I’m not much of a gamer. I go through phases of spending some time on any video games. 99% of the time it’s sports games. Once in a blue moon I can spend the better part of a weekend lost in an entire season of NCAA Football, FIFA World Cup (I’m rocking the 2002 edition!) or that dreaded Tiger Woods PGA Tour (Curse you EA Sports! It’s not just in the game, it’s run havoc on my life overall!)
However, I do appreciate the serious respect that gaming deserves. I don’t have the exact statistics but I do know enough to know that the gaming industry as a whole has made more money than the film industry for the past several years. Their profit margins are apparently “staggering”. Spend a good amount of capital up front to develop and market the games and make multiple times that in revenues in replicating similar technology in several other titles to mass produce and distribute globally. And unlike movies, most gamers hardly need to understand the universal language of “kill or be killed” or “score more points than your opponent to win” concepts that language barriers can sometimes create. Makes sense.
What was the point of this post?
Oh right! Just found out that Firefox has developed an add-on in their new browser where you can play something like 2,500 Nintendo games for free!
“I celebrate each win with a nice, tall glass of Guiness Stout. Sometimes two.” (Okay, Federer didn’t actually say that but how pimp would it be if he did?)
Showing absolutely no signs of fatigue, pressure or stress, Federer has done what most have expected by reaching the second week of the only Grand Slam title tournament that has yet to grace his ever expansive trophy case.
The Frenchman is expected to have more time for his other endeavors on Monday right after his impending loss to Federer.
“I celebrate each win by forcing my opponents to sniff my left pit.” (Actually, I think Nadal did say this one.)
In the other half of the draw, despite the consecutive days of official play he’s had to endure, Rafael Nadal continues to steamroll through his rounds defeating Finnish player Jarkko Nieminen, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in their third round match.
Now it looks like MacFarlane and crew are coming back with what looks like another hilarious ani-sit-com: The Cleveland Show.
From reading a few of the pages from the pilot episode, it looks like it’s very much in the spirit of Family Guy with the cutaway gags, random animals with human characteristics and a black baby who sounds too well informed (like Stewie).
Plus there is one Lindsay Lohan’s aging, gruff-voiced vagina gag that is absolutely hilarious (”Who do I have to fuck to get some soup!“).
I have to admit, I previously avoided the MacFarlane line-ups in the past for the exact same reasons South Park had those infamous “Cartoon Wars” episodes, but thanks to Hulu, Cartoon Network, Fox, the CW, etc I ended up watching basically every friggin’ episode and now I love them! I think American Dad’s Roger as played as a direct rip-off of Paul Lynde is particularly genius!
If you’re not familiar with the MacFarlane shows, you have to check out his stuff on Hulu. It may take two or three episodes to get into it, but it’s well worth it.
Federer drops the first set before crushing Montanes 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-0, 6-4
You have to love the drama so far.
In the last 24 hours we saw:
Maria Sharapova two points from being the first top seeded women’s player to lose in the opening round of a Grand Slam in nearly a decade (Martina Hingis loss to Jelena Dokic at the ‘99 Wimbledon).
James Blake continue the recent US tradition of losing early at the French.
So I guess Roger Federer wanted to add to the drama by dropping the first set of his second round match in a tie-break.
And then he woke up.
Playing like every bit of the champion he has been in the past, Federer rocketed past Spainard Albert Montanes in a pretty quick route: 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-0, 6-4.
At least Montanes can say that he got a free lesson from the world’s number one.
Rafael Nadal also put on a clinic trouncing past his second round opponent Nicolas Devilder 6-4, 6-0, 6-1. Rafael is now undefeated at Roland Garros at 22-0. However, it’ll be interesting to see how he plays the rest of the draw as he’s already played on three consecutive days due to an epidemic of early round rain delays.
Shades of last year’s Wimbledon where Rafa played several consecutive days en route to meet Federer in the finals? Several journalists have cited that fatigue may have played a major role in Nadal’s five set loss then.
