|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 8.30.10 - There's a Star Among Us! |
|
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Mike Elmore is listed as one of the "most prominent or iconic Voiceover Artists," according to Wikipedia.
Mike is often involved in projects that are newsworthy, but this time, he has certainly outdone himself. Mike is listed in the company of many iconic voice actors such as Mel Blanc, Nancy Cartwight and Robin Williams! This is a huge accomplishment and we are so proud of him! Next time you see him, ask for his autograph!
From all of your friends at VFA... Congratulations Mike!
Want to check out the article which contains the list? Click Here |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 7.30.10 - Big deal for Mike! |
|
Just when you thought Mike couldn't possibly get any busier, he goes and signs another national contract. For the next six months, Mike Elmore will be working on recording hundreds of :30 to :60 second advertisements for Yelp.com and Yellowpages.com clients. Starting very soon, when you search businesses using yelp or yellowpages.com and you click on the video commercial ad next to the company listing, you could be hearing the voice of VFA's very own Mike Elmore! So proud of you Mike!
Want to hear some samples??
Click Here And Here Here Too Last One |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 7.21.10 - VFA Launches A New Class! |
|
We are proud to have launched a brand new educational experience called the VFA Essentials Class. Even though VFA continues to grow despite the current economy we have heard many of our students say that they would love to become a professional Voice Actor but just don't have the resources in order to attend our Master Class. We developed the EC in an effort to assist those people to attain their dream by giving them the essential ingredients needed to get a foot through the door of the Voiceover Industry.
This class offers students the chance to learn about VO technique and how to operate a home studio. In addition to a full day of workshops our EC students will also receive complimentary post production on their first demo which will be recorded in their very own home studio. Of course each EC students will receive lifetime support from the VFA Team.
The Essentials Class will be offered in a few key cities around the US. To read more about this exciting opportunity please click on our Education tab and view our Classes page. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 6.17.10 - Updates For Master Class Grads! |
|
We have been busy here at VFA making some great changes that will impact our Graduates. First of all, we have completed a new "Keywords" system for building your profile. Now, you can supplement the words you have already chosen with a few words from our list too. If you don't see a word from the list that you would like to use, no worries, you can add your own keywords to the list as well. We encourage you all to check it out soon and update your keywords. Updating your keywords (as well as your entire profile) regularly is a great way to stay focused and fresh.
Secondly, since we have many Grads that have now been working in the VO industry for a while, we thought it would be good to add some advanced resources for the veteran VO artist. Now you will see a category of resources which will assist you in building your own personal website and advertising your small business, in addition to many other new resources that will help you amplify your current marketing and networking efforts.
So, what are you waiting for? Go and check out the new resources and update your profile. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 3.26.10 - Recognition for VFA Alumnus |
|
We are very proud to announce that one of our Graduates has been recognized by ForeWord Magazine. "Elijah's Coin" by Steve O'Brien, narrated by Bob Nielsen (VFA GRAD), is a finalist for ForeWord's 2009 Audio Book of the Year. ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards program was designed to discover distinctive books from independent publishers across a number of genres. The Awards program often serves to provide these worthy projects with a second wind of publicity. The finalists, representing 360 publishers, were selected from 1,400 entries in 60 categories. These books are examples of independent publishing at its best. The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers selected from the Magazines' readership. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor's Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at BookExpo America in New York City on May 25. The winners of the two Editor's Choice Prizes will be awarded $1,500 each. The ceremony is open to all BEA attendees. We at VFA are cheering for Bob. We will be sure to keep you posted when the winners are announced in May. Congrats to you Bob for doing great work!
For a full list of the finalists searchable by category, publisher, title, and author, Click Here.
UPDATE 4/21/10: We just received notice that Elijah's Coin, the audio book, has been named a Silver Medalist in the Nautilus Book Awards.
The Nautilus Awards recognize Books and Audio Books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & positive social change, while at the same time they stimulate the "imagination" and offer the reader "new possibilities" for a better life and a better world.
There are three rounds of judging. Silver medalists are those that survive the first two rounds of independent judging. Silver medalists go onto a third set of judges to select the Gold Medal winner. Nautilus will award the Gold Medal on May 26 at the BEA convention.
