Tie-In Cereals: The VO Connection

It was a ritual.  You’d wake up on a Saturday morning, grab a bowl of your favourite cereal, and hunker down to spend 3-4 hours watching the best cartoons ever.  Depending on your age, your list of the “best cartoons ever” will vary, but the experience is one shared by millions.

The choice of cereal was just as diverse, with many sugar-filled, marshmallow-loaded choices.  Personally, I was a Froot Loops fan, but I was also a sucker for tie-in cereals.  When a movie, cartoon, or TV show had some measure of success, you could bet that they would get their own cereal.  Sadly, these tended to disappear from store shelves the minute their parent property’s popularity started to wane, but for a brief time, they were a magical (albeit small) part of a complete breakfast.

Below are 5 of my fave tie-in cereals, along with their connection to the world of voice acting.

1. Mr. T Cereal

From Rocky, to The A-Team, to wrestling, Mr. T was everywhere in the ’80’s.  Naturally, he was given his own Saturday morning cartoon, which led to the inevitable breakfast cereal. The Mr. T cartoon’s premise was that he was the coach of a gymnastics team that got into wild adventures on the road.  And there was a dog with a mohawk haircut.  I’m not kidding.  Not sure if they were worth picking up?  Relax…Mr. T assures us, that “It’s cool”.

2. C-3PO’s

The original Star Wars trilogy had wrapped by the time this hit the market, but a Saturday morning cartoon starring C-3PO and R2-D2, “Droids”, kept this on kitchen tables for a few years. Anthony Daniels, the man in the shiny gold suit in the film series provided the voice for the cartoon as well.  Dunno about Artoo.

3. Tiny Toon Adventures Cereal

The partnership of Warner Bros. Animation and Steven Spielberg resulted in several amazing collaborations, but the first was Tiny Toon Adventures.  This cereal consisted of crunchy letters that spelled out “Tiny Toons”.  Not that exciting.  The commercial however, was awesome for including so many of the main cast, which was stellar!  Charlie Adler, Joe Alaskey, Don Messick, Cree Summer, Maurice LaMarche and Tress Macneille.  Sadly, it was not followed by an Animaniacs cereal.

4. E.T. Cereal

Another Spielberg project!  Thanks to the little guys’ love of Reeses Pieces, this cereal tasted like chocolate and peanut butter, and was shaped like his initials.  No E.T. cartoon for a voiceover connection, but the commercial was voiced by Hal Freaking Douglas, which makes it awesome!

5. Gremlins Cereal

Wow.  Just…wow…the ears…I can’t even…  Oh, Howie Mandel was the voice of Gizmo in The Gremlins movies, and used the same voice for Bobby’s World and Muppet Babies.  But still…wow…

I’m sure there are a lot more out there, but these are ones that I actually remember begging my folks for.  If you remember a tie-in cereal I missed, LMK!

Don’t Call It A Comeback, I’ve Been Here For Years…

Hello,

So, this is awkward…you know, like when you bump into a friend that you haven’t called in a while, and you feel guilty and don’t know what to say, and stuff?  Like that.

I haven’t posted to this little wanna-be blog in a loooong time.  2 F@CKING YEARS!  Why?  No one real reason.  Work, kids, life, laziness.  All contributing factors.  Add to that that I never intended to reach the heights of a Paul Strikwerda or Dave Courvoisier.  I have the utmost respect for these gentlemen, and others that blog that consistently and professionally about topics that generate debate, educate, and make you think.

However, I’m afraid my bar is set much lower.  I’m the guy that will blog occasionally, (2 F@CKING YEARS!), maybe give you a smile, and send you on your way with nothing to think about.  Okay, that’s not entirely true, but let’s say that more often than not, it’s more of a kind of escapism.

I like to talk about stuff that interests me about the voiceover world, and that hopefully, others find interesting, if only for a few minutes when they’re taking a break from the real world.

I love animation and animation voice actors.  I like talking about gear and studio stuff.  I’m all about techniques, hints, and tips…from being in the booth, to invoicing  and marketing.  I dig talking about projects I’ve worked on, and hearing about other folks cool gigs.  I like to pimp new shows when me and my fellow Canadian VO Superstars ™ , The 3 AmiVO’s, can find the time to make them.  I like long walks on the beach, rainbows, and kittens.

But I digress.

Bottom line is, I’m gonna try to do this thing more often than I have been. (2 F@CKING YEARS!) if you’d like to join in, please feel free.

