5/5/08 Episode 11: The News From The WWW - Volunteer Here!

Austin Grammer · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 39

Episode 10 is now available for download! Go to http://www.TheNewsFromTheWWW.org to listen!

Congrats Everyone! The 10th episode is in the can! Great work everyone!

Updates:

1. When reading your into to the story, please ad lib a little summary of the story, don't just say "....with a story about [TITLE]...". Ad-libbing a short little summary (it doesn't have to be much) makes each segment sound friendlier and easy going. You can also inject some personality into it if you want or say why the story is important to you or something. Whatever you think is appropriate.

2. Website - I would like to add pictures of our VO talent volunteers along with a short one or two line bio. Please private Msg me a good size mug shot of yourself or your avatar / caricature and your bio and I'll add it to the talent page. Please include your City, State and the URL of the website you want me to link to. http://www.thenewsfromthewww.org/voices.html I added a V123 player with "Demo #1" for each of the volunteers on my list. If you don't want me to feature your demo - let me know and I can delete it. It is set to "Demo #1" on your V123 profile so you can change it via your V123 control panel....

3. I am STILL working on getting the show "syndicated" to more RIS stations. There is a RIS association that many stations are a part of and they run a sharing service so I'm working on getting the program on that service so more stations can benefit from your efforts! Stay tuned! - I also encourage you to contact your local RIS and let them know about the program!

New Volunteers are welcome and encouraged to join! Check out these past threads for background on this project and/or check out the website above:
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic4981.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic4876.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5114.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5186.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5277.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5314.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5503.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5566.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5606.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5645.html
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5682.html

Instructions:

Select a news article that you would like to read. Create a post in this thread with the title of the article and a link to the article to claim or get "dibs" on that story so no one else will take it, then record the story in Mono MP3 -6db with a sampling rate of 96 kbps 44100, and then edit your first post and add the recorded article as an attachment and add the runtime in your post so we can track the length of the program (we need one hour worth of material). Please submit your recorded article by Sunday at Noon 4/27/08.

You can pick your own article / news story. Please keep in mind that the target audience is mostly older people with vision issues who already get a lot of the mainstream news from the RIS service through other volunteers reading local and regional newspapers in addition to listening to TV. So I would avoid political and breaking news as those are already covered and change from day to day. Pick articles that will have a week or more of shelf life. Also avoid celebrity gossip, stories of a sexual nature, murder, abuse, etc. Articles that you would feel comfortable reading to someone you just met etc. Articles that are interesting, funny, clever, etc. I have a list at the bottom of this post of some recommended articles for you to get an idea of what I am talking about. Please choose / read articles that are longer than 3 min when read (not including intros). A lot of short articles can be difficult to concentrate on / listen to. Often, you may come across an interesting story or news topic on one website but it is the abbreviated article. If you search the subject of the article on Google News Search, you might be able to find a longer / more in depth article on the subject from another news source. If you can't, please pick another longer article, or, find two similar short articles and read them both and introduce them as such "here are two articles about a popular subject on the web...." "And now another article with a similar but different story". Just use your best judgment. If everyone contributed an article with a average length of 5 minutes, we would only need 12 VO actors contributing on a weekly basis to fill the hour time slot. I'm happy to pick up the slack but would rather hear from more people. You may need to lower the bit rate of your MP3 file in order to keep the file size low enough to upload to the savvy board (less than 5MB)

Here is the script I would like each person to read before reading their article in order to have consistency from one article to the next:

"[ARTICLE TITLE (for show intro montage), PAUSE]

Hi, this is [MY NAME] from [CITY, STATE] and [YOUR DOT COM WEBSITE (if applicable)] with an article about __________(short but intriguing summary about the article you chose).

PAUSE From [SOURCE], [TITLE OF ARTICLE].

[READ ARTICLE]

PAUSE, "For The News From The World Wide Web, I'm [YOUR NAME].

Example:

"City Council Outlaws Skateboarding In Downtown: Youth Unhappy, (PAUSE) Hi, this is Homer Simpson from Springfield, Illinois and homersimpson.com with an article about how one small town is dealing with a skateboarding hooligans. PAUSE From the Springfield Gazette dot com, City Council Outlaws Skateboarding In Downtown: Youth Unhappy" {STORY} "For the News From The World Wide Web, I'm Homer Simpson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some good places to look for news articles:

The Drudge Report
http://www.drudgereport.com/

Yahoo News Most Popular Stories
http://news.yahoo.com/i/964

Newhouse News Service
http://www.newhouse.com/

AP Wire Top Stories from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/aponline/index.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some articles I have come across in the last few of days that I would recommend if you are unsure what to read:

On YOUR Dime: Congressmen Lease Luxury Cars
http://wcbstv.com/seenon/car.lease.us.2.713776.html

Austin Grammer · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 39

EXAMPLE POST:

I'll take this article:

Asylum's Renaming Insults Advocates
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LUNATIC_ASYLUM?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

EDIT:
MP3 attached
Runtime: 6:34

(I edited out the bulk of the story so you can quickly hear an example of the script)

Diane Havens · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1281

This week's pick:
U.S. One of Largest Ivory Markets, New Study Says
Run time 7:53

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080505-us-ivory.html

John Zadikian · **Voice Talent** Joined: 31 Dec 2007 Posts: 42

Here's mine for the week...

Mechanical animals help us learn more about their real counterparts

TRT - 4:42

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24410638/

John Zadikian
STILL looking for gig # 1

John Weeks · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 186

I'll take this one:
"Free item offers show there's no free lunch"
http://www.newhouse.com/free-item-offers-show-theres-no-free-lunch-4.html

Run Time: 4:27

Cameron Thomas · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 479

I'll read this...

"Bat, Glove, Oxygen Tank: Play Ball!"

http://www.newhouse.com/bat,-glove,-oxygen-tank-play-ball!-2.html

Cameron Thomas · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 479

Here we go.

"Bat, Glove, Oxygen Tank: Play Ball!"
Newshouse News Service
http://www.newhouse.com/bat,-glove,-oxygen-tank-play-ball!-2.html

Runtime: 5:09

Roger Baker · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 46

Here's mine

What If No One Were Fat?
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/Advice/WhatIfNoOneWereFat.aspx

All right everybody... Diet time....

Run Time: 8:34

Thanks
Roger

Claire Dodin · **Voice Talent** Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 400

Neighbour killed smirking cat

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080509/tuk-neighbour-killed-smirking-cat-45dbed5.html

Scott Pollak · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008, 15:58 (GMT) Post subject:

Sorry I missed out last week. My hard drive crashed.

I'll be reading about a possible increase in oil production by OPEC:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/09/business/10oil.php