybe I’d find something unique for my studio.

I not only had a blast at Barry’s concerts, as I would expect, but yes, I DID find something for my studio.

I was staying at a hotel off the strip and had to take a shuttle to the Bellagio. Barry was playing at the Hilton, at the other end of the strip. Since the temperature was a sweltering 110 degrees (‘yes, but it’s a dry heat’, everyone always tells me when I go to Vegas, as if sticking my head in an oven would somehow make me feel terrific), I was walking outside as little as possible.

After leaving the shuttle, my normal route took me through the Bellagio, across the bridge to Bally’s and through Bally’s to the sumptuous Paris Las Vegas Hotel or the Monorail. Naturally, with my fondness for Paris, I liked to hang out at the Paris hotel, which has a lobby chandeliers and mirrors to resemble Versailles. I browsed in the lovely gift shop and found the perfect wall sconces for my silk flowers. The velvety purple color is unbelievably just a shade off from the color of my walls.

However, the piece de resistance came when I walked in the Shops at Bally’s. If I hadn’t walked through Bally’s every time I went anywhere in Vegas, I might not have visited their shops, and horrors! I might have missed this treasure. There, in the window of one luxury shop, was an impossibly huge, etched, crystal Eiffel Tower. It sparkled and shimmered as the light caught all of its hundreds of facets. I went in the store to admire it, but its impossibly huge price to match its overwhelming size made it seem like something I should ignore.

The store owner saw my interest (can you say drooling?) and led me to the counter, where a 13′ version of the crystal Tower proudly stood. The dealer told me that I could get a rotating mirrored base that has colored lights under the mirror and was sold separately. I guess it must have been a slow day and/or the guy really liked me because I negotiated a completely wonderful deal on this mesmerizing piece of crystal and got the mirrored base for free! One of the Las Vegas sconces is shown in this picture on the wall to left of the crystal.

Sometime in the summer, I started visualizing an overstuffed love seat with sleigh arms and carved legs.

Due to the placement of the interior door, I don’t have room for full sofa. I found some love seats on-line that I liked, but they would require custom work at custom prices. One was actually in Paris, so I quickly ruled it out. One hot Saturday, Drew and I went to a half dozen nearby furniture stores. We saw nothing that looked French, carved or anything that even halfway compared to the type of love seat that I envisioned. Oh, and did I mention that I wanted a green love seat?

Exhausted by a day of fruitless searching, we made one last stop into Haverty’s. We almost didn’t go there because no one else had anything, and we had no expectation that Haverty’s would be different. We should have gone there first. My dream love seat was waiting for me there.

Once construction was complete last fall, I started thinking that I would like a tapestry to cover the electrical box that is behind the door that leads in from the kitchen. We were looking for the fabric to match the love seat to use as drapery fabric for the faux window. We didn’t find the fabric, but we saw some tapestries hanging on a rack. After inspection, none were suitable for my studio.

On the way out of the store, though, we discovered that we could send our picture to a company which would create a custom tapestry from our picture! We knew immediately which picture to use: a striking shot of crimson tulips swaying in the foreground with a Parisian subway train rounding the bend front of typical blue-roofed apartment buildings in the background. Drew shot the picture while we were walking from the train station to the Eiffel Tower on the way to my birthday celebration. The company that makes the tapestry even supplied a rod with fleur-de-lis endpoints.

My studio decorating theme may seem like a happy accident until I look back and realize it couldn’t have been any other way.

It’s the voice-over recording studio of my dreams…and then some.

If you have stayed with me this far, you may be wondering why I have told you the detailed story behind my studio decoration.

So often, I think our intuition gives us amazing guidance, but we ignore it.

If we analyze the decisions in this story that I made by intuition, we see that I:

  • Went to Paris for vacation instead of Austria
  • Saved the window from the house
  • Took the picture of the statue at Versailles
  • Decided to hang the Paris paintings in the studio, even if by default
  • Shopped in Las Vegas for studio furnishings and found the amazing crystal statue
  • Went to Haverty’s to look at furniture after almost giving up
  • Went to a store for drapery material and instead found way to order a custom tapestry

In fact, this entire blog entry was guided by my intuition. When I started writing, I had in mind another lesson that I wished to relate. However, my fingers typed this one, as if taking dictation. Perhaps someone needs to know that they can trust their intuition in making important decisions about their voice-over career. Your intuition will tell you whether a class is a scam or a life-changing opportunity. Your intuition will urge you to make a particular phone call to a certain client. Your intuition will guide you to make choices and take action toward building your career that you may not totally understand at the time but will make brilliant sense in retrospect.

