April 21, 2012
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Allergy season is in full swing in the Valley of the Moon and with that comes the loss of my voice. Again. I thought I would take a second to send you all back to a blog I wrote in winter on the care and feeding of your voice. If you’re suffering, some of this might help!
April 10, 2012
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I don’t know why it was so hard for me to find the help I needed, but now, I can help my readers. It was very easy to get the podcasts on iTunes. The first thing to make sure of is that all of your mp3 files have proper ID3 tags as once these files are downloaded, you want to make sure that all of your information goes with it. Do you want the listener to have you filed under “Unknown” or do you want your podcast under the artist “Pop Corny Podcast?” Well, of course, you would change it to the title of your show, but you get my point.
Taking a step back, I hear a few people out there asking, “But Cat, what is an ID3 tag?” I now turn to Wikipedia:
“ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself.”
The suggestion I will give right now is to make sure you’ve recorded a handful of shows before loading on to iTunes. It’s not necessary, but the page looks much more impressive if you have multiple shows to choose from. And you want to get people hooked. Also, they will know that you’re serious about getting new content up and will subscribe. There’s nothing worse than a fly by night podcaster who thinks it’s a great idea to do a show, load it on iTunes, and then never return. That podcaster just left a listener hungry.
Finally, the easiest way to get an RSS feed, which is the link you must provide to iTunes, is to use Feedburner. If you want to do as I did, I set up a seperate blog on my Pop Corny Podcast website that would be home to only the podcasts. I don’t have it readily available for public viewing, although someone could stumble across it. I did it this way because WordPress makes it so simple to upload large files. From that, you just give the link to Feedburner which is a Google service, fill out the appropriate information about your website, and you’re good to go.
The last step is to go into iTunes itself and click on the podcast tab. Once in there, you get a specialized menu for the podcast category which includes “submit podcast.” You give them the URL to your RSS feed through Feedburner and within 24 hours, you could be up and running on your own iTunes page!
Here is the link to Pop Corny Podcast: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pop-corny-podcast-episodes/id517619086
We are also now searchable when you are in iTunes which is pretty exciting. I somehow ended up with Pop Corny Podcast Episodes, but as soon as you start typing Pop Cor…. we pop up. Good luck on your podcasting and please share if you get yours loaded on to iTunes!
Today I’m researching how to get more views on YouTube as we launched our reality web series, Project Muffin Top, this week. When I have some information to share, that will be in the next blog. And enjoy both Pop Corny Podcast and Project Muffin Top in the meantime!
April 8, 2012
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I finally got iTunes hooked together with my podcast so that means now I can go back to focussing on my voiceovers. I need to find a balance. And perhaps some sponsors for the podcast. I agreed to help a friend start a Sonoma based podcasting website called Radio Sonoma so I’ll be doing a couple podcasts there as well. For now, in case you were wondering about the video I posted yesterday, here’s a description. And you can follow my weight loss journey at http://www.popcornypodcast.com/teamcat
While you’re waiting for us to get our podcasts correctly working on iTunes, check out Project Muffin Top. See Cat and Gina live and exposing their most personal moments. It’s on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/projectmuffintop and we’d love for you to subscribe and like the first episode. Episode 2 is just days away now!
What is Project Muffin Top? I’m glad you asked. It started as a competition between Gina and Cat to see who could lose the most weight in a healthy way with a team of experts behind them. It evolved into both girls throwing out the competition and working together with Heather Morgan, nutritionist and creator of the Muffintop Makeover, and her husband, EA Morgan, fitness expert and owner of EA’s CrossFit.
For those who aren’t in the know on Pop Corny Podcast, it is cohosted by lifelong friends, Cat Smith and Gina Panelli. Both have been through good times and bad together, with the bad times apparently ending up on their hips. And bellies. And double chins. Do I need to continue?
For 90 days, Cat and Gina will do everything Heather and EA suggest. The goal is to not only come out the end thinner, but healthier and with a solid knowledge of how to choose and eat food, and how to keep the human body working properly. Filmmaker Elizabeth Fitz-gerald will follow them around and document the journey, first through episodes on YouTube, and ultimately, with the help of Kickstarter.com, a documentary.
We want to share our journey to inspire and motivate muffin tops around the world to take this journey as well. Hopefully, the show will educate but it most certainly will entertain. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the next 12 weeks of Project Muffin Top!
April 7, 2012
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For those who want to see me in more than voiceover work, here is the first episode of Project Muffin Top. It will go on for the next 12 weeks then become a documentary. Enjoy!
March 29, 2012
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Here is a promo for the Voice 2012 Convention. If this doesn’t convince you to go… well, it probably shouldn’t as it’s not meant to be informational. But it did get me excited. Follow the link to get more information and then you too should register! Enjoy the promo:
March 24, 2012
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Someone I really care about made fun of my voice today. It really hurt my feelings. There were tears, I will admit. This is something I have battled with my whole life. I’ve gotten really good at breezing by the comments of strangers over the years. When it’s somebody I love, it’s a lot different though.