Previous Gold and Silver medal winners of the Nautilus Award are Deepak Chopra, Barbara Kingsolver, Eckhart Tolle, Katherine Neville, and .....wait for it....His Holiness The Dalai Lama. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 3.17.10 - A VFA Miracle |
|
We have some amazing news to share with you. Our teammate Leah Frederick came to us a while ago stating that her mother, Phyllis, was in need of a Kidney transplant. After several potential donors were tested and found not to be a match for Phyllis, Leah's sister posted a plea for a donor of Facebook. Lo and behold, a donor came forward! Kirsten, an old family friend whose own brother's life was saved by a bone marrow donor, volunteered to be tested. Once it was determined she was a match, she offered a kidney to Phyllis. The surgery took place in January and we are very excited to announce that Phyllis, Kirsten and Gertrude (the donated kidney was named Gertude) are all doing fine! The community where Phyllis lives was so touched by this act of kindness that the local news and the newspaper did stories about it. This is truly a miracle and we are glad that everyone is doing well.
If you would like to view the news story please CLICK HERE
If you would like to read the news article please CLICK HERE
For more information about live organ donation or if you would like to make a donation to the Kidney Foundation please CLICK HERE or National Marrow Donor Program CLICK HERE. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 2.04.10 - Important news for PC users! Known issue when using PT7.X.X and Windows IE8 |
|
It has come to our attention that Pro Tools 7.X.X is not compatible with Windows Internet Explorer 8. If you have been affected by this issue, you can uninstall Windows IE 8 as a solution. Please follow these few simple steps in order to uninstall Internet Explorer 8.
Go to Start
Go to Control Panel
Go to View Recent Updates
View list until you spot Windows Internet Explorer 8
click Uninstall |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 1.26.10 - VFA's Marilu Benedetti & Casey Rose are running Marathons for Cancer! |
|
VFA is very proud to announce that two members of our team have committed to running marathons to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
On two different occasions the VFA family has been affected by Leukemia.
Michael Benedetti, brother of VFA Founder and Managing Partner, Paul Benedetti, was diagnosed with Leukemia 35 years ago when he was just 6 years old. There were eleven children who had T Cell Leukemia at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. They knew nothing about this cancer or how to treat it at the time. After many years of struggling and fighting, an experimental surgery saved two of the eleven children, one was Michael. Remarkably, he is doing very well today. Paul's wife Marilu, VFA's Financial Administrator, will be running her very first marathon in honor of Michael.
Samantha, a wonderful little 5 year old girl, is the niece of Casey Rose, VFA's Student Administrator. Sam was diagnosed with this dreadful disease only 6 months ago. Recently she received a bone marrow transplant and is doing very well. Sam's cell counts are rising everyday, which is incredible. She has had her fair share of battles with infections as a result of the transplant, however, the doctors seem very hopeful that within the next few weeks she will finally be able to leave the hospital. Casey is running her second marathon in honor of Samantha. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Rose family as they fight this disease together.
As committed entrants of these marathons both Marilu and Casey are obligated to raise thousands of dollars each to participate. The funds being raised will be allocated in the following way: 76% of the funds raised by the Team In Training program go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Research (25%), patient/community service (33%), public health education (15%) and professional education (3%).
The VFA team has promised to do everything it can to help both Marilu and Casey to raise the money needed for this wonderful event. Any size donation would be welcomed and appreciated. If you would like to donate please click on the links above.
