This is the 2nd Ed. Voice Acting / Voice-Over page for Edward WinterRose. A place prospective casting folk can come to in order to see progress made, backstory, and developments in my career as they happen. And maybe just hear things I wanted to read aloud for you. Here's hoping you like what you hear. ^_^
Over on my new twitch channel, I thought I might start doing chapters before bedtime. Some folk I know, meaning Mrs. WinterRose, like when I read to them at night cos it helps relax em into sleep. I dunno how relaxing Dune is... I mean I've read her Doctor Sleep and all of The Dark Tower books by Stephen King. But my wife is an awesome, if sometimes creepy person. And I love her endlessly.
If you want to come and see some of what's up over on the twitch channel, have a look at the link above. You can see what I've done so far before they start falling off my channel cos I've not got the followers yet for them to stay up longer. But I hope to see ya there! I usually aim for 10 PM EST, but that may change in the near future if I get a FT job.
Be safe! Be kind! Be careful! And wear your masks! We could have been seeing the upcoming Dune film in the theater this december... but NOOOOO... now we have to wait a whole damn year! IS THIS NOT PUNISHMENT ENOUGH??
From the back of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, I always liked Stephen King's somewhat westernized account of a Hindu parable of The Beggar and the Diamond. It was such a short but inspiring tale I had to hit it. Especially since Sai King's works are so known for their horror, people can forget how beautiful his words can be sometimes.
So big changes. Regarding regular employment, I'm still hunting for a day job. Given the state of the United States and the C-19 Pandemic, that makes regular gigs a little hard to find. My wife and I have started making inroads into the idea of becoming professional online streamers to keep a roof over our heads. She has been quite busy learning the ropes of filming herself and streaming games like Goat Simulator MMO, and perhaps soon... Skyrim, a platformer or The Witcher III. Here's a link to her channel.
On my end, my microphone was dying, and my brother made the interesting suggestion that I try to kickstart getting a new one. Well, that kickstarter was a remarkable success! And now I'm flying in the booth with a nice Rode NT-1 Condenser mike. I've got lots of things in the queue to read with it to start filling my YouTube channel with content as far as dramatic reads and demo reels. (And for those of you that contributed to my Kickstarter, I appreciate your patience. Things have been... hectic and frightening?)
You can still always head over to my Patreon and make donations or specific requests of your own. And now you can hop over to my own Discord server if you feel like hitting me up over there. I usually always have that running in the background, so I should see any notifications you happen to pop in there.
In other news, as I get ready to discharge my owed samples from the nice people that funded my mike, I've been working on pieces to get the feel for the new tech, and put into practice some of the things I've learned watching people work their microphones in their own booths on YouTube. I feel in the past, I may have had my gain settings on my pre-amp up a bit high. I couldn't yell, and I might've peaked when raising my voice. Watching these youtubers with their condensers, I'm seeing how they're less than a foot from their mike, which was unthinkable to me. I'm thinking they just had their gain settings lower than mine. So experimenting with this piece here, this is with lower gain settings and the mike just less than a foot from me, and offside a little bit so I'm not speaking directly into it. The results, I think were worth the experimentation.
This was from The Scene Scribe at www.thescenescribe.com. They've been doing prose adaptations of scenes from genre films and other movies. In particular, this may have been everyone's favorite scene from The Road to Perdition, directed by Sam Mendes. Adapted from the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins. This was a fun read to do, and with the new tech, it ran smooth as glass.
I've another short piece I mean to upload soon, once I get it together. And I'm also working on a rather relevant novella I mean to upload for people to listen to. So keep an ear out for that!
Be safe, and be good! (Which seems to be turning into my signoff.)
PS: Go and have a listen to my wife have fun playing Goat Simulator MMO on her brand new streaming channel, The Swedish Geekball! Just hop over here.
I've just finished a 4 month stint with White Metal Games here in Knightdale, NC. They had me writing blog posts and hosting a bi-monthly podcast where I got to talk about gaming miniature painting, as well as conducting interviews and mixing the occasional pre-produced skit or audiodrama piece. The company is going to close its doors due to financial concerns in the coming year, so my bit ended as of tomorrow. However, they were EXTREMELY good to me, and gave me some good experience as a podcast producer. As well, I'll probably upload the skits I did to my youtube page.