I joke in my biography about being pulled out of class in elementary school and being told to “knock off” the baby talk. But really, to this day it’s sort of a sore subject. My ex-husband (yes, I have one… no, I won’t tell the story *insert laughter here*) used my voice against me a lot. He used to tell me I was faking it. I will admit my voice has different levels depending on what I’m doing, but it’s all me. I’m never faking it unless I’m in character for a show or doing voiceover work.
That person today said I need to develop a thicker skin. I think he felt bad for hurting my feelings but it’s something I always hope those closest to me will look past when talking to me and not bring up to begin with.
I’m going to ask my friend Lisa Biggs if she will do an interview with me for my blog. I would like to chat with someone in the same boat, if not more so, and see what sage advice she has to share. And it will be a good therapy session.
In the meantime today, I braved up and auditioned to be the voice of Voice 2012 in their promotions for this year’s event. I was very nervous about it because I know all the people in the very active Facebook group to be superstars and I’m up against them all. But with a gentle nudge here and there, I went ahead and submitted an audition. I will admit I recorded more takes than I normally do and finally got sick of my nit-picking and chose the last one I recorded. Wish me luck!
March 21, 2012
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This is a short update blog to be followed by a couple of blogs with lots of photos. The trip to WonderCon was fantastic! I can’t audition since being home, however, because my voice is shot. I really need to take in to heart my own tips and tricks because talking over crowds really does more damage than you think. Bag of lemons, check. Water in the kettle, check.
One of the things I did while down in La La land was perform in a drag variety show called Roxy’s Roadhouse Revue. I can’t stress enough that as a voice actor, you still need to explore other ways of performing. You don’t need to run out and join a drag variety show, but things like improv classes and karaoke… things that put you out there and vulnerable, can really help you perform on the spot in front of casting agents and directors. Since I was heading to LA, I asked Roxy if I could crash the show. It ended with an open invitation to join in anytime I desire!
At WonderCon, the things I wanted to report on changed to the things that I will report on. What do I mean by that? Well, I’m flexible and I rode the ever changing waves of Con and here are the blogs that are coming:
For now, please go “like” me at Facebook if you haven’t already, and watch for lots of entertaining tidbits from this past weekend!
March 10, 2012
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I’ve been bad on the blogging! But remember that learning curve I’ve been talking about for the podcasting? I’m getting better at it. The sound is almost where I want it. The slide shows are getting better. The round table discussion is taking on a life of it’s own and the format of the show is actually evolving away from the original plan.
For now, enjoy an article my local paper wrote about us with a giant picture on the front of the entertainment section!
Also, WonderCon is next weekend. Expect lots of short blogs after the panels I attend. The truth is out there! Okay, entertainment news is out there and I’ll go fetch it for you.
March 4, 2012
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I spent the last week updating my website and making it amazing and frustration of frustrations! The darned thing has a bunch of bugs now that it’s loaded. I will probably spend most of tonight looking through HTML trying to figure out what is wrong, but I fear it is something happening on the Yahoo end as a result of my deleting the old page completely. Perhaps I should have just updated page by page, but I didn’t want a bunch of old files hanging out in cyber space. If I figure out where I went wrong, I will share the info as a cautionary tale.
On the plus side, my testimonials page is amazing. I plan on going to look at it every time I’m feeling down. If you’ve got a website going, I suggest adding a page just for cheap therapy.
Less than two weeks until Gina and I hit WonderCon and I’m very excited. I’m not nervous about moderating the panel yet. I am getting nervous about my two songs I will be performing in Roxy’s Roadhouse Review (expect a blog with that info next week). But mostly I’m excited to catch up with old friends in the business, meet the ones I’ve been chatting with on FB but not in person yet, and also see the friends of friends I’ve been referred to.
I’ve got most of Voice 2012 paid for. The ambassadorship helped and I suggest applying to anyone thinking of going in the coming years. Now I just need to pay for the banquet and Positive Thinkers Unite breakfast. My hotel room is 75% paid for by that commercial I just completed so, woot! And if I haven’t mentioned bunny slipper day before, yes there is such a thing and mine are on their way! Voice 2012 and Disneyland or bust!
Our podcast is going very well despite the learning curve of all of the technology. We are actually invited to record on a trolley car transformed for wine tours in the Sonoma Valley in the coming weeks, so I’ll make sure to post pictures of those shananigans. And as part of the podcast, we are filming a 90 day YouTube reality show that will begin mid-March. Until we air the episode it will remain hush hush
March 1, 2012
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I received a copy of the commercials I recently recorded and I’m not going to share them. The producer thought it was a good idea to alter my voice and it is just weird. I’m not going to say who the ad was for or who hired me because I was happy to get paid for it. But it’s just so strange to listen to something I know I recorded and not hear myself in it. It makes you wonder too, because I was up against at least 30 people. What did they hire me for if not my voice? I’m guessing I must have just nailed the acting.
What’s your opinion on this? Do you think it’s weird to hire a voice talent only to change their voice? Or does this seem perfectly normal in a Chipmunks movie kind of way?