Talk soon… well, at least sooner than 2 F@CKING YEARS!

Garnet

Share with the rest of the class…but not too much

Social Media…pretty cool, amirite? I mean, I check my phone before I even get out of bed in the morning. I currently belong to the following: Facebook (4 pages!), twitter, LinkedIn, tumblr, Pinterest, Soundcloud, youtube, wordpress, ….I think that’s it…lemme check….nope, forgot google+.

I’m sure you belong to some, if not all of these, and why shouldn’t you? The growth that has occurred in the voiceover industry over the last several years is due, in no small part, to social media. As a business owner, it allows you to promote, connect, advertise, network, tease, announce, showcase, and so much more! However, (and you knew that this was coming), how much of what you share needs to be shared? More to the point, how much SHOULD be shared?

Let’s take Facebook for example. I use it to connect with people in the voiceover industry, to promote to friends and potential clients, and to share with anyone who is kind enough to add me as a friend. I’m not ALL business though. All work and no play makes Nicholson grab an ax, so although my posts are VO-centric, I post about other things. Family, pop culture, current events, and comment on other people’s posts.

Here’s what I don’t post about:

Religion and Politics. They’re the BIG TWO. A sure fire way to start an argument or piss someone off (intentionally or not).

Next, health issues. Don’t get me wrong, I recently had a sore throat that was kicking ten kinds of hell out of me, and after I posted a plea for remedies on my FB wall, many people came to my rescue. I’m talking maladies of the more graphic type.

What else? How about relationship status. Just got engaged? I’ll be the first to write “Congrats!” on your wall. Girlfriend just dumped you and you wanna whine for three paragraphs on how it all went wrong? Don’t care. My name’s Paul, and that’s ‘tween y’all.

Speaking of whining, don’t do that. Didn’t get that gig you auditioned for? Sorry to hear it, but if you’ve chosen to be a voice actor, and you’re gonna whine publicly about every gig you don’t get, you’re gonna break the internet. Share your successes, not your failures. It will help you keep positive.

On the subject of sharing, be careful. Bob Bergen posted very eloquently recently about discretion when talking about jobs. Even if the client didn’t mention non-disclosure, you should still watch out, at least until the work goes public.

I’m sure there are others, but those are the top taboos off the top of my head. A long time ago, I decided that if I was going to use Facebook and other social media as tools to promote my business, then I should conduct myself professionally while doing so. However, I do have a separate FB page, for close friends and family, where I am free to touch on some of the above taboo subjects. I’m not saying everyone has to have a separate page, but keep it in perspective.

I recently unfriended someone because I was tired of their daily pro-gun/anti-Obama rants overshadowing everything else they ever talked about. It was too negative and at times, racist and mean spirited. It did absolutely nothing to promote their business, or themselves in a positive light. So why do it? If there’s no benefit, then there’s no point.

To sum up, perception is key. Promote your business, but share some of what makes you who you are. Connect with others, and let your personality shine through. Entertain. Educate. Enlighten. And keep it POSITIVE!

In the words of the bard, Donald Edmond Wahlberg, Jr, “Positivity is not about being soft, it’s about being strong, you sucker!”

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing…

The title of this post is something my Dad was very fond of saying. It’s a very old (1709) proverb that basically means “A small amount of knowledge can mislead people into thinking that they are more expert than they really are”

I was reminded of it after reading a recent blog post by someone who promotes themselves as a voice actor. In this blog, they ran down a list of certain types of equipment used in a recording studio. They described many different items, pointing out the pros and cons, and talking about the technical specifications of each one.

After reading the post, it was apparant that they did not know what the hell they were talking about. More than that, their information was blatently wrong, but could have easily been found online.

My problem with this is, if someone who is just getting into voiceovers saw this, they might actually think that this person IS an expert on this topic. They might actually trust this information, and follow their recommendations. This could prove to be a very costly mistake.

Sure, people who are researching studio gear should always look for a second opinion and do their own research, but I don’t put the onus solely on them.

Anyone who presents a blog post like this needs to be sure that their information is correct. There is a certain amount of responsibility on the blogger to check facts, and be as accurate as possible before offering their opinions. I point to Dan Friedman, George Whittam and Dan Lenard as examples of people who are doing it right.

