VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Colin Campbell]

Trying to think out of the box. I'm tired of the "cookie cutter" 60 second categorized "Commercial," "Narration," etc. demos.

How about creative demos with creative names?

Here's what I've put together from old stuff with this thought in mind. Please let me know what you think of the concept.

The ChickenFat is probably the best example. Same topic/advertiser but with varied characters and tones.

http://www.colincampbellvoice.com/FTP/Unconventional/

[Bruce]

I think it's a brilliant idea.....with one small exception: I fear a large number of the "creative-types" who will be scanning for demos aren't very creative in their thinking, and if they don't see "Character" or "Commercial" right off the bat might move on.

Then I went to your website and I see how those unusual titles could fit in. I'd still put the most normal-sounding named and money-earning demos at the top and then have the fun stuff down below for those who have the time to linger.

Nice site and very nice voice work by the way.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Colin Campbell]

Thanks for the compliment.

That's the thing, do people ever "linger." Seems hard to rope them in with such little snippets as you normally hear on a demo.

These three things are some of my favorites but in a normal demo you don't have time to establish anything.

Just thoughts.

[JBarrett]

I think that Bruce has some good points, but I also think that you have some equally good points, Colin. However, it feels like there might be two different topics battling for attention: voice demos vs. production demos.

In a sense, Colin, it feels like you want to sell folks on your ability to produce fully completed creative projects, not just your ability to produce the voice component of those projects. For full production, I can see the value of wanting to show your ability to create a complete experience. However, for a voice demo, it seems like people put greater value on creating a clear impression on a variety of reads within a specific category (commercial, trailer, animation, etc) in a fairly short time.

If you take Bruce's suggestion, you can pretty easily do both: showcase your voice talents with the more traditional demos in one group, and showcase your creativity and production skills through more complete pieces in a separate group. The folks who want the traditional stuff will be able to find them quickly and easily, and who knows...they may just check out the others while they are there. I definitely applaud you for wanting to change what's expected in a voice demo, but until that style becomes the new expectation, it makes sense (to me) to make it as easy as possible for those still expecting the current style to find what they want.
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Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/

[Colin Campbell]

JBarrett... great comments. I guess where I am coming from is trying to "separate" myself from the pack. There are probably thousands of us old radio producers trying to break into voice. Don't take me wrong, I LOVE voice. But it seems that my ability to "create a total experience" is about the only thing I've been able to muster to get people's attention.

All points well taken. Thank you.

[louzucaro]

Just a quick note that if your site uses any kind of statistics package, you should be able to see if people are lingering, where and for how long
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Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

[Philip Banks]

Thinking outside of the box is great in theory but there is a danger in allowing people to hear the "great production". The real art is to get someone to buy what you do as the result of simply hearing you and only you.

What a lot of the big hitters (producers not voices) seek is the sound of your voice recorded by plugging the mic directly into the tape recorder. Needless to say the tape recorder is now a piece of software but the principle remains the same. Every producer, audio engineer and director knows what compression, processing, music, sfx and all manner witchcraft will do to a voice, the X factor or the unknown element is you and allowing them to hear that is what will set you apart.

Ive just found an audio track on my hard drive, it's not what the TV viewers heard but it's what the promo producer heard, used and most important of all ...paid for.

PB unplugged

[anthonyVO]

This is what comes closest to "seeing" what your website's visitors are doing:
http://www.clicktale.com/

It "records" your visitors' mice movements; So you can see what they are actually doing when they're there - it captures page scrolls, hovers, and clicks. It also has a nice feature called a "Heatmap" where it places a layer of gradient colors (ranging from cool blue to hot red) over your page(s) so that you can see what areas are hotter than others in terms of visitor attention.

I learned that most of my site's visitors do a full scroll - down then up - and then click on the first banner, then maybe the 2nd through 4th banner before clicking on my demo navigation near the top. And when they do listen to demos, it's usually promo, then trailer, and very few - if any - commercial. Then finally, they click on the Contact link.

In other words, they might view or hover over the 5th through last banner, but they never click on them.

What does this mean? Don't know yet, but there is a redesign, in terms of layout, in my future, in order to minimize my visitors scrolls and clicks. Gonna deposit some trust funds in the simplification account.

PEACE,
-Anthony

[JBarrett]

Thanks for sharing that site link, Anthony! The data they provide sounds fascinating. Definitely something to consider when preparing site designs.
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Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/

[anthonyVO]

No problem

Here's one of a visitor that came from my LinkedIn profile:
http://www.anthonyvo.com/clicktale/Play.htm

And here's the heatmap of my site from Jul 25th-July 28th


If nothing else, it's cool and gives you yet one more thing to obsess about.


PEACE.
-Anthony

[James Lorenz]

I have to agree with Bruce in that voice seekers generally want things laid out to make it as easy as possible to find the voice. The generic terms like "Commercial" "Narration" etc work that way.
The "out-of-the-box" thinking should be in marketing to get them to listen to your voice.
That's not to say the demos you posted won't work to promote your excellent production skills, which btw I think needs to be highlighted a little more on your homepage.
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http://www.jameslorenz.com/notjustvoiceover

[Eddie Eagle]

Hey Anthony,
That's a cool tool. I'm checking it out.
Thanks