Casting continues apace for Transmetropolitan 1 - 3. I've got a lot of good submissions, but in the fight to stay alive and solvent, I've had trouble getting to them of late. That and some issues with my pre-amp.
My ART Tube Project Series pre-amp has been acting quite curiously and frustratingly. As I progress with a piece, I'll start at about -15 db, and my peaks will hit around -8 or -6 db. However, as I get into a session, I'll notice that the waveform is lowering in volume after about 2 to 3 minutes. My input gets progressively quieter until I'm around -23 to -25db with peaks in the -18 range. Or more to the point, quiet enough that my listener would have to strain to hear.
However! I have an older ART Tube amp that I'm thinking of trying. A non-USB one that might do the trick if there's not feedback from what's probably a powered microphone jack on the laptop. I also have a Mackie Micro Series 1202 12-channel Mic/Line mixer I might be able to use that might even be better still for what I'm working. I've got the wires, and I may try that tonight to see if I can get it all working again. Better still, if I can, I may be able to get recording in a way that I can start sending audition pieces to some Charlotte area talent agencies. (Talent One is no longer working out.) So here's hoping!
Sunday, September 15, 2019
It's been a long time coming. But I've finally uploaded my first finished episode of Transmetropolitan. It was really the one I wanted to do first because 'Here to Go' was such a poignant thing. But also practically, it was one I could mostly do myself and have ready to go as an example of what I mean to do with the series.
One thing Ellis and Robertson have said over the years is that they want to see it done as it was MEANT to be done. Not just have the comic be the just another victim of the hollywood development process; 're-imagined' by some auteur. That's really why I want to do a straight adaptation of the whole thing. I'm going to be auditioning people for the first three issue arc soon. Wish me luck folks! -Edward
Thursday, July 26, 2018
So. Updates all round then.
Had to move to a new place in December all without any preparation. We've mostly moved into our new digs, but the studio room is still all packed and for the most part, un-set up. So it's mostly a good thing that I've not had MUCH to do in Outpost this last few months. I expect that'll change. And steps have been taken to see if I can still produce while the room gets set up.
Cos. last Christmas, my brother-in-law and his good lady wife took time out of their busy WE'VE GOT A NEW INFANT schedules to buy me this great big microphone foof I've been wanting as a Christmas gift. And if it works as advertised... I might could get some good recording done without the booth set up. Cos as far as that poor condenser mike inside that thing is concerned, it should sound like I've just soundfoamed the whole house.
I do still mean to put a wiggle on getting the booth set up. But this may be a nice temporary solution to getting things done in the meantime.
In other news, I've found a few sites for perhaps getting some paying audio work. I'm still in North Carolina, so I'm taking that with the requisite degree of salt since the McCrory administration and his leftover state assembly-creatures chased our burgeoning entertainment industry away to Atlanta. But there's rather a section for voiceover work on Carolina Talent's website. I do see that they require "Professionally Produced" demos. I am a professional with a professional setup. So I'm hoping that doesn't translate to "We expect you to get your demo recorded in a studio that costs the earth to record in.". We shall see.
I also found some want ads where some local stations were looking for "On-Air Personalities". I'll be the first to admit, I am a nerd. I am also nearly 50, so what constitutes current popular music may always be a bit beyond me. But one does not learn without trying. So I mean to do them a commercial demo and see if that's to their liking for an interview. How many interviews or applicants might they ever get? Is it that cutthroat? I hope not. Would they be willing to train? We shall see.
I also put my YouTube channel in order. I had a nice long conversation with my wife last week about the idea that I should be posting SOMETHING. ANYTHING where people can hear me so they can decide whether or not they'd like me to read something for them. Looking at the state of my YouTube channel where I've been putting demos. All two of them, I was justly mortified and resolved that was going to change. So... now that I've got the foof and no excuse to not be recording. ("A... B... R... Always be recording. ALWAYS. BE. RECORDING. EDWARD YOU PUT THAT GAME CONTROLLER DOWN. NO MAN'S SKY IS FOR CLOSERS! YOU GOT ME?") I should be able to start recording more demos, new general and commercial demos, memes and tumblr and reddit posts that strike my fancy. Basically stuff that cries out to be recorded.