Look, I’m not saying that people should not have opinions. I like my Focusrite preamp, and my buddy Mike Pongracz (damn, I’m name-dropping alot today!) loves his Grace M101, but neither of us claims that our opinions are the first and last word on the subject, and more importantly, we both did alot of research before making our decisions.

To the anonymous person whose blog kicked off this whole post, you’re doing it wrong. Take the time, do the research, and present the information in an informative and entertaining way. Then, just maybe, people will take you and your opinions seriously.

Right now, you look like a lazy, ego-stroking, amatuer hack.

A little information IS a dangerous thing.

Strength In Numbers

There’s strength in numbers.  Now, I’m not talking about huge legions of soldiers waging a bloody war, or even a rumble between The Jets and The Sharks (if you got that, I wrote it for you).  I’m talking about collaboration.

If you do voiceovers, you know that no person is an island.  You make contacts…you network…you share.  Thanks to social media, it’s easy to connect and share with many people every day.  Sometimes though, it goes beyond someone “liking” your page or following you on twitter.  It grows.

We’ve seen some damn fine female VO talent band together as “The Voxy Ladies”. Not to be outdone, a group of fellas dubbed “The Voxstars” have recently hit the scene.  Up here in the Great White North, myself and two other Canadian Voiceover Superstars™ have just a launched a new venture billing ourselves “The 3 AmiVO’s”.  (if I have to explain it to you, you need to re-read it).

See, by coming together under a brand umbrella, everyone benefits by sharing ideas, supporting each other, promoting and helping each other, and the whole becomes stronger than the sum of the parts.  Plus, you get to have a hell of a lot of fun!

Connect.  Collaborate.  Have fun.  Simple, right?

Let me know your thoughts and check out The Three AmiVO’s on Facebook here.  You can also follow us on Twitter  @The3AmiVOs here.

(My) Top Ten Classic Animated Christmas Specials

Okay, the title is pretty self-explanatory.  This is MY list.  You may agree with some of my choices here…or not…but it’s subjective.  What we can ALL agree on is these were fun when we were kids, and still are!

A couple of caveats before we begin…this list is gonna be heavy with Rankin/Bass stuff.  No way around it.  Also, the word “classic” is flexible and is not used only in the context of age.  Many factors make something “classic”, and in the case of these animated specials, things like music, voice cast, and animation style all play a part.

And here we go…

#10 – Nestor The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977)

Produced by Rankin/Bass, it basically tells the same story as Rudolph:  “Misfit shunned due to perceived deformity is later seen as special and appreciated”.

The voice cast is pretty darn good, with Roger Miller as narrator, Brenda Vacarro, Rankin/Bass staple Paul Frees, and the legendary Don Messick.

#9 – Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (1976)

A sequel to the original Rudolph tale, here again, a perceived deformity is the main plot point.  Happy, The  Baby New Year has some big-ass ears, and runs away because people laugh when they see them.  Father Time  (Red Skelton) tasks Rudolph with finding Happy and bringing him back so the New Year can begin.  Along the way, Rudolph meets some new friends that aid him on his adventure.  Featuring an awesome voice cast, including Billie Mae Richards back as Rudolph, and great performances by Morey Amsterdam, Frank Gorshin, Paul Frees and Don Messick.

#8 – A Wish For Wings That Work (1991)

Okay, our first non Rankin/Bass entry and the only entry not from the 60’s or 70’s.  First of all, I LOVED Bloom County growing up, so when Opus the Penguin, Bill The Cat, and friends finally made it to the small screen, it was a lock that I was gonna dig it. Creator Berke Breathed crafted a lovely story about Opus dealing with his inability to fly and thinking himself useless, until he helps Santa on Christmas Eve.  Great voice work from the stellar friggin’ cast of Michael Bell, Frank Welker, Tress MacNeille, John Byner, Joe Alaskey and Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams.  Yes, you read that right.

#7 – The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Rankin/Bass at it again!  Convinced nobody cares about Christmas anymore, Santa stays in bed and sends his elves out to find people who believe.  While on their elfin adventure, they encounter Heat Miser and Cold Miser, brothers who are always at war with one another.  Mrs Claus convinces them to stop fighting and work together to help people believe again, which gets Santa up off his jolly ass and back to work.  This is considered a sequel to the earlier “Santa Claus is Coming To Town”, and features Mickey Rooney back as Kris Kringle.  Other voice duties are wonderfully handled by Shirley Booth, Dick Shawn, George S. Irving,  and Bob McFadden.   Oh, and as much as you try, you cannot shake the ear candy of The Heat Miser/Cold Miser song out of your damn head.

