This was a really fun job. The Drabblecast is a neat podcast that I’ve read a story for once before but this one really struck me. It’s by Will McIntosh who is a highly decorated science fiction writer. The Fantasy Jumper was in 2009’s Year’s Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Will has a good shot at the Hugo Award this year. Here’s a cool review about it:
‘The Fantasy Jumper’ by Will McIntosh is a first BS appearance by a regular contributor to sister-magazine Interzone,and it’s a fine story, perhaps the best in the magazine; set at a future World’s Fair, which includes amongst its attractions a booth that will generate temporary people designed to replay selected memories. Breaking from it’s expected narrative arc, it’s short and to the point, and perhaps worth the price of the magazine on it’s own.
Click here for the entire by Sci Fi Fantasy Fiction.
Click here to listen to the story. Just so you know, it’s like 20 minutes long. I read the Fantasy Jumper at around 4:24 into the podcast. Hope you enjoy!
I’ve been working full time as a voice over actor for about two years now. I have several agents, who all work really hard for me, but the majority of my work is via online websites like Voice123.com and Voices.com.
I also teach classes about how to be successful at the kind of voice over work I’m doing. Where you set up your own studio, learn how to record and edit, find and negotiate your own work and collect all your money sans a $300 or so annual membership fee.
In my course work I talk about how I’ve, personally, had more luck with Voice123 than Voices in the past but that I’ve noticed there are people doing well on Voices.com. When I did some investigating to see who those people were I noticed they all had one thing in common – Platinum level memberships.
I paid something like $299 for the year but these guys paid $2000. They get priority listing on searches (huge) and they get an entire PR department working for them, including press releases and ad campaigns for their voice.
I spoke with someone at Voices.com today and they said all of their current Platinum members give it a 10 out of 10 rating. I’m thinking about signing up and posting the results play by play on this blog so that, if it sucks, you won’t have to waste your money.
This job has been so fun already and I’m just getting started! The Geobeats Vimeo Page has the rest of the videos they’ve done so far. I love the video and pictures of the architecture in Seoul, Dubai and Beijing. Too bad I didn’t have to go to each of these places to tell you about their top 5 or 10 attractions;)
I’m trying to save up to buy my first real car. Like a reliable one where all I worry about is the car payment. In the meantime, we got a Schwinn electric scooter that, I must say, does almost everything a car can do for me.
It can go on the subway, you don’t need to pay for licensing or registration on it and I haven’t needed gas in ages. You just plug it in to the wall! And our neighbor modified the engine to make it go fast enough where it’s not just a toy, it’s actually useful. I’ve been getting around lately with nothing that’s gas combustible and it makes me wonder if I even want a car until I can buy a reasonable electric one.
The next thing I’m buying in my life is a nice laundry machine. I teach exercise so the laundry can pile up fast but, when it does it’s hard to transport everything to the stupid laundry mat. With Dis’ help, between the bike and the scooter, were were “Makin it Happen” today.
I’m so excited to announce that I was recently hired by Geobeats. They are a really cool company based in Boston who is hiring me for voice over + editing as well as a little on camera hosting. And, get this, for the most part I’m talking about travel! I love this stuff. There isn’t anything I would rather talk about. Their editing team is working on my first assignment but here is one of the samples from my first assignment.
I said I’d never teach one of these voice over workshops in Los Angeles. I just loved the idea of going to other cities around the country and teaching people this approach that tells them they really don’t need to move to LA or NYC anymore to do voice over work.
But then, when I started partnering with the Guitar Center they were most excited about their new facilities in Los Angeles, GC Studios. This place is awesome. It’s about a year old and a state of the art set up for a learning environment and rehearsal space.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized this workshop is perfect for Angelenos too. If you’re interested in voice over, it can be years before you get an agent and a lot of waiting for the phone to ring while working jobs to survive in the mean time. But my workshop teaches you to find small yet regular voice over jobs that you can work instead of a starving actor job. You’d be making the same money but you’d be working and gaining experience within your field.
Guitar Center’s corporate office hooked me up with GC Studios and now my workshop is a part of their “Summer Sessions” series. Check it out!
They are handling all sign ups so I’m taking the sign up option down off my workshop website. If you are interested in taking the class or know someone who might be, contact GC Studios (818.883.4427) and they’ll sign you up (hurry though! Only 20 spots and they told me yesterday they’ve already registered some people)
I love my Flip Video Mino HD. I use it constantly. I was thinking to myself just the other day, “what kinds of improvements will they be making in the next generation of this camera?”
Enter the new SlideHD. You can now record up to four hours, which is great. Also, right after you shoot something, you can slide open the camera to find a 3” touch screen viewfinder to watch what you just shot. This is rad, in my opinion because I can’t stand watching videos play back on the tiny screen I have. My boyfriend will hold it in front of me and I beg him to plug it into the computer so I can watch whatever he just shot on a bigger screen. But sometimes you’re out and about – maybe at a wedding or on vacation, whatever, and you want watch what you shot instantly. Now it will be a joy to do so=) No squinting, no struggling, just watching your footage you caught of that friend falling on their ass or your little girl doing her first bike ride sans training wheels=)
By the way, if you Flip, have you ever noticed how much great stuff happens when you don’t have it on you? Just the other day I was sitting in my car at a red light and a man walking across the street in the sidewalk in front of me was SO DRUNK he sat down on the bumper of the car to the left of me. It appeared that he was completely sure he was sitting down on a park bench. Right there in middle of the street! At first the driver of the car he sat on was laughing but then the light turned green and, when everyone else sped off, he started honking at this dude. You should have seen the look on this drunk man’s face when the park bench he was sitting on started honking at him.
Lesson of the story: Always keep your Flip on you!
Last summer I booked my highest profile voice over job yet….and it was a video game. I had one actual part, Nara Selephais, and three other ‘incidental’ roles. All of the parts ended up being super challenging and wicked fun. The director was so intense to work with. Ginny McSwain was her name and I’d heard of her several times before of being this great voice over director who does a lot of jobs at Disney. I was stoked when I found out I’d get to work with her.
Now the trailers are coming out all over the place and I can’t believe the principle cast members! Check out this trailer to see who I’m in the game with:
One of the ‘incidental’ roles I got to play the madame of an alien whore house – super trashy and smarmy – it was so freakin fun!!!
