Pseudopod 116

Pseudopod 116: Sick Day

November 14th, 2008 12:01 am

By Michael Chant

Read by Elie Hirschman

http://pseudopod.org/2008/11/14/pseudopod-116-sick-day/

And the reviews are in!

"The story was frickin awesome. It would never occur to me to pull a stunt like this, but I get what the author is driving at. And I agree with him totally that people are WAY too serious. (Including me…)

As to Elie Hirschman, everyone over at Darkerprojects deserves an Oscar as far as I am concerned. Thier work is so reminiscent of the golden days of radio that it’s scary. And then there is the consistantly good stuff coming from Escape Artists. Alasdair and Ben, please keep ‘em coming!"

Echo Night

ECHO NIGHT: 

Sept 22nd: Fred Greenhalgh, Elie Hirschman, and Nikkita Bradette

LISTEN AND ENJOY:

http://www.echofiction.com/titles/echonight/e001.php

:-)

Bloodmoon Premiere

Darker Projects presents:
B L O O D M O O N
written by Robert W. Tinsley

http://www.darkerprojects.com/bloodmoon.html

Meet Sam Packer. As a Police Officer in Colorado, he has seen it all. He has been in drug busts and car chases, he has chased criminals down the darkest alleyways in the darkest part of town. But he has no idea what is going to happen to him, nor how it will completely turn his world upside down. On a forced vacation to Canadian woods with his wife, his destiny is decided following a brutal attack by a mysterious wolf-like creature. After he returns to Colorado, he finds himself stronger, quicker, and very different. Meet Sam Packer, werewolf.

Episode 1: Moonstruck

(20:28, 18.7 MB MP3, 2008.09.21)

Sam and Monica Parker seem to have found the perfect spot for a romantic getaway: remote, secluded... quiet. But strange noises at night - added to vague warnings from the old caretaker - threaten to spoil the mood. What is a "loup garou", anyway?

This episode featured the voice talents of

Mark Kilfoil as Sam Packer and Louis Levesque
M. Sieiro Garcia as Monica Parker
Bruce Busby as the Old Man
Byron Lee as RCMP Constable and the Loup Garou

Produced by Waldo Ovase
Directed by Elie Hirschman
Sound Design by Byron Lee
Original Music by Kevin MacLeod and James Taye, additional music used under license

How do I get started in Voiceovers?

OK, I got asked the inevitable question:

How do I get started in voiceovers?

This was my answer back:

Read up first: http://blogs.voices.com/ might have some good stuff.
http://www.voiceovers.com/yourvocareer.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/Voice-Over
http://davidhoustonvoice.com/blog1/2006/08/getting_started_my_take.html

and maybe a book:
http://www.amazon.com/Theres-Money-Where-Your-Mouth/dp/0823077020

Next, get yourself some recording equipment - best move is to get a USB microphone for your PC. But you can also use an answering machine or voicemail for this.
Record something - anything - and listen back to it, with headphones. Turn it up a bit and pay attention to every detail. Listen to your voice, notice any sounds that don't belong, background noise, pops or clicks coming from your mouth. Notice if you breathe too hard on P's and B's, if you mispronounce any letters or words. Do you have a noticeable accent? Consider if you want to try and hide it by talking a little "flatter."
Basically, you want to teach yourself to be totally in tune with your own voice and be able to be hyper-conscious of all these things when you are recording. Obsess.

If you want to make it into a business, you'll need all the things a good business needs: a website, a phone line, business cards, marketing supplies (postcards, stationery, Keychains with your name on it or somesuch) and you'll need to find people to contact and send this stuff to. You should also market your vo biz online.
Most importantly, like any business, you need a product. The product is your voice, but you need a way to present that in a tidy package people can check out at their leisure. This would be your demo. Read up on that, see what people have to say about VO demos.
I would say ideally, you should get VO training too. That can get expensive, but sometimes you can make a deal on these things.
Good luck! Any further questions, ask away!
-ESH

RIP Don La Fontaine

The Voicover King is dead... Long Live the Voiceover King!