#6 – ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)

No puppets here, so it can’t be Rankin/Bass, right?  WRONG!  The story tells of a  young mouse who sends a letter to Santa saying the town does not believe anymore.  To convince Santa that they do, a local clockmaker makes a beautiful clock that plays a song that will hopefully appease Santa.  Narrated by George Gobel and featuring the talents of Joel Grey, Tammy Grimes and Bob McFadden, it’s a cute twist on the Christmas classic.  And the songs also stay with you for days.

#5 – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (1970)

You all know the song, and dammit, if there’s a song about something Christmas-y, then Rankin and Bass are gonna make a special about it!  Mickey Rooney stars as Santa, as we find out exactly how he came to be the bringer of toys.  The ruler of Sombertown, Burgermeister Meisterburger, outlaws all toys.  Santa finds clever ways to bring the toys to the children, and along the way, we learn why he grew a beard, wears a red suit, goes down chimneys, and other Santa-y things.  Narrated by Fred Astaire, the cast is rounded out by Keenan Wynn, Joan Gardner, Robie Lester, and Rankin/Bass regular, Paul Frees.

#4 – A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

You knew this was gonna be near the top of the list.  Perpetual loser Charlie Brown feels lost as commercialism takes over the holidays, and he loses sight of the true meaning of Christmas.  Through several vignettes of him interacting with his peers, rescuing an anemic tree, and Linus reading from the Gospel of Luke, he regains some holiday spirit.  The story is charming, Vince Guaraldi’s music is timeless, and even though I’m not religious, I still get a kick out of Linus dropping the Holy truth on everyone…Kinda like Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction….okay, maybe not.  As for the voice cast, Peter Robbins played Charlie Brown in this and “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, but all Peanuts characters were replaced as their voices changed…kinda like Menudo.

#3 – Frosty The Snowman (1968)

This was the first Rankin/Bass holiday special to pitch the puppets and go for a classic animation style.  If you know the song, you basically know the story.  Frosty comes to life thanks to the discarded hat of mediocre magician Professor Hinkle.  When Hinkle realizes that the hat is actually magical, he tries to get it back.  To escape Hinkle, Frosty and his young friend Karen make their way to the North Pole, and get a little help from a certain Kris Kringle.  There’s a reason that this is in the top three.  The animation is gorgeous, the song, already a classic, brings a smile to your face, and the voice work is outstanding!  Narrated by Jimmy Durante, who also delivers a great version of the title song, the cast also includes Jackie Vernon as Frosty, Billy De Wolfe, Paul Frees, and the First Lady of Voiceovers, June Foray, as Karen.  (However, in later editions, June’s parts were edited out and replaced with an uncredited voice, with the exception of the songs)  Not a damn thing wrong with this on any level.

#2 – Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

What can I say?  Chuck Jones’ animation is without peer.  The classic Dr. Seuss tale is superbly narrated by Boris Karloff.  A synopsis seems unnecessary, as if you have  never seen it, your childhood was incomplete.  Little known fact: the song, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was not sung by Karloff, but by Thurl Ravenscroft, who you might know as the voice of Tony the Tiger (They’re Greaaat!) of Frosted Flakes fame.  Also, little Cindy-Lou Who was voiced by the incomparable June Foray.

#1 – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

The one that started it all!  This Rankin/Bass classic holds up after 59 years.  Again, a synopsis seems redundant.  Suffice to say that a brilliant story, characterizations, toe- tapping songs, and our first exposure to classic stop-animation all come together in a perfect-storm of holiday brilliance!  Narrated by Burl Ives, who also sings the title song, Canadian voice talents also abound, as Billie Mae Richards voices Rudolph (she thinks I’m cuuuuuuute!).  She is joined by Larry D. Mann, Paul Soles, and Paul Kligman, who is also remembered as the voice of J. Jonah Jameson in the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon.  Just a stellar production from start to finish, and if it taught us anything, it’s that Bumbles bounce!

So there’s my list.  Let me know if you agree with my choices, and throw out any of your favourites that I might have overlooked.  With the holiday season upon us, I encourage you to grab your family, sit in front of the boob-tube, and watch as many of these treasured Christmas classics as possible.

Merry Christmas!

