Giving Thanks 2009

First off let me say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I have so much to be thankful for. A loving wife, dog, and daughter on the way (February), a job doing what I love to do that keeps a smile on my face and my attitude upbeat (most of the time), and friends - including some who I have never met but I can consider 'friends.'

 I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving. as the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is on in the background I wanted to take a moment to thank some 'friends' who have influenced me this year. I am using social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter to better myself as a voiceover artist and working toward building some business in the area of voiceovers. Some voiceover people that I have 'followed' on Twitter have communicated personally and given their time, and expertise to try and help me. @tdaniel39 and @audioconnell have both given me some great input as to what I need to do to be successful and I thank them both for their time.
 
 Thank you also to the clients I have done work for in the past, and the Radio Forecast Network crew for allowing me to do radio forecasts everyday - it helps with 'relatables' when your on the air as well.

Have a great Thanksgiving - don't eat too much - and have a Happy Holiday Season.

Sincerely,
Justin

Justin Phillips
On the Air Productions
http://justinphillips.us
Twitter: @ontheairprod @justinphillips

Feelin’ Like Fall

  The winds are starting to return and the colors on the trees are changing – it must be Fall in the Willamette Valley(although I’m still plucking tomatoes off of the plant in the backyard.) It’s that wonderful time of the year where pumpkins and apple cider take over the senses and the thrill of October baseball are on my mind. I’m glad my Phillies are in the playoffs too! It sucks they get no respect and get the crappiest TV time at 2:37ET to start. 

Had some client work this morning with NextStep Recycling and I am looking forward to writing and producing a ‘Pumkpin a Day Keeps the Spooks Away’ promo this week. (I’m still in the writing process – it could go in a few different directions still.) Looking forward to lots of sound effects and voiceover effects.

On the Radio Forecast Network side, it’s starting to get colder out across the country – although we get a taste of upper 60s and 70s this week here in Eugene – the nights are in the upper 30s though.

Aside from that the freelance voiceover department seems a little quiet, with the exception of the quick commercial read or :10 tag. I’m still plugging away on Voices.com hoping to get an ‘audition bite.’ 

If you don’t know a lot about me and are curious, feel free to read on. People who know me are aware that I am somewhat a TV Junkie when it comes to favorite shows, thus far the new tv season has really been fun to watch – I love that Lawrence Fishburne has fit into CSI as well as he has after ‘Grissom’ left. CSI Miami is still moving right along at a great pace as well. Onto some of the new shows that I really enjoy.

FlashForward has to be the best new show of the Fall season. Lots of drama, they are starting to take the plot in a lot of different directions, which I’m not really a huge fan of, but it’s still ‘follow alongable’ – ah another new word! LOL – onto the comedies…

the CBS comedies still hold my attention, and my wife likes them too! We’re also ‘trying’ some of the new ABC comedies, including ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Cougar Town’ – we’ve also taken a liking to ‘Eastwick.’

Aside from tv, more importantly I have a daughter on the way and am thrilled(we’re not going to make it some reality tv thing, I promise.) my wife, Krysten, is feeling the kicking and we’re both really excited.

If you would like to follow me, feel free to visit my site at JustinPhillips.us 

If your just getting into Social Media I wrote a piece a few months back that is still relevant about sites I found useful when starting out. You can find it here 

thanks for visiting!

JP

Midweek VO Thoughts

I can’t believe we’re into Wednesday already. Last night as I was falling asleep I had an idea for the Voiceover World – of course I use the word ‘World’ kind of loosely. I am looking to start something, at first on Facebook – a group – where voiceover artists can go and talk about whatever they want – be it their latest gig, their favorite client, what it is that makes them tick as an artist – occasionally I was considering going as far as having VO artists post their demos so that others could critique and give feedback (positive of course.) In all, a place where we could go as Voiceover Artists to unwind, and relax and just converse about what we do in our lives. (I’m sure some are already using Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn to share their accomplishments, but this would be more in depth then your everyday run of the mill “Allstate has me in Good Hands, I Just Saved 15% and Ran for the Border for the SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY Back to School BLOWOUT Sale on Pencils and Paper with a 50% coupon for Applebees” voiceover you just did.
I will be setting up this group soon on Facebook and I look forward to people joining and conversing/learning and talking. If you have any thoughts on the above, please feel free to share them.
thanks,
JP

Monday Tweeting, Script Tweaking, and Forecast Reading

Aaah Monday...
   started out this morning with a few station clients and reworking some scripts.  I was also having a nice Twitter conversation with Terry Daniel about one of his posts talking about the right and wrong way to advertise a VO business on Twitter, which led to advertising VO business on two other well known sites (LinkedIn and Facebook) too. One of our friends from Voices.com Stephanie Ciccarelli mentioned a possibility of discussing it in a Voices.com Podcast - which will likely happen. All of this conversation happening within about 30 minutes. (gotta love technology.)
   Today is pretty good - am working on some side projects rolling through Voices.com auditions.
   What are you up to this week?

  Feel free to let me know.

  --Justin

JPV (September 09)

   Trying to relax on a Sunday afternoon - Ducks/Nittany Lions and Eagles all won so a good weekend overall. I am looking to try a different tact on voiceover work. I am on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook - please join me by clicking on the links on the right.

   You can find out more about my voiceover work below by clicking one on my demos (also my YouTube TV demos are listed.)

Thanks for visiting.
 
   JP