LEADS AND READS - WEEK OF 11/19 thru 11/25

Tom Pagnotti · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 15:53 (GMT) Post subject:

Lee –

Nothing you do sucks… was it like the character though?

I think David’s hit closest to home so far as the character goes.

But the low scores make me wonder…

There are postings on V123 and TOS for “Sounds like Cipriano”
“James Earl Jones Style”… and so on.

Might the client be setting their expectations too high? None of us are Cip or James Earl Jones.

I rarely if ever will audition when I see something like this – because I don’t have a voice or style like these guys. There’s no way I’m gonna come close to that “read they heard in their head”.

I have this fantasy: Next time I see a “read like James Earl Jones” posting, I want to hire Jones to do the audition for me… and watch him get a “2”.

The good news for clients is that Jones is available… but unlikely that he’ll work for $200.00.

Scott Pollak · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 16:05 (GMT) Post subject:

Christian... I'm a huge fan of 2001 and I hate to say it, but your HAL 9000 wasn't close. I'm sorry! Crying or Very sad

Steve: Yes, that's a 1 as far as HAL goes. Sorry, again. MAYBE a 2, but...

Okay guys, all this talk about this stupid lead forced me to go and pull it OUT of my 'deleted leads' bin and submit. I was glad to see it's still open. So slam me, too. No rating yet, of course. I'll let you know what I get. Also, here's a Santa I just submitted.

Steve Cotsalas · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 16:23 (GMT) Post subject:

OK...here's a link to HAL... I should have listened to this first..but I still don't think I'm that off base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcNkMIwolKc

Scott...that slight twang is outstanding for many reads...but HAL is not one of them.Nice try, though.

I hope whoever gets it posts in who got the gig!

Scott Pollak · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 16:29 (GMT) Post subject:

The thing is, Steve, I obviously can't hear the 'twang'! I'm sure it must be there, but I tried to deliver this with as little dialect as possible. It's funny how hard it is for us to hear our own accents!

Diane Havens · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 16:32 (GMT) Post subject:

The tonal quality of HAL is much lighter/higher/less resonant than you gentlemen blessed with deeper/richer voices have. Not much you can do about that. I think even a deep voiced woman might have been more suited to HAL! Sorry I didn't get that one.... Laughing

Steve Cotsalas · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 17:02 (GMT) Post subject:

Scott Pollak · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 17:05 (GMT) Post subject:

David Bosco · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 17:41 (GMT) Post subject:

Scott, Lee, Steve

Scott: Good things come in threes. The right pace but too much modulation in your HAL. Your SANTA was jolly good. Ho Ho Ho!

Lee: Great Porcipine (Maybe even better Bar-B-Qued) I loved the laugh! Glad I didn't waste an audition against yours. Your Baseball thing was good but I think I gotcha a little on that one. Here's my Mel Allen take. Got me a 4 rating! It's the closest I'll ever get to the booth at Yankee Stadium. I sent this produced clip and another with the VO only.

Steve: Your NY accent poked through just a little on your HAL on the word 'automated' and the pace needed to be slower. Like you, I should have listened to a clip of HAL before auditioning. The real HAL has a little more breath in the voice than mine did. With that, just maybe they would have pushed my rating all the way up to a '2'! As far as posting a winner, don't worry Steve. I'm very new to V123 and professional full-time VO. If I get this gig or any other, I'll post it. Maybe the 6 O'Clock news too.

Bettye Zoller

Well let me preface this by saying that in my career, many years, it's so odd that sometimes the times of year one would not expect to be fabulous surprise me! One year, had my biggest paying vo job the week of Christmas! Another year, while on vacation in August, had such wonderful offers from clients to be in my studio that I cut vacation short, hubby and kids and all, and we drove home early. The deadest months are supposed to be December and August. That's sometimes true...but 2007 was fab in August and all Fall months too and yes, November is fine. Had two studio cancels this week but they'll rebook next week after turkey day. That's normal. As for the leads on 123, as always, I delete without even reading the jobs priced under $400 or thereabouts. There have been some days that are sparse with leads. Then, the next day will have oodles. Some expired before I got online at 10 a.m. perhaps...I find I need to do late-night and early early a.m. to catch more good ones. And I'm getting some good leads, higher-paying, and high ratings from voice seekers too who, for whatever reason, seem to be giving me ratings more. For a long time, I seldom got a rating altho the site later showed the audition had been opened and others had been rated --not me. Frustrating and I'm happy to say I'm getting more ratings. Sometimes, I feel the seeker rates me lower because my price honked him off. So be it. As a pro, I demand good wages, just as my physician and lawyer and hair dresser, caterer, and clothing store do!!!! Hope you all will keep our prices up too. I hear from colleagues this same refrain (private emails to me) and we all need to remember if the ship sinks, we all work for $150 forever...help us keep the prices higher, especially because we're bidding not only on doing the voiceover but on our STUDIO ENGINEERING and use of our expensive equipment too. Nuff said. HAPPY TURKEY!! Blessings to all.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 23:52 (GMT) Post subject:

After listening to all the Hal 9000s, I still think David's is the best. And not a one of them deserved a 1. A couple of 2s maybe (including, perhaps, my own) or 3s, but definitely no 1s. I'll say it again. To me, a 1 signifies unmitigated crap and is actually worse than no rating at all. And if it didn't have some influence, however minuscule, on where SmartCast places us in future queues, I wouldn't even give a rating a second thought.

Btw, I did hear a hint of an accent in both Scott's and Steve's versions of Hal.

Meanwhile, my Porcupine is still among the unopened. The seeker has thus far listened to around 17% of the 52 demos submitted (I make that 9 opened, 43 in limbo).

Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 00:03 (GMT) Post subject:

Colin Campbell · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 03:51 (GMT) Post subject:

Pretty proud of this TOS audition... "Tort."

Colin Campbell · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 04:30 (GMT) Post subject:

...am I going to be the "last man standing?" Where is everyone?

Here's the "Dystopia" lead from TOS...

Deby Cedars · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 06:57 (GMT) Post subject:

Colin....The last couple of lines about Absolute Power. Should have been more conversational or the rest could be more conversational and then use the deeper voice for the Absolute Power line.

You have a naturally deep voice. You don't need to keep it that deep through out the copy. Think Variation!

Lee....The voice was close, but the delivery suffered because of that. I had the same type of problem on this audition. It called for me to be a 11 year old boy tiger who is trying to keep a stiff upper lip about his Mom's death. I could do it.......and I can do an English accent......but....

Deby Cedars · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 07:31 (GMT) Post subject:

Here's one I did today. It took me a long time to edit the music. I kept wanting to sing Embarassed

instead of doing the job at hand. I not sure how to make the echo quicker!!!!?????