With rain halting play later in the day, World Number 1 Roger Federer managed to make short work of his first round opponent American Sam Querrey: 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in a match that just passed the 90 minute mark to complete.
With arguably landing on the more forgiving half of the draw (both Nadal and Djokovic are on the other half) Federer looked solid and well on his way to Championship Sunday.
With former Jim Courier (2 time French Open Champ) coach, Jose Higueras by his side, Federer may have just found the right combination to improve his results of the past two years by one more match.
Rafael Nadal is expected to make his first appearance tomorrow.
At 21-0 so far at Roland Garros, rain or no rain, things are starting to warm up already!
Too cool! I’ve seen a lot of these products over the last few months on various sites, shows, etc. But it’s still exciting to see them all lined up like this.
My personal fave has to be the concept phones.
An overview of some beautiful and original product designs which will hopefully make the cut and will be available in the next years. Some of them are already available today.
It’s Sunday afternoon and despite my best efforts to make this long weekend as productive as possible, I succumbed to a moment of weakness and went out to meet friends, grab a quick bite which lead to a few drinks and a slight hangover this morning.
But I woke up to the pleasant surpise of the opening day of The French Open which saw:
Gustavo Kuerten play his final professional match ever in the tournament that’s treated him so well over the years.
Novak Djokovic lose the first set only to come back and win the next three.
Serena Williams run through some chick like ex-lax through your bunghole.
Now as a not so subtle means to procrastinate from finishing up some weekend work, I want to quickly think out loud about Allen Adamson’s Brand Simple.
Great book. Well written. Simply expressed. A fundamental must read for anyone who finds anything about anything interesting.
What I mean is that even though it’s primarily about marketing, advertising, branding and the such, the fundamentals of the messages contained within this little tome with a big punch can be applied to just about anything in modern day life from blogging to promoting to writing to many many more subjects.
Without getting too boring in my explanation (besides, this post is more about me trying to have an exercise to better remember the main points from the book) I’ll try to lay out the most important bullet points to hopefully get others interested in getting involved with the book.
1) Brand and Branding are two two completely different concepts. A “Brand” is something, anything that someone associates with your product, service, company or individual associated with the company. “Branding” is the actual process of getting people to associate the right messages as it pertains to your product, service, etc.
2) One of the most important steps to take when you’re about to brand or market something is really think about how your product, service, company, etc. differs from the competition. People are very savvy now. It just takes a few minutes on Google to figure out if your promises are legit or not.
Once you’ve determined what that difference is, you must use that as the core method in which to market or brand your product or service.
3) Know your audience. Know who you are marketing to. Specifically. You can’t please every demographic at once. Start with the core audience and expand accordingly.
4) Don’t overcomplicate things. Most likely the thing that differentiates your product from your competition is probably right under your nose.
5) Have a business strategy that coincides with your branding strategy. Once you figure out what and who you want to market to, stick to it. Don’t change either factors on a whim. This sends out too many signals to your audience and they are not going to respond to any of them. Stick to your game plan.
6) Consider a tagline for your brand. In the film and TV world it’s sorta like the logline that best tells us about your product or service in a nutshell. Make sure it fits with the overall strategy.
7) Map out how your typical customer will run through your product. From the initial thought of needing or wanting your product or service all the way to the actual purchase of it and beyond, walk it through and see where you can make the process simpler and more satisfying for the client or customer.
Eight) Spend wisely. You can’t control every factor. Don’t be wasteful in the aspects of your strategies that you really don’t have any control over. And not just with money but with your time and energies as well.
9) Make sure that the difference you promote for your product or service is a difference that people will genuinely care about. A difference for the sake of difference is not gonna do anyone any good.
10) Remember that this is all a marathon and not a sprint. Once you’ve got your strategy and ready to execute your plan, stick to it and realize that time will be the only true tell sign on whether it will be effective or not.
Adamson really goes into quite a few examples based on personal experience to really flesh out these ideas above and it’s all very interesting.
I’m in the process of closing a pretty exciting deal myself for my company in the next few weeks and wholly plan on utilizing the techniques outlined and explained in Brand Simple.
