If you've been the least bit hesitant to take the bull by the horns and pick your own voice actors, Voice Casting, a new podcast brought to you by Voices.com, will empower you to make those creative decisions that you may have delegated in the past.

Find out more about this gem of a how-to podcast in this article.

When you're trying to find the best voice for the job, it may appear more complicated than you think.

Perhaps you haven't ever had to personally narrow down a list of applicants for a voice over job posting and only had to give your opinion on say, the top three selections that someone else made on your behalf.

While that may have been fine before, I wouldn't be surprised if you are just itching to take full control of the branding process and sit down in the casting directors chair.

Imagine all of the voices you didn't get to hear that could have been perfect and exactly what you were looking for...

Don't let those voices get away!

The new Voice Casting Podcast is meant to help you quickly discern which voice will suit your project and best identify with your corporate brand and also the message you want to promote.

When you assume full responsibility for the hiring of a voice actor, not only do you get to pick the voice, you get to oversee the entire creative process from top to bottom.

And, if that sounds even the littlest bit intimidating, remember, it doesn't have to be! If you really want to make a splash and shape what your audience is going to consume, just subscribe to Voice Casting. It's free and available in the iTunes Podcast Directory

Don't have have iTunes? No problem.

I've got two options for you to consider:

1. You can download and install iTunes for free.
2. Bookmark this web page and check back weekly for new episodes

This podcast is wonderful and packed with digestible information in each episode. If you have any questions or topic suggestions, be sure to send them to me (stephanie@voices.com) and we'll address them on the podcast.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Stephanie Ciccarelli
Vice President of Marketing and Co-founder of Voices.com

Meet the new voice of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Josh Keaton.

Marvel's new animated series looks like a smash hit and Josh Keaton has already been initiated into the Marvel clan through voice over roles as Harry Osborn in two Spidey video games!

Learn more about Josh Keaton and the production here.

ComicsContinuum.com recently reported that veteran voice actor Josh Keaton will be providing the voices of Peter Parker and Spider-Man on the upcoming Marvel animated series "The Spectacular Spider Man".

Josh Keaton, age 28, is no stranger to the Spider-Man enterprise having already provided the voice of Harry Osborn (best friend of Peter Parker) on two video games.

Recent Video Game credits include: Metal Gear Solid, Spider-Man 3, Lost Planet, Marvel and X-Men.

You may recognize Josh Keaton from his on-camera roles on television including Ben 10, Will & Grace and Boy Meets World.

Sources say that the voice over recording for the series is under way.

The Spectacular Spider-Man is being produced by Culver Entertainment. Greg Weisman is supervising producer, and Victor Cook is producer/supervising director.

The show is scheduled to debut on Kids' WB! early in 2008.

SurePay is up and running with great results already - have you taken advantage of the newest feature of Voices.com?

If you're still in the dark about it, I highly recommend that you watch our latest video, featuring a thorough explanation of SurePay.

You can find it on YouTube as well, so it's easy to share with your friends and colleagues!

Have you used SurePay yet? Let us know about your experience by leaving a comment.

Are you looking to hire a voice actor from Voices.com? Or, have you used Voices.com in the past and want to learn about our new features?

If you are, you're invited to attend a webinar hosted by myself, Erica Bontje, tomorrow at 2 p.m. EDT (Wednesday May 16, 2007).

Learn more about how the service works and experience aspects of the new Voices.com!

As I blogged about last month, the time has come for some great new features to be introduced at Voices.com! We’re working to make finding, hiring and compensating voice over actors easier than ever before.

With our new features, you’ll be able to invite specific voice actors to audition for a job you recently posted, or for a job you want only a select few talent to audition for. Sorting through the responses and selecting the perfect voice actor is a snap!

I’ll be hosting weekly webinars introducing the new features to clients who hire voice actors.

Why don’t you join me to learn the details first-hand?

See you there!

Erica

©iStockphoto.com/bubaone

Nominate your favorite voice talent for a Voicey Award!

The Voices.com Voicey Awards are now open for nominations!

Who is Voices.com?

Voices.com is the #1 Voice Marketplace, connecting professional voice over talents with people who require the services of voice talent and voice actors to complete their projects, including commercials for radio and television, promos, movie trailers, audio book narration, podcasts, videos, animation, videogames, telephone recordings and more.

What are the Voicey Awards?

The Voicey Awards recognize voice actors and voice talents for their contributions and efforts over the year in the voice over industry.

Categories include Best Male Voice, Best Female Voice, Best New Voice, Best Personal Branding, and a Lifetime Achievement Award.

One simple rule: to be nominated, a voice talent must be registered with Voices.com.

How do I nominate someone?

Nominating a voice talent is easy. Simply print off the PDF nomination form, enter in the necessary information and fax the nomination form to Voices.com for consideration. There is no limit to the number of voice talents you may nominate, however, the nominee must be a member of Voices.com to qualify.

Sounds great, but what do the winners get?

The first of its kind, people who win these awards will be provided with the following: A 1-year Premium Subscription from Voices.com, a press release announcing their award, and a special badge displayed on their Voices.com website letting people know about their Voicey award.

Okay, let’s recap:

To nominate a voice talent for any of these categories, download our PDF nomination form, print it off, fill it out and fax it to our office. The deadline for nominations is St. Valentine's Day - February 14th, 2007.

You can nominate multiple voice talents, just be sure to submit a separate nomination form for each of them so that we can keep track of each individual nomination.