Moreover, I took that a step further. I created me a Patreon page. Essentially a place people can go from my YouTube page and maybe commission me to read stuff for them too. Or maybe just tip me for the things I do already. There's creators of bad videogames out there with Patreons that gain them more money than I make in a year on a monthly basis. And I'm TALENTED. (At least this is what I am told by people I trust.) So if there's a way to circumvent the Voice123's and Voices.com's race to the lowest bidder, how about I sign up for it! ("They got some money out there... they're givin' it awaaaay! I'mma do what I want'n I'm gonna get paid!" -Tom Waits 'Goin' Out West')
I also found this page here regarding techniques to find voice work. Which sounds like a LOT of networking pounding the pavement. Honestly, I'd rather have an agent to do this, as I am a lazy creature by nature. But if this is the sort of thing that garner's results in the present day from home, who am I to say different.
Anyway. That's it for now. More as I think of it, or events demand. Excelsior, True-Believers!
So having been keeping this blog since at least 2011, I found one day that all my voice acting posts were gone. The pictures of my first home studio? Gone. The pics of the Tardis Recording Booth? Also gone. Announcements regarding Star Trek: Outpost, the audio series I've been in for the last 7 years? Poof. Order of the Stick, the fan audio? Stolen Hearts, The Invitation? The Award nominations and wins? Gone. What's a guy to do?
Adapt and improve. So here's, "I Want To Read This For You", ver. 2. Electric Boogaloo.
Over the next week, I hope to finagle the time to be able to get links to resumes, demos and some of the old news back up on here for people to see. Some of the stuff I've read. All the good things I started this blog for in the first place.
So, the current update.
Still doing phonework and working on my professional VO Voice doing tech support for my day thing. We've moved into an apartment that's just 2 inches too low, ceiling-wise to use our TARDIS recording booth in the living room like we did at our last apartment. It's heartbreaking, but I don't see us staying here for a huge amount of time. The TARDIS went into storage and will come back out when we're into a place with higher ceilings again.
My big desktop currently has at least 5 fans in it. Three of which are on the video card. And when it's running hard, like it often does, it blows like a jet engine. So I've been shutting it down and attaching the condenser mike and pre-amp to our much quieter laptop. I've been considering getting a dedicated one for JUST voice acting altogether. I think I could get one pretty cheaply nowadays if it's going to only be purpose-specific. As well, if I have a separate machine for JUST recording, I don't have to dig into settings and rewire things every time I kidnap our laptop. Any of my friends and family that have a spare QUIET laptop? Donations are always happily accepted.
"Star Trek: Outpost" is now, in accordance with the fan production edicts that have come down from CBS and Paramount Pictures, "Outpost: A Star Trek Fan Production". We're finally over the hump of some real life issues and official ones with the people that own the IP, and we're finally starting to ramp up monthly production again. I've had MUCH fun doing these last two episodes. If my producer/director is any gauge of the performances I turned in, we're looking at something pretty special.
I put in with a NC based talent agency today with my current online professional demo. I mean to do a new one soon to replace that one. I should be doing lots more of them than I have. I have to make sure that I don't make so many plans to make demos that I'm too overwhelmed to actually start DOING them. That kind of self-sabotage I don't need. I'm hoping perhaps that a sustained campaign of applying at every site I can, legitimate talent-agency-wise may bear more tangible fruit than sticking with the one agency and hoping. We'll see.
Also getting ready to go to DragonCon at the end of the month. So I'm looking forward to the fun parts. Not so much the heat, crowds and fatigue that comes with it. The Atlanta Symphony is going to be there again this year doing genre music favorites for a Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention. I'm really hoping that they'll do an arrangement medley I've heard around of Alan Silvestri's themes for "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" by Neil DeGrasse-Tyson and Anne Druyan.
I know I want, sometime soon to finish writing my DragonCon parody, "Welcome to DragonCon", based on the style of Cecil Baldwin's show, "Welcome to Nightvale". Which is quite worth your time. Anyway! Dinnertime. Waffles tonight. My wife is aweome.