I realized I didn’t show you the picture of the statue at Versailles or tell you what I did with it. Every artist needs a star on her door, and I’m no exception. As I walk in my WhisperRoom each day, I see that splendid statue from Versailles, a lovely marble lady who looks like she was once holding a microphone in her hand. I even found a frame that matches the decorating scheme perfectly!

By the way, I still haven’t made it to Austria. I know that there’s a reason for the delay. My intuition tells me that, like my studio decoration, that trip will be better than I dreamed possible when it finally happens.

How has your intuition helped you in advancing your career? You read my story; I would love to read yours!

 

Filed Under: Away From the Mic, Law of Attraction, Narrators, Studio

Synopsis of the Finding Your Dream Job TV show

3 November 2006

If you read my entry from Sunday, you know that I appeared on a TV show called Finding Your Dream Job which aired on Monday night. Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV (Channel 2) had posted a call for entries on its web site. Out of the 100s of submissions, the station selected 6 people to assist in career transitions.

David McCreary was one of the 6 people chosen to participate on the show, and he wants to start a career in voice-over. WSB-TV arranged for him to spend his first time in the recording booth at the fantastic Catspaw Studios under the outstanding direction of studio owner and leading national voice-over talent Doug Paul. Doug called me to perform copy with David for the recording session.

The show focused on how to change careers and land in your dream job. Popular TV/radio personality and author Clark Howard hosted the show and talked with a panel of career advisors and special guests in addition to the people profiled on the show.

David’s Segment

David’s segment was early in the broadcast. The spot we recorded during the taping wasn’t aired on the show. It was a role reversal for me in that it was one of the few times in my life that I was seen but not heard. 🙂

During David’s portion of the show, Doug gave him some solid advice specific to starting a career in voice-over. Like many people interested in this profession, David has spent years impersonating other people and cartoon characters. He would like to perform those impersonations for a living. Doug said, “Unfortunately, you won’t get a lot of jobs being so many other people like that, so you’ve got to do straight and character stuff.”

Doug recommended that David see if he can find an opportunity to work in broadcasting, such as at a small radio station. He also suggested that David get involved in theatre work. Doug told David that he could start creating some short demonstrations of voice work to use as something to talk about with agents.

The best advice from Doug applies not only to newcomers to voice-over but also to professionals:

“If you really want to get into this business, you’ve got to work everyday. It’s kind of like playing tennis. You’ve got to play every day.”

If it were easy, everyone would do it

Host Clark Howard used himself as an example of someone who never thought he would use his voice for a living. In talking about career changes in general, he said that “Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time, and you’ve got to go for it. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy street. You have to work hard.”

I’m glad he made those comments on the show. As I briefly discussed with his producer at the taping, I think many people are eager to enter the voice-over industry because they enamored with the performance aspects of it. People are told they have a nice voice and perceive this field as one open to anyone without any training. Often, they don’t seem to realize that it is a business requiring on-going training and perpetual marketing like any other business. (We won’t even talk about the other business departments needed for your voice-over enterprise like accounting, information technology and office management.)

We all have unique voices. The ability to interpret someone else’s words, remain true to their meaning and perform scripts with an intended audience in mind while sounding natural and flowing is a skill that takes practice. Over time, your sound becomes as polished as a beautiful jewel. Like Doug Paul said, you’ve got to work every day.

How to change a career (to voice-over or anything else)

The entire program was excellent. Viewers learned that, on average, people change jobs 5-7 times and careers 3-5 times over a lifetime. All of the general guidance to changing careers can be applied to starting a career in voice-over. In order to change careers, you first need to:

  • Know yourself well
  • Know your skills
  • Know what makes you happy

The advisors suggested reading books, taking career assessment tests and working with coaches to help you narrow your choices.

You may need to build experience and education by:

  • Working a part-time job
  • Working as a contract or temporary employee
  • Going to school or obtaining specialized training

Clark and his guests also stressed the importance of learning everything you can about the industry that you want to join. They listed a number of possibilities for networking with professionals in the industry:

  • Find a mentor
  • Join professional associations
  • Go to conferences
  • Volunteer
  • Take an internship

I would add that once you have defined your niche in voice-over, you could utilize such networking opportunities as ways to meet potential clients who might be in need of voice-over work.