So, what are you waiting for? Nominate your favorite voice talent for a Voicey Award at Voices.com!

Cheers,

Stephanie

While ACTRA insists on continuance letters, producers will take battle into the courts for unlawful conduct.

You've heard from the union, now it's time to hear from the producers associations.

Backstage.com and Hollywood Reporter journalist Etan Vlessing gleaned the following:

Stephen Waddell, chief negotiator for ACTRA, which represents 21,000 domestic performers, said Canada faces a prolonged actors strike because dozens of producers have signed continuance letters that will guarantee their projects will remain in production, with ACTRA members working on them, despite any industry shutdown.

"We expect that a great deal of production will continue, because of the continuance letters," Waddell said. "We'll continue to sign companies, and we're feeling confident as more letters are coming in today."

Canadian and U.S. producer associations have urged their members not to sign the continuance letters on offer from ACTRA. The letters promise producers no disruption by ACTRA picket lines if they guarantee performers a 5% wage increase.

John Barrack, chief negotiator for the Canadian Film and Television Production Assn., representing English-language Canadian producers, on Thursday said that ACTRA's continuance letters were "unlawful," and will provoke a legal battle in the event of an industry shutdown.

"This will end up in the courts pretty quickly," Barrack promised.

Any comments?

Stephanie

To follow this breaking story, read this article!

ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, said January 3rd that they were going to strike on January 8th, 2007 if their demands were not met by producers.

As you may have guessed, things didn't go as ACTRA had hoped and now a random array of made-for-tv-movie and drama actors are walking the picket lines while their commercial counterparts are shooting in the studios.

Actors who are in productions affected by the strike were told not to go to work, even though the union was in midst of negotiations.

On January 7th, 2007, ACTRA posted the following strike conditions for members on their site:

"In the event of an ACTRA strike, performers are not to report to work, auditions or ADR on any IPA production that has not signed a continuation letter with ACTRA.

If ACTRA does go on strike, performers can still do work under other ACTRA contracts: UBCP, commercials, student films, broadcast agreements.

ACTRA By-Laws set out the rules for the conduct of ACTRA members during a strike. ACTRA members - including Full, Apprentice and ACTRA Extras - must not work for struck engagers during an ACTRA strike. Members are expected to know the strike rules and regulations, and are expected to uphold the strike. Any member who fails to adhere to the strike rules is subject to disciplinary action."

Some programs have special permission to keep filming, including the Rick Mercer Report and Royal Canadian Air Farce.

According to the CBC, ACTRA may get into hot water over this "wild cat" strike. This strike is grounds to take the union to court, sources say.

Now, you might be wondering what this is all about, eh?

ACTRA is striking over 2 issues.

First, they want a pay increase. Currently, ACTRA is 32% behind their American counterpart, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). ACTRA aims to get a wage increase between 10% - 15%.

Secondly, there's something about new media that needs to be taken care of. ACTRA is very concerned with how talent are to be compensated for the use of their work on the Internet which includes coverage on websites, podcasts and the like.

Talks actually broke while discussing this sensitive issue at 6:20 a.m. this morning.

Remember when DVDs came on the market? ACTRA does, and the organization is not prepared to see what happened to them back then repeat itself in 2007.

When DVDs first came out, there was significant doubt about the staying power and influence of the product with consumers. ACTRA was lead to believe that the reach of the DVD would not be great, so they agreed upon lower rates than would be expected if negotiated today.

Retrospective vision is 20/20 after all and history does repeat itself, hence the concern from ACTRA over the 'new media' phenomenon, a form of media consumption that is quickly becoming a standard means for PC users and owners of portable media players to enjoy their content.

Provinces that are affected by the ACTRA strike include Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. ACTRA will be on strike in Quebec on Wednesday, January 10, 2007. Other provinces will follow shortly after.

For more information, check the ACTRA website.

Best,

Stephanie

Sources: CBC News, ACTRA

P.S. Click to read a personal message from ACTRA's National President Richard Hardacre.

If you hire ACTRA talent in Canada, you may want to read this.

ACTRA sent out a press release on January 3rd announcing their strike deadline of January 8th, 2007.

ACTRA is the Alliance of Canadian Cinema and Television and Radio Artists, similar to the American union AFTRA.

January 3, 2007 - TORONTO - In a unanimous vote, ACTRA's negotiating committee has set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Monday, January 8, 2007.

Producers were given notices to this effect as last-ditch talks resumed this morning.

"ACTRA wants to avoid a strike. We're going to try hard this week to negotiate a new agreement. But the producers' associations must not underestimate our determination to ensure that it is a fair agreement," stated Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator.

ACTRA received an overwhelming 97.6% strike mandate from its membership in December.

"Canadian performers will not see their wages eroded and will not be giving away their work on the internet for free," said Waddell.

If no agreement is arrived at this week, ACTRA will be striking against producers in most of Canada except British Columbia. The many producers who have signed continuation letters with ACTRA will not be involved in this action.

ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) is a national organization of professional performers working in the English-language recorded media in Canada. ACTRA represents the interests of 21,000 members across Canada - the foundation of Canada's highly acclaimed professional performing community.

Additional Information

Some important items to note regarding IPA negotiations include:

- ACTRA has set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Monday, January 8, 2007.
- Negotiations will be taking place this week.
- Only work under the IPA will be affected by a strike (including CIPIP and TIP).
- Performers will still be able to do commercial work, student films, etc., should ACTRA go on strike.

Please stay tuned to ACTRA and watch for emails from ACTRA.

Source: ACTRA