The Star Wars Expanded Universe has been good for voice over actors with opportunities in video games, audiobooks, animated series, documentaries and more. However, for voice actors, the force was with this new game. Star Wars: The Old Republic has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project of all Time.” Indeed, the script for Star Wars: The Old Republic includes over 200,000 lines and was recorded by well over 100 voice actors. The Developers Blog for the game offers a great behind the scenes look at the voice-over production that went into the project. While there, be sure to check out the trailers to hear some of the acting. Amazing work and record breaking… Have you played the game, what do you think? Have you voiced a video game, what was the process like?

The Memorial Day – Labor Day bookends of summer have come and gone. Children are back to school and many are writing the classic essay: What did you do on your summer vacation? Perhaps some are even podcasting about their annual summer excursions.

My question is about audiotours. These gems seem to be ubiquitous. You can find audiotours everywhere from Ellis Island to Alcatraz.

This summer we enhanced our visit to the Saratoga National Battlefield by downloading mp3 files of the audiotour designed to be listened to as you drive from stop to stop along the 9 mile loop through the battlefield. The brief narration oriented us to each stop with facts and sound effects that expanded the experience. I was also amazed this summer at the number of patrons at the Norman Rockwell Museum who paid a higher entrance fee to receive an mp3 player and headphones to listen to narrations associated with many of Rockwell’s paintings.

Audiotours are gaining in popularity and I think we will be seeing them continue to expand in the tourism industry. Great news for tourist and great news for voice artists.

So, my question: was there VO in your summer vacation? Specifically, did you enhance your site-seeing or travel experience with an audiotour?

The Audio Publishers Association, authors and narrators will be holding special events and promotions throughout the month. Watch for blog postings, Twitter (#JIAM2011) and facebook updates, and lots of activity at Audiobook Community this month. I will be adding to the celebration with audio samples from my books, reviews of books I’m listening to, and other surprises. Stay tuned at my facebook page and @kevinsvoice.

Quick poll: what audiobook are you currently listening to? where do you typically listen? Please leave a reply below…

National Financial Literacy Month, established in 2004 by the US Senate, grew out of the National Literacy for Youth Month started by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy in 2000. The goal of this endeavor is to stress the importance of becoming knowledgeable about personal finance so that one can control their financial destiny. This couldn’t be more important in the current economic climate, and it couldn’t be more important for freelancers like voice-over actors.

In addition to the above, here are some resources to investigate in celebration of Financial Literacy Month:

• Freelancetaxation.com – a site by financial planner, Susan Lee, which has a wealth of information on taxes for freelancers, artists, writers and psychotherapists
• MyMoney.gov – a website from the US Government with lots of information and tools to assist with financial planning.
• Personal Financial Planner – find a good one, like Joe Templin, certified financial planner and author of, among other titles, “Financial Mistakes of New College Grads” an audio book I recently narrated. “FMNCG” is now be available on iTunes – a great gift idea for all the college grads you will be watching cross a stage next month!

An interesting bit of trivia: The New Adventures of Batman was in production at the same time as Hanna-Barbera’s animated series Super Friends, which by also featuring Batman and Robin, led to the atypical event of two animated series simultaneously staring the same characters. The Super Friends dynamic duo were voiced by the legendary voice actors Olan Soule (Batman) and Casey Kasem (Robin). In comparing these roles, I have to favor West and Ward. Not just because Adam West is the original Batman and has done some great commercials lately (the Great Scott series for Lending Tree and the current Hebrew Nation ads). But, also because, as much as I enjoy the Super Friends (“Later, at the Hall of Justice” – I’ll save that famous line for another blog post), but it’s hard not to picture Shaggy Rogers from Scooby Doo when I hear the Boy Wonder on Super Friends.

Which dynamic duo do you prefer: the traditional West and Ward pair or non-traditional Soule and Kasem?

Than Annie Awards honor excellence in animation, covering 26 categories in television, film, and video games. The two Annie Awards directly related to voice-over are:

• Voice Acting in a Television Production which went to the versatile veteran actor, James Hong, for his role as Mr. Ping in DreamWorks Animation Kung Fu Panda Holiday production; and
• Voice Acting in a Feature Production which went to Canadian actor, Jay Baruchel, who performed as Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon, a DreamWorks Animation production which also took the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.

Congratulations are inorder for DreamWorks for sacking the competition and walking away as MVP of the Annie Awards. Hopefully, they can ride this success right into the May 2011 release of Kung Fu Panda 2, their next animated film, which was also featured during the Super Bowl, with the hilarious and ever-so sports stadium appropriate, trailer:

Did the Super Bowl commercials this year did Wok you? I think they were good, other years were more memorable. This year saw some rehashes of old themes (babies, dogs, monkeys and horses), old faces (Joan Rivers, Rosanne Barr) and some new stuff (Darth Vader and The Cloud). The ads featured some great celebrity and non-celebrity voice-overs. For a very  comprehensive review of these Super Voice-overs see the VoiceCoaches Training Blog.

When I first learned that Leslie Nielsen had died, my first reaction was disbelief. “Surely, you can’t be serious?” I said to a friend. “I am serious and don’t call him Shirley!” he replied. You have to laugh or you’ll cry…

Although best know for his comedic roles in the Airplane and The Naked Gun movies, Leslie Nielsen (1926 – 2010) was one of the most versatile actors of our time. He began in television in 1948, and appeared in diverse roles in many popular series (e.g., Columbo, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, MASH, Who’s the Boss, Hawaii Five-O). His movie career began in 1956 and included roles in westerns and dramas long before his debut as the deadpan Dr. Alan Rumack in 1980. Nielsen’s off-screen work is also to be lauded. He has provided his expert narration skills to television series (Pumper Pups, 2000; Katie and Orbie, 1994) and movies (The Nutcracker and the Mouseking, 2004; The Railway Dragon, 1988). He is also the narrator of his hilariously fictitious autobiography, Leslie Nielsen: The Naked Truth (unabridged, 1995, abridged, 2010). In production at his death, was The Waterman Movie, an animation film in which he was voicing the main character, Ready Espanosa, a world famous explorer gone missing. We will never get a Naked Gun: 4th of July, but there is hope that The Waterman Movie will give us one more chance to enjoy the legendary work of Leslie Nielsen.

Sources: Internet Movie Database, Wikipedia

The concept is simple, the process is multifaceted, and the outcome tremendous. LibriVox takes books that are in the public domain (generally published in the US before 1923 and thus the copyright has expired) and makes them into audio books that then are released back into the public domain. Suggestions for titles to produce come from members of the LibriVox community. Volunteer coordinators manage the project with additional volunteers lending their voices to the recording. After all the chapters have been narrated and edited, the entire work is assembled and entered into the LibriVox catalog for the world to access, free of charge. The extensive LibriVox audio book catalog includes files available in MP3 and OGG formats.

You don’t need to be a professional narrator to volunteer. All you need is a passion for the written and spoken word, a computer, audio software (many free options) and a microphone. If you don’t want to lend your voice, there are many other ways you can support the initiatives of the LibriVox community. See the volunteer page for more information.

Congratulations LibriVox on five successful years! Here’s to many more classics becoming new works of art accessible to all…