Now if only I can be this focused with the rest of my life.
With several years of talent agency experience, it’s safe to say that I know and understand the business both inside and out. Here’s the deal with voice over talent agencies: simply put, they are something not unlike a waiter at a diner. If you’re a buyer, producer or any sort of customer looking to hire or buy voice over talent for your project, you go to an agency or you put up your project on one of those online sites, craigslist, AWN, etc.
These services then send out this project to their clients, community, members, etc. Sometimes they offer suggestions on the hot talent of the moment (kinda like the soup du jour) but really they’re just pushing someone to ease their own load. The talent then records / auditions the piece and these auditions are sent to the buyer to review. Once a decision is made as to who they want, they contact the rightful representative and the talent is hired for a preset price (ie. the dinner check based on the price you saw on the menu).
Generally when it comes to going through a reputable talent agency, these prices are preset by the SAG or AFTRA minimum rates code (currently $426-$685 for SAG and $250-$350 for AFTRA) with hardly any room for negotiation. Hardly the hip, cool, exciting images we have seen in HBO’s Entourage. I guess if you go through one of the online services, they aren’t bound by any of these preset rates and they allow you to negotiate a rate that both parties feel comfortable with.
Know that most likely, the buyer does know the preset union rates so you can have an idea of what a “professionally represented” talent may receive.
So does a voice over agent get me more money than if I negotiated my own deal?
Unless you’re a celebrity (check out this post to see what I mean) a voice over agent will only get you the basic minimum rate required by the SAG or AFTRA codes.
Voice Over is primarily a faceless and nameless endeavor. You can be one of the highest paid and most successful voice over artists in the US and still not have to worry about anyone recognizing you on the streets. The agents, the talent, the buyers, everyone knows this. So why pay more than the absolute minimum? Doesn’t make sense.
Of course there are internal exceptions to these rules. A voice over talent who works a lot and whose time is in high demand may receive a double, triple, quadruple or higher rate at times. That’s generally rare. Not extremely, but generally it’s rare. It takes a looooong time to get there (2-5 years would be considered: fast track). At that point, sure, it might be worth paying 10% of your rate to an agency to manage your time well. Or you could spend a few minutes a day before bed to organize your own schedule. It’s all about time management.
People like saying, “oh my agent this… my manager that… blah blah blah”. It’s all semantics. It’s name dropping. Like “I have a Beemer” opposed to “I have a car”. They both get you from point A to point B. Some people need to say they drive a Beemer. It validates their self worth and temporarily makes them feel important.
So are agents completely useless?
In a word… NO.
Listen, if you’re one of those people who need someone to hand hold you through the process and you think paying 10% of your earnings to someone adds value to your time and how you manage your career (and many many people do) then by all means, go for it. Long standing, well established, reputable agencies have access to copy and projects that those automated online services still don’t. And until Voices or Voice123 or any other online voice over business producing entity gets past the tipping point and becomes a viable service worth their monthly, quarterly, yearly service fees (which I think it very well could) talent agencies will always hold some sort of minor, indirect value. But they can’t just get you a job just because they’re an agent. It doesn’t work like that.
Trust me when I tell you that if you’re serious about starting a voice over career and you want to take a stab at making money doing those “funny cartoon voices”, you’ve got everything you need already at your disposal.
Hope this information helps.
If none of this makes sense or you have a specific question you’d like to receive an answer for, feel free to leave a comment or question here and I’ll be more than happy to answer what I can in a timely manner.
They could rebuild it. They could make it faster. Smarter. More powerful. Download it here!
Note: It’s still in the testing phase so you can’t utilize specialty toolbars like Alexa’s Sparky (a personal favorite).
But since most people don’t care about that, this browser is for you! The smart address bar is particularly cool.
Now that Mozilla’s locked down Firefox 3’s final feature set with Friday’s push of release candidate 1, it’s official: while Firefox 3 boasts some great new features like a smart address bar and better bookmarks manager
Posted by cap
Posted by cap
Posted by cap
