Comments

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  Paul Kyriazi June 28, 2010 at 12:58pm

  A good story Darla. You never know what listeners or viewers will say. One lady wrote Cecil B. DeMile about 'The Greatest Show on Earth', "It's good you had a real circus manager play the circus manager instead of an actor." The manager was played by Charelton Heston.
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  Chris Thomas June 28, 2010 at 12:57pm

  Hey Al, just popped over to your site. I noticed one thing right off the bat. the audio on the home page could be cleaner. Also, I don't know of anyone who does compilation demos anymore. You should have one demo for each area of work (just my opinion). That way you can show your variety in each area.
  Otherwise, I think the site is off to a good start (although I am not the website design pro LOL).
  
  Darla, great example! All too often it can happen that way. While I don't do VO myself (I edit VO audio), I was asked to audition for a local spot with a freind of mine. They needed a southern boy and my friend thought I would be close to perfect for them. However, turned out I wasn't southern enough LOL. It just goes to show, you don't have to literally BE what they are looking for, but you do need to sound like they are looking for.
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  Darla Middlebrook June 28, 2010 at 12:24pm

  I have to agree about getting type cast by look. A case in point: When I was younger a friend of mine and I were cast in a radio drama about an Italian family. I played MaMa and my friend was PaPa. Having not seen our faces, a listener commented that he found the Mama quite believable but was annoyed with the false presentation of the PaPa. As you can see from my picture, I am NOT Italian. My friend, however, had been born and raised in Milan. Go figure…
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  AL B Conahan June 28, 2010 at 11:52am

  I just launched my Website last night, see if the picture fits the Voice Demo. www.albcvopro.com
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  Scott Stackhouse June 28, 2010 at 11:39am

  It sounds like the real positive aspect to having a headshot on your site would be the human aspect, the personality aspect, might come through more and make clients able to connect to you more quickly...the negative side seems to be the stereotyping or limiting factor that comes with first impressions...Thanks for the comments, I still don't know where I stand with this but this helps a lot!!
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  Bill Brewer June 28, 2010 at 8:06am

  Good Stuff Brother Dave. I have everything I need with the exception of a travelling mic. Will look into that soon.
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  Chris Thomas June 28, 2010 at 6:32am

  I know some voice actors who do not sound like they look. They voice a lot of different types of things. If their clients knew what they looked like (age, physical appearance, gender, ethnicity, etc.) they might not have gotten the job due to stereotypes; because unfortunately it does still exist. Some folks don't care either way.
  I agree with Patrick though, ask the all important question of what it is you expect to gain by having your picture as part of your marketing scheme.
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  Darla Middlebrook June 28, 2010 at 12:51am

  Thank you, Paul. I try to be prepared. I am new at all of this and am a "work in progress". Trying to make my mark in the genres of audio book narrative, e-learning, and/or documentary narrative.
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  Paul Kyriazi June 28, 2010 at 12:15am

  Darla, I like your photo a lot. It looks like you'd show up happily prepared, and ready to work. Yes, you have to make the varioius backgrounds work on the site, so it's not 'glued on' by Denis the Menace. But talk to more people about putting it on.
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  Darla Middlebrook June 28, 2010 at 12:06am

  Patrick,
  I took screen shots of my unfinished website to VOICE 2010 and asked the opions of several of the experts. Their responses left me totally torn. The final decision came down to how I felt about the page. The picture that I was using was the same one that you see here. If I could have somehow tinted it with a sepia wash, it would have complemented the page. As it was, however, it looked as though a child had glued it onto the site. The black and white picture did not complement the background at all. I just revised my website and had the picture removed. When I get a better picture, I might consider putting it on.