We thank you wholeheartedly for reading. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 10.22.09 - The New Macbook is Here! |
|
Still at just $999, the VFA recommended Macbook has been redesigned. New features include a Unibody Enclosure (seamless) originally created for the Macbook Pro, an LED-backlit 13.3-inch glossy widescreen display for an even more spectacular viewing experience and MacBook is designed to have less impact on the environment than most other computers. It’s energy efficient, free of many toxic materials, and made of recyclable materials. This fine machine runs on a Intel Core Duo processor and up to 7 hours of Battery Power. Installed software is Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard (Pro Tools Prerelease available) and iLife '09! For more details please visit: Apple
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 4.15.08 - Alright already!!! We will do post production!!! |
|
Our graduates have been begging and pleading for us to offer post production services for their continually evolving voiceover demos. All of our graduates with studios know that having a studio at home is a great way to continually work on their skills, and to continually refine their demos. Subsequently, they have always come to us with the question of where to get the post production work performed on their dry tracks. We have been concerned with taking on too much of this kind of work, but at the same time we have not found another studio that we feel certain will take the kind of care that we would like to see given to our grads. So with that in mind, and with the endless requests by our grads, we are happy to say that we are now offering post production services to our Master Class graduates. You now officially have access to preferred pricing on the same post production services that were used for your original demos. This means if you wish to provide us with dry unprocessed voice tracks, the VFA studio team will add appropriate music and effects, de-ess, take out breath noises, clicks and pops, process, and master your home studio demos, to make them the same professional quality as your Master Class demos. To learn more about this service you can visit our Studio contact page to inquire.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 3.03.08 - New Faces, New Personalities, New Friends. ...now even more people you can count on. |
|
If you have contacted Voices For All recently, or if you have recently viewed the Staff Section of this website, then you know that the VFA team continues to grow. We feel so incredibly proud of our team of talented, committed, and just downright great people that we are so lucky to work with. As VFA's reputation continues to grow, we attract more and more high quality teammates. In addition to all of the already well known VFA team, we would like to formally introduce Brian Mansell, Courtney Thayer, and Sherril Stewart, to rest of the extended VFA family. We encourage you to visit the Staff Section and learn more about these valuable new teammates.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 11.01.07 - VFA Instructors Walk The Walk. |
|
We are proud that VFA is now known as a premier Voice Acting Education Company in the U.S. We are also very proud of the amazing team of instructors that we have attracted. They spend countless hours meeting, researching, and developing their craft for the sake of our students. Amazingly, our instructors do much more than just teach the most informative, relevant, and needed classes in the VO industry. They are also highly skilled, and very successful, professional Voice Actors as well. To highlight this, we asked VFA Voice Coach/Instructor/Producer Mike Elmore, to give us a quick run down of some of the work he has done in the last couple months. The following is what he gave us...
- The John Tesh Radio Show (cruise promo)
- The 80's on 8 - XM Satellite Radio (bumpers and promos)
- Skinny Moose Radio (intro, bumpers, liners)
- iRadioNYC.com (intro, bumpers, liners)
- Nest Entertainment (animation)
- Furuno (Major, worldwide product launch / video promos)
Keep in mind that Mike lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and travels two weeks out of every month for VFA. The majority of Mike's work is done from both hotel rooms with his portable studio, and from his home studio. Mike is living proof of how properly trained Voice Actors can make a very good living from anywhere.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 1.18.07 - A Formal Introduction To The Team. |
|
Over the past year, VFA has experienced unbelievable growth. This growth is a direct result of our amazing team. We have finally updated the Staff Section of the website to formally introduce the world to the entire VFA Family. As you will see, the reputation and success of VFA has attracted a group of stars and industry professionals. Even beyond their credentials, the VFA family is made up of people with rich, exuberant personalities. Our team is here to ensure that every student of VFA has the best possible experience, and the tools and knowledge they need to find success in the Voice Acting world. So, on behalf of the entire VFA family, we would like to say a big HELLO to everyone. Here's to a sucessful 2007 for all!
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 7.13.06 - VFA Checks Out The Newest Technology. |
|
We have finally had an opportunity to spend some time with 2 new very key pieces of equipment for our Master Class graduates. The New Apple MacBook, and Digidesign MBox 2 with Pro Tools 7.1.1. We are very happy so far with the performance of both of these components.
As we expected the MacBook is an amazing value offering a huge amount of computing power, and many great features for right around $1100. The MBox 2 is very much like the original MBox, only with a more modern look and updated specs for the same price. We still feel that this is the best audio interface value for the voiceover artist home studio. Protools 7 seems to be a big improvement over version 6.9 . If you have attended our Master Class, then you know that Pro Tools is the industry standard for recording. Protools 7 now boasts many new features and new plugins that sound very good. We highly recommend all 3 of these products.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| 4.01.06 - MaxTrax Gets A Facelift! |
|
We are excited to announce that the students in our upcoming Master Classes will get to record in the newly renovated MaxTrax Studios. The MaxTrax team are nearing the completion of this project. They tell us that the studio will still have the comfortable and relaxed feel that everyone has to come to know and love about MaxTrax, but that we can expect to hear even better quality recordings (we did not think that was possible). MaxTrax is a commercial ProTools based recording studio that features equipment from Neumann, Royer, John Hardy, Brent Averill, Langevin, Toft Audio, Demeter, Requisite, Groove Tubes, Empirical Labs, Purple Audio, Summit Audio and much more. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|