An easy-to-read introduction to the joys, challenges and techniques of an increasingly marketable entertainment career...
Webster’s debut how-to guide explains best practices for every facet of a voice-over career.
The book begins with the premise that “[v]oiceover may very well be the best job in the world.” The author’s enthusiasm for the trade, along with his applied experience, provides a unifying tone for the highly particular chapters that follow. Each section deals with a specific aspect of the trade, beginning with the basics (“How to Take Care of Your Voice”) and moving on to more complicated issues, such as “The Union” and “How to Make a Killer Demo.” Throughout are selected bits of industry history that show how it’s changed with the digital revolution. Several particularly detailed chapters on setting up and properly using a home studio present options and clear recommendations regarding software, equipment, remote recording and soundproofing. The author even provides an introduction to mindful meditation, not only as a means of vocal care, but also for its other benefits. Still, much of the advice here is equally applicable to other entrepreneurial or freelance disciplines; for example, it often returns to core points such as “don’t work for free” and “be professional.” Webster writes comfortably in the first person, but his informal tone is occasionally a bit disorienting; for example, at one point, he gives a real-time report: “As I write these words…I’m expecting that my agent might call….Update: I booked the gig and recorded at home.” Overall, however, the prose is generally clear, and many chapters include additional suggested resources at the end. In many ways, it’s hard to evaluate Webster’s many claims without putting in the years of hard work it takes to become a successful freelance voice. That said, the authority of his 25 years of experience, and his attention to even the smallest aspects of voice-over work, makes this informational guide feel complete and practical.
An easy-to-read introduction to the joys, challenges and techniques of an increasingly marketable entertainment career choice.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499563801
Page Count: 184
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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