Here’s that word again: PERSISTENCE

One person interviewed on the show was Atlanta writer Deb Bruce. Although I am writing a column about voice-over, I am including her story because it is another one of self-discipline and persistence from which we can all learn valuable lessons.

When she began her writing career, she got up at 4:00am to write before her children were awake. She submitted her articles for publication and kept track of them. If an article was rejected, she sent it to someone else. She said she always had about 100 articles out for consideration at time. She has now published more than 2500 articles!

In addition, she was at a social gathering once and heard the name of Doubleday behind her. She seized the opportunity to introduce herself, complete with an idea for a book pitch. The publisher didn’t produce that kind of book, but he handed her the card of someone who did. She followed up with that contact and obtained a book contract. She has never been to New York but has now published 79 books and works with New York publishers every day.

Roll credits

The theme of the show seemed to coincide with everything I believe – if you know yourself, have clear goals and are willing to work hard to achieve them, you can make your dream job into a reality! Thanks to WSB-TV for producing such thought-provoking and potentially life-changing programming for the citizens of Atlanta and for Doug Paul at Catspaw Studios for including me in the production. Catspaw engineer Jim McKnight made us sound great while we performed our scripts. It was an honor to participate in this project. I enjoyed working with David McCreary in his first studio session and hope to see him across the booth from me in the future!

 

Filed Under: Narrators, Voice-Over

Two stories in the news about voice actors

1 November 2006

The information presented on Clark Howard’s TV show about changing careers was terrific. I hope to write a summary about it tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy reading a couple of articles about two very talented character voice-over artists.

In May, I made a new friend with the charming and witty Mary McKitrick when we met during Pat Fraley’s Women in Animation class in New York. Mary has only been working in voice-over for about 2 years, but she already is making a big splash, thanks in part to her tremendous self-discipline and persistence in contacting producers. Her local newspaper ran a story about her yesterday. You can read the newspaper article at this entry on her blog, and then listen to her character demo. While you’re visiting her blog, read her entry about going to the Ad Club. You’re going to be hearing a lot more from Mary!

Voice-over veteran Frank Welker was profiled in this story today in an Illinois newspaper. If you have watched cartoons in the last 30 years or so, you have probably heard his voice and are well familiar with his name.

When you read stories of others’ success, see what you can learn from them. When I admire someone, I look to see whether they are doing things that I want to emulate to improve my own circumstances. These stories also serve as inspiration. It can be easy to give into frustration or discouragement when things aren’t going well. However, by consistently and diligently applying myself to my business like Mary, I know that I can have a long and rewarding career like Frank.

 

Filed Under: Narrators, Voice-Over

My role on Clark Howard’s TV Show Finding Your Dream Job

29 October 2006

The best way to accomplish your own dreams is to help other people accomplish theirs. Since I don’t currently teach classes or workshops, I have found that I can be of service to those wishing to enter the voice-over industry by offering the advice page on my web site and these essays on my blog. Of course, I enjoying discussing the industry when people meet me and express their curiosity.

I usually don’t have the opportunity to directly help newcomers, though, so I was quite delighted when Doug Paul, owner of the wonderful Catspaw Studios, called me recently about an unique collaboration with WSB-TV, ABC affiliate Channel 2 here in Atlanta. Popular TV and radio personality Clark Howard is hosting an hour-long prime-time TV show set to air on Monday, 30 October, titled

Finding Your Dream Job.

The link has useful information about networking and other career resources that may be useful to you if you are in the midst of a career transition.

On the show, Clark is giving 6 participants the chance to step into the environments of their dream job. David McCreary dreams of becoming a voice-over actor and was chosen for the show. Doug thought it would be valuable experience for David to perform a dialogue spot a against a professional voice talent and asked me if I could join them at Catspaw for a short recording session.

I was excited for David that Channel 2 selected Catspaw as the recording studio. Catspaw is one of the busiest studios in Atlanta. It’s a premiere facility, yet you are totally relaxed the moment you walk in the door. Everyone there is warm and friendly, like you’re among family.

In addition, Doug Paul is a leading national voice-over talent with 20 years or more of experience, and he is a fantastic example of living the dream life! After Doug developed his own bustling voice-over career, he built this striving studio. I always love working with Doug because he knows how to give precise direction to get the read he is hearing in his head. A session at Catspaw never lasts very long! 🙂 For David, the experience in working with Doug Paul at Catspaw would be the equivalent to a short masterclass. What a memorable way to jump-start a career!