From Entertainment Tonight:

Voiceover Master Don LaFontaine has died. He was 68.
LaFontaine, known as the "King of Voiceovers," died Monday afternoon [1
Sep] at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. LaFontaine's agent,
Vanessa Gilbert, tells ET that he passed away following complications
from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity,
the result of a collapsed lung. The official cause of death has not yet
been released.

Over the past 25 years,

LaFontaine cemented his position as the "King
of Voiceovers." Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie
trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight
and The Insider, as well as for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition
to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. By conservative estimates, he
voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including
commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke,
and many other corporate sponsors.

He recently parodied himself on a series of national television
commercials for

Geico. At last count, he has worked on nearly 5000
films, including appearances as the in-show announcer for the Screen
Actors Guild and Academy Awards. Based on contracts signed, he has the
distinction of being perhaps the single busiest actor in the history of
SAG. Don is survived by his wife -- singer/actress Nita Whitaker, and
three children: Christine, Skye and Elyse.
__._,_.___

My Audio Setup

I've been asked several times about the equipment I use to record my crystal-clear audio in my home studio.
First, the basics: make sure there is no major humming going on from any appliances or machinery in the vicinity. This includes the attic fan in my house, which sends a fantastic hum through the walls of the whole house. Also, since I record on PC, I make sure the mic is facing away from the PC and as far away from it as microphone cables will allow.

As to the actual equipment used, I'm pretty low-tech and low-budget-
Mic:Samson C01U Condenser USB Microphone
Mount:Samson SP01 Shockmount for C01 and C03 Microphone
Stand: OnStage Tripod/Boom Mic Stand
Pop filter: RaXXess Stoppit or some generic thereof
(All except the pop filter purchased from zzounds.com)

The mic is direct to USB, so no mixer involved, which of course can be a negative, but there is a "softPre" program that came with it, which I have used with mixed results.
In terms of soundproofing, I played around with the "portable soundbooth" concept (see here: http://blog.bobbinbeam.com/2008/01/01/my-portable-sound-booth.aspx ) but got no improvement out of it, so I drape a blanket directly over the mic, filter and stand, leaving just a small window of the mic visible and facing me. Seems to work for now.

On to software:
I use the Goldwave program to record, and I am extremely happy with the way it works. I had used Dexster (very buggy) and Audacity (great for multitrack mixing, but crashes when you open more than 5 files or so), until one day the great Chris Snyder turned me on to Goldwave. Someone is trying now to get me to use Reaper, but it seems much more than I need for my humble porpoises.

So there you have it. Feel free to copy my setup as you wish.

FoF yet again

I'm in Frequency of Fear again- not just in the main story podcast, but also the mini "Flights of Fright" contained therein.


Episode 0.035: Gardening Gore On Aisle Four
(43.3 MB; 1:34:37 MIN)

When Doctor Despicable goes shopping for lab coats, he usually drags me along. This time, he manages to take the store out while he's at it. While we try to escape uneaten by the local plant life, you get to listen to episodes of Sleep No More and the Vanishing Point, as well as an excerpt from William Castle's Halloween novelty album and a brand spanking new Flights Of Fright.. Taliesin fills us in on the plant life used to incapacitate a bloodsucker, courtesy of Taliesin Meets The Vampires.

"Gardening Gore On Aisle Four" was written by KC Locke and W Ralph Walters

Brent Hinks - Dr. Wilheim Von Martinez
Gwendolyn Jensen-Woodard - Sheila
Bill Hollweg - Bob Wolfenbridgen
KC Locke - Steve Martin
Elie Hirschman - Sgt. Staccato
Colin Snow and W. Ralph Walters - the Glendale Police Department
Doctor Despicable appeared courtesy of Victor's Secret Push-Up Wonder Briefs
W Ralph Walters - everything else