Garnet

Narration Remuneration

If you’re like me, you offer voiceover services for many different types of projects.  I do animation, radio and tv commercials, IVR, narrations, and more.  But it is narrations that are the subject of today’s post.

First of all, I should state that I am a non-union voice actor.  The main agency that I work with is a non-union agency, and their rates for narration projects are as follows:

0-10 minutes – $250

11-20 minutes – $300

21-30 minutes – $350

31-40 minutes – $400

over 40 minutes – call for quote

This, of course, is based on how many minutes the talent appears in the project, and not in the length of the project itself.

If voicing a narration project from my home studio, that is all well and good.  Recently, I had to voice several voiceovers for an animated math learning module for the local Board of Education.  This consisted of 10 pages that I had to voice, edit, and send, that all told, took about an hour of my time.    Based on how much time I actually appeared in the project, my pay was $300.  I was totally cool with that, and very happy to do it.

However, another narration project I booked required me to drive an hour and a half, spend 4 hours in studio while they edited, did retakes, and then I had the same drive home.

My pay?  $250.

Now, I know some people will say “Hey, you made $250..what’s the problem?”. 

My problem is, that even though I only appear in a total of 10 minutes (or less) of this project, my travelling time, and more importantly, the time I was away from my studio when I could have been servicing other clients, seems to not balance out.

Don’t get me wrong, I realize how fortunate we voiceover actors are to be able to command such a high price for our good work.  I understand how rates can go up on a commercial depending on if it is for radio or tv.  Or how the rates can increase if it is national rather than local.  What I still can’t wrap my head around is how narrations can be so small in pay, when not taking into consideration the time of the performer.

I have a friend who has a similar pay scale to my agency, but his rates increase based on small market, major market, or national.  I find this to be much more beneficial to the performer, in the same way that commercial reads are.

All I’m saying is, narrations, no matter the size of the project, need to take into account the time the talent is spending on them. Regardless of how long we appear in a project, our time is valuable, and needs to be taken into consideration as well.

Have you experienced anything like this with a particular narration project?  Perhaps through sharing ideas, we can find  a more equitable rate.   

 Please feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts.

Small voiceover world…

So yesterday, I found myself in the all too rare, but always enviable position of having two sessions booked in the T-Dot.  3PM and 6:30PM. Both were at the Shaw building. (Shaw’s kind of a big deal here in Canada). 

I figured that the first session would take an hour, tops.  I was right.  It was for a new Mattel TV campaign, pimping UNO and other card games.  There were about 6 lines, and they had me do each one wild 5 times before saying “we’re good”.  It actually took me longer to fill out and sign the War-And Peace-esque release.  By 3:30, I was back on the street.

Fortunately, I had a prime parking spot, so I went back to the car and checked my e-mail, Facebook, twitter, etc.

That killed 8 minutes.

See, I had had the foresight to message a good friend that worked near the Shaw building to ask if he wanted to meet up during my session layover.  He was in, but couldn’t until he finished at 5.  So I walked the rainy Toronto streets for a bit, stopped at a Starbucks, went back to the car and read for a bit.

It’s taking me a while to get to my point, but I’m setting the scene.

So 5 bells comes, we go for a drink and catch up.  His standup career is doing well, and I pass along contact that wants to talk-shop with him.  After an hour or so, I head back for my next session.

And here’s the point.  All I knew about this session was that it was for a radio campaign for a TV show called “Prank My Mom” airing on the Lifetime Channel.  Once I got there, the director said “we’re just waiting for your co-star…she’s with your agency…name’s Elvira…do you know her?

Do I!!!  Between 3 radio stations, doing writing and production work for her company, and voiceover projects we’ve been paired on, I’d say I’ve known her for about 18 years.

She is one of the funniest, most talented, professional female voice actors around…and we have not seen each other in almost 2 years.  That was for a gig that another friend of ours was at (Hi, Mike Pongracz!) It never made it past the spec stage (but we got paid!)

We had a blast through many takes, many laughs, and catching up.  It reminded me how lucky us voiceover-types are sometimes to work  with friends.  I love showing up for a gig and finding I’ve been cast with a friend, and 9 times out of 10, if it ain’t a friend, they’re a friend of a friend.  The radio/broadcasting/voiceover world is quite small in our neck of the woods.

Just wondering if you find yourself constantly working with friends, and what some of your more memorable sessions were.

Feel free to share and post below!