Even though I met the producer and cameraperson prior to the shoot, I admit seeing a camera pointed at us in the hallway was a little unnerving, as I never do on-camera work. Since David is obviously the focal point of the story, the camera was trained on him while we were in the recording booth. I was proud of him that he seemed able to forget about the camera and have fun with the copy. We did a number of takes on the dialogue piece, and David adjusted well to Doug’s direction.

I don’t know if Channel 2 will use any of my segment in the finished TV show, but I will definitely be watching Clark Howard’s show tomorrow night at 8pm. I want to see the rest of David’s story, and I wish him every possible success in his voice-over career!

I certainly encourage everyone in the Atlanta viewing area to watch the show. You never know what you may learn from David’s experiences and those of the other participants who are working toward making their dreams come true.

 

Filed Under: Narrators, Press Room, Voice-Over

Voice-over can be fun and games

27 October 2006

I have provided the voices for 2 games, one of which had 4 characters.I think that job with the 4 characters was one of the most fun jobs I have had as voice actor. I was asked to portray some teenage girls yelling at the boys on the beach to pick up some diamonds. Who wouldn’t want to get paid doing that?

Many voice talent dream of working in the ever-growing gaming industry. Like anything else, though, it may be difficult to obtain paid work without prior experience in that field. I found a voice-over audition for independent game developer that opened a couple of days ago that may be a great place to gain some experience with game dialogue and showcase your skills.

If selected to voice one or more characters in this game, you would receive credit and a copy of the game. Women are encouraged to submit, and casting is expected to begin in early November.

For those starting out, you may want to look on a game credit as a talking point with a commercial publisher. Unless specifically asked, you don’t have volunteer that you weren’t paid for the project. By frequenting the forums dedicated to gaming, you will see other similar audition opportunities.

If you’re serious about pursuing a niche in gaming, you will want to read industry periodicals devoted to the subject. For instance, you can sign up for the weekly Gamasutra.com e-mail alerts.You can network with professionals at IGDA meetings, the annual E3 convention, and several other annual conventions and conferences devoted to the gaming industry. Also, classes in accents and dialects would be enormously helpful, as well as specialized classes such as Pat Fraley’s Game World workshop in LA on 18 November.

 

Filed Under: Narrators, Voice-Over

The business of voice-over is on my mind after vacation

19 October 2006

Drew and I have been on vacation for almost 3 weeks on a wonderful Greek Islands cruise. During the trip, we visited Greece, Egypt, Turkey and Paris. If you’re interested, you can look at our awesome photo album/scrapbook that we created with Drew’s amazing pictures at Shutterfly, the best company for photo processing and related products that you can imagine.

Even though I was on a fabulous vacation, I never stopped thinking of ways to progress my voice-over business. I have some stories to relate at another time. Today, though, I wanted to tell you about something that was awaiting me in the mail upon my arrival home: my copy of Pat Fraley’s new book: The Gypsy’s Guide to The Business of Voice-Over.

I have taken classes with Pat and his business partner Hillary Huber, and I think I have a copy of everything he has published. Since I don’t live in LA, I take every opportunity to drink at the well of this master’s fountain of knowledge. I find the real value of this latest book to be in the CD that accompanies it. Pat and Hillary entertain and inform you on the CD just as if you were sitting in one of their voice-over classes. They cover the text in the book so that you can hear the material while commuting to your next voice-over gig.

Among other material covered, our delightful teachers succinctly differentiate the key concepts of brandingand style, and they play some excellent demos to illustrate their points. However, guest interviews on the CD with Kristine Oller and D. B. Cooper provide key information not included in the book. Kristine Oller’s comments about focus are something that every voice artist should hear and act upon.

Sometimes, we don’t know what to do. Sometimes, we know what to do but don’t do it. By repeatedly listening to Pat and Hillary and their guests on the The Gypsy’s Guide to The Business of Voice-Over, I have a feeling that it will be easier for me to do all the right things to improve my voice-over business in the future.

In my opening paragraph, I linked to our Shutterfly vacation photobook. As promotion is one thing discussed rather heavily in Pat’s book, I realized I could mention that I have successfully used Shutterfly products in promoting my voice-over business. Like favorite teachers Pat and Hillary, I can’t say enough good things about that company! They have a tremendous array of products, great prices and exceptionally fast delivery. If you can put a photo on something, you can also put your logo on it! Just think of the possibilities for personal branding and promotion!

 

Filed Under: Books, Business, Narrators

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